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Twenty-One

Alex didn’t re-join the celebrations that night.

After Aes Orsa and Raife left her alone in the darkness, she wound her way back through the masses and sought out her friends. D.C. and Jordan were dancing around one of the many rainbow-flamed bonfires, Kaiden and Bear were having an animated conversation with their helpers and a small group of other Tia Aurans who all appeared to speak the common tongue, and Declan was boisterously telling stories to an assembly of highly entertained immortals.

Upon approaching Declan’s crowd, Alex soon discovered that, judging by their incorrectly timed laughter, they were entertained not from his tales, but because they had no idea what he was saying.

“I don’t think they can understand you,” she told Declan, pulling him to the side after he’d finished sharing what he considered a hilarious recount of how he’d once broken his ankle thanks to three ducklings, a piece of string and an open bag of marshmallows.

“I know,” Declan said, still laughing in the aftermath of his tale. “They’re the best audience ever.”

Amused, Alex just shook her head and told him she was going to sneak out of the party and didn’t want to interrupt the others, asking if he’d pass the message along later so they wouldn’t worry.

After promising he would, he returned to his avid audience and launched into a new tale, prompting more laughter—at him, not with him. Not that he minded.

Making sure the others still looked content with what they were doing and who they were with, Alex stole back into the darkness, calling for Xira and beckoning for him to return.

Together they soared the skies for hours, long enough for Alex to clear her head and ease her renewed anxieties. The full, unedited prophecy had come as a shock, but it didn’t affect her plans. She couldn’t stop what was coming, but she never had been able to, either.

Despite finding some semblance of peace—or at least, acceptance—she still stayed out with Xira all night and into the early hours of the morning, incapable of summoning the will to return to Vardaesia.

Only when dawn began to threaten on the horizon did she direct him back to the palace, knowing she was soon to face her second-last Gate—and without having had any sleep. On the plus side, she was no longer burdened by the crippling exhaustion that had come from wearing her concealment ring, so while she was tired, she wasn’t dead on her feet like earlier that week.

Since Xira was too big to touch down on her private balcony, Alex had to jump once she was close enough, tucking and rolling upon landing before springing back up to her feet.

Try not to fall asleep mid-Gate, he teased, but also with an edge of concern as he turned on his wing and soared away.

I’m okay, Alex promised, albeit around a yawn. She hoped Zaylin would be willing to sneak her somelaendrawith breakfast, otherwise her friends might very well have to carry her through the Gate.

Let me know how you go afterwards, Xira said as he disappeared from sight.You’re going to be great.

Promising to do so, Alex headed into her room. But as soon as she was through the wispy curtain, she stilled, and then her whole body softened at seeing Kaiden asleep in the armchair beside her bed. Just as she remained in her dress from last night, he was also in his formal attire, crumpled as it was from his upright sleeping position.

As if subconsciously realising she was there, he stirred, his eyes blinking awake until they came to rest on her.

Rising from his chair, he moved sleepily across the room until he was close enough to draw her into his arms. He did nothing more than hold her, his body heat thawing her icy skin. Until that moment, she hadn’t realised how cold she was from the flight, having been oblivious to the elements as she’d soared the skies with Xira, lost in her thoughts.

Snuggling closer, she rested her head in the crook of his neck, allowing his touch to soothe her. He remained silent, yet again understanding her need for comfort without words—but how he knew what she needed when not even she had known, she wasn’t sure. His actions only made her melt into him all the more.

When she no longer felt any trace of cold, Kaiden pulled back slightly and caught her gaze.

“Better?” he whispered, his voice still thick with sleep.

Alex closed her eyes as the word rumbled through her, knowing he wasn’t asking only about her temperature.

Just as quietly, and with as much meaning, she whispered, “Better.”

A tender smile curled his lips—lips that then softly touched her own before he dropped his arms, swept his thumb along her cheekbone, and turned to leave her room.

That was it. No questions asked. No demand for answers. No raging or ranting about where she’d been and why. Just acceptance without the need for explanations, trusting that she would tell him if he needed to know.

Unable to keep the smile from spreading across her tingling lips as the door closed behind him, Alex moved to her bed and fell limply back onto it.

Her smile grew even wider when, not two minutes later, Zaylin arrived, scandalised to find Alex still wearing her dress from the night before. But Alex’s heart was too light to care, and instead of replaying the final lines of the prophecy on repeat as she had been since reading it, she now replayed the look in Kaiden’s eyes and the single word he’d said, more than happy for that memory to push away the lingering darkness of her last few hours.

Zaylin was uncharacteristically amenable to Alex’s request for somelaendrawith breakfast. In fact, all of her friends were given chalices of the warmed regenerative liquid, and from their relieved sighs, Alex couldn’t help wondering just how long they’d stayed out partying the night before.

Amused by the way they pepped up almost immediately after downing the drink, Alex was relieved when she too was able to shake the lack of sleep from her system, feeling ready to face the day—and the Gate.