‘W-What?’

Thin rays of golden sunlight fell down from the practically cloudless sky. A gentle breeze wafted through my body, adding to the already serene atmosphere. Lake water softly lapped against the hull of Rex Aquarum and birds sang beautifully in the distance. It fitted the typical description of a peaceful scene perfectly.

Apercaput loomed over everyone. Its giant stone brick towers created a foreboding aura as the windows on them and the turrets glowed. The shadow it cast across much of the pebbly shore below put most of the students waiting to board in darkness.

Faint chatter encased me from all directions. Students across the deck were engaged in hushed conversations, as were those making their way up the steps in front of me. Even those on the shore who had not yet begun to board could be heard excitedly whispering to one another.

Very few things reached me through the general chorus of discussion.

Peter’s pen hit the deck with a light sound as his paper slowly glided down to meet it. His blue eyes were wider than I’d ever seen them, and they were full of a bizarre mix of fear and confusion. The emotion within them was so strong that it could even be seen through his insanely long dirty blond fringe.

Ethan’s head snapped around instantly towards me, his mouth hanging open. He had kept his pen and paper in his hands, but I could still definitely see the shock in his brown eyes through his square-framed glasses.

Natasha had also shot her head around to look at me, and her jaw was hanging open, too. Her long brown hair fell gracefully over her shoulders, but her dark brown eyes were anything but. They were masked by an intense look of disbelief, and I could hardly blame her.

Jay had stopped checking over the student in front of him in favour of gawking at the scene before him. His small round face was coated with surprise, and his usually mischievous blue eyes wore the same expression.

Isaac, who had been helping Jay with his job, had also stopped. He stared at me, his dark brown eyes seemingly both baffled and alert. His short hair, which sported the same colour as his eyes, danced softly in the breeze.

The girl standing before me stared at me blankly with her sea-green eyes. Her dark brown hair fell gorgeously from the top of her head, and it was curled slightly at the tips which reached her shoulders. It glistened in the cold sunlight as she smiled awkwardly at me.

A strangely unique smell drifted from her to my nose, making my heart beat a bit faster. She was about an inch and a half shorter than me, so she was forced to look up into my fear-filled eyes.

The breeze flowed through my body. It had been a peaceful scene five minutes ago. This one girl had flipped everything on its head.

‘My name’s Cecilia Confussée,’ she repeated, but she sounded much timider than before. ‘You’re Albert Santrrer, aren’t you?’

‘Oi, oi, oi,’ came Isaac’s voice as he stepped forward next to me. ‘That’s nothing to joke about. What’s your real name?’

I, too, didn’t want to believe it, but part of me knew it was true. And it sounded as though Isaac felt the same. The tone of his voice suggested nothing more than disbelief. He wanted to believe that she wasn’t who she was.

There was a strange feeling within me that told me to believe her. She was exactly who she claimed to be, and nothing could or would change that.

‘I’m not lying,’ she said quietly. ‘That’s who I am.’

‘You’ve gotta be taking the piss,’ Ethan breathed, his eyes wide. ‘No way you’re his sister.’

The girl stared at me strangely. It looked as though she felt guilty. Apologetic. She looked as though she thought it was her fault.

‘She is,’ I said tightly. ‘There is no doubt in my mind.’

‘Surely we should do a thorough check!’ Isaac cried. ‘There’s simply no way Maltor has a sister!’

‘Yeah, wouldn’t he have told you?’ Ethan said quietly. ‘You mean to tell us that in the entire seven years you spent together, he never once said that he has a sister?’

‘That’s exactly what I’m saying. She has no reason to lie.’

‘She’s gotta be joking,’ Isaac continued. ‘This has gotta be some sort of sick joke.’

‘I’m not lying,’ the girl said, staring at Isaac. ‘I am Cecilia Confussée.’

‘You do know that we’re picking you up to fight Maltor Confussée, right?’ Isaac replied, glaring at her.

‘I am well aware,’ the girl said with a fiery passion that made my heart race. ‘I’m not joking. I’m his sister.’

Peter stared at Harvey, who was now standing next to me.

Harvey Bèstia, as my cousin, was my only living relative left after Amy Wright had attempted to kill them all nearly thirteen years ago. He was lanky and about four inches taller than me, despite being nine months younger. His dark brown eyes stared back at Peter with newfound confidence.

As the two stared at each other, it became apparent that they were quite an odd pairing. Harvey was tall and spindly, whereas Peter was extremely broad and stood at around my height. Peter had a long dirty blond fringe, whilst Harvey’s hair was much shorter and a light brown colour.

‘Is that right?’ Peter called to Harvey. ‘Is she actually who she says she is?’

Harvey nodded. ‘That’s how she introduced herself to me when we first met.’

My mind went completely and utterly blank. This was insane. I simply could not believe that the girl standing in front of me was the sister of the very person we were waging a war against.

Peter’s mouth opened slightly.

‘Swear it,’ Isaac said quietly. ‘Swear it on the River Styx.’

That was smart thinking on Isaac’s behalf. The River Styx was one of the five rivers which flowed through the Underworld. It was the sacred river that separated the land of the living from the realm of the dead. And, although almost nobody had actually seen it, everybody knew about it.

Oaths made upon the River Styx were extremely significant. Usually, they were only made in very important circumstances, such as life-or-death situations, or maybe even worse. And that was because the punishment for breaking an oath sworn on the River Styx was worse than death. I had never sworn on the River myself, nor had I ever met anybody who had, so I cannot say just how extreme they were, but fear certainly kept people in line for fulfilling their oaths.

Surely, she wouldn’t be stupid enough to swear on the River Styx. This was where the joke ended. There was no way she’d actually do something that stupid.

‘I swear it,’ she said firmly, with that same fiery passion. ‘I swear on the River Styx that my name is Cecilia Confussée.’

There was a moment of silence. Nobody even moved a muscle.

This was groundbreaking. There was no way that Maltor would be pleased that I had met his sister. He’d never even told me about her. I had always just assumed that the two of us were both an only child.

It was hard to describe just how monumental the situation was. Not only that, but it was immensely hard to even believe. The words ‘Maltor’ and ‘sister’ didn’t fit together correctly.

Not only that, but they looked absolutely nothing alike. Maltor had short blond hair, whilst Cecilia’s was flowing and dark brown. She had sea-green eyes, too, whilst Maltor’s were cold and light blue. And Cecilia was a good deal prettier than Maltor, too.

I scoffed. ‘Huh, Natasha, we’ve found you another cousin.’

Natasha’s eyes widened slightly, which I didn’t think was possible, given how wide they already were.

‘What?’ Cecilia breathed. ‘Is she a granddaughter of Aphrodite, too?’

We all stared at her. How did she know that she was a granddaughter of Aphrodite? Sure, it would’ve been nice if the Gods Claimed their kids outside of RoCity, but given how most of them were narrow-minded pricks, I wouldn’t have been surprised if that weren’t the case.

‘You get Claimed up here?’ Ethan asked, sounding completely disbelieving.

Cecilia nodded. ‘Why wouldn’t we?’

I turned and stared at Harvey. He shook his head.

‘You haven’t been Claimed?’ I spat.

‘No,’ Harvey said plainly. ‘But I know we’re descendants of Titan.’

‘Huh?’ I murmured. ‘How? We’ve never met before.’

‘Everyone knows, man,’ he shrugged. ‘The Santrrer family, descendants of Titan, Prime Ministers of RoCity.’

I grunted. ‘I forgot that everyone knows everything about me now.

‘Oi!’ Asbel shouted to us from over by the stairs. ‘You can chat later! Hurry up and get this group over and done with!’

Asbel was the one that had built Rex Aquarum. He had insanely long black hair that he kept tied back into a man bun. His brown eyes glared at me from where he was, but I could tell that he was at least slightly intrigued to know what had caused a halt in the boarding.

‘Cecilia, once you’ve finished looking around the ship, would you mind coming back up to deck?’ I tried awkwardly. ‘I wanna talk to you.’

She smiled somewhat sadly. ‘Sure, Albert Santrrer.'

'Oh, Gods, please just call me Albert.'

She grinned. ‘Whatever you say.’

I watched her as she walked over to Jay and Isaac, who hesitantly began to search her for anything dangerous. My heart was pounding against my chest.

‘Come on,’ Ethan said quietly. ‘Let’s finish signing on the rest of ‘em. Then we can talk to her.’

‘No, let me talk to her,’ I replied firmly. ‘You lot were practically interrogating her.’

‘And what? You’re not gonna ask her questions?’

‘I am, but I think I’ll be a bit calmer than Isaac.’

Ethan smirked. ‘I see. Yeah, sure, I’ll let you talk to her.’

I glared at him.

And even though I wanted nothing more than to be left with only my thoughts and Cecilia, I grudgingly resumed my task of signing on the pupils.

They all seemed as though they wanted to stop and talk to me, but I couldn’t let them. Not only was I in a rush to talk to Cecilia, but I wasn’t really in the mood to talk to kids. Well, I could hardly call them ‘kids’. The students that were being signed on in the third group were my age.

Every so often, I tossed a glance towards Cecilia. She was now waiting by the stairs, and she was talking to the same group of girls from before. I may have been imagining it, but I was certain that they kept turning their heads to look at me. Great, I’d already gone and made myself look like a fool.

‘Are you really Albert Santrrer?’ said a short, dark-haired boy as I signed him on.

‘The one and only. Name?’

Similar conversations followed with almost every student after. It seemed as though none of them could really believe that I was me. I’d gotten so used to fitting in back at RoCity that I’d almost forgotten that I was not a normal kid.

Back home, everyone treated me like I was one of them. I was now realising that that was purely because they’d gotten used to it. They all knew me now. Up here, however, it looked as though I was revered as some sort of saint.

The students from the first boarding group had re-emerged and were now scattered around the deck. Many of them were gawking at me, or they were whispering to each other whilst staring at me. They thought I didn’t notice. They all thought they were slick.

Harvey, too, was getting some unwanted fame. Twice I had to intervene because it looked like he was about to get overwhelmed by small children. Due to the surname difference, nobody at Apercaput had known of Harvey’s relation to me.

He was doing a good job at keeping them off of him, I had to say. It looked like it came naturally to him. I thought I was good at deflecting pressure and unwanted questions, but Harvey appeared to be a master at such.

It was hard to describe just how bad I felt for him. He’d met me only a few minutes ago, and it was already looking like I was causing more trouble for him than good.

The amount of questioning seemed to decrease with each group. With the fourth boarding group, every student that boarded then was older than me, and it was very clear that they were much less interested in me than their younger peers.

That is not to say that there were no questions whatsoever, though. But there was certainly less, and the older students did not press me nearly as much; they appeared to be much better at realising that I did not want to talk.

I suddenly began to wonder about who I wanted to talk to first. Of course, I was dying to speak to Harvey more, but the same was true for Cecilia. I was still struggling to comprehend that Maltor had a sister and that the two of them looked so incredibly different.

It felt like I had a moral obligation to talk to Harvey first, but something inside me told me that I had to talk to Cecilia. The urge to spend more time talking with her was almost irresistible.

A simple solution to this seemed to pop into my head almost immediately, however. I began to talk to Harvey in between group boardings and if I ever found a break between signing students on.

‘So, you know that we’re descendants of Titan?’

‘Yeah,’ Harvey sighed.

I wrote down the name of the kid in front of me.

‘And you haven’t been Claimed?’

Harvey shook his head.

‘We’ll see if that changes once we get back to the city,’ I said, trying not to sound angry. ‘But Titan can be a dick sometimes so I’m warning you now; don’t hold your breath.'

Harvey scoffed. ‘Have you met him, then?’

‘One sec.’

The next two students were particularly interested in me. It took almost a whole minute to get them to shut up and go to the next station.

‘Yeah, I’ve met him a few times,’ I grumbled. ‘None of them pleasant. But don’t let that get you down. He might try to be nice around you.’

I thought briefly about the few times I had met Titan. To put it simply, if he were an ordinary human, I would have resented him with all of my heart. His status as an immortal deity protected him from getting his limbs torn off.

I signed on a few more kids. It was only as the fourth group finished boarding that I resumed my conversation with Harvey.

There was a question running amok in my head, and I opened my mouth to bring it to life, but Harvey took the words from my throat.

‘Did you really only come here for me?’

After staring at him blankly for a moment, I replied quietly, ‘Yes.’

‘But you don’t even know me,’ Harvey breathed.

‘And ever since I found out you’re alive it’s all I’ve wanted to do,’ I replied tightly. ‘I don’t know how you feel about the situation, but the fact that I am standing right in front of my only living relative is astonishing.’

‘No, I understand perfectly.’

The two of us stared at each other wordlessly for a moment. Neither of us seemed to be able to believe that the other was only here for them.

His dark disbelieving eyes stared straight into mine. It seemed as though he didn’t actually believe me, and I instantly realised that I had to do my hardest to make sure that he knew that I was telling the truth down to its core.

‘I don’t think that now is the ideal time for a conversation like this, do you?’ I said, smirking. ‘We can talk more once we’ve taken off.’

‘Yeah, when are we taking off again?’ Harvey asked quietly.

‘Five o’clock this evening, as far as I’m aware,’ I replied quickly as a kid was waiting to be signed on. ‘Should get to RoCity just before seven tomorrow morning.’

Harvey became unusually quiet as the rest of the group was signed on. I kept tossing glances at him, and I noticed that he was staring silently at his feet. My heart sank at the realisation that something must have been wrong.

It was only as the fifth year began to board that Harvey spoke again. His voice was barely louder than a whisper when he spoke, but his words were nothing like what I had expected.

‘I thought you wanted to talk to Cecilia first.’

As much as I could see why this fact may have bothered him, I didn’t quite see why it alone had reduced his voice to such a volume.

I stared at him for a moment before deciding on the best answer that came to mind.

‘Alright, we’ll shuffle the timetable around a bit. I’ll talk to you either until takeoff or until we’re done. I’ll bring Cecilia up to talk once we’re in the air again. How’s that sound?’

I hoped that made him feel important. It was a tough decision; whether to speak to Harvey or Cecilia first. My body itself seemed to ache with the sheer desperation to speak to them both.

It seemed obvious that Harvey should have come first. After all, he was my only remaining relative just as I was his.

I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to treat him like I would any other friend. There was no need to interrogate him or ask him a load of questions. He was my cousin, not Maltor’s sister.

The issue with this arose from the simple fact that I did not quite know where to begin talking to him. No immediate topics for conversation jumped into my head, and I was left scrambling for ideas. It’s not that there was nothing for us to talk about, either. In fact, it felt as though there was just too much.

I had to tell him about RoCity, my position as Prime Minister, all the different things he could do once we arrived, and more. He would undoubtedly want to know more about the war with Amy, about Maltor, and, of course, about Grandad.

Goosebumps formed all over my skin as I realised that I was staring at the only other connection I had to Grandad. Harvey was his grandson, too. The two of us were connected through him.

My mind flickered, just for a moment, to the thought that usually accompanied the memories of Grandad. Would he be proud of me? Surely, if he were alive, he’d at least be glad that Harvey and I had finally met. After all, Grandad had offered to bring the two of us together after the war with Amy.

An image flashed into my mind briefly. I imagined him standing next to me and Harvey, his warm hands on our shoulders, his warm blue eyes twinkling down at us.

‘Yeah, that’s fine, I don’t wanna force you to talk to me,’ Harvey replied, perking up and yanking me back to the real world.

I signed on two fifth-years.

‘Once I’m done with this, I’ll show you around Rex Aquarum,’ I explained, glancing back at Harvey. ‘Then we can have a general chat, if you want of course.’

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

He grinned at me. ‘That sounds great.’

As I continued to sign on more students, I really began to worry about what I’d talk to him about. Usually, when I worried about talking to people it ended up being no big deal. We’d probably start talking about one thing before uncontrollably cycling through dozens of topics. I was certain that once we started we wouldn’t stop.

I did have one major thing that I wanted to ask him about, however. And that was who exactly he was living with. During the summer holidays at least, Harvey wouldn’t be staying at Apercaput, but I had no clue where he’d be staying and with who.

He had mentioned that his dad left him a few years ago. He had also said ‘the woman I live with’. Who was it?

I tried to push these thoughts away for the time being, as my worries were clearly showing on my face. Instead of being desperate for a conversation or asking me to sign their arm, the students were now asking me if I was okay.

My mind landed on Cecilia. If I weren’t to interrogate Harvey, I’d certainly do it to her. As much as I wanted to have a normal and easy-going conversation with her, I knew for certain that I would most likely ask her more questions than she’d ever been asked.

Quite a strange feeling arose within me whenever I thought of her. Simultaneously, my stomach seemed to flip, my heart beat a bit faster, and a bizarre sort of tranquil confusion filled my mind.

Whilst I was struggling to wrap my head around how she could have possibly been Maltor’s sister, I felt rather calm at the thought. ‘Calm’ may have been the wrong word; ‘accepting’ probably fitted better. I felt at ease with the whole ordeal. So what if she was Maltor’s sister? Why would that matter?

But that was exactly it. Why did it matter? I was planning on dumping all the questions in my mind onto her. Why? Because she was his sister. I was about to treat her entirely differently from how I normally would’ve just because she was connected by blood to our enemy.

I tried to justify this by telling myself that I needed answers to my questions. Cecilia was our key to understanding Maltor’s background. Even if they had spent seven years apart, Maltor was probably closer to Cecilia than I could ever hope to be to him.

Sighing as I signed on the final fifth-year, I prayed that Cecilia didn’t find me too rude. I certainly did not want to make a bad impression on her.

The sixth year signed on with relative ease, and Harvey struck up a conversation with Isaac whilst I signed the students on. It made me insanely happy to see him bonding with my friends like he’d been one of us for years.

He really did mean a lot to me. The only living relative I had left. Just that phrase alone made a shiver race down my spine.

I tried not to smirk at the thought of Maltor’s face when I showed up on the battlefield with both my cousin and his sister.

I couldn’t wait to get at him again. I had to finish him. The last time the two of us had come face-to-face, he had gotten away by the width of a feather. Such a mistake could not be made again.

It wasn’t even an issue of power; it was clear now that I was stronger than him by a long shot. The lack of a will to kill him, whilst it had been an issue only a few months ago, had been very quickly resolved. As I began to sign on sixth years, I felt my blood begin to boil as I remembered his ruthless invasions of my dreams and what he had done to Emma.

The image of her pleading face flashed through my mind. If I did end up killing Quinn, she would never forgive me. Not like I wanted or needed her forgiveness, that is. She had cemented her place in Bitch Haven two weeks ago.

Thinking of Emma circled my thoughts back to Cecilia. A strange feeling rose in my chest whenever I thought of her, let alone looked at her. When I spoke to her, it wouldn’t be that surprising if my body actually exploded.

Only one other person in my entire life had ever provoked a similar feeling within me, but I assured myself quickly that they were not the same feeling whatsoever. To imply that I felt the same way about Cecilia as I did Emma was simply ridiculous.

I shook my head violently to snap myself back to reality. I had a job to do. I didn’t have any time to be stressing over women. Or men for that matter.

Now that I was fully focused on the real world again, I realised just how quickly the sixth year students boarded. Perhaps it was due to the disruptive nature of their younger peers, but they seemed to pass through alarmingly quickly.

There was only one group left to board now. Just one. Only about twenty more students. That was it.

And the Gods must have been in the mood for sick jokes, because the seventh year came with another blow. Just when it seemed as though my day could not get any more bizarre, I met Jeremy.

He didn’t stick out from his peers as Cecilia and Harvey had done. The only ‘interesting’ attribute about him was that he was at the very back of the line, meaning that he would be the final student that boarded.

Jeremy blended in with his friends so well that I barely even paid attention to him as he climbed the steps. He looked so normal. There was nothing special about his appearance.

His dark brown hair was styled to the left, and something about its waviness complemented his sharp jawline brilliantly. Even his shining blue eyes didn’t raise any interest in him. It seemed as though the most striking feature of his was the broadness of his shoulders, but even that was nowhere near as bizarre as the thing he had to say once he reached Natasha.

It was quite evident as he towered over her that Natasha was at least a little bit flustered. Her cheeks had turned slightly pink and when she spoke her voice was just a tad higher.

‘Name?’

He stared awkwardly at her, which was certainly strange.

Ethan, Peter, and I all had no more students to sign on, as Jeremy was the last one, so we all stood, blankly watching the scene before us.

Jeremy’s two friends had not yet gone to Isaac and Jay, and they instead mimicked me and my friends in the way that they watched Jeremy’s interaction with Natasha.

After what felt like an eternity and a half, Natasha repeated herself, a bit more clearly this time, ‘Can I have your name, please?’

‘Rather not say,’ he replied quietly.

‘Then you can’t come, I’m afraid-’

‘Jeremy,’ he said quickly.

There was a moment of silence during which all that could be heard was the faint splashes of the water below. Nobody moved. Nobody said a word. Everyone just stared straight at Jeremy.

I inched forward, glancing at Harvey as I did so, who returned an awkward look. He knew Jeremy, of course he did. So, if Jeremy did not give us his surname, we’d have to get it out of Harvey.

‘I’m sorry,’ Natasha tried, her brow furrowed slightly, ‘but just ‘Jeremy’ isn’t enough; we need your last name as well.’

‘Come on, man,’ said one of Jeremy’s friends from my right. ‘Hurry up so we can look around the ship.’

I looked at him briefly. He was taller than Jeremy, who was about five-foot-nine, and had black hair trimmed to a buzz cut. Dark brown eyes stared worryingly at Jeremy; clearly, Jeremy was hiding something huge. And it looked as though nobody would tell us what exactly that was.

For less than half a second, the terrifying thought that Jeremy was Maltor’s brother crossed my mind. I blocked this premonition almost immediately. I did not want it to be true.

‘I don’t wanna say,’ Jeremy repeated. ‘I’m just Jeremy. Ask anyone here.’

I stared silently at him, trying to wordlessly force the words out of his mouth.

Then he met my eyes.

‘Look, it’s your Prime Minister,’ he said quickly. ‘He can authorise decisions, right? Come on, Albert, let me through. I’m Jeremy.’

‘Jeremy,’ I replied quietly, ‘I’m afraid that we need your surname. You either tell us or you stay here, simple.’

A look of pure horror suddenly coated his face. His blue eyes began frantically searching the deck, and the look buried within them was one I’d seen many times.

I moved my feet slightly into a stance better prepared for stopping an escape attempt. I would not let him break his way onto the ship.

That’s when Cecilia re-emerged.

‘Jeremy?’ she called, hurrying over immediately.

As soon as I heard her voice, my head snapped to look at her. Just the sight of her running over made my chest feel strange.

‘You know him?’ Natasha said instantly.

Cecilia glanced at her, then me, then back at Jeremy. ‘Yes.’

Silence once again descended upon our unusual group.

‘Come on, Jeremy,’ Cecilia said soothingly. ‘You can tell ‘em. Nobody’s gonna be mad.’

His look of horror was quickly replaced by one of annoyance.

‘How would you know that?’ he spat.

‘Look at me. I’m still here and well, aren’t I?’

My entire body went numb.

Jeremy glared at Cecilia for what felt like an eternity. I could practically see the battle raging in his mind.

He believed that by telling us he would receive a punishment, which was of course not the case. But it was either that or he didn’t come.

Everybody stared in sheer anticipation as Jeremy let out a sigh.

‘Confussée. Jeremy Confussée. Eighteen years old.’

‘No fucking way,’ Isaac said immediately. ‘Don’t even think about trying that shit.’

My body felt empty to the point where I doubted that I could even think.

Two siblings. Not only was Cecilia related to Maltor, but so was the absolute truck of a man in front of me. Maltor had two siblings.

Now that it had been confirmed, I could see the similarities between the three. Both Jeremy and Cecilia had the same dark brown hair, and Jeremy and Maltor both had the same sparkling blue eyes. Jeremy was the only sibling of the three that shared an evident characteristic with both of the others.

I wasn’t quite sure what to say to this information, and I usually handled situations where I felt such with humour. So that’s what I did.

‘Well, Maltor’s gonna be pissed when he finds out I’ve met the both of you.’

Ethan scoffed before reconstructing his serious demeanour.

I turned to Harvey.

‘It’s true, isn’t it? They’re both Confussées, aren’t they?’

Harvey, who still looked rather awkward, nodded slowly. My body went even colder.

‘You’re joking,’ Isaac said hastily. ‘You’ve gotta be joking. Come on, man, tell me you’re joking.’

‘I’m not,’ Jeremy replied darkly. ‘As strange as it sounds, I am here to fight my brother. I don’t give a damn about his army, I want to get straight to him.’

The sudden change in tone prompted a question in my head. Why exactly was he so desperate to fight Maltor? Of course, Cecilia was here to fight too, but she had not shown such a yearning to fight Maltor himself. There was a missing piece somewhere in the puzzle of Maltor’s backstory, and I had a good idea of whereabouts it would be.

After fleeing The School and abandoning Maltor, I had crash-landed in Birmingham and been lucky enough to have been saved by Rob. But, because I had left him behind, I had absolutely no idea where Maltor had gone nor what he had done in the three-year gap between our escape and meeting again in secondary school.

The two of us had been kidnapped as infants, so there was no way that Jeremy or Cecilia would remember Maltor. That is unless he went back to his home after escaping The School.

My head was starting to hurt. I didn’t even know if I had the energy to talk to Harvey and Cecilia anymore, let alone Jeremy.

No, I wouldn’t talk to him about it. Not yet anyway. He clearly felt a strong resentment for his younger brother, and I didn’t think that forcing him to talk about it would be a very good idea.

‘Don’t let us keep you here,’ I said, trying to sound nonchalant. ‘Come on, pass through Isaac and Jay and then have your tour around the ship. The sooner you do that, the sooner we can get you to Maltor.’

Jeremy seemed pleased with the fact that we were, you know, not angry that he was related to Maltor. His back straightened and he hurriedly joined his friends and then went to Isaac and Jay.

‘Would you lot mind briefing Ali, Stephen, and Asbel on the rollercoaster we just went through?’ I said exasperatedly as I ran my hand through my hair. ‘I’m gonna talk to Harvey.’

‘Don’t you wanna talk to me?’ Cecilia asked suddenly, and her tone made my heart sink.

‘Of course I do!’ I fired back instantly. ‘But Harvey wants to go over a few things beforehand, sorry.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ she said calmly. ‘I can talk to my newfound cousin.’

She and Natasha beamed at each other and I turned to Harvey.

‘So, where do we even begin?’

I think perhaps the strangest thing about mine and Harvey’s conversation was the fact that we barely did any ‘catching up’. We didn’t focus on revealing information to each other, but instead, we spoke as though we had been friends all our lives.

Neither of us interrogated the other. The words flowed from our mouths naturally as the two of us sat on one of the benches on the deck of Rex Aquarum.

Nobody came over to get on my nerves, either. Everybody that seemed to want to stopped as soon as they saw that I was engaged in deep conversation with Harvey.

Only once did anything slightly linking to Amy come into the conversation. And, even then, it was only because Harvey referred to his dad.

However, as the conversation went on and we slowly began to run out of topics, it became clear that Harvey was soon going to resort to asking about either Amy or our grandfather. The only question was: which one did he want to know about more?

Harvey sighed after the two of us had sat in silence for about thirty seconds. ‘Am I allowed to talk about Grandad?’

‘Why would I stop you?’

‘Dunno. It might be a sensitive topic. You know, cuz he’s dead now.’

My heart panged.

‘I mean,’ I began, barely louder than a whisper, ‘yeah, I still miss him, every day, but that doesn’t mean nobody can talk about him. What do you wanna say?’

‘I just wanna know how he died.’

Silence crashed down onto the two of us like thunder. My stomach churned as the image of that night flashed through my mind. Never would I be able to get his body falling to the ground out of my head. No matter how much time passed, that horrific memory would always lay dormant somewhere in the back of my head.

I didn’t look at Harvey.

‘He was killed. On the final night of the war against Amy Wright. He took her on alone. By the time Ethan and I got there to help, he was severely weakened and losing the fight.’

I paused, remembering the fear shooting through my heart as I stared at the duel.

‘He yelled at me to jump in, use my power so that the two of us could tag-team her. I tried, I really did. I just didn’t make it in time. One spell and he was finished.’

‘You killed her, though, didn’t you?’ Harvey asked quietly. ‘You got her back.’

‘Yeah, I did. But I wouldn’t do it again if it means losing him. I’d rather live in a hellscape by his side than a utopia without him.’

Harvey took a deep breath.

‘Sorry for asking, I knew it would be a bad topic.’

‘Don’t worry about it, he was your grandfather, too. You had to know.’

Flashes of green light kept appearing in my head. Harvey realised fast that my mood was spiralling downward, so he instantly changed the subject. He began asking about RoCity.

He mostly wanted to know more about The Tower, which caused another question to pop up in my mind. For a quick moment, I wondered whether Harvey would be allowed to stay in The Tower as well. This thought was only brief, however, as I soon remembered that I was the Prime Minister and could literally let him do whatever I wanted.

Before I’d even realised just how long we’d been talking, it was almost four o’clock. We had just over an hour until takeoff.

In the background, I could see Asbel running over a few final checks. He was frantically checking, double-checking, and then triple-checking what seemed like every single button on the dashboard to ensure that our flight would be perfect.

Zoning back into what I should’ve actually been focusing on, it quickly became apparent that the conversation was slowly fading. That was okay, though; we’d been talking for hours on end. Obviously, it was gonna finish eventually. I’d only really hold a long conversation with someone that I’d known for ages, and even then I probably wouldn’t do so willingly. Speaking to Harvey for such a long period was pushing us to our limits.

‘Look, Harvey,’ I tried somewhat awkwardly after the two of us had sat in silence for a few moments. ‘Not to be rude, but would you rather do something else now? I know it’s not easy to hold such a long conversation with a new person.’

An immense look of relief washed over his face as I spoke.

‘Really? I dunno what else there really is to say right now, so, yeah, maybe we should have a break for now.’

The two of us smiled warmly at each other before rising from the bench and embracing tightly.

‘Asbel!’ I called as we separated. ‘Would you mind showing Harvey his room?’

Asbel seemed at least slightly annoyed that I had ruined his checking, but he nodded tightly and beckoned Harvey over as he began to march towards the stairs.

‘And do you reckon Cecilia can stay on our floor?’ I called again.

He turned back and stared blankly at me. ‘Sure. It’s better than some random dumbass.’

The two of us smirked at each other.

I stood in silence for a moment after Asbel and Harvey had disappeared down the stairs, before remembering that I had to speak to Cecilia. Gods, this was gonna be awkward.

Taking a deep breath, I began to walk slowly towards the stairs as Asbel had done a moment before. I didn’t even know where I’d find her. I’d have to check every damn floor and every damn room to be safe.

I could also feel my mind beginning to spiral as I walked down the stairs. It was insanely difficult to contain it, but I sure tried my hardest. I hated it when my head was overwhelmed by unwanted thoughts, and I certainly did not want them to get in the way of my conversation with Cecilia.

Speaking of which, she wasn’t even that hard to find. Kinda. It took a while, as she was on the bottom floor, but at least she wasn’t hiding somewhere. I didn’t even know if she was ‘allowed’ down in the stables, but that’s where she and two other girls were.

As I entered the room, it became clear that a conversation between the three had hurriedly ended. They were all standing by Midnight, my pegasus. He was huge, with a sleek, pure black coat that almost shined in the lights of the stables.

Cecilia was closest to Midnight, who was staring at me strangely. In a weird way, I could feel his happiness.

The three girls stared at me as I awkwardly stood at the base of the stairs. I must have looked like a complete fool. But I was here now, and there was no going back, I guess.

The tallest girl stood on the left of Cecilia, and she was only about my height. She had sleek black hair and intriguing brown eyes. Light freckles dotted her round face and she looked at me with such a bizarre complexity of emotions that I don’t even think I could ever describe it.

The girl on Cecilia’s right was a tad taller than her, but a bit shorter than the girl on Cecilia’s left. She was tanned and had curly blond hair, which complemented her cautious brown eyes brilliantly.

Midnight’s smooth voice entered my head. As a descendant of Titan, I had the ability to communicate with horses and horse-like creatures.

I like these three, sir.

I raised my eyebrow at him, smirking. ‘Do you, now?’

He ruffled his wings.

Very much, master. Especially this one at the front. Cecilie or something. She’s nice.

I glanced at Cecilia, my smirk growing.

‘She’s your favourite?’

She’s speaking to me the most. So, yes, sir.

Cecilia stared at me, evidently trying not to smirk. Her friends, on the other hand, were looking at me with a mixture of confusion and disgust.

What brings you down here anyway, sir?

‘Funny you should ask,’ I replied, looking from Cecilia to Midnight. ‘It’s your new favourite person.’

I was absolutely certain that if pegasi could laugh, Midnight would be doing so to the highest degree.

Cecilie?

‘Cecilia, but yes,’ I replied, rolling my eyes. ‘And I fail to see what’s so funny.’

I strode over to Midnight and the two of us stared at each other.

Should I leave the two of you alone, master?

It was rather strange, hearing Midnight’s voice so full of sarcasm.

I rolled my eyes. ‘Whatever you want, I guess.’

Sir, turn around.

My head snapped around so quickly that my neck clicked. Cecilia’s two friends were gone. Or, to be more accurate, they were now heading back up the stairs, glancing back multiple times as they did so.

‘I figured you were here to talk to me now, so I told them to go somewhere else,’ Cecilia explained sheepishly.

Go get her, sir.

I tossed a glare over my shoulder at him.

‘Can you talk to him or something?’

‘Yeah,’ I replied, smirking. ‘Being a descendant of Titan does have some advantages.’

‘I wish I could talk to horses,’ she said quietly. ‘What’s his name anyway? Is it even a he?’

I scoffed. ‘Yeah, it is. His name’s Midnight.’

A smirk began to form on her face.

‘Hey! I didn’t name him!’

‘Well whoever did shouldn’t be allowed kids,’ Cecilia said, still smirking. ‘Midnight’s a cool name but it kinda sounds childish, you know?’

I take back what I said, sir. Don’t talk to her.

I smirked back at him. I never realised he’d be so defensive of his name.

‘Well, you know, the funny thing is,’ I began awkwardly, ‘the one who named him is Maltor. He used to be Midnight’s owner.’

The silence that followed was enough evidence that I should never have even considered saying that. Cecilia stared blankly at me as multiple different forms of apologising ran through my mind.

‘That explains why it’s so shit,’ she replied, causing pure relief to wash over my body.

Midnight reared up on his hind legs and began to tell me exactly what he thought of Cecilia’s views, but I cut him off.

‘Without being rude, Cecilia, can we talk somewhere else? It’s hard to drown out his words.’

The two of us beamed at each other as she nodded.

‘Where do you reckon would be best?’

‘Up on deck, probably. You okay with that?’

She smiled at me again, and my heart began to thump so aggressively against my chest that it felt as though it was about to smash through my ribs.

The two of us walked happily up the tremendous flights of steps, engaging in small talk as we did so. The only thing of note was when we passed the first floor of bedrooms, where I informed Cecilia that she could sleep if she wanted. She accepted the offer gladly.

And, just like my conversation with Harvey, Cecilia and I spoke to each other like we’d been great friends for ages. We barely questioned each other in the way that I had expected, and we actually began to learn more about one another. With every word she said, my chest seemed to grow warmer and warmer.

It was only when we’d been sat on the deck for about half an hour that we slipped into the talk of Maltor. She had asked about what life in RoCity was like. I told her that it was great, and gave a few details, but joked that it was about to get a lot worse. That was my mistake.

‘Is the war really that bad?’

‘He’s only ever brought a proper force once, and that was two weeks ago,’ I replied quickly. ‘I’ve fought him three times now, and every time he gets away I promise myself that it’ll be his last.’

Asbel chose this time to yell over the speakers that everyone should start making sure that they were ready for takeoff.

‘What’s he like?’ she asked quietly once Asbel was finished.

I thought for a moment, trying to find the right words to describe exactly who Maltor was. I was certain that he was different from whatever Cecilia remembered.

‘Probably different from what you remember,’ I replied, just as quiet, staring at the deck. ‘He’s different from what even I remember, and you’re his sister.’

‘Oh, please,’ she scoffed. ‘In the three years that he was ‘at home’, he was barely ever around. He ran away all the time and never really spoke to us.’

‘Really?’ I asked, my eyebrows shooting up.

‘Well, you know, he’d been away from us for seven years; we were practically strangers to him.’

I thought for a moment about the bond I had with Rob. I hadn’t seen him as a stranger. Not a single day went by, even now that I didn’t live with him, that I wasn’t thankful for him finding me. It was unfathomable that he didn’t feel the same way about his family.

‘Well,’ I began slowly, ‘in our first fight especially, he barely spoke. To be more accurate, neither of us said a word. We just fought with the unfiltered intent to kill.’

‘It’s that serious?’

‘I wish it weren’t,’ I sighed. ‘But when he first reappeared I couldn’t do much else other than fight.’

‘What about the second time?’

I took a deep breath. It felt as though it had been years since that fight. I felt like an entirely different person. It had only been six months.

‘I tried to talk it over. He did not. If it were up to me, there would have been no second fight. It’s kinda strange. It felt like I had to kill him, but it’s like every ounce of me didn’t want to.

‘But the third fight was different. The one two weeks ago. I can’t even describe it. I wanted to kill him with every piece of my soul. And I would’ve done it, too. But…uh…things got in the way.’

‘It’d be so cool to see you fight,’ she said excitedly, and I wondered whether she was just feigning the excitement in order to stop me from thinking horrible thoughts. ‘You’re like a real-life myth up here.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Gods, you should hear how these lot speak of you,’ she explained, smirking. ‘They all seem to genuinely believe that you could fight Titan and win.’

‘Very nearly did fight him once,’ I joked and her eyebrows shot up. ‘It got quite heated up on Olympus.’

‘You’ve been to Olympus?’

‘Yeah, unfortunately. I saw your nan. She’s nice.’

‘Is Titan not?’

I shook my head vigorously. ‘For the God of Gods, he has an insanely selfish attitude.’

‘That could be expected, though,’ she reasoned. ‘But is he really that bad?’

‘I mean, I personally don’t like him.’

‘So he’s bad.’

The two of us grinned at each other. Her smile could have lit up the dark side of the moon. It would have been hard to even begin to describe just how fast my heart was pounding against my ribs.

I prayed to the Gods that my face wasn’t as red as it felt, but I doubted that my prayers would be answered, given the fact that I had just insulted Titan himself.

‘Attention all passengers,’ came Asbel’s voice from the speakers, and from where we were, we could see him speaking into a walkie-talkie type thing at the dashboard. ‘We will now be taking off. Please ensure that you keep yourself safe whilst we are in the air and act responsibly. To be clear: we are now taking off and I request that you all do not act irresponsibly.’

Cecilia’s face lit up with excitement.

As Rex Aquarum began to move across the lake, I asked her, ‘How come you wanna fight, though? Jeremy seemed kinda angry at him but you don’t.’

She stared at me like I was an idiot.

‘Albert, he wants to commit genocide.’

‘Fair point.’

She looked behind us at the lake for a moment before continuing, ‘It feels kinda wrong; to be going to fight my brother. But it’s the right thing to do, right? I can’t let him kill innocent people.’

Okay, maybe I did feel something towards Cecilia.

‘It’s fine to have doubts,’ I reassured her. ‘But if you ever wanna stop and turn back, feel free to do so. There have been so many times when I’ve just wanted to give up, so I’ll understand.’

She smiled almost sadly at me. ‘Thanks, Albe-’

Cecilia gave a slight yelp as Rex Aquarum tilted up toward the sky. I realised with a smirk that she was unaware of the strange force on the ship that would prevent her from flying back. But the shock certainly got to her. Her hand shot out and she grabbed my forearm tightly.

Every single thought in my mind disappeared. I forgot everything. War against Maltor? Are you insane? There was only peace in the world in that moment.

‘W-We’re not flying back?’ she stammered.

It took a moment for me to bring myself to respond to her.

‘There’s loads of weird things on the ship. We won’t fly back.’

She let go of my arm gradually, as though testing just how loose she could get before flying away. Of course, she never would’ve flown away, so eventually, she’d lost all touch with my arm, which left me with a slightly empty feeling.

‘Can we stand up while it’s taking off?’ she asked eagerly.

‘Yeah, go ahead,’ I replied, rising to my feet.

The two of us faced outward and watched the dark lake below shrink. It was peaceful. The cold breeze wafted through our hair as the dark sky encompassed the two of us. In that moment it felt as though only the two of us existed.

A few people had come up to the deck to watch the takeoff, and they all stood around the edges of Rex Aquarum, keenly watching the ground get further and further away.

‘I’m gonna miss that place,’ Cecilia said quietly once we’d levelled off in the air. The two of us were now walking back to our bench after standing at the stern to watch Apercaput fade away. ‘But I’d leave one hundred times if it meant saving the world.’

‘Damn, you might be more dedicated than me,’ I teased as we sat back down on our bench.

She scoffed. ‘Don’t even try that. I just don’t want innocent people to die.’

‘You’re thirteen and risking your life to save others, that’s some pretty good dedication.’

‘You’re thirteen, too,’ she replied, but she was clearly trying not to smirk. ‘What makes me so special?’

I was not about to tell her that the thing that made her special was the absolutely absurd speed at which my heart beat whenever she spoke.

‘The fact that you don’t have to.’

She grinned at me. ‘Whatever you say, Your Highness.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘Please don’t-’

A figure flew through the air behind Cecilia so quickly that it took me a while to register it. They flew straight into another person on the deck, driving a blade through the back of their head as they did so.