Chapter 6 Blessing

Aura's PoV

The doors shut behind me. His footsteps receding down the hall

The second I was sure I could not hear him anymore. I moved.

My hands shook violently as I searched the room, there had to be another exit. I couldn’t tell what time it was but from the snow patterns. It had to be late, I had to get home soon because if they discovered whatever Maevah had hidden,they would never let me leave and that’s exactly what Maevah feared, the pitied look she gave me that night.

My breathing quickened. Think Aura, Think. I crossed toward the towering bookshelf and shoved against it desperately, nothing, it didn’t move, no secret doors and the windows were too high to climb. The doors too were locked from outside.

My pulse hammered harder and just when I was about to give up, the silver runes carved into the doorframe flickered.

I froze. The symbols dimmed slowly then died completely. Oh thank whoever it is in the heavens that cursed me to be a witch that breaks magic. Every disappointment is indeed a blessing 

Without thinking, I grabbed a thick cloak hanging near the bed and wrapped it tightly around myself. I slit the dress so I could jump and run easily, across the room were my boots.I grabbed them and put them on before slipping into the corridor.

Empty.

The guards were gone or sleeping. Do vampires sleep? That didn’t matter now Aura, focus

I hurried through the corridors, trying to remember the route back toward the lower city. Every shadow looked alive now. Every distant sound made my heart jump.

At one intersection, a pair of vampire guards approached suddenly. I panicked and the lanterns above them burst out instantly. It was as though whatever magic I possessed was working in my favor now.Darkness swallowed the corridor and the guards cursed sharply.

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me

Cold air slammed into me moments later as I burst through an outer gate into the city streets, the snow whipped violently through Sol Diminium now.

The Veil clouds churned overhead.

I kept running i didn’t stop, I ran past silver bridges, past streets,past startled faces turning toward me. I didn’t care

Away from the black citadel towering behind me like a living thing.

Fear burned through my chest harder with every step not fear of the vampires, fear of myself, what I was, what I could become 

By the time I reached the outer gates of Sol Diminium, snow had soaked completely through my boots.

The massive iron gates stood partially open as supply wagons entered through the storm.

No guards noticed me slipping between them and out of the city 

I didn’t stop running long after the city disappeared behind me.

Xarion’s POV

The city below me moved as it always did,quiet, ordered, eternal but I was not with it. Not mentally at least. My mind was  back in Miridia. Back in that village , with her 

Aura.

The moment she stood there and something inside her broke open. It wasn’t exactly magic, it wasn’t like a witch casting spells. It was different. I remember the lanterns dying.

 I remembered the way my body reacted. I felt my heartbeat in that return, it was like a deep thrum in my chest, I had not felt that in centuries worst of it was my fangs didn’t come,they should have from Instinct, Hunger, even reflex 

Nothing. Only silence inside me and then the cold. For the first time in a century, I felt the cold.

Like my body had become mortal for a while 

My magic had gone still too. Like it was removed or silenced

As if her presence had rewritten the rules of the curse that bound my kind

That was what frightened me. She did not know what she did or worse she did not know what she is.

A knock interrupted my thoughts, I did not turn

“Speak.”

“My prince,” a guard said carefully. “The girl is gone from her chambers”

The wind pressed harder against the balcony. Of course she was.

I exhaled slowly, eyes still on the storm swallowing the lower city.

The guards hesitated before continuing.

“Should we pursue her?”

I finally turned slightly.

Snow moved like a wall beyond the city limits and she was already out there.

I answered without thinking.

“No.”

“My lord, would her disappearance not affect your search.”

A faint breath left me.

“Actually,” I started “ she might lead me to a breakthrough if she survives out there “

The guards did not understand of course they thought I was being lenient. I was not, she’s not a simple mortal and realization hit me, the witches wouldn’t be stupid enough to put important information in a simple journal 

I turned fully toward the guards now.

“Bring me the journal.”

They stiffened slightly.

“The witches book?”

“Yes.”

“And the girl?”

I looked back at the storm once more.

Somewhere inside it, she was already disappearing.

“I will deal with her later,” I said.

“…if she survives.”