"Stay quiet and let me do all the talking," Cain says as we descend down the staircase. "Follow my lead on everything, okay?"

"Okay," I say.

"You're going to witness some things," he says softly. "I apologize in advance."

"What things?"

He doesn't elaborate. If it's anything to do with humans then I don't think I can go in there. I freeze outside the doors that he pulls open, calming myself for a minute before I follow him into the bright room that I've never seen before. It's like a throne room. Unlike the last time the council were here, this time there are guards stationed at every wall. Cain takes a seat on a big chair on the lifted stage, and I take the smaller chair beside him. A line of creatures stand below us with their eyes focused on the entrance about half a mile in front. I stare around at the large windows and golden-brown pillars.

"Enter," Cain shouts.

My fingers curl around the chair as the doors open. Around twenty creatures pour in, a couple of them I recognize as guards from outside. But the rest are the council, along with a few familiar faces that have touched me at the nannery.

Axel, as usual, takes the centre. He bows his head. "We are not here to question your position, my King. We are simply here to get to the truth."

"Get on with it," Cain hisses.

"Come forward." Axel clicks his fingers at two female creatures and two males. They form a shorter line, moving towards us slowly to get a better look. "Please tell the council if you recognize that girl."

Cain's body tenses and he taps his fingers slowly against the armrest of his chair. The moment they look at me they recognize me, one of the females even narrows her eyes with anger that she's lost her chance to get to me. But then she looks at Cain, he is staring at them so hard that they look away.

"Well?" Axel demands. "Is she the girl from Raven's nannery or not?"

"Not," the female says, the word clicking off her tongue with resentment.

Cain relaxes with a grin on his face.

Axel stares down the line and the others mimic it. "Do not let him intimidate you," Axel says. "You are safe to reveal the truth."

"She isn't the same girl."

"You described that girl to me down to her hair length and this is not her?" Axel demands.

"You never said you'd bring us here," the female hisses. "So do not lecture me on truth."

Axel walks around her. "Detta," he says, commanding the attention from the other female beside her. "He cannot harm you in our company, please speak up."

"I have never seen the girl before," Detta says.

"Did you even look at her?" he says. "Take a good look."

The creature stares at me for a few seconds and then drops her gaze, shaking her head. Cain covers his mouth with his fist to keep from laughing. He's finding this amusing.

"Sole, River." The male creatures look at me one last time before shaking their heads. Axel finally retreats back to the other side with a sigh. He glares at Cain. "I don't know how you did it but I will find someone that will recognize her."

"I didn't do anything," Cain says. "You heard them, they don't recognize her. Would you like to ask them one last time, Axel?"

The guards around the room start chuckling. Axel is getting angrier as he looks at them, even some of the council are laughing.

"I know that she's completed!" Axel shouts, pointing right at me. "And I will tell every one of our species that you are hiding her from being bid on!"

Cain rises from the chair immediately. The laughter stops. "Everyone leave us," Cain orders.

"Stay where you are," Axel says.

"Get out!"

I flinch at the sound of his voice. The bidders are the first to run towards the door, followed by the guards and the council. Axel watches them as they close the doors, trapping him inside a room that he fears he will now die in.

"Aurora," Cain says. He passes me the blade and I stare at it in my palm. I stay in the chair as he walks down the steps.

"You just gave the sacred blade to a human," Axel says. "What is happening to you?"

"Would you rather I approach you with it?" Cain says. "This is the only way you will trust me. Now, I can either drag you up those steps and let her kill you or. . . we can come to a deal."

Axel stares at me, his teeth snarling with disgust, I think he'd rather burn in hell forever than ever face death by a human. "What deal?"

"If you drop all of your accusations against me and retract your emotional outburst about the girl being completed then I will allow you to take the blade once a month, to discreetly kill anyone you wish."

"A trick," Axel says, moving backwards. "You have never allowed anyone other than your head guard to hold the blade."

"I am trusting that you will be smart about it," Cain says. "To make sure that nothing leads back to me and that the cover stories have evidence."

Axel nods. "Prove it."

"I knew you'd say that," Cain says, looking to the door. "Bring her in, Blake."

Cain walks back to me as the doors open, I watch as a guard drags a female creature with black hair into the room, throwing her to the ground at Axel's feet. She looks up and snarls through her hair.

"Thank you," Cain whispers to me as he takes back the blade.

I don't know what he's thanking me for. I haven't even done anything. The creature stares at me from the floor and I look away.

"This delightful soul-eater was caught consuming a five-year-old child at the nannery," Cain says as he carries the blade over to the creature. "The child was born into our new world, a world where she should have been safe for thirteen years. And her life was taken. I will take the child's soul to ensure she is cared for." Cain bends down and slices the blade against the creature's throat, she bares her teeth at him but doesn't move. He makes the transfer and then hands the blade over to Axel. "The rest are yours."

"Your laws will be the death of all of us!" the creature says.

"You will have eternity to think about what you've done," Cain tells her. "While wandering the abyss in isolation."

The creature becomes silent and her body still as she starts to accept her fate. I wonder how many of these executions Cain has carried out over the last eight years. Did they all sit like that? Did some of them fight? Didn't any of them try to convince him to live?

"To confirm," says Axel, his red eyes glaring up at me. "I keep my mouth shut about her and I can kill whoever I want once a month?"

"Yes."

Axel smirks. "Because you cannot kill me, this is your only deal?"

"That depends, have you broken a law?" Cain glares at him.

"I think she is worth more than that," Axel says, narrowing his eyes at me with curiosity. "If any of us had found her first, she would have been dead the first day we owned her. Yet you have kept her here for weeks and she hardly looks weak or frail. In fact, she looks in better condition than some of my pure souls that I've owned for days."

Cain circles the female creature impatiently. "Is there a question in there?"

"Once a month isn't enough," Axel says. "There are a lot I wish to kill. A lot that have crossed me. A trade. The blade for her safety."

Cain laughs. "Never going to happen. This is the deal, take it or leave it."

Axel stares down at the blade in his hand, his eyes becoming braver. The intent in his face is obvious, can't Cain see it? Axel looks back to me, the hunger glaring over his red irises until they are blood orange. His sandy brown hair changes to a dark blonde colour, the curls becoming more vibrant. He looks back to Cain and I rise from the chair in a panic.

"Cain," I shout. "Watch out!"

Axel throws the blade at Cain's heart. It pierces right through his chest, so deep that it makes Cain hiss. I gasp out, terrified that I will see his death. Cain still stands, eyeing Axel furiously. He pulls the end of the blade out of his heart. The female creature on the floor scurries backwards, looking between them with an expression of shock.

"She made you immortal," Axel whispers. "Even just a part of her."

They both stare at me. Axel and the creature. I back up to the chair as the female pushes herself up from the floor, snarling her way over to me. Axel moves when she moves, it becomes a race. Cain's wings unleash from his shoulders and he drops in front of them, he ducks sideways and whacks one of his wings at their faces, soaring them both down the throne room. The female attempts to open the doors but they're locked, Axel just stays on the floor.

Cain looks back to me. "Are you okay?"

I nod, not moving my eyes from Axel's. Cain turns back around and pulls his wings back into his body. The female uses her strength to break the locks and she attempts her escape, only for Cain to throw the blade across the room and kill her a second later. She screams out as it pierces her heart, the blinding lights floating around the silent room. Cain holds his hand out and the blade flies back into it.

Axel is still on his knees, panting with fear and realization of what he's just done. My body drops back down to the chair numbly.

"You've been thinking about doing that for centuries, haven't you?" Cain says. "How did it feel when that blade finally landed in my heart?"

"Just kill me and get it over with," Axel says.

"It could be her," Cain says, looking back to me. "Or it could be any of the completed souls I've consumed. That doesn't really matter though, thank you for being brave enough to test it."

Axel glares at him. "Are you going to kill me or not?"

"I want to," he says. "I really want to. But the council are right outside and they'd never believe that you attempted to assassinate your King. They'd have an army here by the end of the week. So. . . back to our original deal. I will offer it you one last time."

"I will tell the others that she is not completed," Axel says. "That I made a mistake."

"Wise choice," Cain says. "And the accusations?"

Axel swallows. "Dropped. The girl is just a stray that you found in the mountains."

Cain passes him the blade. "If you ever try and harm her again, you couldn't even imagine the world I will build for you."

"You care for her," Axel says softly as he rises to his feet. "That is not natural."

"Nothing about this world is natural. Collect her souls and return the blade to me tomorrow. Don't make me come looking for you. And remember, be smart about it."

Axel tucks the blade into the back of his pants and nods. Though he's still afraid, I can see his excitement. A creature out there has no idea today will be their last day. Is it wishful thinking to hope that he kills them all?

"I will return the souls of the ones I kill to you," Axel says. "I do not have the power to hold them. Yet."

"I don't believe any of our kind has the power to hold them except myself," Cain says. "And your eyes turning green would be a little obvious. Bring me our kind's souls but the rest you can keep for yourself."

Axel looks at me one final time before backing up to the door. "She really is worth that."

"She is," Cain says. "See yourself out."

I relax as Axel leaves through the broken doors. I rub my head, I'm too hungover to deal with this creature drama. Cain turns around and smiles at me. I just stare back at him.

"So you do care for my life," he says, walking closer. "And I just thought it was a raging lust."

"Don't flatter yourself," I say. "I'd rather you be the King than him."

Cain grins. "You are so confusing."

"I'm confusing? For someone that seems hellbent on keeping me from danger you seem to be doing it a lot."

"Oh, the race?" he says, laughing to himself. "They wouldn't have gotten close to you."

"You find that funny?" I widen my eyes at him.

"Aurora, I think out every possible outcome to every situation I place you in," he says. "You wouldn't be sitting there if I actually thought your life would be in danger. I knew Axel would try and kill me to get to you, I would do the same in his position."

"You already knew the blade couldn't kill you," I say.

"I don't need a blade through the heart to tell me what I already feel," he says. "As a human, you will never know what power feels like. True power. Your soul is a precious gift that I will never take for granted."

"Great," I mutter. "You're welcome."

"Without feeding on you again, the immortality will only last a few decades. The starvation will eventually creep into me and weaken me. Split souls do not make the best food sources."

I turn my face away because he's pissing me off. So that's his plan? Don't feed on me for a few decades and keep me locked away here until he needs me again? Is he actually going to drag this over my entire life?

"I've angered you," he says. "Which part crossed the line?"

"The child that the creature consumed," I whisper, looking back to him. "Why didn't you set her free?"

"Because that is unimaginable to our species," he says. "If Axel had witnessed that, not even a deal would be able to keep him in line."

"Where is she?"

"She's safe, Aurora. She's in your world. You will meet her someday."

He makes that sound so magical, like I should be grateful that she's someplace better. She never would have known her parents, or her siblings if she had them. The last thing she would had ever seen in this world was that female's red eyes glaring at her, an excruciating pain captivating her small body as the life drained from her. I can't shake the image from my mind, my eyes tear up and I rub them.

"What is it?" he says.

"How can you care about her being at peace when you bred her to be eaten?" I say. "That was her whole purpose, along with thousands of others. You think thirteen makes a difference?"

"I'm not having this conversation again," he says. "We have to breed humans to ensure the food doesn't run low."

"Just like we bred animals," I whisper to myself. "You are us and we are the animals but not everyone ate them. That's how I can make you understand."

He twists his head in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"I want to visit a breeding center," I say. "I want you to take me there."

He laughs and shakes his head. "No. No way."

"You haven't seen it," I say. "Have you?"

"Seen what?" he demands.

"A baby being taken from its mother," I say. "If you did, you'd see things a lot differently."

"No, I wouldn't."

"Please, Cain," I say, walking down the steps. "You're the one that caused all of this, you're the one that's forcing them to give up their babies. Don't be a coward and shy away from looking at it."

He clenches his jaw and breathes heavily. "Fine. But I don't know what you're expecting to happen. You stay by my side the entire time, is that clear?"

I nod. "This is something that you should see."

He grins. "I doubt it." He grips his hand around my wrist and leads me towards the door. "There's a center that has a few full-term humans, we'll go there."