The Pain in My Heart [Completed]

Chapter Thirty-Four ~Zaria

Of all the times I had been in the Sparring Room I had never thought that hidden behind the mats was a secret passageway.

"It's... gone."

"What's gone," I ask, my anxiety rising.

The mat lay on the floor, clearly disturbed. Someone else had used it and not put it back.

"Someone's left," I say and she nods slightly before taking off in a sprint. I take off after her, probably leaving so many dirty footprints on the shiny floors. "Lucy!"

"What is happening?" Tyrian yells clamoring behind us.

I expect Lucy to yell but she doesn't, instead she quickens her steps and it's even harder for me to keep up with her. She runs all the way up the two flights of stairs without a hitch in her breath and bounds into Axil's room.

Everything lay neat and tidy. Bed made, tabletops dusted, floor shiny, but there is no sign of Axil.

Bounding over to his desk she ducks and reaches under the table.

"What are you doing?"

"Now's not the time, Tyrian," I say cautiously, not taking my eyes off Lucy.

"We did this when we were little," Lucy says. "Ms. Ophelia wasn't the only one who knew about my outings."

It takes me a while to catch up with what she is saying, but then it all comes back.

"He saw me escape one night and forced me to tell him where I was going. I told him everything. He's my brother. He promised he wouldn't tell anyone if I told him where I was going and what I was doing. I hid the notes under his desk in between the drawers."

She pulls out a crumpled piece of paper that looks oddly familiar and what I had feared becomes reality. My heart drops as she turns over the paper and I see my handwriting on it. The note I had left.

"Lucy, I'm so sorry," I say, but it sounds more like a jumbled mess.

She keeps her eyes fixed on the paper and her hands shake. Slowly, she hands it over to me and my stomach twists into a thousand knots. Right underneath my writing is his own note, neatly sketched in blue ink.

If you are reading this right now then I was wrong.

Whatever you do, stay where you are, and fill my mother in. She'll be in shambles.

I love you all

Axil

"I'll check for Crista," I mutter under my breath. Running through the halls I try to keep my breathing even, knowing I'll probably walk into an empty room.

And just as I had suspected Crista's room is just as barren as Axil's. The silence is deafening and the room almost seems dead.

Looking around, I notice the empty slots on her shelves. What's missing?

I read off the ingredients from memory of being in her room so many times, Rosemary... Lavender... Himalayan Spice... Bone fragments... animal fur... whiskers...

The Star Dust.

But... I think to myself. What is she thinking? How would Stardust be able to help her?

A small part of me hates to invade Crista's privacy but I duck under her bed. Her spell book is gone.

I wasn't supposed to and I probably should've told her about it, but that wasn't any ordinary spell book. It was a gift from her mother. Tiny little notes written in the spells. Little hearts and stars around her favorite spells; the ones that reminded her of Crista.