Zion POV
I didn't even turn my head when I noticed the arrival of the others. My heart shattered as I looked at her, standing there cold and detached. The look on her face when I'd touched her verified all my worst fears. I'd lost her. I'd lost my mate to the darkness.
"Zion..." Jeremy said uneasily, making his way towards me. I stayed in the same place, frozen as I watched her approaching them with a smug expression on her face, like she was disgusted to have ever associated with us. This was all my fault. If only I'd have fought harder. If only I'd have been stronger.
"Is she-"
I nodded, not bothering to turn and look at him and see my own fears reflected in his eyes. Saron stopped, standing silently before them watching. She has a curious look in her eyes, as if their fright has piqued her interest.
"What the hell happened here?" Tom said, staring at the bodies scattered around the house.
"Saron, Saron it's me. Are you still in there?" Star said carefully, stepping towards her. Joel grabbed her, wrapping an arm around her protectively.
"Star. Boys. Father. What a displeasure," she replied, her voice monotonous and devoid of any emotion.
"She's still there. I think she's controlling the dark magic," Edward whispered in awe.
"If she's in control, why is she so-"
Tom didn't have to finish his sentence. We all knew what he was thinking. Normally, I'd be irritated when he spoke to Saron. He was head over heels for her and the thought of him pining over my mate made my blood rush in anger. But now, seeing what she'd become it didn't matter anymore. She felt nothing towards us, not anymore. But I wasn't angry at her, I was angry at myself. She did this to herself because she felt like she had no other option. That was who she was, selfless to the very end. And she'd done it. She saved us all. But at the cost of losing herself.
"What do we do with her?" Joel asked.
Saron threw her head back, laughing dryly before her face reverted back to it's former stone cold expression.
"You think you can take me?"
"Saron, I know you're in there. Please-" Tom started.
"Of course I'm in here you idiot you're talking to me," she snapped.
"Zion, what happened here? Why would she allow the dark magic to control her?" Star asked carefully.
"Killing the others took up too much of her power she didn't have a choice. She did it to save us," I said weakly, struggling to speak the words aloud.
"We saw Crexus on the way here. Did she kill him?"
"Of course not. The Headmaster did that," I snapped at Jeremy, annoyed he'd even ask. Saron was the one who believed in Crexus more than any of us.
"Snow was here too?" Edward asked, looking around.
"She was the one who killed Crexus. She was working with the Five this whole time."
"Impossible," he commented, shaking his head in disbelief.
"What reason would I have to lie?" I snapped, scowling at him.
"Where is she?" Joel asked, unable to place her body in the house.
"She's outside."
"What do you mean she's outside? You let her go?" Tom asked incredulously.
"She's dead."
"Saron?" Star asked.
I nodded, noticing the looks of terror across their faces as they eyed the bodies.
"She deserved it. She killed Crexus in cold blood. This isn't all her fault, we both did the killing," I explained, allowing their looks of terror to extend to me. This was not Saron's fault and I wasn't going to let her take the blame for it. She'd already sacrificed enough.
"I can speak for myself, you know. I don't need a spokesperson," she said, resting comfortably on the only unbroken sofa left with her legs resting carefully on the broken table.
"I kind of expected her to be more...evil," Jeremy commented.
At this, she stood up and started walking towards Jeremy, smiling.
"Now that I think about it, I should've killed you and your traitorous dad when I had the chance. Well, here's my chance."
"NO, STOP!" Star yelled, pushing Jeremy back as Saron blew a line of dark magic that was getting dangerously close to them. They backed up quickly but the dark magic was even quicker, inching forward faster than they were backtracking.
I flitted towards her speedily before cupping her face despite the flaming pain in my hands from the dark magic.
"Saron, please stop."
For a moment, her stone cold gaze cracked, revealing eyes full of pain and sorrow.
"Kill me," she whispered faintly. As soon as she'd said it, I could see her eyes reverting back to their icy glare.
I took advantage of it to land a blow to her head, hard. Her head jerked back at the sudden movement before she recovered, her eyes hardening in anger.
"You think it'll be that easy just because you're my mate?"
I flinched, not because of the hateful glare in her eyes nor the dark magic that was creeping towards me in retaliation. What made my blood run cold was the way she had spat "mate" back at me, her words dripping in regret and disgust. It was enough to shatter my heart all over again and I barely felt it when I was thrown across the room.
From the corner of my eye, I watched dark magic which was now barely a centimeter away from touching Jeremy.
Closing my eyes, I accepted death with welcoming arms. After all, what was life without Saron?
After a prolonged moment of silence, I hesitantly opened my eyes to see everyone was still standing. I rose to my feet, walking over to find everyone standing there frozen and unmoving. Looking around, I noticed Saron was now gone. I tried to tap into my vision to find her but she was nowhere to be found.
"Jer," I called out, walking over and grabbing Jeremy's shoulder. At my touch, he shook awake looking at me in confusion.
"Zion-wait are we dead?"
"No, she's gone. I think she froze you guys so you wouldn't go after her," I explained, walking over and touching the others to wake them up.
"What the f-" Joel started before Jeremy briefly explained to the rest of them what had happened.
"Where is she?" Edward asked, looking straight at me.
"I can't find her."
"She's your mate. Of course you can find her," he snapped.
That was when I noticed it. I felt something had changed when the dark magic consumed her but now I knew. Our mate bond. Before, it had felt like it was a natural part of me almost like an organ. But now, even though it was there it felt damaged. Our connection wasn't as strong as before. I could barely feel her and I felt weaker. That was probably why I couldn't find her as easily as I could before.
"What is it?" Joel asked, noticing the unease in my eyes.
"Our mate bond. I can barely feel it now. I don't think I can find her."
After a long moment of silence, Star reached for my hand squeezing it in sympathy before forcing a smile on her face.
"There has to be another way to find her," I insisted, looking to Edward.
"She's much more powerful now. It won't be easy."
"Whatever it takes," Tom piped up, steely determination set in his gaze. I scowled, turning away from him before changing the subject.
"Wait, how did you guys even get here?" I asked, suddenly realizing they'd appeared out of nowhere.
"With a portaling seed," Joel answered.
"Everyone eat one. We need to regroup back at the Academy," Edward said, pulling out a sack from his pocket before opening it and tossing each of us a seed.
"I'm not going anywhere without Sar-"
"Zion, I want to find her just as badly as you do. But we can't find her. And you are in no shape to go after her now. We need to go back to the Academy and find out how to track her."
I nodded hesitantly, clenching my fists as I watched the others pop the seed in their mouths before fading away as if they were never here. I swallowed my own, finding myself back at the Academy in a blink. Edward was the last to appear.
"Who's going to run the school now that the Headmaster is dead?" Jeremy asked.
"I will until we find a better replacement."
"Where do you think she's going?" Star asked distantly.
"I don't know," Edward answered, a hint of sadness tainting his usual nonchalant voice.
"We'll find her," Star said confidently.
"It's not just about finding her. She is filled with dark magic. She's more powerful than all of us combined," Edward informed us.
"She's still in there. I got to her for a second. We just- we just need to reach her," I said, shakily as I remembered the way her voice broke when she whispered "kill me".
"Yeah, what he said," Joel agreed, laying a hand on my shoulder in support.
"Don't worry. We'll find her and bring her back and everything will be back to normal soon," Star said, smiling at me.
"By next week, we'll all be back together again," Jeremy added, optimistically.
But, he was wrong. They all were. Days, weeks, months passed and we still couldn't find her. With each passing day, my hope of finding her grew smaller. Every time we got close, her trail would go cold. One thing was clear. She didn't want to be found.