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He shook off his stupor and finished, “I also dreamed enough to see what you discovered upon your return to the present.”

“So that’s how you knew about Aven taking over Meya,” Alex said.

“That’s how I knew,” Kaiden confirmed.

Everything he’d told her was utterly mad. But Alex couldn’t deny that it made a startling amount of sense, regardless of how vulnerable she now felt with him knowing so much about her.

“Why did you disappear afterwards—no explanation, nothing?” Alex asked.

Kaiden made an apologetic face. “The timing of that was terrible, I’ll admit. And I swear it wasn’t deliberate. But my aunt needed me to do something and, well, I hear you’ve met her, so hopefully you’ll believe me when I say that when she wants something done, she won’t accept any excuses, not even school.” He caught her eyes and finished, “I promise I wasn’t avoiding you.”

Alex rubbed the inside of her elbow, unable to keep from fidgeting. “It looked suspiciously like you were.”

Kaiden grinned and moved a step forward, then another, closing the distance between them. This time she didn’t back away—mostly because it would have meant walking into the fire.

Quietly, he said, “You should know by now, Alex. You’re not someone I want to avoid.” An upward quirk of his lips as he added, “Quite the opposite.”

“And on that note, I think we’re done here.”

Alex jumped at the interruption from Athora who had reappeared out of nowhere.

She frowned at him and demanded, “Were you eavesdropping that whole time?”

“I was,” he said, shameless. “And all that’s left is for you to hear the answer to why you will now be training with Kaiden.”

Alex, however, had already figured that much out. “I’m guessing it’s so he can aim his various gifts at you and I’ll be tasked with seeing if I can stretch my gift to keep you protected. Right?”

All Athora said in response was, “For you to learn what you must, it will take time.”

That didn’t surprise Alex. Especially if he continued to have her balance bananas on her head.

“For now, we are finished for the night,” Athora said. “I shall see you both on Monday.”

And just like that, he was gone. But so too were Alex and Kaiden, who found themselves standing in the foyer of the Library.

Hit by a dizzy spell from their unanticipated change of location, Alex wobbled on her feet, with Kaiden reaching out to steady her.

“I take it he doesn’t normally relocate you like that?” he asked, amused.

Alex looked around in bewilderment. “Usually I make my way back up here myself.”

Kaiden made a knowing sound. “It’s because of me—I don’t have access to the Library like you do. I can’t create my own doorways, so he has to collect me and return me every time we meet. We’ve done it like that for years.”

“No one’s ever noticed you disappearing into thin air? Or reappearing from nowhere?” Alex asked, brushing aside her surprise at his casual admission of her access to the Library. Yet another thing he knew about her.

“If anyone happens to be watching me,” Kaiden said, tipping his head towards the librarian sitting at his desk and speaking sternly to an abashed-looking Blink, “all they would see is a flicker between when I leave and when I return.”

Alex crinkled her forehead before understanding dawned. “Right. The time paradox.”

Kaiden nodded. “One second I’m here, then Athora swoops me off for training, then the same second I’m back here with no one any wiser.”

Alex marvelled at the wonder of it all and followed when he started moving towards the staircase leading up from the Library and out of the Tower building.

As they headed towards their dorms, Alex tried to sort out the enormity of what she’d learned. Of what Kaiden knew about her. Of what Kaiden himself could do.

“I have a question,” she said as they trudged their way through the snow.

Kaiden paused, so she stopped as well and turned to face him.