“The Eternal Path can take us anywhere we want,” Kyia told her. “And you wouldn’t have had the chance to enjoy the beauty of Meya properly if you hadn’t first witnessed it from the top of the Golden Cliffs.”
Alex contemplated that as they continued speeding through the Silverwood and offered a meaningful, “Thank you, Kyia.”
The Meyarin tilted her head in acknowledgement as the Valispath began to slow, soon coming to a smooth stop.
“This is where our journey ends,” Kyia said when Alex and her friends were back on their feet.
“Sorry you didn’t get to shoot one of us,” Jordan said with a smirk.
Kyia mimicked his cocky expression. “There’s still time if you want a demonstration?”
“Ah, no,” he said, his smirk fading. “I’m good, thanks.”
“Let’s go before you say something stupid and end up with an arrow through your spleen,” D.C. said, dragging Jordan and Bear into the mushroom circle.
Alex smiled at Kyia once more and moved to follow her friends, but she paused when the Meyarin reached out to gently grasp her arm.
“Alex,” Kyia said quietly, using her name for the first time. “Be careful. Aven Dalmarta is… He’s the worst of our kind.”
Alex blinked at the Meyarin’s warning, touched by her concern.
“I will,” she promised. “I hope we’ll get a chance to meet again, Kyia.”
“As do I,” Kyia agreed with a slight smile, making her already stunning face even more radiant. With those parting words, she turned and walked away, disappearing into the trees surrounding Raelia.
Alex looked into the woods one last time then stepped over the mushroom boundary and approached her friends.
“Time to see how this return-trip deal works,” Alex said. Her intent acted like a command, prompting a doorway to magically appear before them. With D.C., Jordan and Bear all following close behind her, Alex stepped straight through, willing it to open into the painting-and-tapestry-covered foyer of the Library.
“Home sweet home,” Bear said once the doorway disappeared again behind them.
“What a day!” D.C.’s eyes were comically wide. “I can’t believe we’re still alive.”
“I won’t be for much longer if I don’t eat something,” Jordan said. “I’m starving.”
His stomach rumbled as if to emphasise his words, and Alex realised how hungry she was as well. And tired. Her day had been exhausting, yet it was barely sunset.
“Food, then bed,” she said. But she remembered something else and amended, “Food, Darrius, then bed.”
Jordan pointed to her bleeding wound where Roka’s blade had nicked her arm. “Food, Fletcher, Darrius, then bed,” he corrected.
“I can barely feel it,” Alex argued, but she knew he was right and nodded in agreement.
“Sounds like we have a plan,” D.C. concluded, linking her arm through Alex’s and leading the way up and out of the Tower.
ome fr om?
Thirteen
Alex was jerked violently from her sleep that night when a bloodcurdling scream nearly ruptured her eardrums. She was out of bed and crouching in a defensive position before fully waking, frantically searching the darkened corners of the room for any trace of Aven who she feared had somehow broken into the dorm.
She could see nothing out of place, but the screaming continued as D.C. thrashed around in her bed, clawing at her covers and waving her hands wildly.
“Dix?” Alex called, rushing over to her friend. She reached out to restrain D.C.’s arms to keep them from smacking her in the face. “Wake up, Dix! Wake up!”
“Noooo!” D.C. wailed. The sound was heart-wrenching and it caused chills to trickle down Alex’s spine.
D.C. continued to scream and fight, so Alex roughly shook her. When she finally woke, her demeanour changed almost instantly. One second she was screaming bloody murder, and the next she had her mouth closed and eyes wide open, looking up at Alex in confusion.
“Alex? What are you doing?” D.C. asked groggily, staring at her arms where Alex held them locked in a firm grasp.
“You were having a nightmare,” Alex said, releasing her. “You were screaming and everything.”
D.C. looked bewildered but then her expression cleared. Just as swiftly her eyes shadowed, and she looked away from Alex, swallowing thickly. “Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Hey, you can’t help what you dream,” Alex said. But then she remembered that sometimes D.C. actually could influence what she dreamed. Her friend’s gift enabled her to dream true dreams—dreams that showed the future. When D.C. had those dreams, she could choose to relive the visions anytime she wanted to gather more information.
“Dix, was that… Were you dreaming one of your, you know, dreams?” Alex asked.
D.C. looked up at Alex with eyes that were calmer than before, but still held a lingering trace of darkness.
“I’m sure it was nothing, Alex.” Despite her confident words, she didn’t sound certain. “I can barely remember it, so I think it was just a regular nightmare. Usually I have much more clarity when I have true dreams.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” Alex offered.
“N—no,” D.C. said quickly. Then she cleared her throat as if to cover her abrupt answer. “I mean, it’s late, and I’ll probably have forgotten all about it by morning.”
“You sure?” Alex asked, not wanting to upset D.C. when she looked so vulnerable. “You know I’m here if you want to talk.”
“I’m good, but thanks. And sorry again for waking you.”
Alex told her not to worry about it and made her way back to bed. While D.C. seemed to fall straight back to sleep, Alex had trouble relaxing. Try as she might, she couldn’t get D.C.’s agonised screams out of her mind. But soon enough the events of her day in Meya and the exhaustion from having to relive every moment—except for the ones she promised Roka not to speak of—during her talk with Darrius caught up to her, and she drifted off into a restless sleep.
That was the first night D.C.’s screams woke Alex, but it wasn’t the last.
Every night for the rest of the week Alex was woken by the terrified noises of her thrashing roommate. When confronted, D.C. adamantly refused to speak about her nightmares, continuing to claim they were nothing. And while the night terrors lasted only a few minutes, they were so anxiety-inducing that Alex was rarely able to sleep much afterwards.
Within a few days both girls had dark circles under their eyes, and their lack of proper rest hadn’t gone unnoticed by their friends. But more worrying was that their exhaustion was beginning to cause problems in class.