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She would have to update them eventually, but the future vision was still too fresh. Still too…real. She couldn’t imagine telling them of the danger—not when her throat began to tighten at the very thought of explaining how she’d watched them die. Soon—she would tell them soon. Just… not yet.

“You stay safe out there, honey,” Rachel said, reaching for Alex’s hand. “And we’re here if you ever…” She trailed off as she looked down, her eyes squinting. “Is that—Did you get atattoo?”

Alex yanked her hand back, but the damage was done.

“You’re not even eighteen yet! Shouldn’t we have had to sign something first?” Jack said, trying to catch a glimpse of the design Alex was now hiding against her stomach.

“I hope you’re not going through one of those punk rock stages,” Rachel said. “Or is it Goth? Whatever it is, we’ll love you no matter what you do to your body, but please, before you get any more tattoos or begin to pierce yourself in strange places, imagine yourself as an eighty-year-old woman with sagging skin. Over time, I guarantee your attempt at body art will morph from Michelangelo to Picasso. Trust me on this.”

Alex wrinkled her nose at the mental image that inspired. “It’s not a tattoo. Really.”

Both her parents raised disbelieving eyebrows.

“Okay,” Alex admitted as she shuffled her feet in the sand, “itkind ofis, but it also isn’t.”

Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “Next you’ll be saying youkind ofexperimented with illicit drugs, but you also didn’t.”

It was at this juncture that Alex decided against mentioning the Meyarin flower,laendra, which at one stage she had—incorrectly—equated as a Medoran equivalent of magic mushrooms.

“I just mean that, yes, itlookslike a tattoo, but it’s actually kind of…” Alex searched for the simplest description and settled on, “… a tracking device.”

“Like a CIA implant?” Jack asked. “Do they have those here? Is there a Medoran James Bond?”

Alex had to bite back a groan. For all his love of science, her father was also a huge fan—and conspiracy theorist—when it came to government agencies and acts of espionage.

“Something like that,” Alex said, referring to the implant, not the James Bond question. “It’ll allow me to send out a signal if I’m ever in trouble so others will know where to find me.”

“Isn’t that handy?” Jack raised her arm to inspect the white symbol. “I must say, if you’d told us you had a spy device like this sooner, I would’ve slept much easier at night knowing you have people watching over you so closely.”

Alex decided not to mention that the Beacon was a new acquisition. “Sorry, Dad. But I did already tell you I have a lot of people keeping an eye on me.”

“That you did, sweetheart,” Jack said, dropping her hand. “But it’s nice to know you weren’t just speaking figuratively.”

Alex struggled to keep the ‘seriously?’ expression off her face, wondering if her parents thought she’d been pulling the imaginary friends card with them for all this time.

“Right,” she said, letting it go. “I’m off. Love you both and see you again soon.”

After they returned the sentiment, Alex walked back out of the room and willed a doorway to appear, leaving the ancient environment behind and stepping through to a now familiar corridor of doors deep within the Library’s depths.

Taking a moment to compartmentalise her thoughts and focus on the next phase of her day, Alex cleared her throat and called out, “Excuse me, Library?”

Even though there was no verbal response, she knew the sentient Library was listening.

“Is there a way for me to reach Draekora from here?” she enquired politely.

In answer, a door flung open a little further down the hallway.

Alex heard him before she saw him, and a smile stretched across her face at the approach of the familiar knight in shining armour.

“Sir Camden, as always, a pleasure to see you.”

“Well met, Lady Alexandra,” the knight said with a flourishing bow. When he rose again, he tilted his armoured helmet to the side. “The fair lady doth appear to be… glowing.”

Alex couldn’t hold back her eye roll this time. “Yeah, I know. I’m tanned.”

“Nay, Lady Alexandra,” Sir Camden disagreed. “I speaketh of thouvaelianabond with thine draekon.”

Alex stilled. “You can see that?” She had no idea how he could seeanything, given that he was made entirely of animated metal.