I walked into the small camp clearing to see that everyone, apart from Orpheus and Asher, were sitting in a small circle. I walked in between them all and dumped the firewood in a small pile.

"Shade come with me?" I asked, walking straight past him.

I heard him get to his feet so I continued to walk back into the thicker forest.

"Whats wrong?" he questioned, standing a few feet away from me.

I looked around the trees to make sure that nobody was watching us and turned to face him.

" I saw Emrick" I began, looking down at the ground.

Shade closed the gap between us and immediately began to fuss over me.

"Did he hurt you?... I swear if he touched you i'll-" he blurted.

"I'm ok," I said looking up into his crimson eyes.

"Then...then why have you been crying?" he asked cupping my cheek in his hand.

My eyes swelled as more tears threatened to fall, Shade's face softened as he watched my internal struggle to push them back.

"Shade... we have to leave them," I said quietly.

He looked at me in confusion and moved his hand down from my face to grab my hand.

"Tell me everything," he said, lacing his fingers through mine.

I explained everything that Emrick said the best that I could, he stayed silent the whole time, his only reaction being the occasional nod, but his eyes told a different story, their colour would change from light to dark at different points of my story, allowing me to tap into our connection and read his emotions.

"Do you see now?" I asked, "If we don't go they'll kill Chase... they'll kill all of them."

I paused and rubbed my hand down my now tear-stained face.

"I'm so sorry" I sobbed, looking up at him with regret.

Shade stepped forward and said nothing, he wrapped his arms around me and planted a sweet kiss on my forehead.

"Don't apologise, it's not your fault " he said

After what seemed like forever, I pulled back from the embrace and took in his soft features.

"Why?" I asked, how could he possibly not blame me? if we didn't meet then he wouldn't be in this mess.

"Because it's you... its always you" he replied with a distant look in his eyes.

He let go of my hand and slowly tucked a strand of loose hair behind my ear, staring longingly into my eyes the whole time. My heart thudded loudly in my chest as the familiar electricity that I had begun to forget surrounded the air around us.

"Aurora! Shade!" called Asher causing us both to jump.

We stepped away from each other awkwardly and turned to face the source of the noise.

"Coming" I shouted.

I began to walk briskly towards the clearing but Shade grabbed my arm lightly and turned me to face him.

"We'll definitely be able to lose them at the river," he said in a low voice.

I nodded my head in agreement and continued to walk into camp.

"What is it?" asked Shade in annoyance as he advanced over to the others.

Everyone just stood there facing inwards and remaining silent so pushed through to see a glowing orb of some sort hovering over the fire.

"What the hell is that," I asked turning to face Asher.

"It's a message orb," he said staring at the white ball.

"Well... aren't one of you going to go and open it?" I questioned looking around at everyone's blank faces.

When nobody made a move towards the orb I let out a large sigh and walked towards it.

"I guess I'll do it then" I muttered under my breath.

I held both of my hands out towards the ball and scooped it up, it's previously pearly white colour became tinted with an extremely light lilac colour before it shot away from my hands and cast out a brilliant purple light.

I immediately pulled my hands up to protect my eyes and squinted at its brilliant luminosity, what the hell was up with all these weird messages anyway?

I calmly removed my hands from my face to reveal a digital like image of Principal Albern.

"Aurora?" he asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, it's me" I replied, sidestepping to stand in front of his animation.

"I have recently received news of increased demon activity at the border, their gaining on you day by day," he said with a matter of urgency in his voice. "I have called the Elysium guard for assistance but there is only so much they can do with the number of attacks going on"

"Principal Albern can't yo-" I began.

"We haven't got much time," he said cutting me off.

I watched in confusion as he snapped his head in the direction of the door, piercing screams echoed through the area, making my stomach twist in dread.

"Aurora, please hurry" he blurted. "You and Shade are our only hope"

He reached out and pushed his orb out of the way, making the one before me fall to the floor and disintegrate in a puff of white mist. I took a step back and looked around at the others, who were still staring at me blankly. How the hell didn't they react to that I thought while shaking my head in disbelief.

I walked over to Zack and snapped my fingers in front of his face.

"Guys?" I asked in a slight panic.

In response to my voice, they all instant regained their consciousness and continued to walk towards me as if nothing had happened.

"What's a message orb?" questioned Orpheus.

I gaped at him in shock to which he responded with an embarrassed look.

"What? they don't have those where I come from" he shrugged.

"She has already seen the message" explained Asher "Message orbs are extremely useful but can only be directed at one person, and when said person is watching it any sort of life around that area will freeze"

"That's amazing," said Brandon in awe.

"Who was it?" asked Asher, taking a seat next to the blazing fire.

"Principal Albern" I replied, still in shock from his message. "It was a warning"

Asher didn't seem surprised by this but beaconed me to continue anyway so I told them everything that principal Albern had said to me, and explained his strange distant behaviour.

"Sounds like the school is under attack again" said Max, successfully saying all of our inner thoughts aloud.

Zack buried his face in his hands and sighed heavily.

"I'm sure that she'll be fine" I comforted, realising that Sylvia was still in the school.

"I know, but I should be there to protect her... she's my mate," he said sorrowfully.

I placed my hand on his shoulder and sighed.

"What do we do now?" I asked, feeling powerless.

"We sleep, we can't turn back now, not when we are this close," said Asher.

We all nodded our heads in agreement but remained silent, the only sound audible was the distant chirping of birds and the light cracking of the fires burning flame.

"We leave at first light" confirmed Asher before we were once again, plunged back into a deafening silence.