Chapter 8 When Hope Is All We Have
Ireleased a deep sigh after zipping up my backpack and looked down at the journal I had once called a lifeline, now lying on the bed.
I had put it in the bag and taken it out again more times than I wanted to admit.
It honestly felt like I was leaving a piece of myself behind as I heaved my bag over my shoulder and walked toward the door.
“Argh!” I groaned before storming back and grabbing it from the bed in frustration.
The truth was, half of me was convinced I wouldn’t need it. Because I knew that as soon as I stepped through the Rift, I would face things I had never seen before. It would be an alien world, and having Aster by my side would be the only guide I would need.
So, the excuses I made for taking it fell flat, but in the end, I decided to be honest with myself.
I was taking it because it felt like having a piece of Atlas by my side.
I remembered the way he handed it back to me, as if it had been something precious to him, something just as precious as it had always been to me.
And in that moment, it no longer felt like just a slice of me, but something more, almost like the fable of us both.
For so long, he had played the villain in my story, only for me to realize that he had always been the hero.
And now, it was like having his handwriting added to its pages was what the journal had needed all along.
He was always meant to be the hero I fell in love with, and now… well, now we had a new villain to face. So yes, it was silly, but the book represented far more than just comfort. It represented the fact that no matter what was written, things could change. Words held power, but actions…
They always screamed the loudest.
So, after one more look around the room, I left the journal, along with its memories of Atlas, who had once stood on the other side of the door.
Who I had made stand out there for longer than he liked, just to get under his skin.
The memory of the way he sat at my dining table before giving me the book about The?kós.
God, he had looked so devastatingly handsome.
And then there was the dream. The shared dream where we had begun to properly understand each other… when he had finally told me his name. That was the turning point. The pinnacle moment when he ceased to be a mythical figure and became a man I knew deserved to be loved.
I was shaking my head, trying to calm my thoughts of us getting closer. Those days spent traveling just him and me, and those blissful hours spent entangled on the forest floor. Christ, I missed him, and well, thinking of making love together wasn’t exactly helping.
The elevator doors closed in front of me and took me down.
“Shake it off, girl,” I said aloud just before the doors opened, making me gasp in surprise. One that obviously wasn’t heard by the two people in front of me, practically dry humping each other in the lobby.
Tiffany had her legs wrapped around Aster’s hips, and his hands were holding her up firmly by her butt, which was thankfully still covered in denim. Their mouths were locked, and Tiff’s elbows were resting on Aster’s shoulders as she ran her hands through his hair.
Oh yeah, this really wasn’t going to help keep my mind off having sex with Atlas.
I let out a cough, but unfortunately for me, the power of Aster’s kiss must have been potent stuff indeed, because Tiff just moaned as Aster clenched her butt harder with his hand.
I cleared my throat louder this time and finally, just as Tiff threw her head back with Aster kissing his way up her neck, she spotted me standing there.
And all I could think to do was grant her an awkward little wave.
Tiff squealed in shock and quickly tried to detangle herself from Aster, who didn’t exactly look in a hurry to let that happen.
“Alex!” she shouted in shock, her skin reddening as she brushed her hand through her hair. Aster said nothing, a cheeky grin on his face as he finally relinquished his hold on her ass, letting her slide to the floor. I couldn’t help but smirk.
“Give us two minutes, Alex.” Apparently, he wasn’t ready to let her go just yet, after all.
“Sure, I’ll go wait outside, let you two say your final goodbyes.” I winked, slinging my backpack onto my back.
“Oh, and Aster,” I said, pointing to the corner of my mouth. “You’ve got a little bit of lipstick just… yep,” I said as he wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. He rolled his eyes at me when I gave him another wink as I walked past them both with a smile.
It was clear that those two had felt something for each other since the first time they met at the base.
Back when Aster had everyone believe he was one of us.
When we had let the fox into the henhouse, one that wasn’t there to eat us but instead to protect us.
I remembered the shock of finding out what he truly was on that abandoned highway.
He had saved my life then, and after that, it was starting to feel more like a habit I was desperate to break for him.
No wonder Atlas thought he was the best candidate for keeping me alive, which was why I knew he was having such a hard time with all of this.
As this time, we were purposely walking into danger instead of running away from it.
Which meant, for Aster, our mission was going against the grain, something he had certainly been vocal in expressing.
And he hadn’t been the only one because the moment we got back to the Capitol building, we found everyone in Atlas’s office still waiting for us.
Like they knew I had been on a fool’s errand.
Much to their surprise, we had been offered more than just a name; it showed us the truth. One I knew Bronte and Aster had been skeptical to believe. But more than anything, our new knowledge proved the importance of crossing the Rift.
Not that my uncle agreed.
Well, that wasn’t quite true. The part he had a problem with was that it included me in that plan.
Of course, I had argued that it had to be me.
Because for some reason, these scars weren’t just the key to opening the Rift, but also, they were the key to seeing the truth.
To seeing past the veil of lies that Demetrios had woven over the people of The?kós.
Which had me questioning, what else could they do?
Perhaps they weren’t as much of a curse as I had always believed them to be.
So, in the end, convincing the others of the plan hadn’t been the hard part.
Saying goodbye was. And clearly, after what I had just witnessed in the lobby, I would say I wasn’t the only one having a hard time.
Because having to say goodbye to my uncle after we had only recently been reunited… yeah, that was tough.
Especially when he had taken me into his arms and whispered out a pained, “I have only just got you back.”
“I know,” I replied, and with tears in my eyes, I held on to him a little longer.
After that, he made me promise to be careful, and this was when Aster made his own promises to protect me with his own life.
I could see that it helped ease my uncle’s worries a little, but in the end, we all knew we were walking into the unknown.
Which meant we also knew that there were no assurances we would be walking back out again.
But some things in life were worth the risk, and as for The?kós, right now that was one kingdom that needed us just as much as its current king.
Because Demetrios had a plan, and we may not have known exactly what it was yet, but I could pretty much guarantee it didn't end when Atlas killed his brother.
No, if anything, that would only be the beginning.
“You ready?” Bronte asked as I approached, seeing her with the horses and the escort that was going to take us as far as the Rift.
“As ready as I will ever be, I guess.”
She raised a brow. “Okay, out with it,” she said, getting straight to the point and being as blunt as ever. But she wasn’t wrong, because there was something I wanted from her.
“I have questions.”
“You usually do,” she replied dryly.
I scoffed. “Yeah, but this time, they matter more than most.”
“Ask, Alexandra.”
I took a deep breath before telling her all the things I hadn’t been able to say earlier when recounting my vision, because it was how I had gotten that vision that I really needed to talk about. The promises I had made to Riley. The bargain I had made with whatever dark entity had taken him.
I had to believe there was some truth in it, despite not knowing if it was even possible. A bargain built on hope. A promise made in desperation.
So, I took another breath and asked, “Has the darkness ever taken over a human before?”
She looked surprised by the question before shrugging slightly.
“It’s not something I’ve ever heard of. But then again, there was no way of monitoring everything they did. Everyone we encountered with the darkness had only ever been of our own kind.”
I nodded, thinking as much.
“And any of the Myths that were overtaken, you tried imprisoning them, right?” I asked, based on what I had learned from Atlas when he described the first months of the Rift from his side.
She tensed, just slightly, as if this was a sore subject, before answering.
“In the beginning, when we first arrived here and discovered what was happening to our own people, we hoped we could stop it. We captured as many as we could and poured all of our resources into finding ways to reverse what had happened to them. Trying to draw the darkness out.” She hesitated before continuing.
“I’ll be honest with you, most of the time it simply ended in death. ”
I couldn’t help but flinch, Riley’s face flashing in my mind.
“That must have been disappointing,” I said quietly, hearing the weight of pain in her voice.