SURVIVE (THRIVE: Book Two)

Chapter 31- Blame

"You let her go across town by herself? What were you thinking?" I ask frustratedly as Aria begins to panic.

"She went with me and Nanea, once she was talking to Magnus' mom we figured you guys were there since she went inside." Aria explains worriedly "If I thought that she was going to be out there all alone, I would have never left her side!" she says defensively.

"What the fuck is going on, what makes you think she got kidnapped?" Alex asks, completely confused and afraid by the situation.

"Magnus, go talk to your mother, she might know something." Brendan states as he and Nanea walk out of the kitchen "Nanea and Alex will go with you, I think Alex needs to be brought up to speed on the way."

"What-?" Alex tries to ask.

"Go." Brendan orders and Nanea quickly rushes out with them. Magnus looks back at me desperately as Brendan closes the door behind them.

"This is all my fault, I should have come home when I promised to," I say as I slide down the wall until I hit the ground.

"I should have never left her alone." Aria begins to cry "If I had just stayed with her, she would have been safe. I could have-"

"Girls, stop." Brendan says calmly "Trying to place blame on yourselves isn't going to help get her back. For all we know, whoever did this may have gone after you too if you were together. Right now, we need to focus on finding her." he explains, trying to sound hopeful, but I can tell how afraid he really is.

"Unless Magnus' mother saw anything, we have nothing to go on." Aria sighs, sounding defeated.

"Sterling." I state "The man I saw chasing Artemis a few weeks ago was Sterling." I explain.

"You told Nanea that you remember what he looked like, right?" Brendan asks anxiously.

"Tall, skinny but also kind of muscular, brown hair. He may have had a tattoo, but I can't remember that much detail. We only spoke to him for a minute." I sigh.

"No, that's okay. What matters is that you could recognize him if you saw him again, right?" he asks hopefully.

"Um, yea, I think so. Why?" I ask, confused.

"I have an idea." Brendan states as he grabs a piece of paper, quickly writing something down "We're going to the temple, I'm letting Nanea know to meet us there." he explains.

"What are you thinking?" Aria asks as she stands up.

"If Tessa has seen this guy, Aurora can tap in and see him too." he explains anxiously "Aurora is the best at reading energy from people, if she can at least get on his scent, we'll be that much closer to finding this bastard."

"You can do that?" Aria asks nervously.

"We can try," I state with determination, and within seconds, we're out the door. Careful not to draw attention to ourselves, we make our way across town as fast as we can. As soon as we make it in the door, my father and Aurora are there waiting for us.

"What the hell is going on? I could feel your anxiety as soon as you made it to the bottom of the stairs." Aurora asks worriedly.

"It's Pearl," Brendan says fearfully "She's been taken."

"What?" Aurora asks, and the terror on her face is clear as day "We talked not two days ago about being careful out there, and then you let this happen?"

"Hina, stop it." Daddy states, trying to calm her down "It's not his fault."

"Arsen, I think that your daughter can help." Brendan stated calmly "She may have met the man who was going after Artemis."

"What?" Aurora asks in surprise "How is that even possible?"

"I'll explain in a minute, but we need to find Aunt Viki first," I explain as we all begin to rush down the hall.

"I'll call her," Aurora states as we start to head toward the sages sanctuary. We all practically dart down the hall at full speed, time is precious right now and who knows how much of it we truly have at this point?

"What happened?" Roxie asks as she and Desire run towards us from the other direction.

"They got one of my girls," Brendan states worriedly.

"No," Desire says in horror as she looks at Aria and me "Pearl?" she asks, but she already knows the answer.

"Look, we might be able to find the guy who did this, but I'm gonna need your help with something." I explain as I look at Roxie and Aurora desperately "I need you to do a dive into my head."

My soul's gate is presenting itself in a way that reflects exactly how I'm feeling right now. The meadow of brightly colored flowers appears wilted and dry as the dark clouds loom above our heads. I've never been here when this has happened before, and I never want to see it in this way ever again.

"Wow, this is..." Mahina says as she looks around.

"Bad." Scara sighs as she reaches down, grasping a small flower from the ground and watching it fade to dust "Breeze, we're going to do everything that we can to find her, I promise." she explains, trying to cheer me up.

"Let's just get this over with." I sigh as I look around.

"Not without me." I suddenly hear Scarlett's voice behind us.

"I told you to watch our bodies," Scara states angrily.

"Nixi showed up and told me to go ahead, I want to see what this bastard looks like for myself too you know," Scarlett explains defensively as she steps toward us.

"If everyone's here, I'd like to get started." Mahina sighs "You said his name was Sterling?" she asks.

"Yeah," I state, and suddenly, she opens a portal before us. As we all step inside, I see the trail in the jungle, as well as Magnus and I walking.

"Artemis, wait up!" I hear Sterling shout, and suddenly Artemis dashes through, tears streaming down her face. Suddenly, we can see him. He was exactly how I had described him, and it turned out that I was right. He had a strange tattoo of a vine going down his right arm. Suddenly, the vision freezes in time as I watch Aurora focus her energy. We all begin to walk around Sterling, looking at him more closely.

"I didn't realize how terrified she looked." I sigh as I look at Artemis further down the path "God, I feel so stupid." I say as I start to crouch down.

"It's not your fault," Scara says as she comes up to me, wiping the tears from my eyes.

"It feels like it." I sigh.

"At least now we know what he looks like." Scarlett states as she tries to kick him, but unfortunately, she phases right through him "Worth a shot." she shrugs.

"You know," Mahina begins "I've never heard his name before, but I swear that I've seen him somewhere," she explains.

"Any idea where?" Scara asks hopefully.

"I wish." Mahina sighs "I'll have to meditate on it and see what I can figure out."

"We don't have a lot of time, is there any way you can try to track him?" I ask nervously.

"That's not how it works unfortunately." she sighs as she kneels beside me "If you had a longer encounter with him, there would be more of an impression left behind. But since it was maybe only a minute..." she explains.

"I get it." I sigh as I slowly stand back up "Just do what you can."

"I will," she says as she forces a smile.

"Let's get going, we've gotten what we need here," Scara states, and the portal reopens behind us. As we walk out, I take one look back at the bastard. I don't know who he is or what his motives are, but right now, all that I know is that I want him dead.