Tentatively nodding, Alex said, “So?”
“So,” Lady Mystique said, “you will have one opportunity to do as such, to use the weapon of your enemy against them. They will not be expecting it, and if you time it right, you have a chance—a strong chance—of coming out the new victor.”
Baffled, Alex said, “What weapon?”
The Tia Auran stepped closer and reached for Alex’s hand, holding it up in the dying light of the sun.
“This weapon, Alexandra,” she said, running a finger across Alex’s Shadow Ring. “Two walks remain.”
Alex snatched her hand back, shaking her head. “No. No way. The last time I travelled through the shadows on my own, it was…” Awful. Traumatic. Terrifying. “… unpleasant.”
“It was unpleasant because you were fighting them,” Lady Mystique said. “You needed only to resist. And once you did that, you were able to use them, were you not?”
Alex thought back to when she’d activated her ring to escape Aven and Jordan to get back to Raelia, and she again tentatively nodded.
“You now know how it feels, you now know what to do, you simply have to do it,” Lady Mystique said. She cocked her head before adding, “However, you need to do it faster than you did that time. Which is why we will practise now, using one of your walks. It will mean you’ll only have one left—a single opportunity during your fight—but if used correctly, one is all you shall need.”
“You want me to use my ring now?” Alex cried. “Like, now, now?”
Lady Mystique looked at her blandly. “Yes, now, now.”
“But—”
“We cannot stay much longer, Alexandra,” the Tia Auran said, looking out across the volcanic landscape as if she could sense the looming threat. “Focus on your ring, call forth the shadow, concentrate on where you want to appear—that boulder over there, can you see it? Aim for that—and step directly there.”
Alex couldn’t help sarcastically saying, “As simple as that, huh?”
“You have already fought the shadows,” Lady Mystique said again. “You conquered them, now it is your right to command them. They will yield to you, so long as you resist the pull of their darkness.”
Realising that on the off-chance this worked, she would indeed have a surprising weapon to use in a fight against the Shadow Walker victor, Alex took a deep breath and held out her hand.
“Remember, do it fast,” Lady Mystique urged. “Not just because our time is running out, but also because in your battle, you will have a split second to decide when to act, and you will need to move instantly.”
Here goes nothing, Alex thought, concentrating as hard as she could and trying to remember how she’d managed it last time. ‘We’re all born with Shadow inside us,’ Caspar Lennox had once told her. ‘… Immerse yourself fully in the Shadow.’
But… Alex was different now. Whether it was from her bond with Xiraxus or something else, the darkness that once swirled around her was no longer there, drowned out by the golden light of her vaeliana.
“Darkness is everywhere, child,” came Lady Mystique’s quiet voice as she witnessed Alex’s struggle. “And where it is not, we have the unfortunate ability to imagine it so. Use that to your advantage. Call forth a troubling memory, Alexandra, and it will give you the power you need.”
A troubling memory. That she could do.
The last time she saw Aven sprang to mind—not the avatar of him she’d encountered while freeing Jordan from his Claim, but the real-life Aven of the past, right after he’d discovered she was mortal and had gone on to kill the humans and attack his family. The scene played out with startling clarity, from his ferocious, agonising shouting to the moment he’d stabbed her with her own blade.
Darkness, so much darkness from a single memory—darkness that Alex pulled into tangible shadows that rose up in front of her. While heartsick from the memory, she still managed to step into the darkness, and true to Lady Mystique’s words, the shadows didn’t pull and tear at her like last time. Instead, they waited for her command, which she gave with a mental picture of the boulder as directed.
Within a microsecond, the shadows were gone, and Alex was left standing ten feet from where she’d last been, slightly disoriented but otherwise unaffected.
“Good,” said Lady Mystique with a proud nod. “Now you know how to do it, next time you should be able to do so without needing to concentrate as much beforehand. Do you think you can manage that?”
Swallowing from the lingering memory—and Aven’s murderous face still flashing across her mind—Alex gave a slow nod. Because Lady Mystique was right—now that Alex knew how to do it and how it felt, she was confident she could repeat it, and in an instant.
“Then we are done here,” the Tia Auran said, closing the distance between them and reaching out to hold both of Alex’s hands. “I have the utmost faith in you, child, and it has been an honour and a privilege to see how far you have come.” She dropped one of Alex’s hands, moving her dark, weathered fingers up to tenderly stroke Alex’s cheek as she whispered, “May the light shine upon you always, Alexandra Jennings. And remember…” Her voice grew in strength as she finished, “Don’t fear the shadows. Make the shadows fear you.”
And then, before Alex could so much as draw a breath to respond, let alone ask why it sounded worryingly like Lady Mystique was saying goodbye—which was something she’d never done before—the old woman was gone… and so was Alex.
Soraya gave a soft sound of greeting upon Alex’s return to her dorm room, but after offering the puppy a distracted ear scratch and telling her to ‘stay’, Alex didn’t remain long. Instead, she grabbed a thick coat and donned it over her pyjamas, yanked on some boots and ran from her room.
It was long after curfew but Alex was past caring about whatever repercussions she might face. As much as she didn’t have time for detention to be added to her already demanding schedule, she was willing to risk it if her outing ended in success.
Sprinting through the bitter night air, Alex tore across the icy campus and into the Tower building in search of her SOSAC teacher. Once there, she realised she had no idea where Caspar Lennox’s quarters were, so she cheated by crossing her fingers and hoping the Library was in an agreeable mood.
Bolting down the staircase, through the foyer, and down the second staircase, Alex didn’t waste time before stepping through to the corridor of doors and asking the Library to show her a way to her teacher.
A door opened, and Alex ran straight through it, only to discover it didn’t lead to his quarters in the Tower building at all. Instead, she arrived where her teacher currently was— that being the now familiar balcony overlooking the shadowy cathedral at Graevale.
Startled by the unexpected destination, Alex gaped at the elders, Caspar Lennox and Shirez, all of whom were staring right back at her with unconcealed shock.
“Uh, hey,” she said, with a pathetic wave of her fingers.
“What is the human doing back here?” demanded Azalia. “How did she even get here?”
“Well, it’s the darndest thing,” Alex answered, but she didn’t have a chance to finish because a collective gasp met her statement. She closed her eyes in horror, realising she’d just responded to a question spoken in the language of the Shadow Walkers.
Well, crap, she thought to herself.
“Alexandra—”
Alex reopened her eyes at Caspar Lennox’s hissed word, but she cut him off before he could say more.
“I’m terribly sorry to interrupt,” she said. “All I can say is that I was looking for Caspar Lennox and had no idea the search would bring me here. But since I was planning to give him a message to pass on to you, I might as well do it myself since, well, we’re all here now.”
“We made ourselves clear earlier today, human,” said Azalia in the common tongue, her dark eyes flashing with unconcealed loathing.
Of all the elders, she was definitely the most intimidating, but Alex refused to be cowed.
/> “Two minutes of your time, and I’m gone,” Alex said, looking deliberately at Radek and Saber as she spoke, presuming them to be the more level-headed of the three.
After a moment of strained silence, Radek answered in a curt voice that told of his displeasure, “You have one. Make it count.”
Alex jumped straight into her request to fight the victor of the vatali targo, using deliberate and antagonising words to attack their pride, just as Lady Mystique had encouraged. In Alex’s favour was that Shirez had come through for her and already appealed for ‘the human’ to fight another round—which was why Caspar Lennox had been called back to Graevale to hear the elders’ agreement.
Alex’s new counteroffer, however, had them up in arms. There was yelling in both languages, as well as pointed fingers and ferocious faces. But ultimately, Lady Mystique had been correct—their pride led them to accept the terms of her challenge.
The only problem was, her boldness had insulted them so much that the elders gave her an ultimatum: win, and they would grant her an audience to hear her warnings; lose, and they would never listen to her, not even after the month-long celebrations were over.
It was an all or nothing deal, enough to make Alex feel sick with nerves, but she couldn’t back down. And so, when she reopened the doorway that led back to the academy—and away from the elders’ furious faces—she left with a grim smile and their promise that she would be summoned as soon as a winner was crowned.
It was a good outcome, Alex knew. But as she settled herself back into bed beside Soraya for the second time that night, she twirled the ring on her finger and desperately hoped Lady Mystique’s faith in her wasn’t misplaced.
Twenty-Five
Alex wasn’t sure how she managed to get through the next day of classes, but she did so on tenterhooks while wishing time would slow down so she could delay her first Library training session with Kaiden. While she’d seen him in Combat that afternoon, other than him looking at her intensely as if trying to read her, which was followed by an amused shake of his head and a flash of a perfect grin, they hadn’t had a chance to interact at all, not since whatever had happened between them the other night.
It was funny. Despite all the other potentially catastrophic events going on in her life, Alex still had the capacity to feel flutters of anxiety over a guy. How that was possible, she had no idea. But it didn’t lessen her nerves at the thought of seeing him again. Nor did it help her figure out exactly what she would say. All she knew was that she had to say something. So when she arrived in the Library foyer to find him leaning against the wall between two paintings and waiting for her, she gathered her courage and jumped straight in.
“About the other night…”
“Hello to you, too, Alex.”
She blinked, caught off guard by his pointed hint to her impolite greeting. “Um, sorry. Hi, Kaiden. Now, about the other night—”
“Ah, yes,” he interrupted, a smile tugging at his lips. “The night I almost kissed you.”
Alex felt heat flood her cheeks, not at all expecting him to come right out and say it. “That’s not—”
“And the night you almost kissed me.”
She swallowed. “I didn’t—”
“The night we almost kissed each other.”
“Kaiden!” Alex cried, resisting the urge to stomp her foot like a child. “Will you stop?”
Eyes laughing, he said, “I think I know the night you’re referring to. What about it?”
Annoyed that he was so amused while she felt nothing but embarrassment, she said through clenched teeth, “It was a mistake. What happened—What didn’t happen—What might have happened… It was a mistake.”
Kaiden nodded gravely. “I agree.”
Despite her declaration, Alex deflated at his response. It wasn’t like she wanted to argue about it, but it would have boosted her self-esteem a little if he’d at least attempted to disagree.
“Well,” she said lamely, “good. We’re on the same page, then.”
Suddenly amused again, Kaiden said, “I’m not sure we are.”
Wary now, Alex didn’t know how to respond.
Kaiden, however, had no such problem. Looking entirely too relaxed, he said, “You’re right that the other night was a mistake, but only because we were standing in the middle of the entrance to the dorm building. It’s good we were interrupted, because it means next time we’ll do it right.”
Alex’s heart skipped a beat. Her lungs constricted as she choked out, “Next time?”
Still completely relaxed, Kaiden offered her a dazzling smile and said, “A first kiss between two people is important, Alex. It needs to be memorable.”
Her breath now utterly gone, Alex wondered if she was going to pass out.
Kaiden’s smile softened as he read whatever was no doubt splashed across her features. Quietly, he said, “I know you have your hands full with Aven right now and you don’t need any more complications in your life—I get that. But when the time is right…” He trailed off, his silence telling her all she needed to know—that he was willing to wait for her, no matter how long it took.
All Alex could do was stare at him, unable to form any kind of reply.
“Now that we’re on the same page,” he said, his eyes sparkling as he used her own words against her, “shall we go see what kind of torture Athora has in store for us tonight?”
He didn’t wait for a reply before he pushed off from the wall and curled an arm around her shoulders, guiding her towards the staircase leading down into the depths of the Library.
As Alex stumbled along beside him, she struggled to process what had just happened. Part of her felt she should argue against everything he’d said, everything he’d implied. But another part, deep inside, was brimming with warmth, flooding with hope.
What Alex had told D.C. just two nights earlier still held true—there were so many reasons why she needed to squash her growing feelings for Kaiden. For his safety, for her peace of mind—there were a thousand arguments she could offer. But, everything he’d said… and how he’d understood without her having to explain… she couldn’t help feeling it would be wrong to fight him on this. Especially when she wasn’t sure that she would win.
… Or that she wanted to win.
It was because of her uncertainty that Alex remained silent, choosing instead to shake off her lingering embarrassment and trust that Kaiden would give her the space and time she needed. She settled in at his side, bracing for what the future might bring while listening to his calming chatter as together they sought out their teacher.
If Alex thought her strange tasks with Athora would start to seem more purposeful when she began working with Kaiden, she soon found out that she was wrong. Instead of jumping rope on her own, she jumped rope with Kaiden. Instead of juggling various objects for hours on her own, she juggled with Kaiden. Instead of learning how to caramelise the perfect soufflé, she… well, she failed that task, since she hadn’t lied about her limited baking skills, but she got to watch Kaiden complete it—as well as enjoy the delicious results afterwards.
The mindless and downright bizarre tasks Athora set them gave Alex not only the chance to get to know Kaiden much better, but also to experience the Library on a deeper level than ever before. From swimming through underwater rooms, to floating in spaces with zero gravity like the ChemTech facility she’d once broken into, Alex was reminded over and over that there were no limits to what the Library might offer. Other times the rooms themselves were normal but contained mysterious additions—such as hot coals for them to walk across, but they were only hot when they thought they were hot, with the point being that what their minds conceived, they created. The only way Alex managed to make it across unburned was by keeping her eyes closed and acting like she was walking on normal-temperatured rocks. Athora, however, made her go back and do it again until she could cross with her eyes open and not get burned.
Throughout it all, Kaiden remained at her side.
He never questioned Athora, which made Alex wonder how he’d trained with the mysterious man for years without losing his mind. When she asked him on their walk back to the dorms on Tuesday night, he simply said the alternative wasn’t worth the risk just to assuage his curiosity. When put like that, Alex understood completely.
On Wednesday night there was a change to their routine, since after they finished, Athora told Alex that her parents had been asking for her.
Who, exactly, they’d been asking, she didn’t know, but she wasn’t willing to question her intimidating instructor in case he considered that as her breaking the rules, and instead she merely thanked him for passing along the message.
Now that Alex and Kaiden were training together, he usually hitched a ride with her down to the cavern and back up again. But after hearing about her parents, Alex thought it best if Athora returned Kaiden to the foyer that night so she could go and check in on her family and make sure they hadn’t accidentally raised a mummified priest to life.
The problem was, just as she was about to make her request, Athora disappeared.
“So, your parents, huh?” Kaiden asked, his curiosity evident. “You brought them over from Freya with you?”
Alex gave a helpless shrug and said, “They kind of panicked after realising I’d been missing for eight months my first year here, back when I didn’t know I could open doorways between worlds.” That felt like a lifetime ago to her now. “I wasn’t able to come up with a reasonable excuse, so I told them the truth about Akarnae and Medora. To avoid being locked up in a psych ward, I brought them here and Darrius explained everything. They’re archaeologists—people who study ancient relics and artefacts—but they’re also intrepid explorers, so naturally, they decided they wanted to spend time in a whole new world. It’s the greatest adventure they’ve ever been on.”
Kaiden cocked his head to the side. “Is that safe for them? Considering everything between you and Aven?”
Alex sent him a small smile, touched by his concern. “I was worried about that too, but the Library has been very accommodating with providing a safe place for them. They’re having the time of their lives and they’ve never even left the building.”