Invaded (Abducted #2) Completed ✅

Chapter Thirty-Four

It felt like when Albi had died, time had slowed down. Now that Lani was gone, too, it felt like everything had been unbearably sped up. Aurora didn't know what to focus on. She simply knew that she needed to find Dana as soon as was possible. 

Colt and Leo helped Jeremy move Lani out of the site. The entire floor of the hotel, on which they were having the festival, had been cleared out. Once Thea saw her mother, she immediately screamed. 

"No! No! No!" she sobbed, falling to the ground as Nova rushed over to her. 

"Thea...you have to get up. We have to get your mother back to the base while there's still time," Nova stated then. 

Thea turned to her friend and her eyes darkened. 

"Don't even dare. Don't you dare try to fill me with false hope, Nova," she said to her. 

Nova looked positively at a loss for hope, "I'll see you soon," as she simply followed the trio of men out of the hotel. They managed to wrap Lani in some blankets as they placed her in the back seat of the car. Colt went with Jeremy, while Leo remained with Nova, and wrapped an arm around her. 

"Are you going to cry? It's okay to cry," Leo told her. 

"Shut up, dork," Nova retorted, as she felt the tears prick up in her eyes as she buried her face into Leo's shoulder. 

"I'm here, Nova," he said soothingly. 

Aurora soon found Dana and Vela back at the base. 

"Dana! You can't trust her!" Aurora yelled, but then she found that she couldn't speak. Had Vela taken her voice, or had she just made Dana unable to hear her, alone? She wasn't sure which of those options was worse. Perhaps they were equally bad as each other.

Aurora headed out into the hall in her anxiety about Dana not being able to hear her, and then she simply waited. 

She waited for someone else to show up. 

Once Peia was back, she looked towards Aurora with empathetic eyes. 

"Aurora...I am so sorry," she said. 

"I...Vela was behind all of this!" Aurora exclaimed to her. 

"I know," Peia said. 

"Wait...you can hear me?" Aurora asked her. 

Peia nodded then. 

"I think you're the only one who can hear me, though," she said then, managing to force out a sound that sounded half like a laugh and half like a cry. 

Aurora understood that reaction perfectly. 

She, too, felt completely overwhelmed. 

The only thing truly helping her get through were the words her mother had told her all those years ago that had kept her strong to this day. 

Be brave. 

She had to find a way of protecting her people from Vela, and after her, whoever came next. 

Aurora would not let anyone else die. 

She refused to. 

"I am sorry about Lani," Peia whispered. 

"Me too," Aurora said. 

Peia and Aurora both waited in the doorway then until Colt and Leo returned. 

"She's placed in the infirmary," Leo told them. 

Peia gave him an understanding nod, unsure of whether he would be able to hear her words if she spoke or not.