I was the first person off the boat. The second Asbel let the stairs out, I was racing away into the ship hangar. Some workers had gathered around to watch the docking of the ship, and a few of them were even applauding as Asbel followed me off.

‘Remain orderly!’ Asbel called. ‘Everyone is to wait outside the ship hangar and wait for further instructions!’

I, for one, was not going to remain orderly.

My wings snapped out from my back. I ruffled them briefly, letting the sweet, sweet air of home glide through the feathers before I flew outside. I gave a great flap of my wings along with a powerful jump and soared along the water and out of the hangar from the way that we had sailed in.

I glided gracefully along the water’s surface and out of the hangar. With another great flap of my wings, I shot upwards into the sky, and I decided to have a bit more fun. I was enjoying myself.

Tightening my gut, I created a small whirlpool within the sea below. As I raced into the sky, the water around this whirlpool began to race faster as it trailed into the sky, encasing me in a salty tube.

With a manic cackle, I willed the water tube to explode, and it did so. The surrounding areas were showered with salty seawater as I hovered a few metres up, laughing to myself.

Being a descendant of Titan did have its upsides after all.

I circled around to the front of the hangar, feeling the wind flow through each individual feather as I did so. The School was an evil corporation, don’t get me wrong, but my wings were great.

When I got to the front of the hangar, just over half of the students were out there. They all held their baggage and were eagerly looking around at the sights to see. The taller kids had it great; they were using their height to look over the heads of their peers to get a greater view of the most barren side of the city besides the north.

Whilst we had been on the ship, Asbel had sent a message to the city, with my permission, requesting that a few people meet us at the hangar. These people would each escort a small group of students to their new homes and show them the key sights of the city. Only two people weren’t following this: Cecilia and Harvey. The two of them would come with me to The Tower, and then I would show them around the city.

As I was hovering, I noticed Cecilia and Harvey standing to one side with Jay, and the three of them were engaged in a conversation which I could not hear from so high up. Gods, Cecilia’s hair looked stunning in the sunlight.

I swooped down, stopping in front of the group. Everyone gawked up at me exactly as they had done when we had first arrived at Apercaput.

‘Follow Asbel’s orders!’ I called. ‘He will tell you where to go and who to follow! I wish you all the best of times here at RoCity and hope that the process of settling in is not too difficult! And I thank you all for your courageous service!’

I then performed the RoCity salute, a gesture of immense respect. Although difficult to perform whilst having my wings out, I managed it. I closed my fists and placed my left hand behind my back and my right hand over my heart.

It felt fitting. The gesture was usually performed only under military circumstances, but I had seen it used outside of such. Either way, it fit the current circumstance.

These children were risking their lives in the hope of a better future. They were ready to give up on their dreams for the chance of saving the world. I had been doing that for years and still questioned whether I could continue.

Landing gently next to Cecilia, Harvey, and Jay, I grinned. The three of them returned the gesture.

‘You two ready to go?’ I asked warmly. ‘You got all your things?’

‘Ready as we’ll ever be,’ Harvey replied, grinning.

‘We’ve both got our backpacks,’ Cecilia added, also grinning.

‘Do you need me to drop you off at your house?’ I said, turning to Jay.

‘Nah, I’m gonna stay back here with Asbel for a bit, you lot go ahead,’ he grinned. ‘Have fun.’

And, with that, he walked past me and went over to Asbel, leaving Cecilia, Harvey, and I all staring at one another.

‘Well, just a word of warning,’ I tried, ‘the Valley is definitely something. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first got here.’

‘How are we gonna get there?’ Harvey asked. ‘You can’t carry us both, can you?’

‘I probably could, but I’m not flying all three of us over.’

‘Don’t tell us you have some other cool power,’ Cecilia said incredulously.

I smirked. ‘I have plenty. Did you forget that I’m a descendant of Titan?’

Harvey’s jaw dropped. ‘D-Don’t tell me-’

‘What?’

‘Can I heal like you, too? Will my eye regenerate if I lose it?’

My heart sank. I hadn’t even known him for twenty-four hours and I was already gonna disappoint him.

‘Well, uh,’ I began awkwardly, shuffling my feet, ‘that’s not a power I got from my heritage. It’s, uh, something else.’

‘What is it?’ Harvey asked excitedly. He didn’t seem to care that he didn’t have this power. ‘Can we have it?’

I didn’t say a word. For a moment, I thought about the sheer destruction that could be bought about by my Power, the thing that gave me my regeneration ability. Nobody should hope for that. I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if I let it loose on the battlefield.

Cecilia seemed to pick up on the fact that this was a touchy subject.

‘Harvey, leave it. If just anyone could have it, then I’m sure everyone would; Albert wouldn’t keep something like that to himself. He’s special, that’s why he has it.’

‘Yeah…’ I murmured. ‘I’m special.’

I kicked the ground aggressively. Why? I’d just met these people, and I was already ruining things. Not even me specifically, but the way I was. Harvey saw my Power as something desirable. If only he knew what it really was. Nobody would even want to talk to me then. A monster. Nobody would want to associate with someone that was housing something like that within them.

I kissed my teeth. ‘Anyway, let’s get going. And, yeah, I’m gonna use one of my other ‘cool powers’. And Harvey has it, too. It’s from my heritage.’

‘What is it?’ Harvey asked, his eyes immediately lighting up.

‘We’re gonna shadow-travel. Demigods of Titan and Hades have it. It’s literally teleporting using shadows. The building has one. The Tower will have one. Watch.’

I marched over to the dark spot by the side of the hangar, making sure that my entire body was within the shadow. Cecilia and Harvey merely stared at me blankly before I beckoned the two of them over.

Harvey was the first one over; he pretty much ran. Cecilia followed shortly after. Harvey looked like he was incapable of experiencing any emotion other than joy, but Cecilia seemed riddled with worry.

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‘How do you learn about your Titan powers?’ Harvey asked excitedly as I placed my left hand on his shoulder. ‘Do you learn about them?’

‘A bit, yeah,’ I replied as I began to blindly grope the air to my right in hope of grabbing Cecilia’s arm. ‘But I mainly get it from reading. And it comes naturally. Most of my abilities were discovered because they came instinctively.’

Whilst I was keeping a calm façade in front of Harvey, my stomach was inverting at the prospect of touching Cecilia, even if it was just her arm. My hand was still blindly searching the air for her arm, and I was beginning to wonder whether or not she was even next to me anymore.

‘How much do you know about yours?’ I continued. ‘Have you used-’

My hand came into contact with something. Something warm. Something soft. It was skin. I felt like I was about to throw up. It couldn’t have been Cecilia’s arm; she was wearing a blue hoodie.

I felt things that could only have been fingers smoothly make their way in between my own. And William would have been disappointed in me in that moment because there was no chance in Tartarus that my breathing was anywhere near steady.

My eyes gradually swivelled around, along with my head. Only for a brief moment did I look to my right, and that was all I needed. In my peripheral vision, I could see my fingers laced between Cecilia’s.

I snapped my head back to Harvey.

‘Um, I’ll get us there now, I guess.’

I tightened my gut ever so slightly and pictured the street outside of The Tower. And, in the blink of an eye, I saw the scene around me abruptly disappear and become replaced by the front doors of The Tower.

Before I even had time to take my hand off his shoulder, Harvey leapt about three feet back.

‘What the hell?’ he shrieked. ‘That’s freaky! And I can do that?’

‘If you tried and trained enough,’ I replied, feeling my face grow hot. Neither Cecilia nor I had let go.

I slightly loosened my grip on her hand. In my head, this gave her the option to pull away if she wanted to.

She didn’t.

I resumed my previous grip strength.

‘Well, uh, this is The Tower,’ I tried, trying my absolute hardest not to vomit. ‘You’ll be staying on the same floor as me, right? Our rooms are on the tenth floor, and my office is on the top.’

Harvey barrelled inside without even waiting for me and Cecilia. I chuckled slightly at his excitement. It reminded me of how I had felt when I had first come to RoCity.

That had been two years ago. It felt like aeons. I was an entirely different person now than I was then.

I noticed that Cecilia had been rather quiet for a while. That could have been bad.

‘You okay?’ I asked gently, glancing at her.

‘Yeah, don’t worry about me,’ she replied, her face bright red, not looking at me.

‘You sure? It’s getting hard not to.’

She smiled. ‘Just a bit… never mind.’

‘If you need to talk, I’m here, yeah?’

‘Yeah, I know. Thanks.’

Squeezing her hand slightly, I hoped that the small gesture was enough to give her another boost of reassurance. It certainly gave me a boost. Of absolute nausea.

The two of us slowly walked through the front doors. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her still smiling warmly, her face beet red. Her smile made me feel things that I can’t even describe.

Once inside, we found Harvey gawking at everything in sight. The woman at the reception desk, a tall person with light blond hair, was watching him, and it was evident that she was trying not to smirk.

Harvey stopped his gawking upon spotting me and Cecilia. I saw his eyes dip slightly and land on our hands for half a second. A horrible smirk grew on his face and he glanced at me cheekily.

‘Come on, man!’ he roared with delight. ‘We’ve gotta go upstairs!’

‘We’ve gotta get your keys first,’ I explained, smirking. ‘Or did you think we were gonna break into your rooms?’

Harvey rounded on the receptionist.

‘Do you have our keys?’

The receptionist smiled, revealing rows of glistening white teeth.

‘Maybe I do. Who’s asking?’

Harvey puffed his chest out. ‘Harvey Bèstia, cousin of-’

‘Can I have the keys for the room next to mine and the one opposite, please?’ I asked politely. When Harvey had not been paying attention, Cecilia and I had walked over to the desk to join him.

‘Certainly, sir,’ the receptionist said, and the two of us smirked at each other.

‘Thanks a ton,’ I replied as I took the keys with my left hand.

‘Enjoy your stay, you two,’ the receptionist teased as Harvey grunted.

To keep Harvey from going ballistic, I asked a simple question as the three of us entered the lift. Cecilia and I still had our fingers intertwined.

‘So, who gets the room next to me? And who gets the one opposite me?’

‘I don’t mind,’ Cecilia said quietly. ‘So long as there’s a roof over my head.’

‘I’ll take the one opposite, then,’ Harvey said confidently. ‘It’ll be like a film to wake up every morning and meet you in the corridor.’

I smirked. ‘Whatever you say, I guess.’

The journey in the lift may have felt longer due to Harvey’s constant bouncing on his heels, but who’s to say that that’s what did it, right?

Once the doors opened, I gave Harvey his key and watched him bolt out of the lift. He didn’t even know which room was his. I had no idea why he was so excited.

‘The one on the end on the left!’ I called.

He immediately ran there.

He would be staying in Natasha’s old room, and Cecilia would be staying in Jay’s. I smiled as I remembered our first night at RoCity. We had all gone to Quinn’s room and watched the first Iron Man film. I missed that.

Cecilia and I left the lift slowly and sauntered over to her door.

I handed her her key and smiled at her.

‘Do you want me to come in with you?’ I asked.

‘Don’t worry about me,’ she replied, barely above a whisper. ‘Sort out Harvey first.’

‘Whatever you say, miss,’ I teased.

The two of us squeezed each other’s hands and smiled before we separated our grasps and I crossed the corridor and entered Harvey’s room.

I felt kind of hollow after letting go of her hand. I hadn’t realised just how warm it was until it was gone. My hand felt empty.

‘Stupid prick,’ I spat quietly. ‘It’s only been two weeks since Emma.’

‘Is Emma your ex-girlfriend?’ came Harvey’s voice, making my body temperature plummet further than ever before.

I found myself in his living room. He had already found himself quite comfortable on the beige sofa, even going as far as to prop his feet up on the coffee table a few feet away.

‘What? No!’ I yelled. ‘Emma and I were neve-’

I stopped myself.

‘What were you then?’ Harvey pressed. ‘You just had your hands all over Cecilia and then started talking about ‘Emma’. You had to have liked her at least.’

‘I did not have my hands ‘all over Cecilia’!’ I retorted angrily. ‘And the thing between me and Emma was nothing serious!’

‘You liked her, though, right?’

‘It doesn’t mean shit anymore,’ I spat. ‘She defected to his side two weeks ago. Case closed. Forget I even mentioned her.’

Harvey stared at me, aghast.

‘You’re right. I’m sorry. But, I’ve gotta say, I admire your skills with girls.’

‘I’ll send you back to Apercaput.’

His eyes widened.

‘No, no! I just mean that it was smooth! You know, the way you held her hand.’

My body felt warm at the memory.

‘Just leave it,’ I murmured. ‘I’ve known Cecilia less than twenty-four hours. It’s nothing. We just forgot to let go. That’s all.’

Harvey grinned.

‘Whatever you say, boss.’

‘Need help unpacking?’ I asked hastily, changing the subject before it could expand any further.

‘Nah, don’t worry, I’m probably gonna have a quick nap now, anyway,’ Harvey replied, grinning. ‘Go help Cecilia.’

I glared at him. ‘Well, you’re gonna wanna be up pretty quick; I still have to show you around the city a bit.’

‘I know how to take a nap,’ Harvey explained, shrugging. ‘I’ll be up whenever I need to be.’

‘Fine, see you later.’

‘See you. Have fun.’

I scoffed at him as I left.

I wasn’t quite sure how I felt. It seemed as though I simultaneously wanted to hit something and collapse where I stood.

Glancing up at Cecilia’s door across the corridor, I realised that it was open ever so slightly. At the very least, this would give me a reason to go over.

I strode over slowly and knocked gently on the door.

‘Cecilia?’

No response.

I peered around the edge of the door. From where I was, I could only see the beginning part of the corridor, and she certainly wasn’t there.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped around the door and into her room. Did it feel wrong? Yes. Was there a strange feeling in my chest that forbade me from stopping? Yes.

The grey walls of the corridor felt closer than usual as I slowly made my way deeper into Cecilia’s room. Every so often, I called out her name quietly.

It felt like the corridor lasted forever, but I eventually made my way into her living room. My heart skipped multiple beats.

In the centre of the room was her dark green sofa. It sat parallel to her wooden coffee table and TV, just as mine did in my room. But the sofa itself was not what made my heart race.

Lying on the sofa was Cecilia, and she was out cold. Her body rose and fell with each small breath that she gave, and watching the sight made me feel perhaps the strangest feeling I had ever felt. Her hair was spread out wildly on the sofa, so messily that I quickly realised how embarrassed she would be if she knew that I had seen her like this. Well, not that I could see why; her hair still looked great.

I smiled. ‘Tired, huh?’

I turned on the spot, checking to see if her bedroom was in the same place as it was in my room. It was.

And, although I was trying to be quiet, I rushed my way into her room. Once in there, I hastily pulled the grey blanket back. I hadn’t even been in the room thirty seconds before I was back out.

As I stared down at Cecilia again, I took a deep breath.

‘Gods, please don’t wake up.’

I crouched down slightly next to her, easing one arm beneath her knees and the other around her shoulders as I did so.

What can I say? I couldn’t leave her to sleep on the sofa whilst there was a perfectly comfortable bed right in the next room.

She stirred ever so slightly, and my entire body froze. But she didn’t wake. Her brow slightly furrowed for a moment before she resumed her peaceful sleep.

I carried her slowly into her bedroom, glancing at her face frequently to check that she was still asleep. Despite the many things I had done in my life, this felt like the riskiest.

Sighing as I eased her onto the bed, I wondered what her reaction would be like if she found out I’d done this. I hoped she wouldn’t mind.

‘Sleep well, I guess,’ I breathed as I pulled the blanket gently over her body, tucking it under her chin.

As I left the room, I glanced over my shoulder at her. She was smiling. The mere sight of it made me feel faint.

‘Dumbass,’ I breathed. ‘You fall in love way too easily.’