When my feet finally leave that room, I don't trust it. I knew that the outside world still existed but it became a part of my imagination for the last two weeks. Now Cain can taste me again he is keeping his distance. Even though he can control himself around me, he won't risk it. I'm not sure exactly when it will happen but Marina said the hunger will make him insane after a few weeks. Cain's expecting it to last years so what will happen when he starts to look at me like food again? I can't let him feed from me but if he looks at me with starvation then I don't know how to justify rejecting it.

I wear a loose grey sweater today with a black skirt and tights. I brushed my hair for the first time in two days and I keep it tucked behind my ears so I can see the hallways clearly. I wasn't ready for seeing Jackson yet but I feel ready now. He'll have so many questions and I don't know what Cain has told him.

The palace is fairly quiet until we reach the bottom. The familiar sight of creatures feeding on their humans on couches makes me cringe but I lock the disturbing images away. It's always the same room, that must be their feeding room. There's a whole new batch of humans that I've never seen before scattered around. Just like jobs in the old world, there is a turnover. I wonder sadly how many have died in the three weeks that I've been isolated, I wonder if Bella and the pure souls have been sold yet, if they're even still here.

The creatures can only own two humans a month but the slaves are free for anyone to take. That's one thing that never made sense to me. Cain said his kind hate having to consume split souls, that they hate sharing, so do the creatures have an agreement on which slaves are theirs?

Because Cain owns the slaves in a way, they have to be bought from him for true ownership. Though Christian said that was rare, he said that slaves generally die here as slaves. The guards will probably take the chance with consuming split souls if it means avoiding a bid. Maybe they transfer the other parts into each other.

A young boy around fourteen smiles at me from the top of a ladder as he twists a new lightbulb into the ceiling of a hallway. Christian explained electricity to me too. That Cain has 'workers' among his species that operate the world as closely as we did. He has creatures at power stations, creatures at reservoirs that monitor the water source, he even has creatures placed in factories and chemical labs—those that consumed the knowledge—to constantly keep medicine current. Some human slaves are placed at those factories to learn from them, like Christian did at the farming centre. Keeping us alive is just as important as killing us.

We walk into the back of the palace and he opens a door to the bright outside world. The light is blinding. I squint for a while until my eyes find Jackson across the golden decking. He sits at a table with others but I don't look at them, he is the only thing I see as I break out into a funny kind of limp-run.

"Aurora!" he shouts.

He runs right into my arms and I almost lift him from the floor. I cry as I touch his cheeks, as I place a firm kiss to the top of his forehead.

"Are you okay?" he says. "I tried to see you but they wouldn't let me."

"I was hurt really badly for a while but I'm okay," I say. "Are you okay?"

He nods. "The head guard brought us here, he said he's making us lunch."

Cain smiles as he walks around us with his hands entwined at his legs. "I don't think he'll be as good as Christian but I did hear his soup was delicious when the humans were ill."

I rise up slowly as Jackson walks back to the table, I look at Christian first who is standing in front of his chair. Beside him is Gianna, followed by Natalie. I smile at them before my eyes turn to the young man on the other side.

"I'm sorry," Cain says. "I had to lie, I had to-"

"Keep me depressed," I say quickly, before breaking out into a run. "I get it."

Jase smiles at me as I near him. I didn't think he'd make it, he looked so sick the last time I saw him. I embrace him tightly, his hands are warm against my back, he leans away and studies my face.

"It's good to see you," he says. "I thought you were dead, they said you committed suicide."

"No," I say.

"I thought it was strange that there wasn't a body." He smiles. "I've missed you."

"Are the children okay?"

"They're fine. Don't worry about that. I was transferred to the new nannery a couple of weeks ago, I've been told I have you to thank for that."

Christian grins at me from his chair, cupping his hands together. "There's a lot we have to thank her for," he says.

I look back over to the doors but Cain is gone. I don't think he's gone completely; he'll be watching me from somewhere. I sit down at the lovely coffee table covered in a white sheet with glasses of blended fruit smoothies and bread rolls. Natalie is buttering one as Jackson whispers something into her ear, she laughs out and bumps his shoulder. This is overwhelming.

I hear the familiar sound of shrieking, young laughter and I glance over to the bright field below us. A few of the girls are playing a game with a group of tiny toddlers, kicking balls back and forth and chasing each other in the sun.

"Are they...?" I start.

"Yes," Jase says. "I'm still a stranger to them but they're starting to warm to me. We have a guard escort so we can walk back and forth from the nannery, the King allows us to come every day."

"Every day we hoped would be the day you would join us," Christian says. "The King didn't tell us much, just that you were recovering and that we couldn't see you. I worked out the real reason."

I'm not surprised that he did. Christian was there when Marina told me about my soul becoming purer, he probably knew from the first day that Cain was keeping me isolated. I look over to Gianna, she's quiet, her eyes down as she drinks from her smoothie through a straw. She places a hand to her eyes as though she has a migraine. She's different to the last time I saw her at the party. Her energy is ceasing, her skin is becoming patchy and spotty. She's the only one of us at this table still being fed on and that must be so frustrating for her.

"Do you want to go back inside?" Christian asks her.

She nods.

"I'll be right back," he says, guiding Gianna up softly and walking her away.

Jase leans back in the chair as he watches them. "I was scared of seeing you look like that," he says. "That girl has a couple of days left at most."

I turn my attention to Natalie, not wanting to linger on that thought. "When did Marina leave?"

"The night you were injured," she says. "Oh, I forgot, she told me to tell you that it might have to be postponed...? She didn't elaborate, she just said you'd know."

Postponed until when? Another month? This isn't the best news. Humans are dying every day, the longer we wait the less there will be to save. I spot Bella walking across the lawn in a sundress wearing glasses and sandals. She stares at the children, becoming enchanted by the sight as she heads towards a small pool in the distance.

"Most of Cain's girls were transferred to breeding centres by their own choice," Natalie says as she follows my curious eye-direction. "But he still keeps her around."

"She refuses to leave," I say.

Natalie nods and widens her eyes. "She demanded to see the King yesterday. She thinks he's going to give her to a guard if she keeps refusing his transfer choices so she practically begged him to consume her. I heard he walked right by her."

"I heard he laughed," Jackson says.

"This place is so strange," Jase says, rubbing his chin. "I haven't been around this many happy humans in a long time."

"Don't let the happiness fool you," Natalie mumbles. "Most of them still cry at night."

"Sorry about that," Christian says as he joins us and retakes his chair. "She's getting worse."

"Is she okay?" I ask. I want to slap my face the moment the words leave my mouth. Of course she isn't okay.

"She's comfortable," he says. "That's all I can do for her. She sleeps for like fifteen hours a day. She isn't the only one we've had to watch it happen to. Out of the twelve pure girls that were saved, only two are still alive. He killed one of them and Gianna is next." Christian's eyes go over my head angrily.

I tense as Blake arrives with a large tray of neatly-cut sandwiches, sausage rolls, mini pizzas and garlic sticks. We all stay silent as he moves around the table. He looks at my empty smoothie glass and picks it up.

"I'll bring you another," he says. "Does anyone else want anything?"

"Can I have another mango smoothie please?" Natalie says.

"Sure. I'll make it right away," he says before leaving abruptly.

"So strange," Jase mutters. "Since when do they wait on us?"

"Blake is Gianna's owner?" I ask Christian.

Christian narrows his eyes. "Why do you sound surprised by that? You think because he saved your life that he's good?"

"No, I just. . . I just didn't know." I drop my eyes, not wanting to get into that. I reach out and take a mini pizza, chewing on it awkwardly. "What's the new nannery like?"

"Huge," Jase says. "There aren't many children there, most of their mothers and fathers are dead now. But there's a lot of babies. Most of the rooms have soundproof walls so we get enough sleep at least."

"Are we still playing soccer today?" Jackson says.

"Sure, kid. Might as well make the most of the sun while it lasts, it rains a lot here."

I lean back in my chair as I think about what Jase said. That most of the children's parents are dead. If I did save them, who will take care of the children in nanneries? Without creatures forcing them, will the teenage humans still look after them? The world will be so different when we are given freedom but there has to be a way to ensure that the children are not left behind. To my knowledge, I am the oldest human still alive. I've never met another older than myself. Does that make me the adult? The one in charge? Will the teenagers even care about new rules or laws once the creatures die?

Those questions stay with me for hours more. I spent the rest of the afternoon outside, watching Jackson, Christian and Jase play soccer and entice his children into adorable games too. I joined them after a while, Natalie too. It became an even bigger game when the slaves clocked off from their shifts and we split into teams. There wasn't a creature in sight which we were all grateful for. I said goodbye to Jase and his toddlers a few minutes ago, before we took Jackson and Natalie back to their rooms as it's getting late. I don't like the idea of them being out after dark.

"Will I see you tomorrow?" Jackson asked me.

"I hope so," I said, kissing his cheek. "Goodnight."

Christian escorts me back to my room. All the creatures are outside on the other side of the palace, far away from me, curtesy of Cain.

We're finally alone together and the tension is unbearable. I want to tell Christian so many things about the last few weeks. Mostly that my parents were released and I got to speak to my father briefly, but I don't have the courage. I think it would only make him angry.

"I'm glad you decided to stay," I say, resting my head against his shoulder. I fear he might push me away but he allows me to do it. "Cain wouldn't tell me anything."

"I guess I need you too," he says. "I think I'll always need you."

"We're going to be in each other's lives for a long time," I say. "I promise."

"You can't promise that." We stop outside the door and his eyes meet mine with a slight warm tenderness before they harden. "You're becoming naïve, Aurora. I think that the King has you wrapped up so tight in his blissful world that you can't see anything else."

"What are you talking about?"

"I saw the way you looked at Blake, the way you smiled at him, thanked him."

"Christian, he saved my life. It's not their fault that they were created to consume lifeforms."

Christian blinks, a magnificent sheet of horror displaying across his face. "Did you actually just say that? Gianna is about to die because of him. He is going to take her life any day now and you're defending him?"

"No, I'm not defending him. I just think that if you spent as much time as I have around them then you'll start to see things from their side too."

"I'm starting to understand why you're completed," he says. "Because only a soul like that could care for monsters."

"They're not all the same," I say. "They're not all monsters. Marina isn't."

"Marina is worse than any of them because she's a hypocrite. She claims to adore lifeforms and want to protect them while invading planets and secretly plotting to make them extinct. The King has just kept you locked in that room for weeks without any human interaction and you think that's okay?"

"He had his reasons."

Christian shakes his head and moves towards the staircase. "I'm done. Goodnight, Aurora."

I clench my jaw and I go into the room. Christian will never understand my reasoning behind defending them and I don't expect him to. Cain sits at the table with the light dim above him, he pauses his writing to look up at me.

"Did you hear that?"

He nods. "Yeah. He'll calm down. I've been waiting for you. Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah, it was great. Thanks for doing that."

He smiles and pushes his chair back, walking over to the wardrobe to retrieve one of my jackets. He throws it at me and I catch it, squinting in confusion. "Put it on."

"Why?" I question.

"Because it's colder outside."

I sigh. "Another surprise? Cain, I know you feel bad about the last few weeks but you don't have to do this. I forgive you. You don't need to make it up to me."

"I do," he says. "Just humour me, please?"

"Fine," I say, putting the jacket on. "I'm really tired so this better be worth it."

He smiles as he walks closer to me. My stomach releases gentle butterflies as he trails his hands along my arms, the heat inside of me burns like a supernova. "It'll be worth it."