I spent four days trying to convince Cain that it wasn't Thea. Even Blake spent four days trying to persuade him that it wasn't Thea. Cain didn't listen. We weren't completely sure it wasn't but we wanted him to be open to other possibilities. He refused. And so today I sit in the chair in the throne room, watching the attractive world leader being dragged inside by four enormous guards.

Only the council are allowed witnesses, so Thea is forced to defend herself alone. Her genuine look of confusion is enough to plant doubts but Cain is unwavering. He stares at her blankly, not showing her any sign of remorse.

"You have one minute to convince me not to kill you," Cain says, resting the blade on the top of his chair.

"For what?" she demands. "I have broken no laws."

"If that is how you wish to spend your minute then so be it."

"It wasn't me," she hisses. "I did not kill three of the humans at your outing. I did not send an assassin to murder anyone. I was in Brazil along with all of my acquaintances, there are thousands of our kind to testify that. Ask any of my witnesses."

"Yes, an army of them did follow you here," Cain mumbles. "They're waiting outside right now; they were very desperate to testify that they saw you in Brazil."

"You think they're lying?" she says. "I was in Brazil. I didn't know about the intrusion until yesterday. I heard a Ferris wheel was tipped and endangered human lives, I can assure you that I nor any of my group have that kind of strength. Axel was there, he saw me. Ask him."

"Hm."

He turns and looks at me. Without solid evidence then he can't kill her, he can't punish her when there is nothing to punish her for. She's a creature, I don't care what he decides to do with her, I just need him to realize that she isn't the only danger out there.

"You have already asked him," Thea says. "Did he back me up?"

"Yes," Cain says. "He did."

"So what is the meaning of this?" she says. "I have enforced all of your new laws in my region, even though they are starving because of it. The humans are treated well, none are kept in cages or locked in basements. Cain." She calls his name very delicately, as though she is greeting an old friend. Cain looks up and stares at her softly. "We have known each other lifetimes. You have known her for merely months. You know me. I have plotted against others but I have always supported your rule. I will find this traitor and I will bring her before you."

Cain toys with the blade in his hand, his eyes narrowing in frustration. I imagine he is feeling the same confliction that he had before he killed Arabella. Even though I believe Thea, I still don't trust her. Cain killed her companion; she's being nice to stay alive.

It's working.

"I know you will," he says, flicking his hand at the guards at the door.

The door opens and a line of creatures come inside. The council and other world leaders space themselves around the throne room. Blake walks closer to me, positioning himself at my side.

"You all have very powerful connections around the world," Cain says as the confused leaders remain silent. Axel widens his eyes when he spots Thea, he's surprised she's still alive. They all are. "I don't just want the name of this traitor. I want her in front of me, on this floor, by the end of the week. You have until then to find her, if you fail then I will take the lives of all of your humans before you have the chance to consume them. You all know how excruciating it is to lose a soul that way, it is the closest thing to pain you will ever feel. I don't want to have to do it so do not force me to."

Cain slightly flinches as I abruptly rise. He doesn't look at me as I turn and charge towards the back door. They all stare at me but I ignore them. I rush down the hallway as Blake pursues me.

"Aurora, wait."

"He is talking about murdering them," I say angrily as I twist myself around a sharp bend.

"It's an incentive. He won't actually do it."

"Can you promise that?" I demand, stopping in the middle of the hallway. Blake comes to a stop next to me. "I don't want any humans in danger because of me. I don't want any part of that."

"They are in danger anyway. They will die anyway. The only difference is that Cain will make it quick and their souls will be free."

I rub my head, snarling to myself as I can actually understand that difference. It's no different than when I placed the pillow over Wendy's face, when I took her life because she begged me to. No matter what comes my way or how long I live for, that choice will always be the most painful.

"He's afraid," Blake whispers.

"Cain doesn't fear anything."

"He fears losing you. And I think that on some level, you don't want to lose him either. That bell is the only thing that will come between you."

I blink slowly, distancing myself. "I don't know what you're talking about." I turn and continue down the hallway, hurrying myself back to the staircase and up to my bedroom.

"I'm not an idiot," Blake says as he follows me inside. "Marina has never taken a human on a walk before. She took you to the bell."

"No, we went for a walk," I say as I change my jacket to a fleece.

"Cain has never taken it seriously," he says. "He considers it a myth like I once did. But everything about it is coming true and he's afraid that he won't be able to stop you."

I pinch my eyes closed for a moment, taking a deep breath as I bend down and pick some fallen objects up from the floor. I place them back onto the shelf.

"Aurora, I want to help you."

"How?" I say.

"Marina can't get around those guards alone. They are only trained to follow Cain's orders. I wouldn't be able to command them so she'll need my help to distract them."

"Why do you want to help us?" I say quietly. "You will die. Your entire species will die."

Blake laughs and shakes his head. "We are already dead. We died the moment our planet was infected and we became something else. Like Marina, I have been longing to know who I really am. Who I really was. I cared for Gianna, I tried to save her life before she died. That was the first time that I've ever let a soul go free and it felt. . . great."

I fold my arms, believing his genuine care for her, for all of us. Blake doesn't have a powerful connection forcing him to think this way, he thinks it naturally, just like Marina does. It makes me wonder if other creatures are capable of believing it too.

"Does Cain know?" I say, referring to the bell.

"He suspects. Aurora, he is changing so much that even if you blurted it out right in front of him then he'd still put your life first. He is ignoring everything about it, hoping that you will choose to live your life with him. If he suspected another completed soul of conspiring to ring it then he would have killed them with or without certainty. Despite believing it to be a myth, another life would mean little to him."

"But if he still believes it to be a myth then why won't he talk to me about it?"

"I don't know. What I do know, is that you can't tell him anything. At the moment he just suspects. But he thinks that any other lifeform would die if they touched the bell, so he will stop you either way."

I fall into the red chair with a groan. Why has it got to be so complicated? Why can't it just be as simple as this—Cain and I together, and the world is free? That's all I want. And I can't have both.

"I don't want to talk about this," I say. "Leave."

"It isn't like we're conspiring to assassinate him," Blake says. "This is about putting an end to my species' existence, to their cruelty and destruction. Cain is confused but ultimately. . . it will always be your decision."

"Get out!" I shout.

I keep my eyes on my fingers as Blake backs up to the door and leaves. I feel bad for yelling at him but my brain is filled with unbearable pressure. I don't even like thinking about the bell, let alone talking about it. I have no idea how much time I have, how much time Cain and I have left together. A few weeks ago, I was charging towards that bell, ready to ring it the moment Marina told me about it. But now it's different. Now I am in love with Cain and I cannot stop myself from feeling that way. It's impossible. Just like he puts my life first, I am putting his first.

What even are we without the creatures? Can we even live without them? Survive without them? They produce our electricity, our food, our medication and our clean water. We rely on them every single day to live and that is terrifying. None of us know how to hunt and only a minority know how to farm. And the rest of the world? I will never meet them. Without creatures flying them all over, there is no other way to cross the oceans. Once the creatures are gone, we are on our own.

Without Cain, I am on my own. The world is a scary place even without the creatures and I have no idea how to keep Jackson safe from it.

Reason five-hundred for not ringing the bell. I seem to come up with hundreds of excuses not to ring it while there is only one that I have for actually going through with it. And that one reason has to be enough, it has to be worth everything.

The day is coming to an end and I suddenly realize that I have been sitting in the chair for hours. I hadn't wondered why Cain didn't come to see me until he walks through the door. Maybe he was nervous to face me because of how angry I had gotten.

"Can we talk?" he says.

"Sure."

"Are you mad at me? I want that intruder found, Aurora and that was the only way to get it done."

"I know," I say. "I'm not mad. I was mad but I understand it now."

He walks towards the window and folds his arms. Something is concerning him, something else.

"Where have you been?" I ask.

"I went back to the park. I wanted to test if I could move the wheel."

I'm not completely surprised by that, they've been talking about that damn wheel for days. "Could you?"

He exhales a breath, narrowing his eyes at the window. "No." His fingers squeeze into his arms in frustration. "I could move it but not to the extent that she did."

"Well don't be too disheartened, it weighs like a million pounds."

He turns and stares at me. "Our physical bodies reflect our power. Do you have any idea how strong I am?"

I swallow, widening my eyes at the floor. "So?"

"So?" he laughs, he places his hand towards the wall and adds pressure. The wall moves inward and I watch as his entire hand pushes through the brick until it falls to the ground on the other side. I stare at the trembling ceiling as I fear the entire thing might collapse.

"I get it, you're strong," I say, rising with anger. "Can you stop breaking my bedroom?"

"I am this strong because I am the King," he hisses, mainly to himself before he paces around the room. "Another should never be more powerful than myself. Axel is close but I could still crush his skull. To be that strong they would have had to consume more completed souls than me, they would have had to consume a completed soul stronger than you." He rubs his chin, his eyes brightening with fear. "There is only one of my entire species that has."

"All of this because of a stupid wheel?" I mumble. "How do you know it was only one? There could have been multiple intruders."

"It's not just the wheel, Aurora. Over the last few days, Blake and I have been investigating reports of mysterious disappearances at nanneries. It started on the day of the outing, a nanny was abducted from a nannery in France that morning. No one saw anything. She was outside one moment and then gone. There are reports of abductions everywhere. Children and nannies included. Even slaves. You got a good look at her, did you see anything that stood out?"

"No," I say. "I just got a glimpse of her hair, it was blonde. Dark blonde."

"Dark blonde? Blake didn't mention that." Cain covers his mouth for a moment, he starts to breathe heavily into his fist. He removes his hand finally and looks at me. "The first nanny that went missing was blonde. Blake got brief descriptions of her and it matched the intruder. The blonde hair now confirms it."

"Cain," I say. "What does this mean?"

"It means that the disguise she projected could be the nanny that she killed," he says. "It's rare that we do that unless. . . unless it's our first."

"First?" I shout. "Are you suggesting that there's a creature out there that isn't one of you?"

How is that even possible? I bite on my nail as I sit back down. For the last few days, he has been adamant that it was Thea. Maybe he was trying to convince himself of that so he didn't have to face the truth.

"I don't know," he says.

"You said there is only one of your kind that has that kind of strength," I say, looking up at him. "Who?"

"Saffron."

"The creature that you locked away for centuries? That you were sure would never break free?"

"I don't know!" he yells. He calms himself and walks over to me. "I made sure she could never get out but I didn't consider the possibility that something could let her out. If she's out there then we are all in danger." He takes the blade out of his pocket and throws it down onto the table. I stare at it. "Keep that on you. Remember, you have to pierce the heart."

"What?" I mumble. "I'm not taking that thing. You need it for protection."

"You need it more than I do," he says, he leans down and kisses the side of my head before he turns and walks towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To find her," he says. "The world leaders are good but they're out of their depth. Pack some of your things. I'll have someone escort you to my bedroom, you'll stay there for the foreseeable."

"When will you come back?" I say.

He looks at me from the doorway, his eyes are sad and depleted. "I'm not coming back until I find her."

I rise from the chair and I walk towards him, he wasn't expecting that and he tenses against the door. Leaving me is his biggest fear, it is breaking him. He won't tell me everything about Saffron but I am learning a lot just from watching his eyes almost water with terror. I touch his cheek gently and I bring my lips to his. He leans back, keeping his eyes closed before he places a firm kiss to the centre of my forehead.

"I love you too," he says.

His touch is removed from me and it makes me feel cold. I open my eyes to see him walking down the hallway. Tears fall down my cheeks as I realize I may never see him again. If he encounters Saffron then she isn't going down quietly, one of them will have to conquer the other. And without the blade, I don't know what that actually means. What if she locks him away like he did to her? What if she drops him to the bottom of the ocean? Could there be a cage in this world strong enough to hold Cain?

I go back into the room and I pick up the blade. I know how important this weapon is, I know I can't leave it anywhere. If he didn't take it with him then it's because he strongly believes there's a chance that Saffron could steal it from him. But why didn't he give it to Blake? Why me? For protection? I feel safer having it but I won't ever stand a chance against a creature like her if she came for me.

And from Cain's reaction, I don't think any of us would.