Chapter 1

Damien

"Now son, this is a serious topic," Damien's father spoke to him in a stern voice from his throne. His face void of all emotion as Damien stared at them from three steps down. Damien didn't often see his parents, but when he did, it was in the throne room and they were his King and Queen. Not parents. They were all business all the time, or they weren't out in the eye of their people or servants. Meaning they were either in queen and king mode or they were locked in their rooms, not to be disturbed.

His mother was beautiful with her long blond hair and light blue eyes; she had thin light pink lips that matched her pale complexion. Today, she wore a dress of light blue with a high white collar that went up to her earlobes. Her neck and ears were adorned with silver jewelry with light blue stones that sparkled in the shaft of sunlight that was filtering through the large three windows that sat behind the white wooden thrones.

His father seemed to be the exact opposite of his mother. To his mother's pale complexion his father was all dark, dark black hair that fell in a sheet around his ears and down to his shoulders, with dark brown eyes. His skin was also a caramel color, and he had a neatly trimmed beard that matched his ears. His pants, button-up shirt, and leather boots were all black and new.

Damien had ended up in between his mother and father in looks. His eyes were light brown as if the ice blue and dark almost black couldn't decide on which color to make his eyes, so they agreed somewhere in the middle. His long hair was as black as his father's except for the streak of red hair that framed the right side of his face, apparently, he had gotten that from his grandmother on his mother's side of the family. Most of the time he wore his hair down, allowing the long locks to fall around his shoulders. His skin had simply ended up a few shades lighter than his father's.

Currently, his father's brown eyes were looking down at Damien. The look in them hard as he steeled his facial expression for his next words. "You have no mated pair, and you're almost sixteen."

Damien heaved a deep sigh, letting the breath out before he looked from his mother's ice blue eyes to his father's almost black ones. "She's alive you know," his voice was soft as he crossed his arms over his chest, needing the barrier between him and his parents. This was a conversation that he had with them often and he had continued to fight as he tried to find his mate.

For years he had searched with no avail, but he didn't want to give up and had argued with them endlessly about letting him do what he needed to find her. Despite the frequency of the conversations, he always ended up so upset that he would start shaking and then would be having to monitor his mood. Damien getting angry and yelling did absolutely nothing except for getting him dismissed from the throne room with a promise that the conversation would continue again later. Something that he would rather just no deal with.

"We know honey," His mother stood and walked down the steps to place a hand on his shoulder doing something that he did not see often. By doing this, she was removing herself as his Queen and moving into mother territory. He knew that something bad was coming because that was the only time that she did this, to comfort him. "But you can't ascend the throne without your mate. It's the law." Damien closed his eyes for a moment before he looked at his mother in the face.

"Just give me a little more time," I know that I can find her." His father looked at him for a long moment before he sighed, his strict face seeming to crumple at the sight of his hopeful offspring. He however stayed seated on his throne his feet planted as he watched his wife and son speak below.

"Son, I understand how much you want her to be your pair; I was young once-"

"Dad you don't understand," Damien took a step towards him as his arms flew up, his temper snapping with his father's words.

His father couldn't understand what he was feeling right now. He had never even had to fathom what it meant to be without his other half. "You and mom grew up together; you were best friends before anything else. My mate is lost. She is somewhere out there, and I will find her. I'm not giving up. I've told you both this, many times. Please stop trying to discourage me in this search." Damien struggled to get his temper back under control as he turned and started towards the doors only to stop when his mother's soft voice spoke up from behind him.

"You have one more year." Damien felt as though his heart was going to fall right through his stomach and lay on the ground beating softly as it tried to survive outside his body. Taking a shuttering breath in he turned to look at his father.

"We already decided," His father's voice was the same soft tone that his mother had used. "One year, if you can't find her in that time. Then you will be mated with another person." Damien spun on his heel and stared at them. His mother walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder before she pulled him into a hug.

"We want you to find her," she whispered, "But we do not want you to waste your life." Damien pulled back enough to looked into his mother's eyes and knew that his parents had been debating on this for a long time. His mother had always been on his side of finding his one true mate, his father wanted to marry him off to someone else. However, the way that his mother was looking at him right now, she had finally started to agree with his father.

"Fine." He spit the word like poison before he turned. His mother's hand fell from his shoulders, but she did not speak as he walked from the room, slamming the door behind him. He took a couple of minutes to compose himself. He was so mad. He wanted to scream, to punch something. Anything to get these pent-up emotions out of his body and into the world. However, he was a prince and that wasn't how princes acted in public; even if the public was just the corridor in his castle. He could not break his composure.

Still bristling but getting it mostly under control he walked down the hallway quickly. Once outside his bedroom he threw the doors open and walked in, his composure slipping slightly as he slammed the door back into its frame. He let out a long rush of breath as he ran his fingers through his hair before looking around the room and finding five sets of eyes focused on him. Damien smirked at his scouts, the look on his face completely portraying what he felt inside falsely.

"What did your parents want?" Jake, his closest friend, and most honored scout asked as he looked up from the book he was reading. His soft blue eyes lingered on Damien for a moment before they returned to his book. He had medium-length brown hair that fell free around his defined jawline. Damien crossed his arms and leaned against the door, looking away from him and down at the ground. Jake, like him, was unmated and they had a deep connection due to this fact.

"They have decided to give me a deadline on finding her," Damien mumbled, he could feel the tears building up behind his eyes, but he didn't let them fall. He wouldn't.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Rebecca screeched as she looked up from her card game with Angelica.

Rebecca had crazy deep red hair that matched her fiery personality, wild, everywhere, and unpredictable. Her sun-kissed skin was tanned from the amount of time she spent outdoors training and other activities. Her angry hazel eyes were currently looking at her mate, Ryan.

Ryan was what one would call the complete polar opposite of Rebecca with his calm, composed personality. Never once in the entire time, he knew Ryan had he seen him snap. He had long black hair that he had Rebecca braid for him every day with almost black eyes. His skin on the contrary, no matter how much time he spent in the sun, never changed from his pale white complexion.

"We've spent so much time looking for her just to give up?" Rebecca tossed down her cards in her anger as she crossed her arms.

"It was bound to happen eventually," Nathan spoke as he stretched. "We all knew this was coming." Nathan had shoulder-length dirty brown hair with dark blue eyes. He looked at his mate, Angelica. Who, was looking at Rebecca's discarded cards and set hers down softly her ice blue eyes moving to Damien, her rosy lips pressed in a small frown.

Angelica had very long white-blond hair and a rosy peach complexion. She, like Nathan, was almost always calm, but she was different than all of them. She was quiet but not because she didn't have anything to say but because she perceived the world differently. This sometimes made it difficult for her to put her emotions into words. When she did speak, it always held wisdom.

"How long are they giving you?" Angelica spoke in her soft breathy voice. Damien was sure that there were only two volumes for her: soft and quiet.

"A year," Damien crossed his arms as he bounced off the door and walked over to the couch. He flopped onto it and put his head into the armrest with his feet in Jake's lap.

"That's not very long," Jake shook his head as he placed his book on the coffee table, placing one hand on Damien's shin.

"Yup," Damien rolled onto his side before he rolled to his back, looking up at the ceiling. "Just means we have to find her. I'm sending you guys out," Damien stood quickly and looked at his scouts. "Help me find her. I know she's alive, our connection isn't strong, but I can still see things once in a while." Jake inched forward on the couch; his interest peeked at the mention of their connection.

"What did you see last time?" He spoke quickly, "It might be a hint as to where she might be." Damien shook his head.

"It's always foggy but," He paused as he looked up at the ceiling. Closing his eyes he tried to get his mind to recall the image that had flashed in his mind the last time he and his mate had connected. "I remember a large red-bricked building, with a lot of glass windows in two rows all along the sides. There were tons of kids our age going into it with large bags on their backs. I don't really remember any more than that."

"We'll find her," Jake stopped as he turned back to Damien; his next words were measured as if he was asking more than just the words he spoke. "You're sure it's a girl, right?" Damien laughed and just for a second Jake's eyes flashed before returning to normal.

"Yes," Damien chuckled, "I am mated with a female," He paused to smile at Jake who had a knowing smirk on his face. "Now, I want to send you guys out to look. Apparently, it was one of the King's scouts that took her during the attack so I figured that you guys might be able to think mindset."

"That's not a bad idea; we haven't taken that into account before." Rebecca thought for a moment. "I think there are a couple of places that I haven't checked yet."

"Alright, you guys head out tomorrow, don't be gone for too long. Go ahead and pack for the journey." Angelica walked over to Damien and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"We'll find her," She whispered before the sound of clothing entered his ears as they used their movement skill and vanished from the room in a blur of movement. Damien looked around the now large vacant room; he was always lonely when they left.

Scout Skill Guide

Lesson one

The movement skill

The movement skill is the ability to channel aether into the user's feet and push the body forward as if blinking to a set destination in an instant. This ability can be used in any direction including up as well as upwards and down in the case of someone falling. When used in the downward direction the user does not lose momentum and must be careful not to plow their person into the ground, in some cases this can cause death or serious energy. Scouts can also use their momentum when running to propel themselves further when using their movement.

When a scout is training, this is the first skill that they will learn and will only be able to move a couple of feet at a time. However, after extensive practice, they will be able to move further and further. Once the scout can master this skill, they will be able to use their movement skill from their max down to just an inch. It requires a great deal of aether control and becomes second nature to scouts. Some scouts will say that this is the most used skill out of any other. If not careful an untrained scout will drain their aether making them unable to use their movement or any other skill until their energy is recharged by sleeping, resting, or eating.

The most known scout for his movement skill was able to move three hundred and twenty feet, which is as long as two football fields in Earth terms.