Shadows of Ash and Gold

Chapter eleven

A young man walked out of a side door from the golden alley we were in with a shimmering grin on his face. He wore a white tunic and gray pants, his hair was bright red, the color of fire, and his eyes were dark.

"Daz!" said Mara who leapt into the man's arms and one after one they all greeted him.
After welcoming everyone the man turned to me and glowered.

"You brought a human?" He asked, his eyes ranking over me. "That's against the rules! Just because your royalty doesn't-"

Bash interrupted putting a hand on his shoulder. "Daz it's fine, she is not human, well at least half of her isn't."

"You mean to tell me a Devara bread with a human?"

"Yup," told Everson with a wicked smile. "I do all the ti-"

This time it was Octavious who hit everson upside the head. "Nobody cares, Ever."

Everson threw him a profound gesture that almost made me laugh. I shook my head. This group. I kept having to remind myself that they weren't human. I couldn't get over how mundane they were. But I guess it made sense. They did grow up in the human world; they were bound to inhabit some of our fine traits, like flipping someone off. But besides all that, they were family. A family that ran deeper than blood. They were soulmates, each and every one of them. They were bound to each other whether they liked it or not. I couldn't help but envy that.

Daz whirled back to me. "Well, in that case, I'm Daz. Nice to meet you."

I smiled."I'm Avaryn."

Daz led us into the door he had come from. Turns out it was a clothing shop, filled with lush silks and fur. When the devara traveled here they needed disguise so that nobody would recognize them.

I stared at myself in the mirror. I was wearing a royal blue sheen dress that had white roses fluttered out on it. It was casual and beautiful. After that the group showed me around their city. And it wasn't quite different than any human city. The people were always kind no matter where we went. People smiled at you when you walked by and it was genuine. The people of Elysian were happy.

a Golden necklace sat on a wooden slate that was filled with all sorts of other jewelry. But the necklace was the one that called to me. I felt a familiar hunger run through me. I clenched my fists, digging my fingers into my skin So hard I'm not sure if I drew blood. Not here.

"You," whispered someone from my side. I whirled like I had been caught doing something wrong, which I was on the verge of. An old lady sat behind the counter top gazing at me.

I looked behind me, as any person would because there's no way she's talking to me.

"You shouldn't be here," she said straight to me.

I looked around, the Devara's were nowhere to be found; they had all split up and wondered their city before we had to go to the castle. Nyan was here somewhere but she could be far away. I swiveled back to the lady and smiled. "I believe you have the wrong person."

The old lady didn't seem strange but there was something about her that felt ominous alarming. She felt bad or dangerous. It was the same feeling I had around Raiden. I abruptly remembered Thea's words. There are spies everywhere hoping to find one glance of us just to report back to their demon king.
I got the hell out of there.

We stood in front of the castle. The castle of a princess I was supposedly descended from. My birth mother. I had no idea what to feel.
Guards led us through numerous white hallways. The castle was a different type of beauty. It was heavenly. It was half inside and half out. In some of the corridors, there were no walls just open air and pillars holding the ceiling. It couldn't be safe but I don't think anyone cared. I held myself back from going to the edge. There was a magnificent Mountain View and the purple sky wasn't like anything I'd ever seen. It was breathtaking.