My eyes flicker open when I feel someone shaking my shoulder. "Wha—what? I'm up," I yawn."What is that?" Nix asks."What's what?" I ask groggily, rubbing my eyes.Then I hear it. The high-pitched wail coming from down the hallway. "Oh, that," I mumble."What is it?"I chew my lip as I listen, trying to decipher the sound. I sit listening for several minutes before Nix nudges my shoulder. "Why don't you just ask Sorin?" they ask with a heavy sigh.I grimace. "Because then everyone else is going to bother me and get upset that I broke the rule. The stupid fuckers are so jealous and needy it's ridiculous," I grumble."I'm sure they'll understand this one time, I just really need to know if that sound is just some creature being annoying if we should actually go help somebody and it's too far for Zizi to go—and I have absolutely no idea where it's coming from," they tell me."Fine," I sigh. My eyes roll back and t

The tingling between my shoulder blades is getting worse. I’m not sure how much longer I can handle just sitting in this tiny room. I push my back against the wall and will the irritation to magically vanish. When the pins and needles persist, I let my muscles relax with a heavy sigh.It’s far from the first time I’ve been punished for attacking a superior. At this point, I think it’s fair to call it normal actually. All I can do is hope that there never comes a day where they decide to make my punishment legitimate.It’s extremely uncomfortable, but that’s about it. It doesn’t cause permanent damage—mental or physical—and it’s nothing compared to what I’ve already endured. I’d still rather not deal with this feeling right now though.I throw the ball again and watch it bounce off the floor, then the wall, then catch it when it comes back to me. I move to throw it again, but pause at th

“What happened here?” I asked.I heard Sorin sigh. ‘I don’t know,’ he replied.Through my dæmon’s eyes, I could see the barren wasteland over a hundred kilometres away. It used to be dense green forests filled with all kinds of mysterious creatures, but now there was nothing.The trees were gone, all that was left was dirt and small flecks of ash—somehow it had all been burned to the ground without anyone even seeing a flame or trail of smoke. It was just gone.Nothing moved in the vast sea of gray and as far as I could tell, Sorin was the only soul in the sky or on the ground.The air shifted as we came to the edge of the grey. It felt charged with an energy that was far from good; it set my nerves on fire and filled me with dread.Angel territory.“Has it really been right here? All this time it was right here?” I asked, my voice cracking with frustration.My dæmon sighed. ‘It has, you would never have been able to find it Jada, it’s hidden using magic far beyond your own abilities.

They’re still gone. I know exactly where they are and I can see them again but they might as well be gone.“I feel like this is actually worse,” I mumble.“What’s actually worse?”I whip around to see one of the women that brought Jaxon and Ash back. I growl in frustration as I turn back towards the fire burning in front of me. “Since when is this spot a tourist attraction?” I grumble under my breath.“My apologies Fara, I didn’t mean to bother you. My name is Aurelia, I just thought you might want to know what happened to your brothers so Lyza told me where you were.”My eyes widen a little. “They’re not my brothers.”She shrugs. “Perhaps not by blood,” she mutters.I feel my annoyance wane slightly and don’t say another word as she sits down on the rock about a meter away. I continue to sit in silence as the woman tells me what happ