Conviction's King | Damian Book 1

Chapter 14

Her face blanks and then confusion fills in the space. "What? Where did that come from?"

I exhale. "Yesterday I showed you a secret world. We barely escaped the most vile person alive. Or, well, you did. You gave me a heart attack, by the way, because I couldn't find you."

"Someone was coming,"she argues. "I couldn't stay there."

"Yeah, well, it scared me," I continue, taking a breath and letting the calmness I know so well wash over me. "I was telling you yesterday that we are part fish. I also told you that you have to touch the water again to bring forth the traits."

"So... why would you want me to do that?" She says, eyeing me. I struggle to hold her gaze, the boy in me faltering under emotions and the want to either look away or wrap her in my arms.

I take a breath. "I want to take Morgiana down," I say in a lower voice, stepping closer to Cressa-la, my skin buzzing with electricity at the space between us. She kind of steps back, but not as much as before, sensing an urgency in my voice to keep quiet. Morgiana could be anywhere, watching...

And I really am being careless because of Cressa-la.

"And I can't do it alone. You and I are to become the most powerful Ones on this earth. Then, when the eclipse comes in a few years, you'll be chosen by the moon and we can take her down together." I take a breath, my chest swelling with emotion. "I'll be alongside you this time," I whisper, convincing myself I can be good, that the darkness will not trick me this time. "I'll be alongside all of you."

Her brow furrows as she looks up at me, unsure of what I mean.

"Come with me, please," I ask her, our faces only inches apart. I want... I want...

"But I..." she begins, making a face as the wheels spin in her head. "I don't know if I..."

"If you don't start growing scales, you don't have to talk to me anymore. You can forget all I've told you and chalk it up to a made-up story from some boy you've just met," I tell her, the words stinging the top layers of my heart. "Please."

She brings her lips in and bites them as she takes a step back, releasing them as she breaths out, her hands resting on the bow around her shoulders.

"When is the eclipse?" She asks, looking up at me. Her eyes are hard, a wall between us to keep me guessing what's passing through her mind. "Do you know when it will be?"

"Five years," I say, counting in my head. I was nineteen when I made the world come to a halt. She was eighteen, as was Tamir.

"That's so long," she says on a breath, pinching her eyebrows together. It's bugging her. She's impulsive, doesn't like to wait. Waiting for Morgiana to return her powers to her in the original timeline was making her crazy and she was freaking out, even if she tried to hide it. Thinking about that... brings up memories that begin to drag me down, but it reminds me why I could never see anyone next to me but her...

Stop beating yourself up, she'd told me, She chose her own path just like you did and she tried so hard to make it right at the end because of what you did for her before she died. She forgave you. And... And I have, too.

She was willing to see through the gunk that stuck to me, and she was able to pull the good in me from the deep, deep place I buried it. The only one.

"So you're wanting to wait five years to attack?"

"Yes."

She studies me.

"But."

"But?"

"Yes, but." I take a breath. "In two years, I will create a tsunami that will cover the island."

"A tsunami..." she pulls the word from the depths of her memory. "Isn't that a really big wave?"

I nod. "I plan to keep it from hitting the island."

"Why would you create it in the first place?"

"To weed out all the gifted on the island. It's the first idea I give Morgiana that she's okay with because it's chaotic and destructive and she doesn't have to do anything."

"Okay," she breathes. "So you want me to wait two years?"

"Uh, yes. No. Well," I backtrack. "So I want you to touch the water, gain your powers, and then learn to hone them—which I can help with if you'd like—and then be ready for anything that comes your way. I don't know what will happen after that," because I've changed the timeline, "so I want you to be prepared for anything."

"What about everyone else?"

I shrug. "Don't tell them."

"But shouldn't we all be ready if something big like this is going to happen?"

"Not yet," I say. "Maybe if things change. But keep it a secret. If I'm not around you and you feel the earth shake, the tsunami will be coming soon after. That's my doing. Go with everyone to the top of the mountain if you need to."

She nods. "This is crazy. You know that, right?"

I nod. "I am very much aware."

A comfortable silence sort of falls between us as she stares into the distance, thinking hard about everything. Skepticism is a part of Cressa-la, but she isn't so closed-minded that she won't be completely closed off to the possibilities of unexplainable things in this world.

She takes a deep breath and lets it out, meeting my eyes. I wait with great anticipation, holding her gaze for a moment as she scrutinizes me, as if her eyes are reaching into my soul.

"Okay." Her eyes come back to this world. "Let's..."

She makes a face, nervous about what she's fixing to say. She doesn't like to break rules. They aren't meant to be broken.

"Let's go touch the water."