Aurora's POV:

I ran as silently as I could down various darkened corridors, the quiet crunching of small stones that had fallen from the broken walls being the only noise that reached the still air.

"Wait" whispered Shade as he grabbed onto my arm.

I instantly stopped moving and pressed myself up against the wall to remain unseen as the deafening scraping of a heavy door echoed around the room. Upon hearing footsteps, we edged carefully back the way we came to conceal ourselves behind a tall but skinny beam, having to stand extremely close to each other in order to stay hidden.

The seemingly booming footsteps grew closer making my heartbeat quicken to an unnatural pace. Out of instinct, I closed my hand around the dagger that Orpheus had given me so I was prepared to fight and looked up at Shade who shook his head disapprovingly at me. As much as I wanted to sprint around the corner and take the guard by surprise, I decided to put my trust in him so I remained still and waited in anticipation as the footsteps continued to grow louder.

Just before my patience caved, the footsteps stopped... filling the room with a sickening silence. I wondered whether the guard was going to spoil our plan by staying in the room, or whether it was going to find us and alert the others of our presence, either way, our plan for an element of surprise was swiftly slipping away.

I looked up at Shade who was leaning towards the edge of the pillar, he peered around the side of it before he pulled his head back to meet my gaze.

"Get ready" he mouthed silently as he grabbed ahold of one of his own daggers.

We were just about to jump into the open when the footsteps started again... but this time they were at a much quicker pace and appeared to fade away, the guard was leaving.

"Let's just go" I voiced upon seeing Shade's confused expression.

We wasted no more time and ran stealthily down a few more corridors until we reached a dead end and a thin case of stairs, we descended down them swiftly without question and continued to run aimlessly through the castle.

"In here!" exclaimed a hoarse voice.

We both skidded to a stop and approached the door which led to the source of the voice.

"I know that you're not one of the guards, he has called them all back to him... please... help me" croaked the voice raspily.

Shade looked at me for confirmation so I nodded my head and pushed open the door since I figured that the person inside was a prisoner that could have some information on Chase's location.

I walked cautiously into the dark room with Shade walking close beside me. With the little light that we had provided by opening the door, I could see that the source of the voice was a male. He was chained up against the wall in a standing position and had various cuts and scratches over his pale skin. I also noticed that he had scraggily coal black hair and painfilled golden eyes that seemed to stare straight through me. His slightly aged face and gloomy eyes allowed me to see that he was a man that had given up hope long ago.

"The candle" he groaned moving his head to gesture to the far corner of the room "use its light" he finished.

Shade moved across the room and held his hands over the candle, slowly bending the flames to his will. He directed his newly formed chain of fire to flow in a continuous circle above our heads as we approached the man before us.

The man stared at Shade as if he had seen a ghost, never taking his eyes from him, as creepy as this was, I chose not to question him since it gave me a chance to try and figure out who and what he is. Upon a clearer inspection, I noticed that the man was heavily chained to the wall by his arms, legs, torso, feet and neck. He even had wolfsbane tangled within his chains which revealed that he was at least part werewolf.

"They really didn't want you to escape," said Shade, taking his flask of water of his belt as he approached the man.

He allowed him to drink as much as he wanted before he took away the flask and ripped the chain from his neck, causing him to take a sharp intake of air.

"Who are you?" I asked curiously as I took in his strangely familiar features.

"My name is Sebastian" he announced in a now clear voice.

I stared at him in confusion as my mind sorted through the millions of emotions that flowed through my body.

"What did you just say?" Asked Shade in disbelief.

Settling on anger, I launched towards him and pressed my dagger up against his neck.

"If you're Sebastion give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now" I growled, pressing the dagger into his throat.

He struggled under my contact and gasped for air as I released him enough to talk.

"What is wrong with you?" he blurted.

"Wrong answer," said Shade venomously as I threatened to move the dagger towards him again.

"Woah, I don't know who you think I am but I have been imprisoned here since... well... Lucifer's betrayal" He said genuinely.

"What are you talking about? You killed Lucifer because of your love for Athena " I said in confusion as I took a step away from him.

He looked between us and burst out laughing but there was nothing comical about the laugh, it was infused with anger.

"That bastard" he whispered under his breath. "Lucifer is very much alive" he revealed.

"Tell us all that you know" commanded Shade, pulling off his remaining chains.

I shot Shade a disapproving glare and watched as Sebastian untangled himself from his loosened chains and rubbed his sore wounds.

"Lucifer and I started off as friends, we did everything together... that is until Athena came along" he started, seemingly captured in a distant memory.

"She was beautiful, smart, strong, passionate... she was perfect, and I quickly fell in love with her and we soon became lovers, but little to my knowledge Lucifer also had feelings for her. After Athena and I had been together for half a year, with him playing the very convincing role of the supportive frind, he decided that he couldn't conceal his feelings anymore so he confessed them to her, but she was in love with me and possessed no intimate feelings towards Lucifer... this, in turn, broke his heart and humiliated him, causing his mind to darken against me," he explained regretfully.

He sighed loudly and looked at each of us in turn before he continued.

"I don't know, maybe if I had made more of an effort to talk to him things would have turned out differently... you see Athena was how things started out but she wasn't the only reason why he turned bad, I even heard that he had moved on with another woman! but once he had a taste of the darkness he couldn't give it up... he searched tirelessly for power until the Archangels became suspicious. After this, he broke off our friendship completely and gave me and Athena one last gift to remember him by" he stated sorrowfully.

"He sealed you away with him?" asked Shade.

"No, I was the one who sealed Lucifer away, sacrificing myself to his wrath in the process... but before I could do this he cursed Athena with a great darkness which should have turned her insane, but when the curse took place she was with child, so the curse was didn't work as it should have... instead, it doomed Athena to die and infused our child with an inner darkness, because of this, forces became unbalanced so the curse backfired and affected Lucifers own child, infusing it with light and purity" he finished, never taking his eyes from Shades.

The room became filled with a heavy silence as we absorbed all of the information, he seemed to be telling the truth... either that or he was a really good liar, but if what he said was indeed true, then this truth was worse than I could have imagined.

"Aurora is not your daughter...is she?" questioned Shade, looking deep into Sebastian's golden eyes.

"No" replied Sebastian.

"You think that I'm?" whispered Shade timidly, "you think that I am your son?" he asked, his crimson eyes filled with vulnerability.

Sebastian stepped forward and held out his right hand with his palm facing Shade, Shade immediately joined his hand to Sebastian's, causing their hands to glow brightly. Shade clenched his teeth together and let out a small groan as his hand begun to burn painfully.

"The curse is deep within you" confirmed Sebastian, breaking their connection. "you are my son"

Shade hung his head and stared at the ground in silence, I walked to his side and grabbed his hand supportively in mine.

"None of this makes sense" he whispered to no one in particular.

"Athena must have found a way to keep you safe" exclaimed Sebastian.

"Keep me safe? I have spent half of my life wondering why my so-called parents hated me!" shouted Shade angrily. " and the other half on the run, learning as much as I could so I could fight to survive... you call that safe?" he continued.

"If I could change the past I would, but I can't... I know it doesn't mean much to you but I'm so sorry" responded Sebastian emotionally.

"I can't talk about this right now" stated Shade "besides, we are not here to play catch up... we're here to rescue Chase and kill... well you, but I guess Lucifer is the one that we should be killing" he continued logically.

I thought over what Sebastian had just said one last time and felt shivers dance along my spine as I came to a sickening relaisation.

"Who is my father?" I asked hesitantly, part of me already knowing the answer.

At that exact moment, the doorway exploded to reveal Emrick standing amongst the exploded stone with a huge smirk on his face.

"I was wondering when you would show up... sister" he smirked.

He used our shock to his advantage and used an invisible forcefield to pin Shade and Sebastian against the wall.

"I'm going to have to take your girlfriend, a family reunion is well overdue" laughed Emrick as he held his hand towards me, causing me to shoot up towards the ceiling.

I turned my head towards Shade to see him struggling against Emrick's magic.

"Find Chase" I shouted as clearly as I could.

And that is the last thing I remembered before I felt the hard impact of the concrete on my skull and the cold silence of darkness.