Raelia (The Medoran Chronicles Book 2) (37 page)

Alex looked away to avoid the question in his eyes. She wasn’t ready to answer what she was sure he would ask. But he surprised her, and rather than beginning an interrogation
session, he stood and offered her his hand. She took hold and he pulled her effortlessly to her feet. He steadied her until she was able to stand unassisted.

“Did the others make it out okay?” she asked as they began to walk back around the mansion, staying hidden behind the hedges and statues.

“Yeah, they’re all fine. Samson’s chemical cocktail made it almost too easy for everyone to escape,” he assured her. “Hopefully they’re waiting for us and not planning some kind of suicide rescue mission.”

“Unlike what you did,” Alex said. “
Twice
. Care to explain yourself?”

“What’s to explain?” Kaiden asked as he ducked under a statue’s arm. “The first time you and Jordan took way too long to get back to us that it was obvious something must have gone wrong, so Declan and I decided to investigate. We bypassed stealth and went for the surprise approach. Not that it did us any good. Who
were
those people?”

Alex figured his comment was rhetorical—or at least that’s how she took it—and she pressed for his continued explanation. “And the second time? How did you know Aven had me trapped in the smoke?”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him shrug. “It wasn’t that hard to guess,” he said. “Everyone else made it out and said you were right behind us but I couldn’t see you anywhere.”

“How
did
you find me? I couldn’t see anything in that darkness.”

Kaiden hesitated, but then said, “I’ve told you before I have pretty good intuition. Plus, it wasn’t hard to hear your struggle with Aven.”

“About him…” Alex trailed off awkwardly. She drew a breath and said, “He’s not someone you want to go around talking about.”

“I’m not stupid, Alex,” Kaiden said. “Aven Dalmarta isn’t someone I’d choose to have as an adversary. Unlike you, apparently.”

“That particular decision was out of my hands,” Alex huffed as she pushed a branch away from her face. “He’s been after me since the first day I arrived in—”

She stopped speaking, having almost said way too much. She mentally replayed her words and was relieved to note that she hadn’t given away anything too incriminating. But then Kaiden’s statement fully registered, and she asked, “How do you know his full name?”

Kaiden didn’t answer immediately, but Alex refused to break the silence or change the topic. When they were safely out of the gardens and heading up the hill he explained.

“I’ve never seen him before, but tonight wasn’t the first time I’ve heard of Aven. I know who he is, where he comes from and why he’s no longer a prince of Meya. I also know what it’ll mean if he makes it back there. What I
don’t
know is where you fit into the picture, and why Aven believes you can ‘escort’ him to Meya. Last I heard, the city was impossible to locate.”

She bit her cheek and avoided eye contact, even when she felt him waiting for a response.

“I also have no idea how you managed to fight like that,” Kaiden pressed. “I’ve never seen a human move so fast.” When she still didn’t speak, he added, “Alex, I’ve gone up against you in class and I’ve watched you fight others, but you’ve never shown anything close to the skill you demonstrated tonight. You held your own against a
Meyarin
. That shouldn’t have been possible.”

“Guess I’m just full of surprises,” Alex said, trying to make a joke of it but failing miserably.

“You saved my life tonight,” Kaiden said quietly. “I’m not going to force you to tell me anything, and I’ll make sure Declan doesn’t either. But you have to know that I’m… concerned.
I was worried when I thought you had Marcus Sparker on your tail, but Aven Dalmarta…”

Kaiden trailed off into a sigh. He stopped walking and reached out for Alex’s hand, halting her beside him. Looking straight into her eyes, he said, “Just promise me that if you ever need help, you’ll ask.”

Alex kept her gaze locked on his. She couldn’t escape the emotions pouring out of him. Above everything else, she could see how much he wanted her to trust him.

“I promise,” she whispered. And she meant it. But only as a last resort. She would never willingly drag him or anyone else into the mess that had become her life.

He continued looking at her for a moment longer and then nodded, apparently satisfied she was telling the truth. He dropped her hand and she immediately felt a sense of loss at the broken contact, absurd as that was.

“We should keep moving,” he said. “I’m sure the others will be worrying about us.”

They hurried up the hill in silence, careful with their footing as the light from the mansion faded with every step. Only when they were near the meeting place did Kaiden speak again.

“I’m not sure if you realised in the middle of all that, but your weapon disappeared after it knocked the telekinetic woman to the floor,” he said. “It just vanished into the air. What’s the deal with that

“Honestly, I have no idea,” Alex said. “It’s happened three times now. It just appears when I need it and disappears again afterwards.”

“Aven called it ‘A’enara’,” Kaiden mused. “I’ll see if I can find out anything about it once we’re back at the academy, if you want?”

Alex didn’t need to think about his offer. “That would actually be really good; I wouldn’t even know where to begin looking.”

“Consider it done,” he said. “I’ll let you know if I discover anything.”

“Thanks, Kaiden.” She sent him a soft smile. “Oh, and thanks for, you know, rescuing me. I don’t think I would’ve made it out of there if you hadn’t come back. But I’m sorry you had to carry me—I’m surprised you didn’t break your back.”

Kaiden laughed. “You weigh practically nothing, Alex. I’ve carried much heavier things in Finn’s class. I’d choose you any day.”

Alex was glad the darkness kept him from seeing her reaction to his statement. ‘
I’d choose you any day.
’ Maybe she was taking his words out of context, but so what?

“How did you get me away from Aven, anyway?” she asked, deliberately moving her thoughts along.

“I used this,” he said, pulling from his belt the silver Stabiliser he must have stolen back from Calista.

“You
shot
him?”

“It didn’t do much good,” Kaiden admitted. “He was barely jolted, when most people would’ve been out like a light. But it was enough to shock him into releasing you, which gave me the chance I needed to get you out of there.”

Alex shook her head in amazement, and she couldn’t help chuckling. Her chuckle turned into a laugh, and all the while Kaiden watched her with curious amusement.

“What’s so funny?”

“I can’t believe you shot him,” she said, still grinning. “I wish I’d seen that.”

“Maybe one day I’ll offer a repeat performance,” he said, winking.

Alex sobered at the thought of seeing Aven again in the future. For a moment she regretted her promise to ask for Kaiden’s help if needed, but at the same time she couldn’t deny
the relief she felt at someone else knowing about the threat tainting her life. At least part of it, anyway.

“I can see them! Over there!”

Alex looked further up the hill and saw her classmates running in their direction. The sight of them safe and well almost brought her to tears after everything they’d all been through. When they were within arm’s reach, she and Kaiden were drawn into a group hug.

“Are you guys okay?” Pipsqueak asked when they broke apart. “We were so worried when we realised you weren’t with us! What happened?”

“Just a minor setback,” Kaiden assured them. “We’re both fine.”

“We’ll be even better when we get back to the academy,” Alex said in a pointed tone.

Everyone nodded in agreement and looked towards Samson, who rummaged through his bag and pulled out a handful of Bubbler vials.

“We’ll have to go through in two groups,” he said, “because my Bubblers are cheap knock-offs and they only have enough juice for five people at a time. No one else knows where we’re going, so I’ll have to come back and bring the second lot of you through as well. Good thing I’ve got a few of these vials handy.”

Good thing indeed
, Alex thought suspiciously, beginning to question just how much of Samson’s imprisonment and subsequent rescue had been staged by Hunter. In hindsight, parts of it seemed a little too convenient to Alex’s mind, like the fact that she had unwittingly crossed paths with Aven yet again—an event that she was certain hadn’t occurred by accident, not on Hunter’s watch. What, exactly, had her SAS teacher been thinking?

Putting aside her questions for now, she watched Samson activate the first Bubbledoor and step through, followed by Blink, Pipsqueak, Skyla and Tom.

While the rest of them waited for him to return, Kaiden guided Declan a short distance away for a whispered conversation, hopefully asking him not to press Alex for details about Aven or Meya. Giving them some privacy, she turned back to Jordan and quickly found herself wrapped in his arms. He hugged her so tightly that she was in danger of suffocating for the second time that night.

“Alex, I was so scared,” he whispered in her ear.

She returned his fierce hug, having had first-hand experience—a few times over—of just how terrifying Aven could be.

“I really thought I’d lost you tonight,” Jordan continued. “And not just when you weren’t behind us coming out of the mansion, although that’s definitely something I never want to experience again. But when you fought Aven… I thought he was going to kill you. His eyes… I’ve never seen so much hatred.”

Alex frowned in confusion and pulled back to look at Jordan’s serious face, trying to read his features in the moonlight. “Wait a minute. Are you saying you were freaked out about
me
, not about Aven?”

At his nod, she gaped at him.

“Are you mad?” she asked. “What about
you
? You were stuck in the same room the whole time! If anything, you were in way more danger. Aven needs me alive—at least for the moment— but he was more than willing to kill
you
. Especially after Signa read your thoughts about Meya.”

Jordan winced. “Sorry about that. I tried not to think about it, but the more I tried not to think about it, the more I thought about it.”

“Like the pink hippo,” Alex said, understanding.

Jordan looked bemused. “Huh?”

“You know, the pink hippo,” she repeated. Seeing his expression, she added, “When someone says, ‘Don’t think about
a pink hippopotamus’, what’s the first thing you think of? A pink hippopotamus.”

“Riiiight,” Jordan said. “I think it’s time we got you home.”

Alex definitely agreed with him, and Samson chose that moment to Bubble back to them. Without preamble, he smashed another vial and walked through it with Alex, Jordan, Kaiden and Declan following.

They landed in a dimly lit street and the moment they were all steady, Samson started leading them swiftly along the cobblestone pavement.

“Where are the others?” she asked, looking around. “And where are we?”

“Your friends are already waiting at my house,” he answered. “And we’re on the outskirts of a small town called Dupressa.”

“Do we have far to walk?” Jordan asked, wrapping an arm around Alex’s waist so she could lean on him for support. She hadn’t realised how much she’d been struggling to remain upright until his added assistance made it so much easier for her to keep going.

“Not far,” Samson promised. “My house is warded against unauthorised Bubbledoor arrivals. I won the vials we used in a game of Stix and didn’t have time to program my access code into them before I was imprisoned. That’s why we’re stuck walking.” The juggler eyed Alex. “Can you last a little longer, love? You sure are a mess.”

She frowned and looked down at herself. True enough, she was covered in shallow cuts, and her dress was slashed and bloodied in numerous places where Aven had managed to make contact with his blade. Really, she was lucky she had any material left covering her body, considering the damage. But somehow she was still mostly decent, a fact for which she was grateful.

“I’m fine,” she told Samson.

The man raised his eyebrow in disbelief but he didn’t call her on the truth of her statement.

They continued walking in silence for another few minutes, and with each step, Alex leaned more and more heavily on Jordan.

“Here we are,” Samson said at last, leading them off the street and up to a cottage that was separated from the other houses nearby by a thick row of trees.

As they stepped inside and were greeted by the rest of their classmates, Alex exhaled with relief. But it was short-lived.

“We’ve found an arrow with our next task,” Tom said.

“Another task?” Declan said. “You can’t be serious!”

He took the words right out of Alex’s mouth. Did Hunter seriously expect more from them? She didn’t have anything left to give.

Tom raised his hands. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

“Sorry,” Declan said, running his fingers agitatedly through his cropped hair. “What does it say?”

“Just that the arrow will transport us to our next destination. We’ve also been given a bottle of Liquid Light, which doesn’t make me feel great about wherever we’re going to land.”

“Fabulous,” Declan muttered.

Alex swayed on her feet, prompting Jordan to tighten his grip around her waist.

“Do you have something we can eat?” Kaiden asked Samson, his eyes taking in Alex’s failing energy. “Something to drink, too?”

“I’m fine,” Alex repeated, knowing he was only asking for her sake. But she also knew that if she sat down to eat or drink, she probably wouldn’t be able to get back up.

“I’m thirsty,” Skyla stated. “And hungry.”

“We can eat back at the academy,” Alex said firmly, and she turned to Samson. “It was nice meeting you. I hope I get to see you perform one day.”

“The pleasure was all mine, love,” he told her. “Thanks for helping me escape. I owe you one.”

Before anyone could argue or ask again for food, Alex sent him a parting smile and stepped out of Jordan’s grasp, stumbling over to Tom. She took the vial of Liquid Light from him and reached up to touch the arrow embedded in Samson’s wall. Immediately she was whisked away, and when she landed, she couldn’t see anything in the pitch-black darkness. She quickly unstoppered the vial in her hands, releasing a brilliant light that illuminated the entire area around her.