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.”
Kaiden seemed both amused and disbelieving. “This I have to see.”
Alex looked at him, not following. Or perhaps, not wanting to follow. “Sorry?”
“Athora said they’ve been asking about you,” Kaiden reminded her unnecessarily. “I presume you’re about to go visit them. I’d like to come.”
Alex was shaking her head firmly before he even finished speaking. “No way.”
Now he just looked fully amused, all signs of disbelief gone. “Why not, Alex? You’re not nervous about introducing me to your parents, are you?”
Everything within her shifted into panic mode at the very idea. “My friends haven’t even met them yet. Only Darrius.”
“Then I’m sure they’ll enjoy some fresh company. Unless…” He sent her a challenging look. “Is there a reason you don’t want them to meet me? A reason, like, say, worrying they’ll get the wrong idea about us?”
Refusing to let him see how much his words were affecting her, Alex lifted her chin and blatantly lied, “Of course I’m not worried.”
To prove her false words true, Alex summoned a doorway right in the middle of the cavern that opened to the Ancient Egyptian environment.
“After you,” she told Kaiden, motioning with her hand for him to step through first and desperately hoping her parents would be deep within the bowels of the pyramid where they couldn’t be located.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, since after she and Kaiden battled the dry, sand-stinging winds to enter the ancient site, they happened upon her parents only a few chambers down from the entrance, right where Alex had last seen them. It looked like they were finishing up for the night, since they were packing away their tools and chatting about something unrelated to their work—a surprise in and of itself.
“… and then I said to him, ‘I don’t know about you, sir, but my wife thinks my beard makes me look—”
Alex cleared her throat loudly, not at all wanting to hear what her mother thought about her father’s facial hair.
Both Rachel and Jack looked up at her interruption, their faces brightening. Then their eyes flicked past her as Kaiden stepped into view, and if anything, their expressions became even more radiant.
“Jack, honey, look!” Rachel cried, as if her husband wasn’t standing right beside her. “Alex brought a boy with her!”
She made it sound like it was the most wonderful news in the world, like discovering that Christmas, Easter and her birthday would all be repeated back to back for the rest of her life.
“I didn’t really bring him,” Alex said even though she knew there was little point in attempting to explain that she’d allowed him to come under duress. “He just… decided to… tag along.”
Silence descended as her parents and Kaiden all looked at Alex with raised eyebrows.
“Well, whatever the case,” Rachel said brightly, “it’s wonderful to meet another alien like Darrius.”
Alex’s eyes bugged out. “Mum! Don’t call Kaiden an alien! Or Darrius! What’s the matter with you?”
“They’re from another world,” Rachel said, as if explaining something basic to a child. “That means they’re aliens.”
“Technically, we’re from another world,” Alex corrected, wondering how, after all their worldly—and other worldly—travels, they could be so culturally insensitive. It was a wonder they’d survived as long as they had and not been stoned to death by the natives at some ancient dig site or another. Then again, most of the people they dealt with were already buried, and the dead weren’t so quick to take offence.
Rachel tapped a finger against her lips. “You know what? You’re absolutely right.”
“I’ve always wanted to be an alien,” Jack said, sounding thrilled. “I can now officially put that on my résumé. I bet it’ll give me a slew of job opportunities. Can you imagine?”
Alex didn’t want to imagine. In fact, she didn’t want to imagine just about as much as she didn’t want to be there right now. And that was a lot.
“Are you going to introduce us properly to this young man you so staunchly defended?” Rachel asked, her eyes shining with parental glee.
Seeing her mother’s expression, Alex began backing away. “On second thought, I think I’ll come back later. Alone.”
She spun on her heel only to run straight into Kaiden.
Shaking with repressed laughter, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pivoted her back to face her parents, his strong grip compelling her to walk forward with him.
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Jennings,” he said, reaching out to shake their hands. “I’m Kaiden James, a friend of Alex’s.”
Alex could have sworn her mother swooned a little at his polite introduction.
“Kaiden, son, a pleasure,” her father said. “But please, call us Jack and Rachel.”
With a smile that prompted Rachel to give an audible happy sigh—thus causing Alex no small amount of mortification—Kaiden nodded his agreement.
“Are you one of Alex’s classmates?” Rachel asked, looking between him and Alex—specifically where his arm was still wrapped snugly around her.
Alex tried to edge away from him, or at least untangle herself from his grip, but he only curled his arm tighter.
Ignoring the glare she sent him—though, his lips did give a hint of a twitch—he answered, “I’m a year above Alex but we do share a couple of classes.”