Jayden

Slowly I opened my eyes, my ears ringing with screams of fear. My body ached everywhere, but I could feel my wounds mending themselves. Beside me was the Tamani, dead. I looked ahead and saw Seraphine glowing brightly, leaving death in her wake. I pushed myself off the ground, doing my best to ignore the pain as I stood. My head pounded as I limped toward Seraphine. Why had she left me alive? Or perhaps she couldn’t kill me as easily as she was killing everyone else. It was obvious she had somehow unlocked her powers, but she lost herself along the way—or lost control. Elysium’s power was killing in droves; only a dozen people remained as I approached her. Joe was frantically moving people away from Seraphine when he caught sight of me.

“Jayden, don’t come any closer!” he shouted to me. Six more people fell to the ground as Seraphine turned to look at me.

“Usarium,” Seraphine—Elysium, said. Her turquoise eyes were glowing brightly as three more people collapsed behind her. The Uniflux vibrated painfully in response to her words, traveling quickly from my hand up my arm to my neck, burning its trail into my skin. I winced in pain, covering my neck where the Uniflux buzzed.

“Seraphine, are you in there?” I asked her, the pain in my neck growing. Seraphine faltered for a moment at my words, the light from her eyes flickering.

“Jayden… please…” she said, her normal voice returning but sounding choked. So Seraphine was still in there, somewhere. If I didn’t stop her soon, Elysium would kill all of us. The light returned to Seraphine’s eyes and she quickly turned to the survivors, tossing them aside with a flick of her hand one by one. She paused when she saw Joe. This was it, probably my only chance to stop her. I ran forward and tackled her, knocking her to the ground. Her head hit the hard soil with a thud, and the light faded from her eyes before they closed. The Uniflux calmed and the pain faded, allowing me to sigh in relief. It was over, for now. But was Seraphine alright? I quickly placed my forefingers on her neck, feeling for a pulse. It was faint, but there. She was going to be fine.

“Is she…” Joe started, approaching cautiously.

“She’s just unconscious,” I replied, answering his unasked question.

“Did she really kill the Tamani?” he asked, looking over at the mass of fur that was the beast.

“I think so. Pretty remarkable, isn’t it? Nobody has ever been able to kill it before, not even the previous Elysium bearers.”

“I don’t think that power was the same as any old Elysium bearer, Sir.”

“No, I think Elysium might have taken over for a while. From what I learned about Seraphine when we were talking earlier, I don’t think she could do this,” I said, looking around at the corpses. About a third of the casualties were from Seraphine, not the Tamani. At least Rein was free from the beast now, but at what cost? The beast and Seraphine took down an entire village, including over a hundred guests. Rich guests. They would surely be missed, and once people realized they were missing this would be the first place they looked.

“We need to get her out of here, Joe.”

“We’re taking her with us? What if she wakes up?”

“Elysium is the one that did all of this, not Seraphine. I doubt she’ll even remember what happened,” I said, looking down at her. She looked so peaceful, as though she were asleep. I remembered her eyes, how much pain she was in. That pain wouldn’t go away quickly. “Are there any horses left?”

“I’ll go check, Sir,” Joe said with a nod before racing to where our carriage was taken when we got here.

“Sera? Are you out here?” A voice called from the village. I stood and turned in the direction of the voice, focusing on the darkness. After a moment, I could see a figure in the shadows walking toward us.

“Sera? Anybody?” The voice called again, sounding increasingly more desperate.

“Who’s there?” I asked the figure.

“Oh God…” The figure had reached the Tamani’s body. He looked around, stumbling back as he saw the sheer amount of death around him. Slowly the figure stepped into the light, and I recognized the young man who had been carried out of the crowd earlier—Seraphine’s brother.

“You’re her brother, right?” I asked as he came closer. He was tall with messy light brown hair, his bright blue eyes filled with fear. He didn’t look much like Seraphine at all, other than the high cheekbones.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked me, pulling himself away from the death all around. His gaze locked on Seraphine, lying still at my feet. “Sera,” He murmured, running to her side. He spoke to her quietly at first, then louder as he grew more desperate. “What did you do to her?” he finally asked, turning to focus his anger on me.

“She’s just unconscious. You’re her brother, right?”

“Michael. Who are you?”

“My name is Jayden, I helped your sister take down the Tamani. Well, tried to, anyway.”

“She asked some rich idiot from the festival for help?”

“I’m not rich or an idiot. Seraphine asked for my help because I’m the bearer of the Uniflux,” I replied curtly. Honestly, did I look rich? Well, I suppose I might—I was dressed in my best clothes for tonight, and had amassed quite a fortune since becoming the bearer of the Uniflux. I spent most of it on books.

“Oh,” Michael said quietly, his whole demeanor changing. He turned back to Seraphine. “So, what happened?”

“The beast attacked, just like she said it would. We tried to get everyone to safety, but it killed a lot of people. I could only slow it down, it was Seraphine who killed it in the end,” I replied, choosing to leave out the part about her killing the rest of the guests.

“But how did the people over here die? I mean, the beast only got that far,” he said, looking over at the dead beast, “and these people aren’t exactly torn apart or eaten like the rest of them.” I sighed. He was smarter than he looked, apparently.

“Seraphine lost control after she killed the beast. I was only able to stop her by knocking her out, otherwise we would be dead too.”

“So, she found a way to break the seal on her powers? How did she do it?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know. Last thing I remember, she and I were slowing it down so that the guests could get out. When I couldn’t hold the beast back anymore, I blacked out. When I woke up, she was killing people left and right…” I trailed off, seeing the anguish in Michael’s eyes. It was at this moment that Joe approached, looking victorious.

“Sir, I’ve rounded up a couple horses and hitched them to the carriage. We should leave as soon as possible,” Joe said to me.

“Do you want to come with us?” I asked Michael. “We’re headed back to my home in Arden, and we were planning to take Seraphine with us.”

After a few moments, Michael finally replied, “No, I should stay here. Someone needs to check for survivors, and I should probably take the news to the guards at the beast’s prison.” He paused for a moment, wrapping his hand around Seraphine’s and squeezing tightly. “You should take Sera with you, though. It might do her some good to be away from this place.”

“Do you want us to give you a ride? We’ll be going right past the prison,” I offered, already knowing the response.

“That’s ok. I’ll walk there, or find one of the horses,” he replied, as expected. I pulled a slip of paper and pen out of my coat, scribbling a quick note on it.

“Here,” I said, offering Michael the paper. “That’s the address for my home in Arden. Come visit us once you’re finished here, I’m sure Seraphine will be happy to see you.”

“Yeah, I’ll catch up with you guys soon.”

“Sir, would you like me to carry her to the carriage?” Joe offered. He was obviously trying to hurry us along, but I didn’t like the thought of leaving Michael here alone.

“I’ll take her,” Michael said before I could reply. I watched as he carefully lifted her into his arms, holding her close to his chest. It didn’t appear this was the first time he had done this for her. I remembered the bruise she was hiding, and briefly pondered how it got there in the first place.

We walked to the carriage in silence. As awful as tonight’s events had been, it felt good to walk away from it all. Part of me was glad that the Tamani was finally dealt with once and for all, and that Seraphine had unlocked her powers, but my more rational side told me that it wasn’t worth it. At least a hundred people died tonight, and it could have all been prevented. If the officials hadn’t lied to me, or if the guests had listened to Michael’s warning… I pushed the thoughts from my mind. Best not to focus on the past.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” I asked one last time as Michael set Seraphine down in the carriage. She was still out cold, and part of me wondered if she was going to wake up.

“I’m sure. Sera would want me to find my own way—to live my own life.” He paused, lost in thought. “Just… tell her I love her, ok? And not to worry about me or come looking for me. I’ll come visit soon.”

“I’ll make sure she knows,” I said, climbing into the carriage seat across from Seraphine. Michael gave me a sad smile, the day’s events obviously taking their toll on him. He squeezed Seraphine’s hand one last time before backing away from the carriage.

“See you soon, Michael!” I called to him as Joe shut the carriage doors. “Are you ok to drive through the night, Joe?”

“Yes, Sir. We should arrive in Arden by dawn.”

“Stop if you need to, I don’t want you falling asleep at the reigns.” Joe nodded and disappeared from the carriage window, followed a moment later by the carriage shaking as he got into his seat. Slowly we pulled away from Marxus, or what was left of it. I watched Michael’s silhouette fade as we drove away into the darkness. It wasn’t very dark in the carriage, though. Seraphine and I were both giving off light that illuminated the inside of the carriage. Her silvery glow somehow made her look serene, in a way. We had been driving for about an hour when Seraphine opened her eyes, which were glowing softly in the darkness. She suddenly sat upright, obviously startled.

“Where am I?” she asked cautiously.

“You’re in my carriage, Seraphine. We’re headed to Arden.”

“Arden? Wait, what happened at Marxus? I remember Elysium, and killing the Tamani… but the rest is blurry.” She held her head, looking like she was trying to will the memories back to her.

“You… lost control,” I said finally. “I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but you must have lost control after you killed the beast. When I woke up, people were dying just by being near you. It was rather terrifying, honestly. Do you remember when you asked me to stop you? I think that was you, at least.” Seraphine’s brow furrowed.

“No, I don’t remember any of it.” She stared out the small window for a few minutes before asking, “How many people did I kill? Do I want to know?”

“Probably not.”

“I see.” She was silent again. “Is Michael ok? Did you see him? Did I—”

“Michael is alive and well, Seraphine. He sent you off, actually. He asked me to take you with me, and to leave him behind. He wanted to look for survivors, and spread the news.” Seraphine rested her head against the carriage wall, still staring out the window. She was hard to read when I couldn’t see her eyes.

“Good for him,” she said eventually. “He shouldn’t be tied down by me anymore. He needs to go out and see the world.”

“He asked me to tell you that he loves you, Seraphine, and that he would visit soon. I left the address for my house in Arden with him, so I’m sure he’ll meet us there soon.” She was silent for a while, and I thought I could see a tear fall from her luminous eyes. I looked away, feeling as though I should give her some sense of privacy.

“So your house in Arden is where we’re headed, then?” She asked, breaking the silence.

“Yes. I live there with Joe. We have separate living spaces, and there’s plenty of extra rooms. I just hope you don’t mind books,” I added, my face flushing. I had been collecting rare and interesting books since I was a child, but once I was chosen to bear the Uniflux I found myself with more money than I knew what to do with. I bought the house in Arden as a place to escape, and to house all my newly acquired books. Nobody had ever seen my collection; the only guests I had ever entertained were my parents.

We rode in silence for a while, both of us looking out of our own small windows. I wanted to stay awake, to talk with Seraphine more, but exhaustion was slowly overcoming me. My eyelids felt like they were weighed down by lead, and I couldn’t focus on anything. I let them close, knowing we would be in Arden when I woke up.