"But this time
I hope you can't ignore that,
You and I, have waited so long
Here in me, is where you belong
'Cause I've got this light inside
And I'm saving it for you,
I've got this light inside
And I'm saving it for you"

- Your Light, Joshua Radin

~

RACHELLE

The Cinder tent place...thing is cloaked.

Arbor was right after all. Ah I can't wait for her to say a big fat 'I told you so.'

We just walk through this translucent door thing from which the previous batch of guards had come, and we are now standing in a camp full of black tents.

It's a lot smaller than Pyros' camp, but disturbingly similar. The only difference I can spot are these black banners hanging on top of the tents, with white fire-sort of designs on them. Like those funky tattoos that the humans like to get with swirly skulls and dragons which they think make them look cool but they look extremely stupid. Yeah.

Plus the fire in the torches is a disturbing white color. Like the flame was haunted by something before lighting the torch. I don't know, I feel like I am watching this place through a colour blind dude's eyes where he can only see red, black and white. Does that make sense?

There are no other colours. None. Nada.

I see that this place is much less crowded than the other camp, as we walk through the gaps in corridors between the tents, following the golden light trail that Augustine's coin left. We made him believe he is the only one who can see it when in fact all of us can. You know, to make him feel a little special.

The trail is leading up to the other side of the camp and thankfully no one has paid attention to us or talked to us.

And that is when two tall dudes walk up to us.

"Hare! You walking funny!" The taller dude said, patting Mikaello on the back.

His wings are there-

"He looks a little chubby too, doesn't he, Rodney?" The dude says, looking at our group. I just nod. Must be because of the folded wings peeking out.

The dude then leans closer to Mikaello, "You smell funny too Hare, clean up well."

I hope no one tries to smell me as well.

The other dude pats me on the back, "Rele! Got off duty eh? The guys are meeting for a meal, you should join. But you should go look at the prisoners man! They have wings! I thought it was a myth!"

I let out a breathy laugh and nod. So Mikaello is addressed as Hare, I am addressed as Rele and either Zarren or Avalkyra is Rodney?

The dudes walk away and Mikaello let's out a sigh, "They are treating Rey like a circus animal."

This dude has been whining like a wounded puppy for as long as I can remember. Yes, I know your girlfriend, ahem sorry, best friend is in danger but seriously shut up.

I pat his shoulder anyway, "That's okay, we'll get them out of there."

I love how he has no concern for Augustus whatsoever. Like yes, the dude is annoying but also very valuable with all the powers he contains.

"So, you think Rey likes you back?" I ask Mikaello cause, why not?

He starts coughing loudly, "L-like? What?"

"Man even I see you got a thing for her," I hear Zarren's voice, "And I've been called insensitive all my life."

"Agreed," I hear Avalkyra's voice.

"The Mika being into Rey part or me being insensitive part?"

"Both."

"Hey! I-"

"There's nothing like that, y'all are thinking too much," Mikaello says quickly, shutting the conversation down. Okay then, if he chooses to stay in denial.

We follow the golden trail and reach a more...grungy looking tent than the rest which is a clear indication that it's a prison.

We casually step inside and immediately are swarmed by more Cinders.

"Rele! Here to see the prisoners eh?" Comes a voice. I just nod. No speaking. Speaking equals getting blasted by weird dark magic.

"Hare! Rele! Rodney!" Someone else yells out, "The Sun is gonna be so pleased with our sacrifices!" Comes another rumbly voice.

"Go on now," a third Cinder comes into our view and points towards this trapdoor on the carpeted ground inside the tent.

I turn my head towards, I think, Zarren, and he understands as he lifts the trapdoor up.

And in we go.

We drop down to a floor below the upper floor of the tent and all I can see cages all around me, and a huge group standing to one side.

I can feel Mikaello hyperventilating next to me. Not romantic, my ass.

It's kinda cute, not gonna lie.

We can't see Rey or Gus though, because of the crowd.

Someone from the crowd recognises us.

"Rele! Hare! Rodney!" I hear another cheerful voice, "Here to see the sacrifice? His wings are golden!" Comes the voice, from who, I have no idea.

"I've been telling them to sacrifice the girl first, the Sun appreciates beauty, but the chose the guy because his wings are shiny," I hear another voice grumble.

I nod, like I have been doing the whole time and Mikaello next to me is stiff as a rock. He's gonna blow our fucking cover like this.

"See the shiny wings!" Another voice comes. We push through the crowd to the front and my heart stops just the way it did when their chariot had stopped after the race in the Land of the Aurae.

Because there lay Gus, bruised, and bloody, completely knocked out, his wings emanating a dull glow while reflecting the light of the torches outside his cell. He looked like one of those broken, fallen angels described in several of the human stories.

Miakello gasped slightly next to me and I follow his trail of vision to where Rey lay, curled up in a ball, hiding her face from the huge crowd of spectators. Was she even conscious?

I grab Mikaello and Zarren by the arms and drag them to the back of the room, where we could talk.

"How are we gonna get them out of there with those many people around?" Avalkyra asks, concern evident in her tone.

There are about twelve creatures in between us and Rey and Gus, that we have to get rid of.

I can hear Mikaello's voice, "Can you bury them like Meena did?"

Now I hear Zarren's voice behind one of the masks, "It will exhaust me and we need to heal the two of them."

"Plus we can't alarm the guards above us," I add in.

Avalkyra gasps and holds up her bracelet, "If I take eight of them out, will you bury the rest of the four?"

"That's fine but how-"

Avalkyra's bracelet transforms into a bow, out of nowhere she cocks four arrows onto the bow and shoots four of the people at the back in the neck. And then she cocks four more arrows and knocks our four more people.

The four people who have not been knocked out whirl to face us, and Zarren must have come to his senses because they immediately sink into the sand.

So that happened.

Very fast.

I'm scared.

Zarren takes his mask off, "They are not that deep inside and will claw their way out, we need to act fast."

I turn towards the trapdoor, "The door-"

Avalkyra points a finger at the door and the sides of the metal door fuse together with the metal rims, sealing us in.

Okay then.

I rush over to the cage where Gus is locked where Avalkyra is currently melting the latch.

Mikaello comes after me, "What about Rey's cage-"

"Mika?" I hear Rey's voice, holding half the power it usually does. Huh, she was conscious.

She gets up slowly and Mikaello rushes towards the cage, holding onto the bars desperately.

Mikaello rips his mask off and Rey places her own hands on Mikaello's gripping the bars together.

There are freaking tears glistening in both of their eyes.

"I almost thought I lost you," the strawberry blonde says, sniffling slightly while Rey breaks down sobbing. 

Will it be insensitive to tell them to get a room?

Avalkyra finishes working on Gus's lock. I nod at Zarren and the dude gets onto work to get Gus back to consciousness.

I sit by Gus's side as I observe the lovebirds. Avalkyra walks over to them and clears her throat.

"I need some space to get the lock," she says, and Mikaello coughs a little before backing away. He looks down at the ground, not daring to meet anyone's eyes. Oh the unwanted tension in the room is crazy.

I decide to stare at Augustus. His face is bloodied up and has sand sticking to the crusted blood as if he was punched repeatedly then dragged through the sand face first.

His wings have very distinctive bloody holes in them and right below his left wing, hiding from prying eyes is Augustine's little coin.

"Oh Gus," I mutter sadly, watching as the punctures in his wings slowly patch themselves up with Zarren's magic.

"Yes... Princess?" I hear a weak voice and immediately my eyes snap up to meet his opened hazel ones, crinkled at the side because of laugh lines.

Oh thank the heavens.

I give him a wide smile, "You are a favorite target among our enemies."

He lets out a small laugh, "Tell me about it."

Gus lifts his head up to see Zarren by his side and then lays back down groaning, "Why am I always nursed back to health by dudes?"

"Be grateful I'm nursing you back to health," Zarren grumbles, running his hands over Gus's biceps to heal the bruises there.

I didn't even realise how much I missed the stupid heterosexual jokes of his until now.

Augustus's vision then shifts to behind me and I turn as well to see Avalkyra finally snap open the latch.

Immediately Mikaello runs inside and captures Rey into a tight hug, which may not be the best way to handle a bruised prisoner.

But Rey looks content.

It's so cute, their eyes are closed and they have small smiles on their faces and Rey's head is on Mikaello's chest. And the dim light of the torches adds a nice romantic lighting.

You heard it right folks, prison lighting is the most romantic now.

For a few awkward moments they keep hugging each other and we watch them creepily until Augustus coughs, "Princess! I wanna hug as well. Maybe a kiss to make the pain go away?"

I just crinkle my nose and watch him with judgement as he smiles the signature smile of his.

He has a million bruises but he will never break his character.

That might just be one of his admirable qualities.

Mikaello and Rey break the hug and Rey immediately rushes over to Gus's side, tears still shining in her eyes.

"Oh Gus all this while I thought you were dying! Why did you heal me without even having any energy?!" Rey says loudly.

Okay she needs to be soft or we might just have some company.

"My body can heal itself slowly, even without my command. You would have died," Gus says slowly, not meeting her eyes.

Now Rey is hugging the life out of Gus, which, I might say again, is not the best action to do on a prisoner with a shit ton of bruises.

And Gus looks in pain.

So does Mikaello who is watching them with narrowed eyes.

Oh the best kinds of drama : jealousy.

"We're in a prison with a lot of knocked out company," Avalkyra decides to remind them.

Thank you Kiki.

Rey let's go of Gus and Zarren hands Gus a bottle of nectar to let the dude do his Soul healing on himself. Coral said that getting healed by Gus is like spending two days at the Faerie Spa in Alette. So I'm guessing it's amazing.

Gus starts healing himself bit by bit as Zarren gets started on Rey.

Now to sum it all up, we argue for a good five minutes about how to get out of this hole until Gus finally speaks up that he can portal us out of here by borrowing someone's energy and absorbing the location from someone else.

So here I am, holding Gus's right hand while Mikaello is holding the left one. Mikaello is lending his energy to Gus while I'm imagining the location of the guard post where we had told our friends to meet us.

Gus's hand feels so rough and calloused under my own hand, but still radiating the most amount of warmth I've ever felt. Which is not a good thing considering we're in the middle of a desert.

And now a glowing blue, white and gold portal appears in front of us.

Time to go meet our friends again.

And...they are not there. The place is empty.

They must have gone in.

~

Henlo beautiful people! I hope you liked the chapter. I highly recommend you try out the song I quoted in the beginning of the chapter because it's the sweetest, calming, most beautiful song out there.

AND I TOOK SO LONG TO WRITE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF ROMANCE AND IM SORRY ITS SO DISAPPOINTING I'LL TRY BETTER AHEAD.

Plus plus, I have written quite a bit ahead so you're gonna get some lightning fast updates.

The next chapter is in Kaito, Augustus, Augustine, Mikaello, Rachelle and Valerie's POVs. So yeah, it's kind of a big chapter.