Isle of Sanctum | The Aya Thrasher Chronicles | Book 1 |[Editing]

Chapter Seventy-One

CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

SERINA

I couldn't believe I was just standing there watching as Rayne was suffering in pain. She was my daughter. My only child. Yet, I wasn't doing anything. What kind of mother did that make me?

I was just in shock. I had warned the kids not to come here. I knew the Wyres never kept their word.

"What's happening to her?" I asked as the shock began to wear off.

Rayne was on the floor, shaking violently. I kneeled down beside her and tried to stabilize her, but she was starting to convulse. I briefly patted her forehead. She was burning up. I didn't understand.

"You should be happy, Serina," Prynn replied. "Your sister will be back soon."

"Valencia?" I asked. "Why would you want to bring her back. The Wyre virus was what killed her in the first place," I said.

Lake was also on the floor. She took off her jacket and rolled it up as a make-shift pillow to go under Rayne's head.

"That was all an accident. We never meant for Valencia to get hurt. She was our queen," Pryn explained.

Rayne's seizures started to occur more frequently, and I was worried she would suffer serious brain damage. There was so much to process, but Rayne was at the forefront of my mind. I didn't care about my sister, I just wanted to make sure Rayne was okay.

Several men came up to us, but I had paid no attention to them. I was trying to stabilize Rayne, but one of the men grabbed my arm and pulled me away from Rayne. The other men were grabbing the children. As the man was dragging me, I struggled to get back to Rayne, but it was too late. Two of them men were loading Rayne onto a stretcher.

"You can't do this!" I shouted.

My screams were ignored and I was taken into a large room. The children were also there. I glanced around. I recognized several of the Wyres in the room, especially Commander Gotsam. In the center of the room was a table. There was a woman with dark here lying on it, but I couldn't see her face. Aya was seated on a chair next to the table. Her eyes were closed, but she was moving, so she was alive.

"I don't understand—" I said.

"We don't need the virus," Pryn said.

"We just need our queen," the Commander chimed in.

At that moment, the Wyres brought Rayne into the room and put the stretcher next to the table. I tried to run to her, but I was stopped. Two men restrained my wrists and ankles to the chair.

General Davis entered through a side door. I remembered them saying they had done something to him, but he looked alright. As he walked into the room, he beamed at me with a smile that was shouting "winner".

"He's not dead," Soren pointed out.

"No, of course not," the Commander said. "He's one of our best agents."

"Yeah, a double agent. There seems to be a lot of those around here," Lake shot back.

"Enough with the chit-chat, let's get started shall we?" the Commander said as he stood up from his chair.

With the clap of his hands, there was a loud boom. Like the sound of a muffled explosion. The four walls holding up the room fell straight to the floor. It was almost as if watching a poorly put together dollhouse falling apart. From the corpse of the room, arose a whole other structure.

The space of the room was expanded by at three times its original size. Glass walls replaces the original walls. A tint of red highlighted each wall. The roof of the room was also replaced by glass. The room essentially metamorphosed into a red cube. I stood in awe as I watched the center of the room where the woman lying on the table, Rayne, and Aya were located ascend into a platform.

Bang. The sound of someone's fists colliding against the cube's walls echoed inside my ears. I craned my head. A woman was trying to get inside. It was Taylor. She was screaming and kicking the walls. She even through a chair, but she was unsuccessful.

I watched as she ran around the outside of the cube to the wall I was closest to. I attempted to retreat back to the chair and the Wyre guard allowed me to do so.

"Serina..." Taylor shouted.

"Why are you here?" I whispered back hoping she could hear me.

"We have to stop them!" she screamed. "You can't let them bring Valencia back."

"There's nothing I can do—"

"This was all planned out from the beginning. They weren't brought here to earn dying spots—"

"I know," I cut her off.

"No, they also weren't brought here to perform, the Wyres needed the strongest two to bring Valencia back," she explained. "Can't you see, this is going to be the end of everyone and everything!"

The Wyres noticed Taylor and brought her inside and put her in the chair next to mine. As angry as I had been with her before, I knew she could be an ally now. I could tell that she still had weapons on her.

"So, what's the plan cuz," she whispered in my ear.

I shrugged. "I thought you had a plan?"

"Ladies and gentleman, it's time," Pryn began.

The bottom of the platform also started to ascend. I couldn't see as much as I could before, but I saw Valencia's toes wiggling. I didn't know if they were trying to con me or not, but that wasn't Valencia. This was a woman in her thirties, not a teenager.

Brennan and Lake had broken free and they were fighting some of the Wyres, but they were outmanned. I turned to Taylor, she was picking her handcuffs with a hair pin.

Valencia's arms and hands were moving now. I knew we were running out of time. Rayne and Aya would both be dead if Valencia was completely alive again. I wanted to whisper something into Taylor's ear, but I noticed she was starting to get up from the seat. She was free.

"Hey, what about me?" I asked.

"Sorry, there's no time," Taylor said running toward the platform.

"Taylor!" I shouted.

She threw something on the floor, but it was too small to see. "I call thee, Taylor Thrasher, the power of the Stracker five," she recited before any of the guards could reach her.

A line of steam began to rise from the floor surrounding Taylor. "We are the Royal Stracker Council, the ghosts of the past," a deep voice announced. "For what reason are we being called by thee?"

"The Pravussen community of Wyres want to bring back Valencia Thrasher Woods," Taylor explained. The line of steam made it hard for the Wyres to catch her. "In the process they will kill two lesser gods," she said. "You have to—" Taylor stopped and fell to the floor. They had shot a poisonous dart at her.

"IT IS AGAINST THE UNIVERSAL GALATICAL CODE TO MURDER LESSER GODS FOR ANY REASON," the same voice mumbled louder and angrier. From the smoke, several Stracker ghosts emerged. "STOPPPPP!"

There was an explosion of light and that was the last thing I remembered.