We flew rapidly and continuously in complete silence until the golden sun began to set. But no matter how fast we flew, there was no sign of Chase. The skies were completely empty, I often wondered how this was possible but then again these people worked for Sebastian, and for all I knew could have some sort of clocking spell on them.

"Aurora! we need to make camp" Asher shouted over the raging winds.

I knew he was right, the skies were dangerous at night now that the war had begun. We needed to find cover or we were at risk of being shot down... or worse, but at the same time, I knew that if we stopped they would take Chase further away from us and lessen our chances of rescuing him.

"Aurora!" pleaded Asher, speeding up to fly next to me. "We're no good to Chase if we're too tired to fight"

I looked around my shoulder at Max who was clinging to my waist, he gave me a weak smile but it didn't meet his eyes, he literally looked like he was going to fall asleep at any second. Knowing that Asher was right I signalled the others and tapped Obsidian's neck, sending him down closer to the forest.

We skimmed along the top of the thickened trees until we discovered a clearing that was big enough for a few dragons to land in. Ideally we should have looked for a mountain cave because they offered the best coverage, but in reality, things were not conveniently placed where you needed them, so the humungous, gloomy forest would have to do.

Obsidian touched down on the half-scorched grass and lowered to the ground to allow me and Max to jump off safely. We made our way over to the others and waited for everyone else to land.

"Listen up!" commanded Asher seriously. "if we are on track, we should be entering the land of Solitudinem tomorrow," he said.

"It's going to be crawling with demons" stated Shade.

Asher looked lost in thought for a moment before he clicked his fingers and looked straight at me.

"Its time for you to learn your darkness abilities," he said excitedly.

I opened my mouth to speak but Shade cut me off.

"Even if she could master it by tomorrow, there's no way that she will be able to cover all of us and our dragons, it will drain her" he reasoned.

"That's why we cannot fly through the lands, we will be caught instantly. We need to travel by foot" informed Asher.

"Hold on," I said stepping forwards "what about the dragons?"

"They will travel at heights that we couldn't possibly survive in an attempt to scope out the land and find water" he replied.

I nodded my head and sighed, of course I didn't want to leave Obsidian but Asher was right, walking there was the best way to get through the land undetected. At least we would have the element of surprise when we finally get to Chase.

"Verity, you and the others go and set up camp. Aurora, you come with me," instructed Asher while walking into the forest.

I watched his retreating figure for a couple of seconds before I took off at a slow jog to catch up with him.

"I know that this has been hard on you Aurora, but you need to stay focused. After all, you are the key to everything" said Asher, turning to face me.

I curtly nodded my head and drew my daggers ready for him to begin the lesson.

"Oh, you won't be needing those" smiled Asher with a glint of mischief in his eyes.

I looked at him calculatingly but attached my daggers back to my belt, trusting his judgement. He sat down on the pine-covered, forest floor and crossed his legs. I watched him in bewilderment as he beaconed me to do the same. I shook off my confusion and dropped down into a sitting position opposite him, if Asher said this would work then it probably would.

"Hold your hands out like this" instructed Asher.

He rested his hands on the edges of his knees and kept his palms facing upwards. I mimicked his position and straightened my posture.

"Right, take deep breaths and clear your mind" he instructed, closing his eyes in concentration.

I did the same and tried my best to push everything out of my mind but seriously, how could I? too much had gone on for me to simply think of nothing.

"Focus only on your breathing and the sound of my voice," he said as if he sensed my struggles. "Your brain is a lot like water, strong winds with disrupt it and cause its contents to mix and become murky, but when the wind fades and the water stills, it will become clear to reveal it's inner secrets," he said in the calmest tone that I've ever heard him speak.

I focused on the sound and flow of my breathing until I eventually felt a powerful feeling of serenity surround me.

"Ok now focus on the image of night, picture how the darkness feels, how it looks and grab onto that feeling. Allow it to enter your mind and attempt to bend it to your will, but remember that you must face the darkness if you want to control it." Asher explained.

I allowed my mind to regain its focus to find the darkness but was immediately pulled into a distant memory.

I walked through the towering trees and shuddered as the wind ripped past my face. I crossed my arms over my torn jacket in a feeble attempt to ward off the cold and thought over my stupidity. I had been training for weeks now but I still couldn't to the stupid spiral dragon, flame attack with Obsidian so I decided to come out here for extra practice.

Big mistake, to keep the long story short I fell from his back and crashed through the trees, which thankfully were partly beneficial in breaking my fall, but now I was walking through the Academies most treacherous forest at night, alone.

I tried to spot the moon for help, but the clouds concealed it, making it hard for me to navigate my way through the woods. I sighed in frustration and kicked an acorn across the forest floor, causing me to trip and slide down a rocky path. I cried out in pain and got to my feet. Where the hell was I? I was usually pretty good at tracking but this forest was unnaturally plain, literally everything smelt and looked the same.

The wind picked up and swirled around me strongly, this definitely wasn't natural. I looked up expecting to see some sort of demon but instead, I saw... a dragon? I breathed out a sigh of relief, someone had finally found me. The rider landed on the forest floor and turned to the side, I instantly recognised the dragon as Incendro which meant that Shade was his rider.

"Come to gloat?" I questioned angrily.

"Actually, I saw Obsidian fly into the dragon den and thought I'd come to save your ass" he replied in a matter of fact tone.

I rolled my eyes and began to walk away, I know I said I was desperate but come on, out of all the people why Shade?

"Oh, come on Princess you're never going to get out of these woods on foot" he smirked.

"And why is that?" I asked turning back around to face him.

"Because that's their purpose, they prevent people finding the Academy," he said plainly.

I looked up at his crimson eyes, noticing that they glowed faintly in the light.

"I'm serious" he continued, picking up on my disbelief.

I let out a dramatically long sigh and approached incendro.

"Fine," I said trying to keep the relief out of my voice.

I vaulted up behind him and wrapped my arms lightly around his toro, I could practically see his smug face from here.

"Put this on," he said swivelling around to hand me his jacket.

I did what he said, mainly because I was freezing and muttered a small thank you. We took off into the sky and soared up above the clouds. It was truly beautiful up here, the moon shone brightly, giving off a celestial light that was so great, it effortlessly overwhelmed all of the surrounding starlights.

I was so caught up in the sky that I hadn't noticed that shade had changed course until it was too late, he rocketed past the Academy and flew without any sign of stopping.

"W-what are you doing?" I stuttered, tightening my grip of his waist.

"You'll see" he replied.

My mind raced uncontrollably, I suppose I could always throw myself off Incendro's back if I needed to. I pushed the drastic thought out of my mind and simply hoped for the best.

We plummeted down towards the ground at an immense speed, I buried my face into Shades back and tried my best to stay calm. If we were going down, this bastard was going to be my human shield.

We abruptly straightened out, causing me to let go of a breath that I hadn't realised I'd had been holding. I looked up from Shade's back and gasped.

We were flying over some sort of lake, the smooth surface of the water reflected the galaxy above us, making it seem that we were in some kind of parallel universe. There were so many beautiful words that could describe what I saw but none of them seemed fit.

"Amazing" I whispered tilting my head up to look at the stars.

I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath to relax my mind, but when I reopened them the stars were gone, and so was Shade.

I closed my eyes again and shook my head.

"This isn't real," I said aloud.

Those simple words allowed me to come crashing back to reality. I forced my eyes to reopen to see that I was standing on the lakes smooth surface, well not completely back to reality.

I took a step forwards causing the water to ripple outwards. Why did my mind bring me to this moment? Out of all my memories, why was this one so important.

I studied the moon took small steps in its direction, I remember that I'm here to find the darkness but how can I do that when the moon shines so brightly? I continued walking forwards, across the waters moonlit surface until a thought entered my mind.

It's true that the moon shines brightly, but something cannot create light without creating darkness. I looked over my shoulder to see the dark outline of my shadow. I held out my hand and concentrated on using the power around me to control it. After what seemed like hours, an endless stream of darkness bound itself into a ribbon and surrounded me in a spiral, although this was different to the darkness I felt when revealing my wings, I wasn't afraid of it.

I held out my hand and swirled my finger in a circular motion and the charcoal ribbon followed my hand perfectly, I began to walk forwards holding both of my hands in front of me, the darkness followed them both, concealing my form protectively when I found myself wanting it to.

"Aurora" a familiar voice called from across the lake.

I ran towards it and was immediately plunged into darkness. I stayed frozen in place until I realised that I was in control, I squinted open my eyelids to see Shade's worried red eyes staring back at me. I looked around the area to see Asher sitting behind Shade with a proud look on his face.

I followed his gaze to my own hands to see the same dark ribbons swirling above them in the manner of an ebony tornado, I had actually done it. I controlled the darkness.