Conquest Of The Fallen: Dark Dominions

Chapter 106: Mi Corazón

[? For You – Liam Payne ft. Rita Ora.]

Corazón Mortimer picked the Goth [Raven Arc] in her Manifest. Rafel was perplexed beyond measure. Exclusive content from m,v lem|p,yr

He would've gambled a high stakes roulette on Cora winding up with Pegasus Blue. She had lived with him for two years, dammit! He knew her. She knew him. [Water] and [Spirit] were her most powerful mystics—or was at least. Something had changed that.

Maybe the same thing that had wiped her mind clean of every memory of him. Her eyes were blue. Her magic was blue. She was born a Pegasus. Why then had the Arc Crystal given her Raven: a totem for darkness and the arcane?

His Cora had never once cast a dark magic spell. . .until the end.

Rafel was determined to find out what went awry.

He had seen the [S Rank] god of deception crack her neck and watch her fall from his choking grip to her death, while he bled out in the terror of fire and burning logs. No one could've survived such destruction of her axis bone.

Cora's head had rotated like a fucking swivel; that nightmare still haunted him, watching her struggling one second, and the next going limp in Mephistopheles' hands; which was why Rafel was certain something had happened to Cora.

Something. . .like resurrection.

And he damn well knew only a few of the Fallen Ones could manage an [Eighth Infernal Ring] feat like that.

Rafel woke up in his dorm with a revived vigor.

"Morning, bro!" Percival groggily called from his bedside. "I thought main study activities aren't starting until next week; the school board trying to give us time to adapt and all that?"

"Yep!" Rafel called from his corner. "—but I'm looking to hit the gym. I have to see about an old friend and make up on my physical therapy."

"Go easy on your body, bro. You're already ripped enough as it is," Percival muttered before clumping his head back into his fat pillow. He was out before Rafel could look away.

The dorm room had enough space for comfort, the magic lighting kept purposely dim for the sake of the vampire teens among, and while Rafel was in the hot shower, he caught a silhouette rip into the room, shadow-walking through the white walls. He emerged steaming in a waist towel, and caught Aya sitting in his bed. She had a [Cool Eel] spirit balm and fresh swaddlers for his injury in her hands.

Her violet eyes lit on his pecs and she beamed at his entry.

"Good morning, my lord."

"Naamah, you have to quit the formality here. That's an order! Did you just walk in my room's walls?"

Aya grinned. "I did knock if it makes a difference. No one answered. Before you get dressed, come." She patted the area of the bed beside her. Rafel sat, and she got to wiping and massaging the spirit balm into his side where the [Dark Spectre] dagger had pierced in. His wound had healed nicely into a sexy battle scar, and the scab was the shape of a raggedy lightning bolt.

Aya covered the balm, finishing, "I have to head back to my dorm, but please feel free to visit anytime. Copenhagen Hall is just a few blocks away.

My roommate is liberal as a wildling."

From her seductive wink, Rafel could tell the subtle insinuations 'visit' and 'liberal' meant.

Rafel winked back and dropped the towel. He was way past nudity with Aya. Still, she pulled her coy look at the curve of his penis. Rafel dragged on dark sweatpants and a tank top. He grabbed from his bedside cabinet, next to the college pamphlet, blueprints of Salem Hall.

"I have to hit the gym. I'll see you at lunch, yeah?"

Aya nodded, leaning back on her arms to study his pert behind as he walked out the room.

The gym was a floor above his own. Though Salem Hall was only four storeys high, it stretched long and rectangular with grand rooms running out horizontally. The hostel was mostly glass and students could get a super view of the institute's chic surrounding and fall season panorama of the island where the school nested.

Splendid rays of sunlight splashed through the glass exterior, hitting the corridors magically as Rafel jogged the ivory tiled floors to the swinging plastic doors.

The corridors of Salem Hall glowed like a futuristic lab for bioweapons. Using the map in his hand, he found the gym easy enough. It took the space of half the entire floor where it was located. There were no separate sections for genders. Boys and girls hit it together. Heads of course raised as Rafel walked in.

"Looking good!" A muscly green Bullwoman fist bumped with him. Rafel chuckled up at her. She smiled back. Female [Minotaurs] were rare, and this bitch was gorgeous, packing six abs, and 7ft.

Rafel recognized a few of those he sat with in the Assembly Hall in the [Phoenix Arc] faction. Since no one was wearing any colors, you didn't know which arc anyone belonged to. It was just like Dr. Shetty had said; the Halls allowed all factions to mix, be it Raven or Pegasus.

Rafel pulled his little gym bag tighter on his shoulder as he passed by the gigantic coolant which humidified and conditioned the air.

The entire gym had a lot of oval windows and sunshine, and smelled faintly of body sweat and sandalwood.

A group of shirtless dudes tossed rotund weights in a circle. Rafel read the tons on it, and mused that a human couldn't bear it. The boys were certainly enhanced by their supernatural Mana Cores. Rafel headed to a corner, wearing his white gloves and scanning the room for a particular silver-haired Tomboy whom he was sure as fuck wasn't going to miss a good training session with the boys.

Corazón wasn't present yet.

Rafel grabbed a raised bar, leaping in the air, and starting pullups, but he took it easy. He didn't want to mess with his bandages. A few shapely girls stared from his left at his riding shirt. By now, all of the academy had heard of the Ginger demon who manifested two arcs.

Ten minutes later, as Rafel popped a water bottle and was drinking, the girl he'd been waiting on sauntered in. The plastic doors swung in; in slow motion Cora walked in. And Rafel forgot to breathe.

She was still the most exquisite of creatures; her ocean eyes catching the white lights in the gym just perfectly; the new blue tints in her silver hair; her lovely form and rose lips. Somehow, her boyish figure had rounded and the Lycra tights she wore did nothing to hide her hips. Her shirt was a sports bra. Both knickers and top white as an Angel's halo.

She was mesmerizing. And Rafel was not the only one staring.

He gulped hard.

Why did the water suddenly feel like stones going down his throat?

"Aye, mi Corazón!" He whispered aloud.

He couldn't help it. His water bottle was dropped and forgotten. Cora still had that calm swagger that many males in the room still tried to learn. They respected her for it—though it didn't stop them from staring at her tight butt. Rafel noticed she was alone. The black gold sigil of Raven Arc was blazoned on her gym bag.

She should've been Pegasus, Rafel still thought.

He moved for her as began her exercise with a treadmill. The way her athletic legs moved. . .

"Fuck!"

When had his chamberlain become sexy?

Many boys ogled but were too afraid of Cora to approach, and so, Rafel found himself the only bastard brave—or stupid—enough to walk up to her treadmill. He hadn't practiced what he was going to say. He wasn't one to do that, so he just kinda went with the flow.

Hands in his pockets, Rafel said in his best baritone, "since when do you dye your hair blue?"

The tall platinum blonde pressed pause on her treadmill and slowed to a jog, before finally stopping to glance at Rafel. Just like last time in the Assembly Hall, there was no recognition there.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?"

Rafel was lost.

"Uh. . ." He decided to go all in. "Fuck it! Corazón, it's me, Israfel. YOUR GRACE?

You were my loyal chamberlain in Emberfall, don't you remember?"

Rafel was appalled when her blue eyes turned to peek around at the rest of the gym; those who had left their barbells and giant rolling balls to stare at them. He almost felt sorry for himself when her iris turned back to meet his; her gaze was a frozen lake. So beautiful. . .Rafel almost teared up.

'I thought I lost her.'

Cora leaned in.

"I'm sorry, I don't know you, and you are making a scene."

"Yikes!" someone muttered behind as people covered their mouths. Rafel's gold pupils did mist up. . .for the very first time. Apparently, Corazón was his empathy blindspot.

"Yeah, I'm sorry to have disturbed you. I thought you were someone else." Rafel lowered his head and walked away. He grabbed his gym bag and silently left.

Alone in the gym about an hour later, Corazón Mortimer did find herself staring in the direction where the handsome redhead had once stood. She recalled their conversation in between squats, rubbing perspiration off her brow. She whispered out her thoughts;

"Pity! He looked like he really knew me."