Aura

Chapter Ten

  Zoe shivered even though it was rather warm. She didn't like the look of that tower. It was ominous and looming, and was far different than the elegant and tall trees she had known for her entire life. The lava bubbled, steaming, as Zoe nimbly leaped from the carriage and began to cross the lava flats.

  "I'm going with you," said a voice behind her.

  Zoe turned, and Rowan was beside her.

  "We'll distract Adar together. Seraphina can go save Vivian and we'll get out of here," Rowan told her.

  Zoe smiled to herself. Rowan sounded so ambitious, as if everything he did was easy.

  "Come on, then," she laughed, and they began to sprint towards the tower.

  They stopped before the great black gate. It opened all on its own, and Rowan closed his eyes to protect them from the stinging smoke. When he opened them again, Adar was standing in the centre of the opening to the tower, holding two shining rosy crystal shards.

  "Looking for something?"

-

  Seraphina ran after Rowan and Zoe, and as all was smoky, she closed her eyes and nimbly found her way through it, being professional at such things. She had slipped inside the tower unnoticed, and ran from shadow to shadow without anyone, not even Rowan or Zoe, knowing.

  Her mind was only focused on one thing: Vivian. Level after level, floor after floor, she climbed, and if anyone tried to stop her, Seraphina sent them to their swift and painless death with a quick stroke of her dagger.

  Finally, Seraphina arrived at a floor that was lit only by a pale grey light. Nothing stirred. It was a hallway, lined with cells. Seraphina cautiously tiptoed along past cells. Her heart was dropping, because most of them were filled with corpses or skeletons, or the remains of someone, or worse, a captive begging to death, driven mad by the long hours behind bars. What fate did Vivian have to endure?

  At last Seraphina found her, nothing more than a dirty, rose-coloured heap, barely breathing. Seraphina leaned against the cell, but was too afraid to call Vivian's name, because the silence of the floor hung heavy from the ceiling. Suddenly, Seraphina was overcome with anger, and she brought the tip of her dagger on the lock of the cell multiple times.

  At first, it had no effect. But the banging was truly furious, and Seraphina poured all her frustration and her heartbreak into jamming the dagger into the lock again and again, and the lock finally gave in. The cell door swung open. The dagger remained stuck in the keyhole.

  Seraphina rushed to Vivian's side. She felt for a heartbeat, and there was a faint one, but it slowly quickened and returned to a steady pulsing. Vivian's eyes opened. Seraphina unchained her and helped her up without a word. Vivian followed her outside of the cell.

  They walked steadily on, until suddenly Seraphina cried out and fell to the floor. A small knife protruded out of her ankle. Vivian gasped, and pulled it out quickly with a yell from Seraphina. There were footsteps in the hall. Guards, dressed in dark fabric and masked, were throwing knives at them.

  Vivian was about to run, when suddenly one of the guards fell. Viktor appeared behind them, and slaughtered the guards swiftly and easily.

  "Run," he ordered Vivian.

  Vivian picked up Seraphina, who moaned. She began to run, but turned around to see Viktor in the distance, surrounded by guards.

  "Viktor!" Vivian called. "I love you."

  Viktor looked back at her solemnly. "No, you don't. You love someone else. My heart belongs to you, Vivian, so I know, but I won't stop you. I don't deserve to."