Secrets Between Blood

Chapter 22: Prince Daman (Part 1)

Keith's POV:

Once Lance could walk on his own, we ran as fast as we could to green's hanger, where we knew Pidge was. As we were running, we bumped into Coran.

"Paladins! Have you seen the princess!?" he asked, running to keep up with us.

"No! But we need to get everyone together. The castle is trying to kill us!" Lance yelled, clearly himself again.

"What? Nonsense. I'm sure the castle is just malfunctioning." he said, just as we got to green's hanger. We opened the door, and saw everything, including Pidge and Hunk, floating around in zero gravity, just before they crashed to the ground.

"Thanks, guys. The castle turned off the gravity. That was terrifying." Hunk said, trying to hug the floor.

"That's not terrifying! That's fun! I- we almost got sucked out into space! That's scary!" Lance yelled, clear anger in his expression.

"Guys? Where's Shiro?" Pidge asked, and I thought for a moment. I gasped.

"Sendak!" I yelled, running out as fast as I could. Pidge and Hunk struggled to keep up with us. As soon as we turned down the corridor to the prisoner pods, I heard before saw Shiro scream out before slamming down on Sendak's pod's controls, shooting Sendak into space.

"No! Damn it!" I yelled, slamming my fist into the pod, cracking the glass.

Lance's POV:

As soon as Keith got Shiro to calm down and we all shared what's been happening, we heard the alarms go off.

"What now!?" I said frustratedly.

"Oh no! It looks like we're about to enter a wormhole!" Everyone was quiet until everyone screamed, "Allura!" We all jumped and started racing up to the control room. As soon as we got in, we saw her.

Allura had her hands on the controls. A hologram of King Alfor stood next to her. While Coran was trying to talk some sense into Allura, I couldn't help but stare at Alfor. I had so many questions to ask, wondering if he may know how exactly I am a royal.

"Lance!" I jumped, looking to Coran. "Can you do anything!?" he asked, and I realized the room was empty and that the others were trying to slow down the ship from flying straight into a red star.

"Shit. Um... I don't know." I stepped forward and placed my hand against the shield surrounding Allura. I could feel Alfor's quintessence. "Okay, I can weaken his hold on Allura! You need to convince her that what she's seeing isn't real!" I yelled, moving to stand just in front of the image of Alfor.

He stared me down, eyes tinted red. I smirked as I placed my hands back down on the shield, the areas I'm touching immediately turned from red to turquoise. I could see the image start to flicker. I faintly heard Allura and Coran talking. I looked over just in time to see Allura about to fly out of the shield. I pulled my hands from the shields to jump over and catch her.

"Ah! What happened!? What's going on!?" Allura asked, standing to her feet.

"Princess! The galran crystal must have infected the castle worse than we thought. It's taken over Alfor's quintessence! It's driving the castle right into that star!" Coran explained, and she took a moment to think, watching Alfor's hologram. It was flickering between the angry, red eyed image and the calm, sorrowful, blue eyed image.

"I... I'll take care of it." she said firmly, turning and leaving the room.

"Wait, what is she doing?" I asked, starting to worry.

"She is about to destroy King Alfor's quintessence. You should follow her. You may see something of importance to you." I didn't even have to think it over, I just turned and ran.