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“What a mess,” Kyia said, sighing. “If what you’re saying is true and you really are the human who led to Aven’s desire for vengeance against mortals, then I can see why Aes Daega made us forget you.”

“If we’d recognised you, there’s no doubt someone would have stopped you from travelling back through time,” Zain agreed. “You would have been killed the moment you first stepped foot in Meya.”

Kyia was shaking her head. “No. If I’d known who you were and what you’d done, I likely would have put an arrow through your heart when I first discovered you in Raelia.”

Alex couldn’t keep her face from flashing with shock—and hurt.

“I’m sorry,” Kyia said quietly, placing her hand on Alex’s uninjured leg and offering a squeeze of comfort. “Of course I mean you no harm now. You are as much a victim in all this as the rest of us. I merely wanted to point out that if knowledge of your past identity was to be made public, we might have trouble rallying the remaining Meyarins to our cause. There’s no way we can tell anyone else about this.”

“I can’t think of a reason why anyone but you two and Roka would have to know,” Alex said. “I wasn’t even going to tell you both, but I couldn’t stand the idea of lying to you.”

“You would have also had a hard time explaining how you managed to free Jordan,” Zain said. “I still have trouble believing that part of your recount.”

Thinking about her friend who was trying so hard to act like nothing had happened to him, Alex only said, “I don’t blame you.”

After a weighty pause, Kyia clapped her hands together once and announced, “Very well. Let’s choose to see this as a good thing.”

Raising one eyebrow, Zain said, “How so?”

“For starters,” Kyia said, “Alex won’t need anywhere near as much training if Roka spent time teaching her how to fight in the past.”

It took a great deal of effort for Alex to keep her face blank, and she only managed to do so for Niyx’s continued safety. Her Meyarin friends had to believe as her human friends did—that Roka was solely responsible for her current level of competence.

“By her account, Alex only spent a few weeks with us in the past,” Zain argued to Kyia. “She’ll still have much to learn if she wants to have a chance of surviving Aven—not to mention, his ClaimedZeltora.”

“We’re focusing on the positives here, Zain,” Kyia ground out.

Alex bit her cheek to keep from laughing at the female Meyarin’s lethal glare.

Zain raised his hands in apology, the corner of his lip twitching. “Positives. Very well. She’s partly trained and has fully embraced the Meyarin blood in her veins. What else?”

“She can speak fluent Meyarin,” Kyia said.

Zain nodded and added, “She’s seen a vision of the future so she knows what to watch for and the kinds of preparations we need to carry out.”

“She’s also spent time with Aven—intimate time—and had the chance to get inside his head,” Kyia said, causing Alex to wince at her word choice, since ‘intimate’ wasn’t quite how she would have described their relationship, at least from her end. “That could benefit her in their future confrontations.”

“But he doesn’t remember her,” Zain pointed out. “Not as Aeylia.”

Sick of them talking about her as if she were no longer present, Alex said, “Guys, I’m right here. Quit with the ‘she’ business.”

“We’re brainstorming,” Zain said. “No offence is intended, but when discussing strategy, it helps to keep it impersonal.”

“Just… don’t leave me out of the conversation.”

“You’re welcome to jump in at any time,” Kyia said.

“Let’s talk about where we go from here,” Zain suggested, redirecting their conversation.

“I know we were all somewhat… out of it… the last time you were here,” Kyia said to Alex, her eyes flicking sorrowfully towards the curtains hiding Roka, “but we did hear the plan you proposed. I trust that you’re still intending to warn the other races as well as strengthen your gift?”

Alex nodded. “I met with the human leaders this morning—the king and queen and their closest military and royal advisors. It didn’t go very well, but it wasn’t awful, either. They’re going to take extra precautions and wait to see if Aven will act. While they’re doing that, I’ll be off sharing what I know with the other races, and hopefully they’ll be willing to consider forming an allied defence.” She didn’t mention that she hadn’t exactly been given permission to do that. “And as for my gift, I’m hoping to learn more about how I can develop it sometime later today.”

Kyia made a sound of approval but thankfully didn’t press Alex for any details.

“Then we won’t keep you much longer,” Kyia said, “since that’s one of your highest priorities right now. When the time comes to act, you must be ready.”

No pressure, Alex thought, her shoulders slumping.