Raelia (The Medoran Chronicles Book 2) (6 page)

“The security you speak of wouldn’t have stopped me,” Aven said. “Those pitiful palace guards and their ridiculous Warden superiors would have merely been an annoyance and
waste of my time. But I knew all I had to do was wait for you to come to me.”

“In case it escaped your notice, I’m not in this room by choice,” Alex told him. “You’re awfully confident for someone who happened to stumble upon me by chance.”

“Chance had nothing to do with it. Only a fool would believe you wouldn’t leave the palace to explore on your own. I just had to wait for the perfect opportunity to get you alone. Granted, your Warden friend is more talented than I gave her credit for, and she has admittedly made this day more tedious for me than I would have liked. But no matter, you’re here now.”

Alex didn’t know what he was talking about. “What Warden friend?”

“The one who has been following you and the princess all day,” Aven informed her with a smirk on his face.

Alex was shocked. If what he’d said was true, then she and D.C. were going to be in so much trouble when they got back to the palace.

…
If
they got back at all.

“Wait,” she said, thinking fast. “How can a Warden have known who we were? And for that matter, how did you recognise us? You shouldn’t be able to identify me through this cloak.”

She fingered the material that covered her head and Aven barked out an incredulous laugh.

“I’m Meyarin, Alexandra,” he said, as if that was an answer in itself. Maybe it was. “A touch of Shadow Essence isn’t enough to fool me. But I can’t speak for your Warden. And I don’t care to.”

Alex frowned and hoped D.C. was all right. But it was also a relief knowing that there was someone out there watching over them, despite the problems the Warden might cause for them later.

“Do you plan on telling me why we’re here, or are we just going to exchange small talk all afternoon?” Alex asked. She
wanted to get out of there—preferably in one piece—and to do that, she needed to know what Aven was after.

“You still have no patience, I see,” Aven said.

She shrugged unrepentantly. “Patience is overrated.”

Aven raised his left hand and looked at his scarred palm thoughtfully. “Perhaps it is a virtue you lack, but you certainly do make up for it with your strength of will.”

Alex had to resist a shiver of apprehension when she felt her own palm tingle along the line of her identical scar. She would never forget the terror of being subjected to Aven’s commands and stripped of her freedom. If she’d been born with any gift other than her willpower, she would have been Claimed as his slave for the rest of her life.

“You haven’t answered my question,” she said, forcing the fear from her mind. “Why did you pull me in here?”

In the blink of an eye, Aven pushed off the wall and stepped directly in front of her, trapping her in his gaze. His casual attitude was gone and the dangerous look on his face caused Alex to inhale sharply.

“Why do you think you’re here?” Aven asked, his voice soft but with a harsh edge.

Alex refused to step back despite the fact that he was well and truly invading her personal space.

“If I knew the answer, I wouldn’t have asked,” she stated. “It’s not like I can help you get into the Library and to Meya from here. We’re nowhere near the academy.”

Aven laughed derisively. “If I wanted to get into the Library today, I would have waited until you were back at Akarnae. No, that isn’t why I sought you out.”

He leaned closer and she struggled to hold her position. He looked even more amused, as if he knew exactly how uncomfortable he was making her feel.

“What I want is for you to know that at any time, in any moment, I can and will appear,” he whispered into her ear. “I want you to live with the knowledge that I’m watching you and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I want you to know that when that time comes, my plans will succeed. And I want you to know that
you
will be the reason for my success.”

Alex shuddered, but before she could reply, the door burst open and Aven pulled away. She whirled around to see D.C. and another cloaked figure standing in the doorway.

“Alex!” D.C. cried, running towards her.

Alex spun back to face Aven, but it was too late. He was already gone.

Four

“I don’t want to hear your excuses,”
King Aurileous said, pacing around his private meeting room. “I explicitly told you not to leave the palace today. You disobeyed my direct order, and because of that, you could’ve been hurt—or worse.”

“Father, please—”

“No, Delucia,” the king interrupted. “You need to understand how serious this is. If Warden Jeera hadn’t followed you into the city, who knows what might have happened!”

D.C. dropped her head, remaining quiet.

The king hadn’t taken the news of their visit into the city very well at all. Nor had he reacted calmly to the news of Aven’s threat. But something had to be done to tame his wrath before he decided to lock them both in the dungeons and throw away the key.

“It was my fault, Your Majesty, not Dix’s,” Alex said, attempting to defend her friend. “She knew how much I wanted to see Tryllin. We didn’t mean to cause any problems.”

King Aurileous stopped pacing and turned to face both girls.

“Your loyalty is once again commendable, Alex,” he said. “But my daughter should have known better—
especially
with the Meyarin on the loose.”

“I’m sorry, Father,” D.C. said quietly, looking at the floor.

The king sighed and opened his arms. “Come here, sweetheart.”

D.C. hesitated a moment, but then stepped forward into her father’s embrace.

“He almost took you from me once, my darling girl. I can’t bear the thought of it happening again,” he whispered.

Although the words weren’t meant for her, Alex had to swallow back tears at the raw emotion in his voice. Before she could decide if she should give them a moment alone, they ended their hug with watery smiles.

“We’re due to leave for the academy soon,” D.C. told her father, “but will you keep us updated about Aven?”

“My best Wardens are searching for him now,” the king said, looking at Alex thoughtfully. “I can’t believe he approached you in the middle of the day like that. And then just let you go. It’s… concerning. But I promise to let you both know if we find him or learn anything more.”

Alex thanked him, relieved that he seemed to have calmed down.

He kept his eyes steady on her and asked, “You’ll look after my baby girl this year, won’t you, Alex?”

She blinked with surprise. “Um, sure. I mean, yes, Your Majesty. As much as I can, anyway. When I’m with her—which is most of the time.” She snapped her mouth shut in an effort to keep the words from continuing to spill out, but it was too late, and both the king and D.C. were already laughing.

“I can’t tell you how safe I feel,” D.C. said, still sniggering.

Alex decided to keep her mouth closed, but that just caused the king and his daughter to laugh even more.

“At least she’s enthusiastic,” King Aurileous said.

“That she is,” D.C. agreed, smiling fondly at Alex.

“Don’t we have to go?” Alex asked, trying to cover her embarrassment.

“Yeah,” D.C. said. “We don’t want to be late.”

“Make sure you say goodbye to your mother before you take off,” the king said, hugging his daughter again. “She misses you when you’re gone.”

“Of course,” D.C. promised.

King Aurileous smiled at her one last time and turned to Alex. “You take care, Alex. I have a feeling we’ll need you more than we yet know.”

She looked at him wonderingly, trying to fathom the meaning behind his ominous words. But then he winked at her, easing her concern. She couldn’t tell if his comment was serious or a joke, but she was certain he didn’t mean to cause her any anxiety.

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” she said with a slight bow.

D.C. led the way out of the room and Alex followed her through the corridors and up the numerous staircases until they reached the princess’s room.

After some quick packing, D.C. grabbed her small bag of belongings and said, “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go find Mother and get out of here.”

Locating the queen in the palace’s butterfly garden— and yes, to Alex’s shock, it was an actual garden full of live, fluttering butterflies—D.C.’s goodbye with her mother was short but heartfelt. Queen Osmada even wrapped Alex in a motherly hug, saying that she looked forward to getting to know her daughter’s best friend better in the future.

After their fleeting farewell, D.C. handed Alex a Bubbler vial and, with an excited gleam in her eyes, offered, “After you.”

Alex grinned and threw the glass to the ground, sending butterflies scattering when the Bubbledoor rose up in front of them. As she stepped into the colourful mass, she thought of exactly where she wanted to arrive, and within a matter of moments she was out the other side and staring up at the academy’s Tower building.

D.C. stepped through after her and they both grinned at each other, pleased to be back at Akarnae.

After stashing D.C.’s belongings with Alex’s in the dorm room they’d shared the previous year, they headed directly over to the food court.

Alex was relieved that the noise covered their entrance so no one noticed them sneaking in a few minutes late. She’d never seen the room so full of people. Normally the hungry occupants came and went as they pleased within the designated eating times, but now the court was packed full of students and teachers alike.

“Alex! Dix! Over here!”

Alex heard Jordan call out for them and she led D.C. over to where their friends were sitting.

“We were worried you weren’t going to make it in time,” Bear said as they took their seats between the two boys.

“Us? Late?” Alex asked with wide eyes. “Never.”

“Right. I’ll remember that next time we have to barge into your dorm to get you up in time for PE,” Bear said.

“Once. That only happened once,” Alex grumbled. “And I was the one who opened the door and let you in. There was no barging

Ignoring the stifled sounds of amusement from eavesdropping classmates, her attention moved to the rest of her table. Normally the food court was set up into clusters of randomly shaped and sized tables, but tonight all the furniture was larger, with groups of people seated together. Looking around her table, Alex recognised many faces from her classes last year.

Jordan must have seen her curious expression because he spoke before she could ask. “The first night of every new year we all sit in age-based groups so it’s easier to organise getting our new class schedules.”

That seemed logical. But unfortunately for Alex, she’d been so overwhelmed by the transition into Akarnae—and
Medora—during the previous year that she hadn’t had much of a chance to get to know many of her fellow classmates.

“I don’t know most of these people,” she admitted quietly to Jordan. “Can you give me a brief rundown?”

“No problem.” He turned away and called out loudly enough to draw the attention of everyone at their table, “Hey, guys, let’s do an icebreaker!”

“Jordan!” Alex hissed.

“What?” he asked innocently. “This way we’ll all get to know each other even better.”

“Sparker,” called one of the guys sitting further down the table. “What gives?”

“You know, an icebreaker,” Jordan repeated. “We’ll each say something random about ourselves. Something that not many people here know. Fun, right?”

No one else seemed thrilled by the idea, but in true Jordan fashion, he managed to get them all to grudgingly agree.

“I’ll start,” he said. “My name is Jordan Sparker, and when I was three years old I shoved a pea so far up my nose that it had to be surgically removed. Your turn, Alex.”

Turning to eagerly awaiting eyes, Alex’s mind suddenly blanked. “I’m Alexandra Jennings—but just ‘Alex’ is fine—and I, um, like reading?”

She wished she hadn’t made it sound like a question. In fact, she wasn’t sure why she’d said it, since she didn’t read all that much. But it wasn’t as if she could have said she was from another world.

D.C. went next, then Bear, followed by Connor and Mel O’Malley, the cousins who Alex had spent some time with in the previous school year. The introductions continued around the table and Alex had a chance to learn about some of her other classmates.

“I’m Savannah Hill, and I’m a virtual reality addict,” said a blond girl who Alex remembered from her Delta PE class last year. “The projector in the Rec Room here is way better than the one I have back home, so I’m a little obsessed with it.”

“Kelly Gleeson,” said the next girl, who had short brown hair and squinty eyes. “My favourite movie is
Beyond the Crescent Moon
.”

Next up was a tall, lanky, extremely tanned guy with spiky hair who, when he spoke, sounded like he’d walked straight out of a surfing commercial. “Whazzup! Friends call me ‘Blink’. I’m into extremes—extreme sports, extreme food, extreme music—anything extreme. Embrace the rush!”

The introductions continued until the names all blended together and Alex knew she wouldn’t be able to remember everyone. Chelsea Jones… Kimberly Cooke… Mathew Parker… Andrew Nickles… Tate Golde… Ruth Voran… Anna Ford… Elliott Parvie… Samuel Hortham… The names kept coming until there were only two people left.

“I’m Sean McInney,” said a bulky guy with long hair. He looked pointedly at Jordan. “I don’t like icebreakers.”

Alex grinned along with everyone else and turned to the last person who sat directly opposite her, a short girl with mousy brown hair and owlish eyes. She was so tiny that it looked like the slightest breath of wind would snap her in half.

“I’m Phillipa Squeaker,” the girl said. “I hate my name, so call me ‘Pip’ or ‘Pipsqueak’. Anything else will result in me shaving off one of your eyebrows while you sleep. You’ve been warned.” Pipsqueak glared threateningly around the table until her scowl transformed into a brilliant smile. “Oh, I forgot to mention that I love rainbow cupcakes and fluffy bunnies.”

Alex tried to turn her laughter into a cough but wasn’t very successful. Pipsqueak turned to her and Alex tried harder to steel her expression into something more serious, but it was
impossible. Just as she managed to get rid of her smile, the small girl winked at her, and Alex couldn’t help but laugh again. At least Pipsqueak had a sense of humour. No one else at the table seemed to know how to take the diminutive girl.