*Chapter Twenty-Nine*
Elena opened and closed her mouth several times, but she couldn’t form a coherent sentence. Cade could completely understand her reaction. It wasn’t an everyday thing to see two half eaten corpses lying together. Cade turned to leave but stopped when he saw tears streaming down Elena’s face. Awkwardly, he slung his arm over her shoulder.
“I knew it.”
“Knew what?”
She ignored him and continued to walk towards the rotten corpses. Cade scrunched up his face when he saw Elena twisting the female’s face. The other half was uneaten and recognizable.
“It’s Diana.”
“Huh?”
“Since this is Diana, the other must be James.” Her voice broke, and more tears rolled down her cheek. “She didn’t even bother leaving.”
Cade looked down to notice the female’s hand grasping the male’s tightly. She had a chance to forfeit, yet she stayed till the end. Judging by the excess amount of blood, they must have put on quite a fight. He frowned. Just what sort of ruthless beast did they face? Nevertheless, Cade found himself worrying about another angel.
“We have to leave, Elena.”
“C-Can we at least bury them?”
He tried. He really did, but the word ‘no’ simply wouldn’t come out when Elena was so heartbroken. Without a doubt, she knew the two people. This would increase the risk of being found, but he couldn’t refuse her. Cade sighed and said a word he knew he would regret.
“Fine.”
Aurora trailed behind him, her gaze flickering every so often to the white pearl-like sphere in his hand. According to him, since they’d gotten the piece on top of the hill, there was no reason for them to stay there any longer. While a part of her felt disappointed, the other part rejoiced at the fact that nothing had changed between the two. Aurora let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding and relaxed herself. There was nothing she could do about this. She reminded herself once more of the reason why she’d came here in the first place.
The road down the hill was much easier than up, but it was still exhausting, especially when the sun shone right into her eyes. Her body ached and longed for a good rest, and she resisted the temptation to simply run away and search for a nice little cave where she could just sleep for as long as she wished.
“Adrian, tell me about your siblings.”
She needed something to distract herself from the boredom this was causing her. She desperately wanted to forfeit, but there was something in her, an unknown side of her, that prevented her from doing this.
“They’re annoying.”
“You said all of you are a part of the seven sins, right? What do you represent?”
Silence.
“Hmm?”
Silence.
“Adrian?”
No reply.
“Fine, don’t tell me. My real partner is a Royalty. I can just ask him.”
“Aurora, don’t go near Avary.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Just don’t, not when you have two of the five objects on you.”
“I don’t get it.”
The blond spun around, and Aurora, not really paying attention, failed to react in time. She bumped roughly into the demon and stumbled back a few steps. Rubbing her nose painfully, she did her best to glower at the Prince.
“Avary’s not who you think he is.”
Aurora uncrossed her arms and willed the glare to disappear. Her green and red eyes stared into his blue orbs, and she calmed herself. She caught a glimpse of an image that she couldn’t decipher, and as fast as it appeared, the image vanished.
“Stop trying to poke into my head,” he said, turning around. “Avary can’t control his inner self.”
“He seems fine -”
Aurora stopped her sentence. A hazy memory surfaced. She remembered him grinning, and she remembered the chill that ran down her spine. The memory swirled inside her head, the content becoming clearer and clearer the more she focused on it. She saw Avary charging at her like a mad beast. She saw Adrian interfering. She remembered the black tendrils shooting out of her and hurting both of them. The one thing that popped out the most was if it weren’t for Cadence, she would have killed Adrian.
“Aurora? What’s wrong with -?”
“Did I?” Her nails dug into his wrist, and her eyes bore into his with evident urgency. It was as if his answer would determine her life, and in a way, it did. Her sanity was hanging on a thread, and he could easily cut that thread with a single word. She was shaking, and he could feel it. “Did I try to kill you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Right after we came into the forest, my memory became vague for a certain amount of time. During that time, did I try to kill you?”
She wanted to scream, to yell, and to shout. Her hand dropped and shot to her head, a sudden headache threatening to explode her mind. Images that she could not make sense attacked her head, flashing so fast one after the other and blinding her. Aurora fell to the ground. She wanted to cut her own head open and release the pressure that was pressing against the sides of her skull.
She heard him mutter something along the lines of Phoebe being right about something, but she couldn’t think. She couldn’t do anything but feel the excruciating pain racking her mind. It wasn’t a physical pain. No, it was something else. Her regeneration would never be able to heal this.
Jasper.
Death.
At this moment, she wanted nothing more than to join her brother. She had seen death. She had seen what death was like. Jasper, he chose death. He allowed himself to die, yet she allowed her cowardice to triumph. Aurora, she chose a goddamn deal. Was this the price? Was this the penalty of defying nature?
As sudden as it’d come, the pain was gone. No, she realized after a moment. It was not gone, but it had alleviated to a mere throbbing at the back of her head. She let out a shaky breath. At least this way, she was able to think. Her eyelids opened, and she stared right into his eyes.
Like an abrupt revelation an avid reader would feel after finishing a book and looking back at all the clues scattered throughout the novel, it clicked. The pain from earlier allowed her to think clearer, and her senses heightened. Everything seemed to have more meanings, yet everything now made sense. It was as if the agony from earlier had allowed her to gain an entire new sense. A sixth sense.
She saw it.
She saw the blood that would soon coat the rocky surface beneath her, and she knew the blood would belong to either if not both of them. She saw the child, a child no older than five, gnawing on the two corpses ravenously. She didn’t dare to look at the corpses’ faces. The strange hallucination or vision ended a second later.
She shook her head slowly.
“We need to get out of here.” It came out barely above a whisper, but she knew Adrian heard it.
“Aurora.” His voice was quiet but firm. “Your right eye, it has red in it. What just happened?”
“Leave,” she said and felt an invisible hand around her neck, choking her. “We need to leave.”
His hand wrapped around her wrist, and she jumped.
“Aurora.” He twisted her head so that she was looking at him. “Breathe and tell me everything.”
She didn’t even realize she’d been holding her breath. She shut her eyes and silently counted to twenty in her head while breathing deeply.
“A child, a child no older than five is coming here.” She could see the surprise in Adrian’s eyes. She knew she needed more than this to convince him. “Raven. No, I should call him Gluttony.” She drew in a deep breath. “Gluttony killed two angels a while back, and he’s coming here. We have less than a minute if you don’t want him to catch us.”
“Just trust me, Adrian. I don’t know how I know this, but I know it’s going to happen.”
“Which way is he coming?”
As much as she despised it, she played the vision from earlier once again through her mind. Her head snapped up.
“Up there.” She jerked her chin towards the cliff above them. She balled her fist and spoke through clenched teeth. “Adrian, we need to act fast. I mean it.”
Aurora did not have the time to yelp as a pair of strong arms reached around her waist, lifting her off the ground. He jumped, and Aurora, out of instinct, wrapped her legs around his waist as to not fall. Her arms hugged his neck tightly. She shrieked, causing the demon to mutter strings of expletives. She twisted around, intending to yell her heart out at the suicidal Prince. Her words died in throat when she saw the fast approaching trees.
“Holy shit, Adrian, I know this will be better than being eaten alive but -”
She stopped hollering. Two large and black wings shot out of his back. At the last minute, they flapped, propelling them higher and higher into the sky and safe from the pointed summit of the various trees.
“Oh,” she said.
“Oh, my ass, Aurora.” She could tell how hard he was trying to control his temper. “Were you planning to blow up my eardrum?”
Aurora ignored him. If this were any other situation, Aurora would blush at the proximity. However, this was not the case, not when they were chased by a zombie child.
The wind whipped her hair backwards, and facing backwards, she had a clear view of the cliff and the ledge where they had been walking along. There was a small, almost undetectable movement on top of the cliff. Thanks to her enhanced senses, her eyes zeroed on the blur.
“Shit, Adrian. He can fly!”
“I know.”
“He’s your brother, right? Can you tell the zombie kid to leave us alone?”
“What did you see then? Did we succeed?”
He had a point, but as long as she was aware, they had died on the cliff. This was different. Unfortunately, she couldn’t use the strange power again. Aurora had absolutely no idea how she did it in the first place.
“H-Hey, he flies pretty fast.”
“He lives to eat. Father created him on purpose. The demon is just a child. Raven is the only Royalty who can’t control his power at all. The only desire he feels is gluttony.”
“Adrian, can you fly faster? I think he’s going to throw flames.”
“He’s going to what?”
“What do you mean ‘he’s going to what?’?” she asked, her voice coming out a few octaves higher.
Aurora felt the first hint of panic hit her. All along, the only reason she’d remained calm was because Adrian showed less emotion than a stone. It felt as if he had everything under control.
She looked back at the flying zombie. Black flames encircled his body, and his hands stretched out towards her. Now that he was much closer, she could see dried blood around his mouth and on his face. The flames gathered in front of his outstretched hand.
“Adrian, we’re going to get roasted.”
His wings flapped once. The only reply Aurora got.
“Oh,” he finally said.
“Oh?”
“Raven doesn’t know how to control demon flames.”
Right, Aurora thought bitterly. Why am I not surprised?
***
I'm sorry for the typos. If you see any, feel free to point them out at any point of the story. And please vote if you think this story deserves it or if you like it!