Alex thought her reasoning was logical and eloquent. The silence that met her ears led her to believe Athora must have thought so, too. But when he finally spoke, it was in a tone Alex had never heard from him before. A tone that made even the fire dim in the hearth until it almost went out entirely, casting the room into near darkness.
“You were offered one chance to break my rule, Alexandra,” he told her, his voice sending shards of ice down her spine. “Now that you have done so, consider yourself warned. If you question my judgement again, it will be the last you ever see of me.”
Alex sucked in a stuttered breath.
“Do you understand?”
The intensity emanating from him was like a tangible force, freezing Alex in place. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t even nod. All she could do was sit there in the shadows and stare up at the outline of his cloaked figure, her body numbed to the core.
“Do you understand?”
She jumped at his hissed question and, as if waking from a trance, was able to choke out a whispered, “I understand.”
Just like that, the heavy atmosphere lifted. The fire roared back to life in a surge of flames, and with Alex’s heart pounding, warmth began returning to her veins while she rubbed feeling back into her limbs.
“Now,” Athora said, standing to his feet and gesturing for Alex to do so, albeit shakily on her part, “had you given me the chance to explain, this would have been one of the rare cases where I told you why you will be training with a partner.”
Alex was still so intimidated that she couldn’t utter a word in response, not even to offer an apology.
“My other student has a unique gift,” Athora continued, “one that has required much training on his part in order to learn control. He has studied with me for years and is now well adept at managing his ability. And, indeed, using it in extraordinary ways.”
Alex finally summed up the courage to re-enter the conversation. “I don’t understand what that has to do with me.”
“This student, his gift acts as a conduit.”
Shaking her head in bafflement, Alex said, “I don’t—”
“That means,” Athora spoke over her, an edge of warning in his again monotonous voice, “that he is able to take on the gifts of others whom he comes in contact with.”
Alex’s eyes widened as she comprehended what he was saying. “That’s insane,” she gasped out. “The things he might be able to do—” She broke off, and then whispered an awestruck but somewhat fearful, “No one should have that much power.”
“Which is why it was integral for him to learn control—how to control his own gift so he doesn’t take on the abilities of others without choosing to do so, and how to control the gifts that he decides to adopt as his own.”
Alex couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This student of Athora’s… he could, hypothetically, do anything—assuming he encountered the right person with the right gift. He could be telekinetic, like Calista Maine. He could nullify the gifts of others, like Lena Morrow. He could read minds, like Signa Zu. He could turn invisible and walk through solid objects, like Jordan. He could shape-shift, like Skyla. He could charm others with his words, like Bear. He could manipulate people’s emotions, like Pipsqueak. The options were limitless.
“I’m presuming by your expression that your thoughts have wandered from what this has to do with your training,” Athora said. “You appear… alarmed.”
“Alarmed?” Alex squeaked out. “I’m not alarmed—I’m full-on panicking!”
Athora’s head cocked to the side. “Why?”
“Because… Because…” She couldn’t even form a complete sentence. “Because who is this guy? How do you know he won’t go all Anakin Skywalker on you?”
Athora’s head cocked even further. “Who is this Anakin—”
“Eugh, never mind,” Alex said, waving a frazzled hand dismissively while pacing back and forth. “My point is, we already have one megalomaniac to worry about, we don’t need—Flipping hell!” Alex cried out as she was hit with a terrifying realisation. “What if Aven learns about this guy? We’re already screwed, but we’d be even more screwed!” She threw her arms in the air and finished, quite hysterically, “That’d be, like, an unfixable amount of screwiness!”
Near on hyperventilating, Alex almost didn’t process the quiet chuckle she heard over her rapid breathing. But then an amused—and familiar—voice spoke up as its owner moved out of the darkness and stepped into the glow of the fire.
“I have to admit, Alex, I’ve never been called a megalomaniac before. But it’s always nice to know I have options.”
Stunned to silence at who she was seeing, not to mention, where, and, apparently, why, all Alex could do was stand there, frozen mid-step, and stare.
Athora broke into her silent shock, a touch of smugness in his otherwise bland tone as he said, “I believe you’re already acquainted.”
Son of a biscuit, Alex thought as she continued her wide-eyed staring.
“Alexandra Jennings,” Athora said, “I give you your new training partner.” He paused, before unnecessarily finishing, “Kaiden James.”
Thirteen
“Where the hell have you been?”
Those were the first words Alex managed to get past her frozen lips when she was able to string a thought together. Not, ‘How are you in this part of the Library?’ or, ‘Do you really have a gift that can do everything Athora said?’ or even, ‘Sorry I compared you to Darth Vader’. No, what popped out was a question about where he’d been for the last two weeks, as she hadn’t seen him at all since that first night back at the academy.
Before he could respond, a memory whispered across her mind that, until this moment, she’d never thought twice about, nor had she experienced any déjà vu when she’d first learned her cloaked instructor’s name. But now her recall was practically slapping her in the face.
‘You’re Master Athora’s talented protégé…’
Aven had spoken those words to Kaiden months ago at Sir Oswald’s manor. They hadn’t meant anything to Alex then, but now… a lot of things were beginning to make sense.
“Did he tell you about me?” Alex said, jerking a finger towards Athora, only to discover that he’d disappeared, granting her and Kaiden some privacy. “He seems to know everything about me—is he how you know I went back to the past? Is he how you’d heard about Aven taking over Meya before I’d told anyone?”
Kaiden’s posture was relaxed as he stood bathed in the firelight, but his eyes were alert as he focused on Alex, almost as if he were watching a wild animal and wasn’t sure how it would react to any sudden moves.
“He only confirmed what I already knew,” Kaiden said.
Alex’s eyes narrowed. “How could you possibly have known anything in order to have him confirm it?”
Kaiden moved a step closer, but when she backed away from him, he halted and raised his hands in a ‘take it easy’ gesture.
“Athora wasn’t exaggerating the scope of what I can do, Alex,” he said. “I only have to make contact with a gifted person for a second in order to take on their ability as my own.”
As Alex processed that, Kaiden continued, “Before Athora stepped in to help me learn how to control it, I had no choice about the gifts that transferred over to me. But thanks to him, I can now decide if I want to swipe someone’s gift or not, just as I can compartmentalise those I’ve taken on and no longer want to use.”
While fascinated, Alex said, “I presume you’re telling me this for a reason?”
“My sister, Jeera, she’s gifted with unfailing intuition,” Kaiden shared. Alex only had a moment to appreciate how handy that would be for the Warden before he continued, “Marcus Sparker is a strong mind reader—almost as strong as Signa Zu, who we’ve also had the displeasure of crossing paths with.”
Alex cringed at the memories.
“Headmaster Marselle has unparalleled wisdom with special insight into a person’s character and
whether they are gifted—which is how he knows which students to recruit,” Kaiden said. “And Declan can tell when someone is being deceitful, whether it’s spoken lies or things left unsaid.”
Alex hadn’t known either Darrius’s or Declan’s gifts, but she couldn’t dwell on how interesting they were because Kaiden wasn’t finished.
“Declan was onto you from the moment you turned up to Combat that first day. And since his gift is one that I’ve adopted, both he and I have known you’ve been hiding something for well over a year now.”
Alex shuffled her feet, feeling strangely guilty.
“The others I mentioned, they’re only a few of the gifts that I’ve taken on and learned to control, but I’m sure you can see how intuition, mind-reading, wisdom, character insight and deceit detection are enough to help me form a reasonably clear picture about all that is Alexandra Jennings.”
Shuffling again, Alex said, “But, um, those things—or at least some of them—they wouldn’t work on me. Not with my gift.”
“And that has been beyond frustrating, let me tell you.” Kaiden offered a self-deprecating yet intrigued shake of his head. “You’re officially the only person whose gift I’ve never been able to acquire.”
Alex wasn’t sure if she was supposed to apologise or not. She decided against it, given the circumstances.
“When you first arrived from Freya—”
Alex jerked violently.
Kaiden changed his tone to one that was deliberately calming. “There’s no need to look so worried. I’ve known that much since the first time I saw you.”
“What?”
“Back then your gift hadn’t fully activated,” he said. “I was able to pick up some surface thoughts in those early days—nothing too deep, but enough to give away a couple of your secrets, like your otherworldly origins. And a few… other things.”
His eyes sparkled and Alex frantically tried to recall what kinds of thoughts she might have had. But it was impossible—she could have thought about anything.
… Including Kaiden.
Heat flooding her cheeks, Alex cleared her throat and tried to act unfazed. “If you read my mind and learned I was from Freya, why didn’t you say anything?”
“I figured you had your reasons for keeping it secret,” Kaiden answered. “And besides, we weren’t close, not back then.” A grin tugged at his mouth. “That, and it was hilarious watching you bumble your way through acting like you were from this world.”
“I did not bumble,” she stated with a frown.
Kaiden laughed. “You did. I have no idea how no one else noticed, especially on our SAS overnight trip.” He shook his head again. “I’ll never forget when you thought we had to hike our way across the Durungan Ranges before Jordan ‘reminded’ you that there were other options.” He laughed at another memory and added, “And remember when I used the Quick-Dry dust on you after the river rapids? There’s not a human in Medora who hasn’t experienced that powder before. You had no idea what you’d given away by saying it was your first time.”
Alex gritted her teeth and said, “Can we please get back to what you were saying earlier?”
If anything, Kaiden seemed more amused, but he did as she requested.
“What I was saying,” he said, “was that from the moment you first arrived here, you were a mystery. That mystery only deepened as time went by and strange things began to happen—strange things that revolved around you.”
That was the story of Alex’s life.
“While it soon reached the stage where I couldn’t use any kind of gift on you, I could still use them on those you were close to,” he said. “It took time, but with enough access to the right people, including, or perhaps, especially, during our encounter with Aven and his followers at Sir Oswald’s, I was eventually able to put enough pieces together to come to my own conclusions about you—and everything happening around you.”
Alex didn’t want to ask, but she forced the words through her lips. “And those conclusions were?”
Kaiden shrugged, but despite the gesture, his body was lined with tension, like he was worried about her reaction. “Let’s just say I know more than you’d likely be comfortable with me knowing.”
That, Alex knew, was true. And yet…
You feel safe with me.
Those five words from imaginary-Kaiden whispered across her mind and she couldn’t hold up against the weight of them. Needing to escape his knowing eyes, she turned her back on him and looked down into the fire, allowing the hypnotising flames to sooth her spiralling thoughts.
You feel safe with me.
Imaginary-Kaiden was right—she did feel safe with him.
… And that absolutely terrified her.
“There’s something else you need to know,” Kaiden said quietly, and Alex inhaled a fortifying breath at his careful tone. “And it may freak you out.”
A disbelieving laugh left her lips as she turned back around, finding him much closer than before—only a few steps away now.
“I doubt there’s anything you could say that would freak me out any more than I already am,” she said honestly.
When he remained hesitant to share, she mustered up the will to encourage, “Go on, sock it to me.”
“The reason I know you were in the past,” he said, “is because over the holidays, I had a dream about you.”
That certainly wasn’t what Alex had expected to hear. “You… dreamed about me?”
“D.C.’s gift,” was all Kaiden had to say.
“Oh,” she murmured. “You mean you had a true dream.”
Alex knew that Lena Morrow was still neutralising D.C.’s ability to access her own gift—something that frustrated the princess to no end—but apparently the same didn’t hold true for Kaiden.
“I only saw snippets of your time there, but it was enough to get an idea of what went down while you were ‘gone’, including flashes of the future you witnessed—cities burning, blurred faces of screaming people, so much death and chaos,” Kaiden said, his eyes unfocused as he recalled the memory.
Alex desperately wanted to know if he’d seen himself in that vision—the avatar of him guiding her through it, or the part showing his own death at Aven’s hands—but she couldn’t bring herself to ask.
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 traini
ng 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.