Chapter 30

[X] indicates inner dialogue

Nyline & Gabriel

Gabriel stared at the place where Nyline had been standing, his outstretched hand clenched into a fist before it dropped to his side. He took two deep breaths to regain some control over his anger. His daemon blood was reacting to Nyline's aether and Gabriel acknowledged how dangerous her aether levels had been.

"Jason Stark," Gabriel spoke in a clipped tight voice, his head turning slightly to look at the man. He knew his eyes were glowing more than normal with his emotions going so out of control, so when the guard stiffened it didn't surprise him. "Is your mate next to the commander on duty?" He could hear the sharp breath that the guard took in at his words. Then there was silence as Gabriel counted to five, knowing full well that Jason's mate was running as quickly as their legs would take them to whoever was in charge tonight.

"Yes sir," He spoke quickly.

"Commander," Gabriel's voice was hard. "The description of my mate, name, and title, better get to every single guard that is on shift tonight in the next five seconds. Not a single person will approach her if they see her tonight. Do not speak to her unless she speaks to them first and I want to make this extremely clear, do not spook her, which means no shifting in front of her or chasing her. Am I understood?"

"Yes sir, right away." Jason spoke in a strong tone. Gabriel knew that he was relaying the words directly from the commander.

"Get back to your duties." Gabriel's voice was clipped, then without saying another word he turned in the direction that Nyline had ran and used his movement skill. He knew his scouts would be following without having to be told, but he didn't have time to wait for them. He had to catch up to Nyline, which was going to be a feat in of itself.

**

The dirt skittered under Nyline's feet as she dashed not only out of the garden area to the castle but down into the city. She knew from the view from the airship that there should be gates located at three parts of the city. One south, then west, and finally east, the castle being north. Sure enough, she could see the large gate and she sprinted around the corner, her feet trying to go out from under her she dashed out the gate without pause. Her eyes connected with one of the guards who was sitting behind a little desk. Nyline felt her heart do a double beat as she thought that he would call out for her to stop, which she wasn't going to do right now. Then to her surprise, the guard took one look at her, his eyes going wide, before they returned to the book that he had in his hands.

"The princess just passed through the west gate." She heard him say quickly to his mate. They were reporting her location. Did that mean that Gabriel would find her and force her to return to the castle?

"I would never do that." Nyline's mouth formed a tin line as she used her movement once to force her body to move faster and harder as her breath started to come more ragged and she did nothing to even it out. She wasn't entirely sure where she was going but she knew that she needed to run. She had too much energy, to many emotions mixing with her aether and it was causing everything in her body to run high. Her nerves were on end as she slowed and actually looked at where she was. There was a vast expansion of just trees and a large open plane. She knew that further down would be where the farmers were. Shocked she looked at the path that went from the large gate and down the small incline, the odd thing was that there were what looked like streetlights every few feet or so. She stared at them, there was no electricity in the Aether World.

"The lights are powered by the world itself." Gabriel's voice spoke softly in her mind and she growled, wishing that he would just go away. Shaking her head, she continued her sprint, heading towards a grouping of trees on the right side of the path.

After several minutes of running it was the soft sound of inner voices speaking and the rustling of clothing that alerted her to their arrival. However, she didn't slow as she continued to sprint, using her movement twice.

"Four senior scouts?" She spoke aloud but was also speaking to Gabriel and she knew that he'd hear. "Little excessive don't you think." She continued running, before she reached out and grabbed ahold of a tree causing her body to turn on a 90-degree angle, then she used her movement again. She growled down the bond and she only felt Gabriel flick his attention to it.

"I didn't send them." His voice was calm, she made an annoyed noise in the back of her throat, expressing exactly how much she believed about that.

"Right," Her voice sounded unconvinced, using her movement she headed directly towards a tree, using the trunk as leverage to send her body high above the treetops. Where she was able to catch sight of the people following her in the darkness. Turning her body mid fall, she used her movement towards the ground before she rolled, ending on her feet and continued her sprint, shooting to the left to bounce off yet another tree, changing her trajectory.

"I can't decide if the next time I see Jonathan, I'm going to sock him or kiss him. Probably going to hit in square in the nose, honestly." An angry inner voice spoke. She knew, from Gabriel's memory, that it was Nylah. Her mate laughed softly.

"And why is that my dear?"

"She is trained extremely well, though I don't forgive him for what he's done." Dijana laughed sounding like a twinkling bell.

"Nyline please stop for just a second." Queen Alice's voice rang out. Nyline could only pause as she looked behind her and saw the female version of Gabriel sprinting towards her in full scout gear, King Nicholas next to her. With that she looked forward and used her movement twice more shooting through the trees as if they didn't exist. Then without thinking she shot to the right and came out into the clearing.

"She's giving up her cover." King Nicholas spoke sounding concerned, she didn't look at him but the second that she was beyond the trees and the moon was hanging over head. She skidded to a stop, turned and looked at them. She pulled her calm mask onto her face as she tried not to show the anger and hurt. Everyone slowed and stopped a few feet away from her. The scouts didn't look out of breath but at the same time they weren't fresh. Concern covered their faces as they just looked at her with a wary expression.

"Nyline," King Nicholas spoke in a tone that reminded her of how one would speak to a frightened animal. "What's going on?" His hands were at his sides, looking relaxed but Nyline knew better. She'd grown up with her uncle, his stance was always just a ploy to confuse the people around him. She knew that if she darted off now, he would be hot on her heels without a moment's hesitation.

Nyline, on the other hand, wanted to scream, shout, and yell at the people in front of her. Demand the answers that she knew that they would not give. However, she also knew that she couldn't do that. Screaming at a king and queen wasn't only stupid but also disrespectful, which no matter how upset she was, was out of line. Jonathan had taught her to respect those who had held positions higher than her, and so she held her tongue. Instead she gripped her hands so tightly that her nails started to bite into the pad of her hand and held her calm mask tightly onto her face. It was then that Alice's face fell, and realization came over her face.

"She heard." Queen Alice spoke softly as if she were still coming to the conclusion. "Or more I have a feeling that she saw?" Noise erupted from behind them as their scouts started talking to each other. Her mind tried to focus on them, listen to the inner voices. She tried to pull her mind from the words, but it was as if they were drawing her in, her aether was forcing her mind to focus on the inner conversations. Her eyes dilated and she fought the pull as she tried to stay present. No matter how much she pressed her nails into the palm of her hands, the pain didn't bring her back as her mind was pulled further into the conversations.

"Shhh," Queen Alice spoke in a sharp tone.

"Be quiet." King Nicholas spoke at the same time and all of the scouts stopped speaking instantly. A whoosh of air left her lungs as her mind snapped back to attention, her eyes still on Queen Alice. She gave her head one hard shake to remove the fog that had enveloped mind and bring her back to the present.

"Gabriel let the memory slip." Nyline said shortly after she had gained some since of her own mind again.

"Would you allow us to explain?" Queen Alice's words were soft, her eyes looking calm but worried.

"With all due respect," She gave a clumsy curtsy, "But I would rather not speak with either of you at the moment." Her eyes downcast as if she didn't look at them then she didn't have to face this reality.

"And why is that?" King Nicholas' voice was a hard command in the still air that only made her look at him. He had aether and was powerful, she could feel that but at the same time he wasn't on the same level as her uncle. So, whereas he could probably intimidate most people with that tone, she didn't feel threatened. Therefore, when she opened her mouth to speak again, her voice was calm and controlled.

"I already heard your excuses; you don't need to tell me them again. You know what happened to my mother and father, probably even Thaul, and why my uncle left like he did, and you're not going to tell me a single thing." Her voice was soft.

"That's not what we said," Queen Alice spoke in a strong sure voice taking a single step towards Nyline. "We cannot speak of what caused everything to happen and we also can't describe certain things revolving it, but it's not like we're going to give you nothing." Nyline only glanced at her.

"You're just going to tell me that my mother vanished? You already told Gabriel that.��

"You don't understand what that means," Queen Alice spoke as if she was trying to explain something very confusing that she didn't entirely understand herself. "When I say she vanished, I don't mean that one day I saw her and the next I didn't. I mean she physically vanished, in front of me." Nyline turned her gaze to the woman and the disbelief must have shown on her face as Queen Alice's face hardened. The king held up a hand.

"We will give you the answers that we are able. Will you at least listen to what we have to say before running off?" His face was a mask of calm, but concern radiated from him in waves.

"Why not listen to what they have to say?" Gabriel's voice was soft in the back of her mind which only made her heart fall more.

"I'm not interested in half-truths," She whispered before she dipped into a curtsy, "Please excuse me."

"You're aether, if you don't give your body time to equalize, you'll end up hurting yourself and everything around you." King Nicholas' voice was hard.

"Those words have no meaning to me," She said honestly. "The world could burn right now, and I wouldn't bat an eye at it."

"Nyl--" Queen Alice's words were cut off as Nyline connected her eyes with the same ice blue ones of Gabriel, before she slammed her hand into her chest and vanished.

"Okay seriously," She heard Beck sigh, "Did she really need a shadow skill that high?"

"God damnit Jonathan," Nylah breathed out in a rush at the same time.

"I can't even smell her. Just the residue from when she was standing here, and even that is stale." Ezra spoke in a low growl as if that were the most annoying thing that could have ever happened to him.

"Where's Gabriel?" Adelaide asked in a rush. Nyline turned silently looking around before she located the large wall and started towards it again. Picking up her pace, she was half jogging, half running towards it.

Her foot connected to the ground and she felt herself mentally pause. Aether covered the dirt all around her. Someone was trying to track her. Honestly, she wasn't sure if it would work. That wasn't how her uncle had located her, so she wasn't sure if she was hidden from it. The one little pause was the only time her step faltered as she continued to race as quickly as possible away from everything that her life had suddenly become, and she didn't want.

**

Gabriel skidded to a halt next to his parents and four of their scouts looking between all of them. With the same rustle of clothing his scouts started landing next to him. His eyes went to his parents as they were just looking ahead.

"Tracking her?" He asked his voice soft.

"Yes," His mother spoke with tight lips. "She's just a small blip but she's still there. It's not helping that her aether is fluctuating rapidly, so she keeps going in and out."

"I noticed that before she darted off," Gabriel sighed as he turned in the direction that he knew she was.

"But why is she so intent on leaving?' His father's yellow eyes glowed with irritation as they turned onto him. Gabriel grasped at the correct words before his face fell.

"I promised her that if she wanted to go back to the human world, I'd take her there myself." He whispered his eyes falling. "After she saw the memory, I told her that I wouldn't let her hurt herself. She took that as I would never let her go home, forcing her to stay in Vaccoon." His mother made a choking noise.

"That isn't your fault. You didn't know that she would break the spell when she was at Thaul and didn't understand the ramifications."

"She's almost to the wall," His dad spoke crossing his arms before he broke his concentration and looked at Gabriel. "What will you do?" Gabriel could only look at his father as it the question had been stupid.

"Well, I'm obviously not going to let her try and do all of this alone." His face was set in determination.

"If you have to leave the mountain, if you cannot convince her to come back, just keep her in the Aether world at the very least. It won't take long for her aether to even out, just two or three months, then she can do whatever she wants as long as you all can stay hidden from the daemons."

Without another word he turned, shifting into his daemon form, and he started sprinting towards his mate.

When he finally caught up to her, he was surprised to see that she was standing on the retaining wall, her eyes looking out over the darkened land that lay beyond, her body so still that she looked like a statue. He rushed at her, not pausing as he shifted, then used his movement to scale the wall with ease. She was so distracted that she didn't even notice him as he walked up behind her, wrapping one arm around her waist and the other around her shoulders. She stiffened at the contact, but then relaxed. He felt a rush of aether from her that entered his body before it was released back into the world through the soles of his feet. She let out a soft breath and he could tell that she was relieved, the excess aether that she'd been carrying around had started feeling like needles in her skin, but it had vanished as soon as he'd touched her. She needed him. If this wasn't more proof of that fact, he didn't know what would be.

"I'm going with you." His voice was hard.

"No." Her voice matched his.

"Yes," He growled into her ear, his hands gripping at the fabric of her shirt. Then, in an easy movement he turned her so that he was holding her by her shoulders looking into that calm mask of hers. He couldn't tell her true emotions in that moment, but he knew that they were everywhere.

"No," Her mask cracked slightly, and a spark of the anger shown through. "You stay here, where you belong, where you are wanted, and where you have a future.

"It's your choice if you want to jump off this wall, cross the barrier, to run off into the world that you know nothing about, followed by daemons, but it's my choice if I want to follow."

"I can outrun you." Her voice rose with her anger and Gabriel felt his own anger rising to meet hers.

"You can't hide from me." Gabriel's voice went down in tone and pitch as Nyline's got louder. "You will never be able to hide from me again; don't you understand that? I could have found you in the human world without ever meeting you in person. Now? I know your aether, your energy levels, I know your scent, your face. There is nowhere in any of the worlds that you could hide from me." Her face dropped as if it hadn't been something that she'd known.

"My shadow skill," Her voice was defiant.

"I can see you clearly when you use your shadow skill. How do you think I followed you back in Thaul when you used your influence on my scouts?" Her face fell further before her mouth set in a line. "You are the other half of my soul; you may get a head start, but I'll always catch up." Her brows drew together.

"That's a pretty bold statement," Her voice growled.

"If you think for even a second that I'm going to let my mate, jump out into the Aether World with daemons chasing her and her aether unstable, then you are very mistaken." Her face grew dark.

"And if I reject you?" He felt as though a thorn had just been jabbed into his heart, but he only huffed out a laugh at her.

"I spent most of my life in the library reading, on the training grounds with my scouts, and on missions with the military. I have gathered all of this information and I'm not going to just let it go to waist. If you decide that you're going to jump down there and run off into the woods, then me, and my entire scout team is going to go running after you. Even if you reject me, I will still protect you."

"You would put your scouts in danger for such a stupid thing?" her voice raised even higher.

"They would do it willingly without me having to ask." His voice was even. "Believe it or not but my scouts actually like you. They enjoy being around you, and like seeing you smile. They are sad that you are so unhappy and want you to feel welcome. Why can't you understand that? For the amount of time you spend listening to the people around you how much do you actually listen to what they are saying?"

"I listen plenty, I know that your scouts enjoy having me around, however, how long do you think that's going to last? How long until they are tired of me being around? Tired of me stealing their memories or listening to their private conversations? You might have made it clear that you don't care but what about the people around you? Have you ever taken a second to think about the other people, instead of just what you want?" She shot back crossing her arms. He threw his arms up in the air in response.

"I do listen to what my scouts want. You dress in layers Nyline simply to avoid touching people on accident. It's not like you walk around stealing memories from every single person you pass. If you snag one every once in a while, on accident, they are not going to care."

"How do you know?" She screamed at him and the air reverberated with the aether that filtered through her voice, which made her take a step back one hand going to her face. "You just don't understand anything."

"Then explain it to me. Why are you so ready to bail out of something that hasn't even had a chance to start?"

"Because I don't belong here! Not in the Aether World, not in Vaccoon, and certainly not in Thaul. I'm am by no means princess material and there is no way in hell that I can live up to anyone's expectations."

"Where are you getting these expectations?" his voice finally broke the calm and he shouted the words into the sky. She didn't back down but only seemed to rise to meet his challenge with her own anger.

"Did you see my closet?!" She shouted, her face turning slightly red in her anger. "All of those pink and filly things that the people gave to me. They are expecting some prim and proper princess, someone who wears skirts and can curtsy without looking like a complete idiot. That's just not me." Gabriel took a breath in but didn't speak, which made Nyline pause, the both of them looking at each other as the seconds ticked by. She could tell that he was grasping at straws as he tried to connect the dots that he didn't know existed. Then he groaned, turned, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"That can't just be it," He said finally. "You've been saying that you're not princess material for a while now. Why?" Her face screwed up and without pausing she pulled a memory out of her mouth and shoved it into his hand. Without hesitating he held the small grain of sand up to his eye, viewing the memory with ease.

It was short and direct, a spliced memory of one tall, elegant, woman. Her bright red hair fell down her back in waves, eyes the softest green he'd ever seen in his life. There were only a few flashes of her, showing her addressing her people. Having tea in a garden. Even one with her walking down a hallway, head high, back straight, hands clasped at her navel. All of the memories showed the same thing. Nyline's mother being elegant, beautiful, and graceful. She held a poise in the memories that was on a completely different level of royalty that he couldn't help but admire the woman.

Pulling his mind from the memory he looked at her, his face falling. She'd said this before, that she wasn't her mother and he just hadn't understood. He took a long moment to look her up and down.

"Is this what you want to be?" He held up the memory and she glanced at it, shrugging her shoulder. "You could be this if you wanted." She scoffed.

"No, I couldn't. I could never hold myself the way she does, I'm too rough around the edges and it's just…" She trailed off not sure what word to use.

"Not you," Gabriel finished as he held the memory out to her. She took it and placed it back into her mouth, swallowing. "That isn't who you are." She let out a breath in a huff.

"Exactly, I'm not some princess. I'm a damned scout, if anything, and a poor one at that, seeing as I can't even fight." His finger landed on her lips, his eyes flashing in anger.

"I don't even want to hear you say anything about how you think you're a bad scout." She went to open her mouth to speak even with the finger on her lips. "No, you have a higher shadow skill than I'm pretty sure anyone has ever seen. Then, what exactly is your max on your movement?" He raised his brow, as she pressed her lips into a thin line. "You are tactical, able to analyze situations with ease, setting escape routes, and are able to outmaneuver anyone if you put your mind to it. I'm pretty sure that you could out strategize just about anyone, and if they get the upper hand you could simply outrun them or even just use your shadow skill to vanish on them. So seriously, just don't. Who the hell cares if you can use a blade or not? It doesn't devalue your abilities or even you as a person."

His eyes were still flashing with anger as her face fell. It was then his finger moved from her lips to her cheek, then they ran along her jaw, all the way to her hair where he threaded his fingers through the locks. Then with a soft breath he pulled her close and just held onto her as if it were the first and last time that he would ever be able to hold her in his arms. Her body softened and eventually her head fell down to his shoulder.

"I understand that you have doubts about yourself, but who doesn't? Everyone has something that they hate about themselves or isn't confident about. But right now, you are perfect just the way you are, and I wish you'd see that. Truthfully, if you want to use a blade ask dad, he'll teach you to use any weapon you want and if by a far off chance that he doesn't know how to use the weapon you want to learn, we'll find someone for you. If you want to know how to look and act like your mother, then talk to mom, she'll teach you how to go assassinate someone, then meet for tea in the garden an hour later with no one the wiser." There was a pause as Gabriel took a long breath in, letting it out so it brushed against her ear making her hair flutter. "Honestly, if you still want to leave, we'll go with you. My scouts and I will fight off every single lesser daemon that we have to. We just have to stay in the Aether World for a couple of months. Then we can go anywhere you want. Back to the human world? Done. Into the daemon world? I'm sure we can figure that out, but I don't give a damn, we'll go wherever you want to go, but for now, we just have to stay Aether side."

"Because of what your parents said?" Her voice was a whisper and he knew that the last place she wanted to be right now was the Aether world.

"The Aether world is different than the human world." He started his mind trying to find the best way to explain this. "Do you remember those lights that you saw when you left town?" She nodded. "Those lights are powered by the world itself, all of the light here is powered by aether actually."

"I still don't understand."

"I know, and I'm doing a bad job at explaining this." He fell silent, his arms wrapping around her just a tad bit tighter. "We are made of aether, our bodies are sustained by it, and when our bodies have no more aether, we die. I don't know the exact details; mom could explain this much better but, from what I understand is that before you broke the spell your mom put on you, your aether levels were masked, right?" He explained and she nodded.

"When you broke it, your aether tried to return to normal but, in truth your body doesn't know how much aether needs to reside inside in order to sustain your being. Your body is exchanging aether with the world and will do so until your system understands how much it needs in order to sustain it. If you were to try and leave now, you would either absorbed too much and would cause an outwards reaction, or too little, which would damage your mind." He stopped speaking and she didn't continue the conversation. He could tell that she was deep in thought, safe in his arms. Then, after several minutes, he took a breath in.

"What'll it be? Which side of the retaining wall are we going down?" She pulled back so that he could see her face. It was currently devoid of all emotions, then her face fell, and she took a step back, breaking their contact. He instantly felt the loss of her warmth in his arms, her body holding onto his, the cool morning air wafting around him softly and making his body cold. He wished that he could take his words back just so they could go back to holding each other, but he knew that he couldn't, that alone hurt.

"I don't have that answer," She whispered as she sat down on the wall and let her legs hang off the side facing out into the world, her eyes overlooking the forest. His heart hammered in his chest. What else could he say to get her to stay at this point? Right as he was about to open his mouth to speak a hand landed on his shoulder and he glanced over to see his mother standing next to him. Her face drawn and looking much older than usual. It was as if something were eating her from the inside.

"Nyline," His mother's voice spoke very softly. "Can I speak with you?" Gabriel's eyes went back to Nyline who only pulled one knee up to her chest and rested her head on it, not responding.

"Like I said mom can explain all of this much better than I can." His voice was soft. She didn't answer, their bond going blank and she thought on the topic. She was no longer angry, or running, or had to much aether in her body, so she was overall much calmer than she had been when she'd originally ran into his parents. He'd hoped that maybe after he'd calmed her down that she would be able to speak with his mother. She could explain everything so much better than he could. As the seconds turned into minutes, he was worried that she really would just give up and bolt into the forest below. However, after a little she finally spoke, making his heart lift ever so slightly.

"Sure," was all she said, and his mom placed a hand on his shoulder, her eyes turning down cast as she looked at Nyline.

"Please go wait with your father." Her voice said softly. Gabriel hesitated for just a second before he walked over and went down on his knees so that she could envelop her in another hug. Half of her face pulled up as she lifted her hands and held onto his arms. After a little, he whispered down into her ear.

"I'll be close by if you need me." Nyline gave one single squeeze then he let go. His eyes met with his mother's for just a second as she gave a small nod. Sighing, he jumped off the retaining wall, rolling when he landed, only instead of placing himself back on his feet he just rolled over and lay on the ground looking up at the sky.

"She finally decided to listen?" His father asked his yellow eyes only flickering down to Gabriel for a moment before they returned to where both of their mates currently were.

"That or Nyline is trying to get a head start on out running me to wherever she thinks she's going to go." His dad let out a puff of annoyance. "She's calmer now and the excess aether is no longer in her system. Though I can say that it was starting to attack her nerve endings." His dad didn't look at him but shook his head.

"She's as bull headed as Nori and Jonathan put together," He scoffed and finally turned his eyes to Gabriel. Gabriel sighed pulling his body into a sitting position on the ground, he was tired. His attention went to Delta who was standing closest to him.

"Janti please have the kitchen staff prepare some travel bags, however, tell them not to put anything too perishable in them, keep those on ice until the last minute. Have them keep them on hand so they can finish them in at any tune. Everyone else, get back to the castle and ready packs, put them by your doors, just in case." There were nods from everyone, then they all used their movement skill to head back to the castle. Except for Delta who was looking at Gabriel.

"Is there anything I can do for you right now?" She asked in a soft voice.

"Tell your sister and Pallsana to also ready bags. I'm bringing them too if something happens." Delta nodded.

"Janti says he will stop by and inform them of the situation after the kitchens."

"Do you really think she's going to run?" His father asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Nyline doesn't even know if she's going to run or not," He said truthfully. "However, I don't see a problem with having supplies set up just in case. If we have to leave suddenly at least we won't be running around outside of Vaccoon with nothing. If not them, we simply unpack them once we know that Nyline isn't going to bolt."

"Never hurts to be prepared," His father nodded as he continued to watch the two figures on the top of the wall with earnest. "Go ahead and head back to the castle for now, I think what Alice has to tell her will convince her that we are not forcing her to stay here and that we are not planning on keeping everything from her." When Gabriel hesitated, his father looked at him, that reassuring look on his face making Gabriel relax just a little. "We will keep an eye on her, if she ends up running, we'll have someone notify you right away." Gabriel just looked into this father's yellow eyes before he sighed. Then, grudgingly he turned and started his trek back to the castle, shifting into his daemon form to cross the miles quicker.