The last thing I remembered was falling into darkness on the floor of the throne room. I awoke slowly, feeling groggy at first, and then I began to feel a searing new pain over my body. I opened my eyes, gasping at the darkness around me, and struggled to move only to find myself bound to a familiar chair. Shackles imbued with mercury held onto me viciously from my ankles to my wrists and finally a large binding over my forehead, which held me firmly against the chair.

I wasn't sure how long I lasted without making a sound before I finally allowed the pain to build into a scream of agony. I panted afterwards, trying to hold myself together, but the burn of the mercury was too much. I screamed again.

I screamed until my throat became rough from it and even then I screamed a bit more.

I recognized the room I was in and the chair I was sitting in. I had been placed in the dome room that Kol and Niko had taken me to in order to prevent nightburn. Only, when I'd gone with them, I'd been instructed not to touch the shackles. Now they were on me and causing agonizing pain. The room itself wasn't completely dark because the barred hole in the ceiling had been left open and moonlight spilled in softly around the room.

For awhile, I would feel a sense of pain that was almost numbing, but then a small shift of movement would ignite a new scream of agony. This would repeat long into the night until I was drenched in sweat and whimpering weakly as though defeated. I had no hope. The King knew what I was and I'd attacked him. I wouldn't survive whatever he had planned for me; it was clear.

I couldn't keep track of time. It was a different torture than being held at the bottom of the boat while crossing the Division. My thoughts didn't swim around memories of my family. But I did think about Prince Nikolas. I knew either Niko or Kol would know I was in danger since the moment the King bit me, but what could he do? Was he looking for me or did he already know where I was?

After it had grown well into the night, my agony was interrupted by the sound of crashing outside the dome I was contained within. I wondered if it was the King preparing my next torture with the devices in the room. Or was it fighting among the guards which no doubt held me here? Perhaps Niko or Kol had come for me... perhaps Prince was okay and fighting to get to me. My mind was racing with thoughts.

When the crashing stopped, there was a deathly silence. In my panic, I'd struggled in my containments, but even now I tried my best to keep my breaths from devolving into screams if it meant I could hear another second outside my cage. A clank sounded at the door and then the door opened slowly until a familiar face appeared.

"My Lady," Gio greeted me just briefly before dropping everything to race into the dome towards me.

"Gio," I gasped, a wave of emotions pouring over me as he approached me, "Gio, please help me. Please, it hurts. It hurts. Please." I whimpered repeatedly as though the words wouldn't have meaning if I didn't emphasize them enough.

"I know," Gio replied softly, trying to comfort me, "I don't have the keys, so you'll have to stay very still. Can you do this for me?" I looked at him the best I could, knowing since the beginning I'd squirmed in my seat because of how intense the pain grew from the stillness.

"Okay," I whispered reluctantly.

Gio stood back, lifting his hand for his shadow blade which he seemed to manipulate into a smaller version of the blade he usually would summon. When it was in his hand, he lifted it forward to aim for the lock beside my head first. I held deathly still, holding my breath and closing my eyes, as I endured the pain of the mercury while waiting for him to attempt to free me.

With a strike of his blade, the shackle around my head was first freed. After this, Gio targeted each shackle until I was free from the torturous metal altogether. I immediately reached to wrap my arms around his neck in gratitude and he helped me carefully onto my feet.

"Come, we must-," He began, but suddenly a loud clang sounded off from behind him. I released him as he turned towards the door, blocking my body with his protectively. However, as I peeked around Gio, I saw no man or otherwise at the door. Instead, the door had been firmly shut.

Gio abruptly bolted towards the door, crashing into it before attempting to open it with a growl.

The visor slid open on the door and a stiff face peered into the dome.

"King's order. Anyone who assists the Seraphim will meet the sun," The guard announced firmly before shutting the visor mercilessly. Gio roared, making me jump, and continued to slam his shoulder into the door as hard as he could. He then pulled out his shadow blade, launching an attack on the door, but something about the material seemed impenetrable by his weapon. Still, he tried again and again, over and over, as I stood trembling.

When he paused for a moment, I took a deep shuddering breath.

"Gio?" I called his name. Gio stopped completely to turn to face me. I looked from him to the opening above the dome, barred no doubt to prevent someone from trying to escape in that direction, and looked back to Gio. "What are we going to do?"

Gio turned from me to the door and sighed, coming to a conclusion. He lifted his hand for me and I wasted no time rushing to his side to take it before moving further to embrace him in a trembling hug.

"You have to leave," I said, tears building in my words. "You can't stay here."

"The door won't open, my Lady," Gio responded stiffly.

"It was a trap to come here, wasn't it?" I sobbed then, afraid of what it meant. Was Niko or Kol planning on doing the same thing? Would they fall for the same trap? Would they be able to help Gio from meeting the sun in this dome with me?

Gio slid to sit on the ground, pulling me down with him until I was cradled in his arms against his chest. He brushed a hand over my hair slowly, trying to calm me from my sobs, but nothing could. Every time I thought about calming down, I thought again of Gio burning, and my cries were renewed.

"I would travel through hundreds of traps for you, Lady Corrine," Gio said to me soothingly. His hands grasped mine and lifted each one to look at the slow healing burns on them as well as the ones on my ankle and face. He hooked a finger under my chin to look at him. "Transfer your wounds to me."

My cries grew even further and I shook my head in denial.

"I won't," I whimpered painfully.

Gio frowned. "Will you deny my requests even now?" He asked with a hint of humor in his tone.

"I don't want to h-hurt you," I answered unhappily.

"Don't worry. I've gotten worse from a Seraph," Gio gestured to the scars above his ear up to his scalp. Seraphim gave him the scars? I had wondered if it was torture... I lifted my hand to trace the scars, imagining a Seraph transferring it onto Gio in some great battle. And now we were cuddled together on the floor of some torture cell; a seraph and a daemon, both waiting for death to come for them.

"Then... I'm sorry," I said to him, willing the burns on my body to his instead as requested. I watched my skin glow from the transference, my eyes no doubt a bright gold as well, and before I finished I threw myself against Gio in another embrace as my heart panged guiltily. I closed my eyes, unwilling to look at the burns on his form instead.

We stayed like this for a long time; Gio's arms holding me to him as I clung to him. And then a hint of a ray of sunshine touched the top of the dome in warning. I immediately whimpered upon seeing it, but Gio didn't make a sound. Instead, he only adjusted me so that I was no longer clinging to him but rather cradled in his grasp.

"The sun will be here soon," Gio said to me, "I assume this means the Prince is still in a chess match with the King." He said the words with a sigh, and something told me it wasn't an actual chess match that they were in.

"Why hasn't the prince come?" I asked for more information.

"He must be... delicate. If he openly goes against the King, he will eternally lose his birth right," Gio answered, running his hand over my arm slowly as though taking in my entire existence to memory as best as he could. "The wild Prince wants to throw it away. The rational Prince knows better. If he doesn't take the throne, the King will keep it for eternity and he is not a sane King. Especially when it comes to Seraphim."

I stared at him openly as he ran his fingers through my hair.

"You knew there were two princes?" I asked in a hushed voice.

"I do not know their names, only how to tell the brute and brains apart," He answered before carefully tracing his fingers over the features of my face. Tears built up in my eyes as he did so, knowing what it meant for him to look at me so intensely.

"I don't want you to go," I whimpered painfully.

"There is something I must do and I hope you won't fight me on it," Gio said to me softly, shifting my form closer to his in his grip. I glanced around the room to see the sun beginning to flood the interior and I turned to him with a gasp of fear.

"What is it?" I asked, tears falling onto my cheek rapidly.

"If I die by sun, you may die with me because we are bonded by a mark," Gio explained to me, not even deigning to look at the room around us himself. I nodded in response to his words, my heart racing in my chest at this point. "I must remove the mark."

"What does that mean?" I asked, shaking my head, "How?"

"I must remove the mark the same way I gave it, but Rin...," Gio paused then, turning to look at the sunlight beginning to envelope the room around us. He turned back to me and smiled. "It will only save you." I shook my head at his words, not understanding.

"If you could've removed it since the beginning, why didn't the Prince make you?" I asked in confusion. Gio's fingers traced down my jaw and over my neck where his mark was. I shifted on instinct, allowing him access to it without noticing.

"Because you can't force a daemon to break a mark. And if a daemon breaks a mark, it means they'll die. With the limited supply of daemons, it isn't practical to keep killing them," Gio answered me softly, lowering his lips over his mark delicately in a soft kiss. I shivered at the responding pleasure, but fought against his actions once hearing his words.

"Don't," I whimpered, lifting both of my hands to cover the mark protectively. "Don't go."

Gio lifted his lips from where the mark was and turned to face me. He placed a hand over my cheek, wiping the tears from them before peering into my eyes openly. My heart throbbed as time cruelly ticked on, refusing to slow down for anyone.

"You are my brightest light in the dark," Gio said to me, peering at me a moment longer before he abruptly pulled my hands away from my shoulder. Too quick for me to stop, he bent over my form and struck his mark with his fangs, drawing me tight against him. I cried out, feeling the opposite of the usual pleasure I got from a bite, and clung to Gio painfully.

"No," I struggled to say in a harsh voice. Gio removed himself from me painfully, panting and wincing from an unknown agony. I grasped at the bite wound on my shoulder, lifting my hand to see my blood painting my palm lightly. I looked to him, reaching for him desperately. "Gio!"

A shadow began to shroud him, much how it shrouded Prince or Kol when they would shade themselves in the shadows. As I reached for Gio, my hand went through the shadows. He looked at me one last time, flashing me a devious smile that he usually shared with the Prince, and then he faded into the shadows entirely just as the sun flooded over the rest of the room.

I sat there in the silence, staring at where Gio had been just moments ago.

"Gio?" I asked the air around me, a part of me hoping he had survived somehow. When there was no answer, my heart tore into two. A sob tore from my chest and I collapsed onto the ground, crying into the nothingness in pain.

~...~

Long after night fell once more, the door to the dome finally opened. Footsteps entered the room and stood over me where I laid unmoving on the ground. For a moment, nothing was said or done. Then, I felt the pain of someone grasping my hair to pull me from the floor.

I cried out, reaching for the hand in pain and standing as quickly as I could.

"He was your paramour, huh?" King Cyril asked me with a sigh, "I hoped it would be my son. Apparently, he doesn't care about you as much as everyone thought he did." The King released me and I fell to my knees.

"Grab her. It's time to go," The King ordered. A pair of strong hands gripped my arms on either side and lifted me, pulling me to follow King Cyril. With two guards on either side of me, both holding me with enough force to cause bruises, I wondered just how strong did they think a seraph actually was.

On the way down the halls, I spotted a few people I recognized. Vienna and Shan were standing by, both clinging to each other in horror as they saw me pass. My heart raced in my chest as I looked for the Prince. I also searched for signs of Prince, my shadow daemon, but something in my heart felt that this time he wouldn't have been allowed to live.

I felt both numb and breathless, thinking of either Prince or Gio. I felt afraid when I thought of the Prince. I both wanted to see him again and I wanted him to stay far away, afraid that Gio's words were true and remembering King Cyril's wish for his own son to have burned in the sun.

I was escorted out of the building and into a vehicle with King Cyril. The guards stayed on both sides of me, holding me captive in their grasp, as we began to move through the palace and towards the towering gate I so feared. I tightened my hands into fists and released them before tightening them again.

As we approached the gate, the ringing began in my head and I became lightheaded, struggling to breathe around the weakening defenses.

"It's nice to know our walls still work," King Cyril stated with amusement.

We passed through the gate without halting, probably because we had the King with us, and then we began our journey outside the palace. I couldn't see outside the window, though I tried. I was terrified, my heart racing loudly within me. Where were we going? Was I going to die? I didn't want to go somewhere private with the King.

"Where are we going?" I asked in a small voice and promptly was slapped by the nearest guard. I yelped in response, gasping at the sharp pain on my face.

"Keep silent if you want to keep your pretty face pretty," The guard warned me dangerously. I nodded mutely, not intent on receiving more attacks from impossibly stronger daemons.

"You'll see when we get there," King Cyril answered me nonetheless. He seemed to be thinking hard about something before he turned to face me. "You know, you should've just gone home when I gave you the chance. As long as the Prince didn't receive a Queen, he wouldn't be able to take the throne. Why did you stay?"

I looked to the guard who had spoken and then back to the King.

"I... I love the Prince," I answered honestly. Before I could say anything else, the King nodded to the guard who then delivered another blow over my face. I cried out, the pain throbbing throughout my face.

"A seraph and a daemon. Disgusting," King Cyril admonished dangerously. "Well, it's luck that all my assassin attempts failed on you, I suppose. All I need is one of the seraphim and we can open the gates to the realms." So it hadn't been Lady Aurora all along; it'd been the King. To prevent the Prince from becoming King, he tried to kill me. He inadvertently had nearly gotten Lady Aurora, another potential Queen, executed as well.

It was then that I could finally see something outside the window in the night. The water of the Division was there, glistening under the light. I gasped as we pulled from the road and headed towards the river rapidly.

When we arrived, I was pulled from the vehicle roughly and began to be dragged towards the river. The moon was high in the sky and lit up the ground around me so that I could navigate over the rocks. The closer I got to the river, the more I could see of a strange sight.

An arch was erected on the bank of the river on the Seola side, large and towering to the sky. It didn't appear to be anything other than a pathway to a bridge. Normally, a bridge over the Division would be laughable considering the sheer distance from Numa to Seola, but in this particular area as I looked down the bridge, I could actually see a large towering arch on the Numa side of the land. It was as though there was only this small connection between the two lands and despite my fears, I felt a sense of wonder at being allowed to see this.

After all, this had to be the gates of the Dark and Light Realms.

The King abruptly gripped me by my neck, pulling me from the guard's grasp. He began to lead me to the bridge painfully, ignoring my stumbling steps and gasps of pain. Once we were on the bridge, the King instead grasped my wrists together and dragged me behind him towards Numa. My heart pounded at how close I was to my home land and a large part of me wanted to try to escape there. I looked to the river roaring viciously below us to maybe a gap I could squeeze past him to Numa. It all just looked too hopeless.

We stopped only when we got to the center of a bridge where a statue of what looked like a birdbath with a funnel on the bottom remained. The King pushed me before it and then paused as he looked at me.

"I was thinking of slitting your throat for this part," King Cyril admitted easily before smiling in a way that made me uncomfortable. "However, I don't want you to die before the sacrifice is complete."

"The sacrifice?" I panicked and yelped when he grasped my wrists, tying them together before him. When he didn't answer, tears began to build in my eyes. "Please, I don't want to die. Please let me go home."

"I am sending you home; to the light realm. In order to open the gates, we needed to sacrifice a daemon and a seraphim. We've already sacrificed a daemon. That was easy. But we killed all the seraphim, you see?" The King explained to me as though the sacrifice I'd be making was something of great honor. "All you need to do is drop a few drops of blood into the Division. The light realm will take you. The gates will be opened. Hope will return for our futures. I will be labeled the greatest King to ever rule over Seola."

The King lifted my tied hands over the statue, pulling a knife from his side. I breathed sharply as he moved the blade towards me, pressing it to my wrist. Before he could continue, a body abruptly slammed into his.

I stumbled away from the statue on the bridge, falling to my bottom painfully.

Kol stood before me, his back turned to me as he faced his father.

"How dare you stand against me, boy," King Cyril growled, looking towards Seola where guards were on the ground, injured but not dead. "And you dare to do it in front of witnesses. Are you giving up your rights to the Kingdom?"

"I'm not here about the Kingdom," Kol snarled, taking a step back and closer to me. The King looked to me and then laughed cruelly.