Conviction's King | Damian Book 1

Chapter 10

I walk briskly through the thicker parts of the crowded walkways, holding Cressa-la's wrist tightly so I don't lose her in the crowd. I try and keep my mind moving forward on what I'm going to do when I reach where Morgiana told me to meet her, but I can feel my hand sweating where I'm holding her arm and it's making me worry that she probably thinks its gross, which is a really childish thing to worry about. She probably doesn't even care. It's Cressa-la. She can skin an animal without batting her eye and can lose her limbs and keep her cool. Granted, that's when she could regenerate, but still.

I take a deep breath as I enter the long hallway that goes up and up. I reach the double doors that hold the two royal chairs. Today is the first day I'm supposed to be seeing them. It's her grand reveal to me, and she's supposed to reveal that the King of Unwea is my older brother and I need to take him down to have control over the Unwea Clan. I take a deep breath. In the future—the alternate timeline, Amawa-na would have cast a protection spell—her first one—around the area, leaving it glowing with her color.

Cressa-la looks at me, not saying a word. I turn around and my eyes land on an open door.

"Go in there," I say, dragging her into the hallway just as the double doors open up. My nerves spike and I press against the wall, trapping Cressa-la between my body and the wall, my eyes totally aware that I'd be in plain view if I moved an inch back and Morgiana came out.

Breathing heavily, I wait for a moment, positive she hadn't exited.

"You're squishing me," Cressa-la whispers as quietly as she can.

"Oh!" I say, leaping back. "Sorry," I whisper. I look at her, the light falling on her, and I just want to...

I clear my throat and wipe my hand over my face. "Stay here. I'll be back."

"How long will it take you think?" She asks.

I shrug. "An hour or two."

She looks at me wide-eyed. "I'll have to wait here for two hours?"

I shrug, walking away. "Your wanted to come," I mouth.

I turn around, exiting the hallway, and come face-to-face wth evil herself, Morgiana.

"Damian," she smiles wickedly. "What were you doing in that tunnel?"

"Uh, I got lost?" I lie, knowing full well that she said double doors when she gave me the instructions.

"Good try, but I know you're lying." She smiles, her wet hair dripping onto the ground. "Don't go further into the tunnel unless you want nightmares," she warns. "That's my actual lair."

I nod.

"Come," she says, waving to me as she strides forward and I follow her into the room.

The doors shut loudly behind us as she flicks her wrist. She stops and I step up beside her, taking a deep breath. She points to the two chairs in the center of the room, lit by the hole in the top of the mountain way above, the sun shining through. One of the chairs is blocky and rather manly looking, while the other is feminine and pretty, both gold and looking not entirely comfortable.

"This will be yours," she says. "Your are the brother of the current King of the Unwea Clan."

And so she goes into her spiel of what my brother has done, what he plans to do, etcetera, the two chairs flickering out of view as she explains it was only incentive to complete the first step of my quest. He plans to keep hiding and harboring One-Hundreds and Ones, keeping them from the public eye. I have to pretend like I'm paying attention and that I believe that's wrong, having us hide from the world and whatnot, but my brain is elsewhere. Cressa-la has to hide for an hour or two until I'm done with this. Then something dawns on me.

She can't go down that hallway.

It leads to Morgiana's lair. The place where she would keep her victims dead bodies and torture them. Where she kept her biggest secrets. Her loophole around the rules that she can't leave the island. She had been banished from the sea—the entire ocean because of how dangerous she was. Instead of killing her, because that proved impossible, they banished her. It took all the Emperors that ruled beneath the waves to carry it out, but they did it, and they'd do it again in a heartbeat if needed.

The tunnel leads to the kitchen of the Murlan Clan's castle, the place where Cressa-la's dad resides.

So much is tangled in my life.

"Are you paying attention?"

Morgiana's question snaps me back to reality.

"Of course," I say. "So when do we strike?"

She narrows her eyes but smiles. "Jumping the gun, Damian, but I like your spirit. There's something different about you today... is it a girl?"

I furrow my brow. "A girl? Why would you say that?"

She laughs. "Because you're acting like you'd rather be somewhere else. Because you're a fourteen-year-old boy, where else would you rather be than with a girl? Which I'm totally fine with, considering you need a Queen to be a proper King."

I frown."Just tell me what I need to do."

She frowns. "Very well."

And so she tells me in great detail about my brother's schedule. Newt is his name. Carn was my father, an evil dictator of the Unwea Clan. Newt ended up overthrowing him and bringing peace to the clan. Which is great. But I'm not suppposed to think that at this point. I listen and try to get it over as fast as possible, acting like I'm completely interested in what she's saying, but my mind was elsewhere, on autopilot. Is Cressa-la okay?

I remember I can communicate with her telepathically. Before I can try though, I remember she doesn't have any powers yet.

"Okay. We're done. Go visit your girlfriend."

"She isn't my girlfriend," I say automatically. Then, at teh gleam in her eye, I take it back. "I mean—"

She smiles. "I knew it was a girl."

She flings the doors open and dismisses me. "We'll plan for a few months. Maximum a year before attacking. We can't screw this up or we'll fail everywhere else."

I nod and exit, leaving Morgiana behind. Feeling like I just got away with murder, I turn into the hallway Cressa-la should be in.

Should.

Because she isn't.