“Why don’t you do the honorsAmory?” Avalon addressed Principal Saint with a strong familiarity, and slid abox of fried rice over to himself, digging in with a set of wooden chopsticks.

Chapter Thirty-One

“So you know about the Resistance?”I asked Principal Saint tentatively, not sure where he stood on the issue. Heentered the kitchen uninvited, and made himself at home to no one’s objections,his arms laden with paper bags of hot Chinese food.

“I believe I was the founder,”Principal Saint smiled at me widely when my mouth dropped open from disbelief.As the principal of my high school, I found it hard to imagine him plotting thedeath of one of its most prominent students. “That was a long, long time agohowever. I’ve been able to take somewhat of a backseat position for quite sometime,” Avalon rolled his eyes and I could tell that Principal Saint was notbeing entirely truthful with me.

“Sure, sure,” Avalon mumbled,shoving more rice mixed with Mongolian Beef into his mouth.

“Well, at least for the lastsixteen years. You kids have been quite time consuming,” he grinned again. Iwas a little taken aback by his casual appearance. His black hair seemed alittle looser; and instead of the double breasted suits I was used to seeinghim in, he donned a pair of jeans and navy blue polo.

“What?” I asked, my disbeliefgrowing.

“That has been my task since youwere born: to make sure you both survived. So far, so good, but I think Edenhere is bent on destruction,” I gave him an acerbic squint of the eyes, buthalf wondered if he was right. “In truth however, it has been the greatest taskI’ve ever been given,” his expression turned serious, and something in his eyesgave me a foreboding anxiety that I couldn’t explain.

“Why is that?” I choked out.

“Well, let’s just say that you twoare very important to the survival of our species,” I opened my mouth to askhim to explain further, but he continued quickly. “Back to your questionconcerning the King, or Lucan. He’s the same as his father and his father’sfather, and the King before that. They are all tyrants. They care only for thesurvival of their bloodline and have been chasing Immortality since the daythey lost it.”

“So we really can’t live foreveranymore? Kiran could have died last night?” I asked quietly, afraid of theanswer.

“Anything is possible. Some of ushave definitely lived longer than others,” he smiled almost humbly as if hewere embarrassed of something.

“And we all live longer than them,”Avalon said “them” with such disgust that I had no doubt he was referring tothe Kendricks.

“You haven’t lived longer thananyone yet, Avalon,” Principal Saint addressed him with authority and I sawAvalon look down at his food with a half-smile on his face; as if he didn’tquite take Principal Saint seriously. “But it would have taken a lot more thana long fall to kill Kiran Kendrick. He’s just fine Eden, you’ll see him atschool tomorrow, I’m sure.”

“So what can kill us?” I asked,once again afraid of the answer.

“Only another Immortal can kill usand in very dire circumstances,” Principal Saint shook his head as if refusingto say more. “And then there is something we call the King’s Curse; but so farit seems to only affect a person after a long life. It is much like dying ofold age, only a little more gruesome than that I suppose.”

“Why is it called the King’sCurse?” I asked reaching for an egg roll.

“Because that is exactly what itis,” Principal Saint’s voice hardened. “It is a curse brought on our people bythe first King, Derrick Kendrick, and grows stronger after every consecutiveKendrick that rules,” when I gave him a curious expression, he continued. “Yousee before we had a King our people had never experienced death. For a couplethousands of years we had walked the earth without death. Nothing could be doneto us that we could not heal from, and no sickness or plague affected us. Wesimply lived, our powers growing stronger every year longer we survived.Finally, however, there were too many of us, we outnumbered the humans, and wewere spread across the globe. Instead of thanking God for our blessings, thepeople grew complacent and cried out for a King. The Immortals wanted to livelike the humans; even though we lived with abilities the humans couldn’t evencomprehend; even though the humans lived in war and hunger and underoppression, still our people called for a King. So they elected one. One of thestrongest Immortals to ever walk the earth; and how did he thank them? Bydestroying them. First order of business, he hunted the Oracles down andexecuted them.”

“Not all of them,” Avaloninterrupted.

“All of them died that day,”Principal Saint growled back.

“Avalon has mentioned the Oraclesbefore, but I guess I still don’t get it. And how did he execute them if no onehad died?” I asked naively and confused.

“The Oracles were elders who guidedthe people before the King. They acted as a referee for disputes, and otherissues that arose. They were one of the first and strongest of our species. Butat that time, every kind married each other; there was no distinction betweenraces. Because of that, the magic was much stronger than it is today. You see aWitch could marry a Titan and together they could have a Medium for a child.The magic was mixed; but each individual would display certain attributesdefining what they were capable of. Derrick killed them by first draining theirmagic and then they were easily murdered just like any normal human being wouldhave been,” I thought for a moment Amory was going to be sick. A look ofpure nausea passed across his face, but then it was gone and he continued,“The second thing Derrick did was to cut off the magic from mingling. Eachrace, by King’s edict, was henceforth forbidden to intermarry. This singled themagic out, not only weakening its power, but cursing us for generations tocome. The King’s Curse spread wildly, destroying most of the older generationsfirst, and then working its way down, cutting our numbers by millions. It hitthe King’s household the hardest however. And to this day every King we havedies young comparatively, and worst of all they are only gifted with one maleheir. It has been like this for King after King after King. Yet, they continueto oppress us, enforcing the rules even more harshly these days.”

“So that is why Kiran has to marrya Psychic? Because he’s a Psychic?” I asked, thinking very selfishly of my ownproblems.

“Well, in order to prolong theirlives and strengthen their powers the royal family is both Witch and Psychic.They alternate what type of wife they take. Lucan took a Witch, and now Kiranmust take a Psychic in order to ensure the equality of magic,” Principal Saintexplained this as if it made perfect sense, but I found this entire historylesson a bit confusing.

“So if the royal family isresponsible for all of this, how come the Resistance has to be a secret? Whydon’t we all just rise up against them and take over peacefully?” I asked,hoping for a better solution than murdering Kiran.

“Because of the f-ing Guard,”Avalon shouted out impatiently.

“What Avalon means, is in ourweakened state, most Immortals wouldn’t stand a chance against the Titan Guard.They are too skilled in battle; the community as a whole understands that wewould all die. Their combat skill is what sets them apart, what defines them asImmortals.”

“And the Titan Guard is Ok with howthings are being run?” I asked thinking of Talbott and his utter loyalty toKiran.

“Well, if they aren’t there’snothing they can do about it,” Avalon interrupted again.

“When Derrick was first crowned King,the Guard gave a blood oath to protect the royal family as long as there wasany living heir. If the Guard breaks their oath they will also all die. They haveno choice,” Principal Saint looked grim and tired. The lines in his face hadbecome more pronounced, making him look ancient.