Alluded

"They could be anywhere, Damien. You know that." Nate walked round to the other side of the desk, talking through a frustrated sigh. Leaning forward, he spoke, more quietly this time and with a softer tone. "You need to realise – this is pointle-"

"It's not pointless, Nate." Damien responded, hunched over the desk with his eyes boring into a map. "We both know how important this is."

Nathan tilted his head back in impatience. "Damie-"

"This isn't a debate, Nathan."

I inched forward a few centimetres, closer to the doorway; I wanted to see their expressions. This wasn't the first conversation I'd tried to overhear. They hadn't noticed me before - then again, we weren't on a creaky boat before.

The floorboards squeaked a little under my weight.

I saw their heads jerk in my direction and quickly flattened myself against the wall, covering my mouth with my hand to stop myself from making too much noise from breathing.

"We'll aim to get there by ‪tomorrow morning‬. Tell Kilburn to use the bigger sail." Damien resumed, seemingly dismissing the noise of the floorboards and turning back to face Nate's disapproving expression.

"But that will make the ship unstable?"

"It's a risk we'll have to take." He shifted his visual attention to the floor as if trying to avoid Nathan's judgement of his decision. "I know you disapprove of this, Nate. But you have to understand how vital this is, especially now. Somethings happening."

"Damn right, I disapprove. Do you know how completely impossible it would be to find the others? On top of that, you're dragging innocent people on stupidly dangerous assignments with the assumption that Sera's even one of them!" Nate sighed and walked closer to Damien, crossing his arms. "...how will this even help her if we find them all?"

"It doesn't matter. I told you what to do – do it." Nathan bit his lip; he wanted to argue but, at the same time, he knew as well as I did how futile it was to argue with Damien.

"Fine." He responded, curtly. "Yes Sir..."

That was my cue: I could use the sound of Nathan's footsteps as he left the room to cover up my own. I turned and ran to the next room, stepping as lightly as I possibly could. Nate wasn't the lightest-footed of people so I could bank-on that quality to keep me hidden.

A firm grip tensed over the top of my shoulder. I squeezed my eyes shut – half with anger and half with fearful anticipation. He must've seen me.

"Sera?" I turned around to become face to face with Damien, staring down at me. My teeth gritted, I glanced upwards.

"Yes?"

"Were you listening?" Damien's expression seemed to soften slightly as he asked, a softness I didn't trust would last.

"Listening to what?" Nonchalantly, I shrugged my shoulders with a long exhale and started to walk in the opposite direction.

"It was none of your business, Sera." The angry half took over then, I felt myself move towards him before I had really thought about it.

"Oh no, no... Nothing's my business is it? Even when the conversation you're having includes my name. Especially not when the conversation involves my name." Damien seemed taken aback by my sudden sarcastic outburst, they were far and few between. "Apparently, our two-year age difference excludes me from all information. Tell me, what makes you think I'm one of 'them'?"

"Sera-"

"Better yet, who is 'them'?!"

"Sera!"

"What?!" Almost as if it was agitated, the boat groaned and creaked as the word left my mouth. Kilburn must've put the bigger sail up. Damien looked around the ship, checking if the instability had calmed a little.

"Come on."

"Funnily enough, I don't feel like going anywhere with you, Damien." Apparently, I didn't have a choice. Damien's hand clasped around my arm as he pulled me with him through a narrow, low ceilinged corridor and into his study. "Damien? Get off!" I yelled, clawing at his hand and trying to release myself from his grip.

"Sit down and shut up."

"Seriously?"

"Just do it, Sera." Begrudgingly, I obliged and took a seat on a small wooden-framed sofa with velvet padding.

"Damien... Are you going to tell me anything? Because, if not, then-"

"Just sit for a minute, okay?" I wasn't expecting any information at this point; Damien had never trusted me with his toys when we were younger, let alone a secret that seemed to be this important. It's stupid, I know, to started basically stamping your foot when you're annoyed. Honestly, it wasn't immaturity (although I'm aware that saying it wasn't makes it sound like it was), it was exasperation. Everyone around me just seemed to enjoy keeping secrets – at least, that's what it felt like. Secrecy in an attempt to protect someone makes sense, but in every book you read it's always better when the person finds out the big secret, right?

"You shouldn't get angry." Damien uttered, under his breath.

"I shouldn't – what?"

"You shouldn't get agitated. Don't."

I shouldn't get agitated...? All of that cryptic conversation with Nate and all he has to say is that I'm not allowed to get agitated?

"How am I supposed to not 'get agitated' if no one tells me anything? Ever?"

"Because you don't need to know, okay?!" I picked myself up from the sofa, but before I could start walking... "Sit."

"I'm going to bed."

"Sit!" Damien yelled, his face creasing into an enraged and desperate expression. I don't know why, but something about it just made me feel like I should listen, so I sat. He got up; he walked outside the door and he locked it.

___________________________

Thank you for reading the beginning of this series! I'm sorry there wasn't much action really in this chapter, but from the next one onward things should get a little more interesting.

I'll post each chapter as soon as it's done so that should be every two weeks or so? I know that's a bit longer than a lot of books on here take to be updated but I want to make sure they're all good quality rather than rushed and kinda crap lol.

See ya in the next one :)