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.