Chapter Forty-Eight
Grief is a strange and fickle thing, difficult to grasp, for it wears a different face for each of us. It does not follow rules or reason, nor does it bend to expectation. And oftentimes, it moulds us into shapes we never imagined ourselves capable of becoming.
From the outside, one's actions may seem incomprehensible, even mad. Choices so unlike them, so at odds with their nature, their values, their very soul.
But that is the danger of grief.
It has the power to twist the gentlest spirit into something unrecognisable.
Even the purest heart may be coaxed into darkness… and find comfort there.
Tabitha Wysteria
‘You’re holding your arm wrong,’ Kai observed, his voice carrying the faint edge of a teacher too amused for his own good.
‘Well, doing it your way hurts,’ Alina retorted, her expression one of pure exasperation.
‘Then it means you’re doing it right,’ he countered smoothly. ‘If it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t count.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘Should I kick you and see whether you still stand by such idiotic wisdom?’ She ignored the low chuckle that escaped him as she tightened her grip on the long sword they had managed to salvage from the armoury.
Kai had insisted they train with proper longswords—none of the curved, short-forged desert blades she and the others were accustomed to, weapons designed for quick, intimate strikes. These swords demanded reach, leverage… and pain, apparently.
‘Astapada palida farahi,’ Arena muttered under her breath, shooting Kai a look sharp enough to cut steel.
Kai blinked. ‘Why do I feel like that was an insult?’ He rubbed the back of his neck, puzzled, while Arena’s lower lip curled into a sneer.
Isla nudged her friend lightly, trying, and failing, to smother a grin.
‘They think you’re insulting their weapons,’ Alina explained, her tone dry as desert sand.
Kai scoffed. ‘I merely said you need to learn to use longswords!’
‘Waa pada vankar palida farahi,’ Arena fired back, her voice clipped with pride.
‘And that means?’ Kai asked warily.
Alina sighed, shaking her head. ‘That we could defeat you in a fight.’
Kai snorted, amused despite himself.
Alina’s brown eyes glimmered with challenge. ‘You don’t believe us?’
He hesitated, noticing the three women now united in their glare, like wolves eyeing prey. With a rueful shake of his head, he raised both hands. ‘Never doubted your abilities for a moment.’
Before Alina could muster a reply, the doors to the training hall swung open with a whisper of polished hinges.
Mareena stepped through, a cluster of attendants flowing behind her like a silken tide.
There was a quiet majesty to the phoenixian princess.
Every movement deliberate, elegant to the point of intimidation.
Alina felt a faint sting of envy, wishing, not for the first time, that she might move with such unstudied grace.
Kai was already moving before Alina could even think to stop him.
It was always the same: the moment he glimpsed the phoenixian princess, his questions would tumble out in an unrelenting rush.
About her, always about the witch. How was she faring?
Could he see her? When would she be brought back to him?
And always, Mareena’s answer was the same: the witch still slept, and patience was a virtue he would simply have to learn.
Each time she spoke those words, those crimson eyes would flicker briefly, almost knowingly, to Alina’s own.
‘The witch is awake,’ Mareena announced, her expression carved from marble, revealing nothing. ‘She has returned to her chambers.’
Before a single question could be voiced, Kai was gone, sprinting out of the hall like a storm unbound.
Mareena’s gaze lingered on the training room, sweeping over Arena and Isla, who still flanked Alina with swords poised awkwardly in hand. The princess’s eyes softened slightly before she spoke.
‘Shall we walk?’ she asked, the subtle weight in her tone making it clear there was more to this stroll than idle conversation.
Alina dipped her head in silent agreement, pivoting on her heel to return her sword to its rack. With a brief gesture to Arena and Isla, she led them out into the open air.
The sunlight struck her face with a sudden, unrelenting warmth, forcing her to squint. At once, servants unfurled vast silk fans to shield Mareena from the blaze of day, their sweep of shade falling over Alina too, a luxury she hadn’t asked for, but one she was quietly grateful for nonetheless.
‘I have received word,’ Mareena said, the soft slap of her sandals echoing faintly against the tiled floor as they stepped into one of the palace gardens.
It was a place of cultivated splendour: fountains whispered their crystalline songs, palm trees stretched languidly towards the heavens, and strange creatures prowled the edges, creatures that Alina now understood were not entirely born of nature’s hand. ‘From King Siroc.’
Alina froze mid-step.
‘He wishes to know if his daughter’s killer walks among us,’ Mareena continued evenly. ‘If so, he demands that I surrender her.’ The princess stopped as well, turning to face Alina, crimson eyes glimmering in the dappled sunlight.
‘Saren must have reached him,’ Alina said.
Mareena inclined her head once, a measured, regal nod. ‘I shall tell him I do not know your whereabouts. Let him waste his time chasing ghosts.’
‘No.’ Alina straightened her spine, resolve solidifying in her tone. ‘I will go to him. To the king himself.’
Mareena’s eyes widened a fraction. ‘Why?’
‘Because he deserves the truth,’ Alina replied. ‘And because Saren must be stopped.’
The phoenixian princess regarded her for a long, silent moment before nodding again. ‘When?’
‘We wait until the witch is strong enough to travel. We may have need of her.’
‘Very well,’ Mareena answered, pivoting to return towards the palace. Yet she paused as she drew level with Alina, leaning in until her lips hovered inches from Alina’s ear, her breath soft and warm against her skin. ‘I will see to it that the weapons are prepared for our departure.’
Alina blinked, startled by the certainty in her tone. ‘This isn’t your fight.’
‘Perhaps not,’ Mareena replied smoothly, a flicker of dangerous amusement tugging at her lips.
‘My father may choose to keep his hands clean, but I am Phanax, and I will not allow the desert kingdom to grow into a threat against my own. Besides…’ Her smile sharpened into something dark and promising.
‘I cannot allow you to have all the fun, can I?’
Despite herself, Alina found her own lips curling into an answering grin. Wicked, sharp, and full of the same promise of blood and reckoning.
…
Kai paid no heed to the protests of the servants and physicians, brushing past them as though their startled cries and muttered curses were nothing but a distant hum.
It had been days, nearly a week, since Dawn had been torn from his arms, since he had last seen her breathing, whole.
They had forbidden him from visiting, from seeing for himself that she still lingered in this world.
Each day had brought only the same meagre comfort: a curt message from the phoenixian princess that the witch yet slept, still healing.
By the second day, his patience had snapped.
He had almost torn through the palace, every corridor echoing with the sound of his furious steps, ready to rip open every door until he found her.
Only Alina had stopped him, her voice soft yet unyielding, urging him to trust them, to trust the process. And, against all odds, he had listened.
He stopped abruptly when he reached the bed, one of those impossibly grand phoenixian things, wide enough to cradle five people with room to spare.
There she was. Dawn. Sitting upright, her long white hair a dishevelled halo around her face, eyes shadowed with exhaustion.
Yet when those amethyst eyes, sharp and unnervingly clear, met his, every muscle in his body unclenched, as though he had been holding his breath for a lifetime and could finally exhale.
She was alive. She was truly all right.
‘Are you going to stand there gawking like an idiot,’ Dawn muttered, rubbing at her temples, ‘or are you going to bring me some water? I feel like I died and clawed my way back again.’
Kai hesitated only a heartbeat, unwilling to lose sight of her for even a moment.
Then, as though wrenched from a trance, he strode out to command a servant for a jar of cold, fresh water before returning swiftly to the foot of her bed, close enough to watch her breathe, but careful not to trespass further.
‘You look dreadful,’ he remarked, voice dry as flint.
Dawn’s purple eyes narrowed to slits. ‘Charming, commander. Is that your idea of seduction? Whispering sweet nothings to a woman who’s just crawled through hell and back?’
Kai rolled his eyes. ‘You broke your leg, Dawn. I wouldn’t exactly call that a journey through the underworld.’
She dismissed his words with a flick of her hand and yanked the covers aside. Both their gazes fell to the once-shattered limb. Now straight, whole, and unmarred. ‘I must admit,’ she said, her lips quirking faintly, ‘for people with no magic, they’re rather good.’
‘How did they manage to heal it so quickly?’ he asked, suspicion lacing his tone.
‘Does it matter?’ she countered, already swinging her dark legs towards the edge of the bed. ‘It doesn’t hurt, and I can walk now.’
She tried to stand, but Kai moved swiftly, blocking her escape. ‘You need to rest.’
‘I’ve been unconscious for days,’ she snapped, heat flaring in her cheeks. ‘What I need is to stretch my legs… and to pee.’
‘Charming,’ he muttered under his breath.
Her gaze speared into him, sharp as a blade. ‘What? You have an issue with me mentioning a perfectly natural act?’
‘You’re being vile,’ he said flatly, ‘as usual.’
Dawn rolled her eyes, but the moment her feet touched the floor, pain flashed across her face. Without thought, Kai caught her hand to steady her. They both froze, suspended in that fragile breath between instinct and awareness.
Her eyes lowered to his hand clutching hers, then rose to meet his. ‘What are you scheming?’
‘I’m trying to be nice.’
‘Why?’
‘Because, believe it or not, I was worried.’
Her lips parted, a retort ready to spring, but no words came. Instead, she closed her mouth sharply, pulling her hand free and rubbing it against her chest as though to erase the phantom warmth of his touch.
‘So… what now?’ she asked softly, her voice frayed at the edges.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Alina knows who I am.’
‘It changes nothing.’
Dawn exhaled, the sound fragile, almost weary. ‘We both know that isn’t true.’
Kai’s hands closed gently but firmly over her shoulders, compelling her to meet his eyes. ‘I won’t let anything happen to you if that’s what gnaws at you. I swear it.’
‘I can take care of myself,’ she muttered, stubborn as ever.
‘I know you can,’ he said, his voice softening, ‘but sometimes… sometimes it’s good to know there are others willing to fight beside you. That you’re not alone in this.’
For a heartbeat, her eyes glistened, bright with unshed emotion, but she turned away and blinked it back, wiping at her face as though swatting away an unwanted thought. She stepped out of his grasp, and Kai let his hands drop, empty and cold at his sides.
Dawn parted her lips to speak, but the chamber doors swung open. No servants carrying water, only Alina, striding in with hands clasped neatly behind her back, her brown eyes narrowed and unblinking. She halted in the centre of the room, her focus sharp, unwavering. ‘How’s the leg?’
‘Better,’ Dawn replied.
‘Good.’ Alina’s gaze slid to Kai, cutting and calm. ‘King Siroc has sent word to Mareena. He wants my head.’
Kai stiffened, but Alina waved a hand, dismissing his tension. ‘Do not fret. We depart soon.’
‘And go where?’
‘To speak with the king, of course.’
Kai stared at her, disbelief furrowing his brow. ‘Alina, that’s madness.’
‘Is it?’ she countered, tilting her head, her smile edged like a blade. ‘I only wish to speak with him, to make him see the threat rotting beneath his very nose.’
‘And why would he believe you?’
Alina shrugged, casual, almost bored. ‘Well, that’s his problem, isn’t it?’ She glanced down at her nails as though she had all the time in the world. ‘We’ll ride the dragons. That should make the message clear enough.’
‘And what message is that?’ Kai asked, his voice taut.
Alina paused at the threshold, glancing over her shoulder, her expression deceptively sweet. ‘That the Fire Princess is ready to burn them all to the ground.’ Her attention lingered on Dawn. ‘Bring the witch. We may need her magic.’
And with that, she swept out, never once looking back.