XAVIER

The aroma of cooked meat and freshly baked breakfast wafted through the palace like a beacon guiding me forward. Still, I headed in the opposite direction, towards the tower my brother chose as his room. Servants in white whisked by, their cuffs labeled with gold and blue. They hung their heads down, though two of opposite classes had the audacity to risk giving each other the eye. As if I wouldn't realize they were having an affair. Such fools.

Entering the circular base of Damien's tower, I climbed the marble spiral steps to find Damien. Long windows carried an immaculate view of one of the many gardens tucked between golden walls of the palace.

When I reached the first landing, I didn't bother knocking and simply opened the door. I knew he wasn't going to be here, but it didn't hurt to check and see what he's been up to.

The inside was a typical office, one of my father's design, with a desk in the middle and a few chairs surrounding it. Bookshelves lined the walls, covering every inch save for an old fashioned board on one side of the room. Damien had a few blueprints for a new electric bomb pinned. The opposite wall consisted of floor to ceiling windows, though the blinds were pulled down during the day against the light and opened at night.

As expected, Damien wasn't here. Stepping out and shutting the door, I climbed up to the next landing. He was never an early bird and was usually in his bedroom on the third landing at this time of the morning, but I had a feeling he would be on the second floor to blow off some steam after the previous night's discussion.

Again, I didn't knock and pushed the door. It swung open to reveal the messy interior of Damien's design room.

The scent of oil hung in the air as a machine whirled in the corner. Metal objects were scattered across tables and different papers dotted the floor. A speaker hidden in his walls was blasting music, fighting to be heard over the sound of his work. The light strips Damien inserted into the crevices of his room changed colors along with the beat of the song. Damien was hunched over a laser cutting machine, watching as it played out the orders Damien gave through his Tab.

Shutting the door behind me, I approached him, looking inside the machine. Flat sheets of metal were being cut into their instructed shapes so they could be used in another one of Damien's weapons.

"I know, I know," Damien shouted over the sound of the cutter. "Time for breakfast."

I nodded towards the machine, not wanting to try forming the words required to ask a question. Damien caught my drift.

"I'm trying to make an electric grenade with a detonation level between the disks and the full-blown bombs."

I nodded and turned to the nearest table, looking over his blueprints. They were fine, though there were ways to make power usage more efficient.

"I know it's not perfect," Damien called. "I just wanted to try something first before fixing it up."

I nodded again just as my Tab pinged. Turning on the holographic device, Arielle's name appeared under the notifications bar. Immediately, I opened the message only to realize it was in the group chat with the three of us, not the individual conversation. My lips, which had quirked up without me knowing, were pressed back down into a firm line. 

Arielle: Talk. Meet before bf.

I ignored her inability to form complete sentences and waved my Tab at Damien. My mind was too focused on predicting what idiotic idea Arielle had come up with to bother trying to explain the message.

Damien checked his Tab and turned off the laser cutter. "Let's go."

♕ ♕ ♕

Damien and I wove our way through the golden maze until we reached a forgotten hallway near the front half of the palace. The light sockets were empty, though the windows high above illuminated the place enough. It was as long and wide as a main hall, with its intricate blue and gold designs swirling across the wall. Dust sat on the floor in thick layers which made footprints while we walked as if it were snow.

At the very end of the hall was a set of massive french doors which rose thirty feet in the air. A white marble designed the door with shocks of gold splaying across its surface. The door carried the combined Crown symbol: the Intellect's blue hexagon inside the Unassailable's golden triangle. A thick chain wrapped around the handles and carried a large lock whose key was hidden in the back of a forgotten closet.

The doors led to a second throne room was built in case one of the Crowns called for emergency control and sole leadership. As the Blood Laws decreed if a Crown is killed while the country's at war then the remaining Crown has the power to become the only ruling Crown as long as the necessary people agree upon it. Only one Crown would rule the Intellects and the Unassailables.

The law had never been invoked and, therefore, the room never opened despite my brother's desperate attempts at mastering the lock.

For this reason, I made it our meeting place. Damien froze the cameras long ago and no one noticed as no one bothered to journey here. Everything we did here would remain a secret as long as we made sure we were followed, which any assassin with common sense should be able to accomplish.

Leaning against the golden door, Damien sighed. "Where's Arielle?"

On cue, footsteps echoed through the hall. I turned to find Arielle walking towards us, her feet barely touching the ground as if she was a spirit ready to drift away whenever she felt the need. Her hair hung straight down in golden white tresses which shone as if all the light in the room flew to her. Her skin was basked in golden sunlight which seemed to follow her wherever she went, making her look almost untouchable—a deity who would disappear if one looked too close. A scar ran down the length of her exposed arm showing proof of one of her many misadventures. She was beautiful.

Now, of course, she was also an idiot which was a definite downside.

She approached us with the half-smile of someone who fought a battle and came out victorious.

Damien narrowed his eyes. "What did you do?"

"I have a plan."

"Your plans will get us killed," Damien groaned.

"No, Xaviers' will. I'm usually the one saving both your asses."

"You're right. Your plans just get nowhere."

"My plans work!" Arielle argued.

"Last night says otherwise."

Arielle rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Will you listen to mine or not?"

Damien tapped his chin in mock thought. "Nah, I'm good."

Damien turned to leave and Arielle gave me an exasperated look. I rolled my eyes, grabbed Damien by the back of his shirt, and pulled him back.

"Thank you." Arielle cleared her throat. "I convinced our mothers to travel to the city of Indianapolis to buy some unique jewelry. After breakfast, we'll tag along since we can't get out of Cressida without supervision."

"Why are we trying to get out of Cressida?"

"Do you remember the other girl with Arielle, or Phoenix, whatever you want to call her?" she asked. "I learned that her name is Tressa Richards and she lives in Indianapolis, about an hour away by car from the bank."

Damien squinted. "Since when did you have the ability to track people?"

"I asked Knox's younger brother, whatever his name is."

"Trevor," Damien answered.

Ah, so she's still an idiot.

"If I can talk to Tressa Richards I can gather info that might help me convince Arielle or even ask her to convince Arielle herself."

"Persuading your own sister didn't go so well yesterday," Damien pointed out. "How do you plan to talk to the girl you nearly killed last night."

"You nearly killed her, not me," Arielle corrected. "And I didn't get that far."

A moment passed and I gathered my breath, readying myself to speak. A familiar but unwelcome tension built in the pit of my chest as I opened my mouth.

"She's a thief. Money and jewels will gain more loyalty than anything else."

My throat squeezed and scraped as my voice came out in hoarse waves. I almost didn't notice.

The others nodded.

"We should get to breakfast before they wonder why we're gone," Arielle said, turning to leave.

"Wait," Damien said. "What about the Ravens?"

"What about them?" I asked, ignoring the soreness building in my throat.

"What if they interfere?" Damien asked.

I narrowed my eyes. Does this cocky bastard really think he could get away with trying to pull information out of me? Especially after the argument I witnessed?

But Damien was smarter than that. He had to have known that I would figure out what he was up to, and maybe he didn't care. He knew I was likely to help, which I was as it was well worth my time to track down the country's largest conspiracy. Which meant he was trying to hide his intentions from Arielle. A smart move as she would demand we focus solely on her sister and save the Ravens for later.

"Why would they want to?" Arielle asked.

Like I said, her idiocy was a definite set back.

"Mom said the Ravens managed to kill a few operatives yesterday," Damien explained.

"I know. Alistair told me. So?"

"They're moving in, Arielle. What if they take the opportunity to make a move while we're on their own home turf?"

Arielle lifted her chin. "They won't interfere with us. We're the Crowns."

"Our status didn't matter to them in the Evandor woods."

"They only attacked because they had no other choice and they were manipulated by Chance Dayholt to do so. Chance has already been taken care of. There's nothing to worry about."

"Chance might be, but his sister isn't. She's still a threat."

"She's not here because she ran, leaving her family to die," she snapped. "If she valued her life so much that she would let us kill them, she wouldn't even think about stepping foot in Concorde."

She turned on her heel. Damien crossed his hands over his chest.

"Your ignorance will get us killed," he called after her.

I could imagine her rolling her eyes as she looked over her shoulder. "Stop being paranoid and come eat breakfast."

Damien waited until Arielle was out of sight to speak again.

"You know they're a problem," he stated.

I nodded.

"You know why I care, it would be stupid to try and hide that from you. But I'm an Intellect. I can make sure my emotions don't cloud my actions on the field," he said. "So will you help me?"

The fact that the dumbass even had to ask proved he was the idiotic brother.

The edges of my lips quirked up ever so slightly. Damien smiled.

"Fantastic. Now that our fun act of rebellion for the year has been determined, let's go eat breakfast before Arielle comes back to chop our heads off."

Hey guys!

Sorry for the delay. I've been slowly losing motivation to keep going, plus school's been amping up since the end of the semester is fast approaching and it's final exams week. All in all, I know this chapter is REALLY late.

And for those of you wondering why the chapter seemed a bit short or uneventful, I was having trouble trying to figure out how to balance Xavier's voice in his POV, so you might see me mess around with that a bit in the next few Xavier chapters. That being said, it was taking a while to get this chapter to be somewhat mediocre, and I had so much more planned for this chapter as there was a whole other part to it that had some SERIOUS stuff, but then I realized it was getting insanely long and would've delayed the publishing of this chapter even more so I pushed it off to the next Crown chapter.

So yes, Xavier will take the next Crown chapter, which is Chapter 08 since you'll get to see Indigo again next chapter.

That being said, I'm thinking about just having shorter chapters in general which will bring me to the Wattpad average size. This will help me get content out to you quickly and keep me motivated so that I only have to write in smaller chunks which, again, lets me get content out to you quicker. It's a win-win!

Sorry, that was so long! I won't have any more super long author's notes, hopefully.

See ya!

~Sreenija Paruchuri, Queen of Psychos