by Sarah Reeves
If this was dying, Alex wasn’t impressed. Pain was supposed to go away, there was supposed to be a light, but there was neither. She was in agony. Brief flashes of Dr. Drake working over her, wielding gauze and thread plagued her brain, and she cursed whatever god was giving her false hope when she was already dead. Grief echoed in her heart for her Companion, and for Adrien.
Then she woke, blinking against the sunlight that filtered in through the window next to the bed she was laying in. She sucked in a breath, then another, amazed. “I’m alive?” she murmured.
“Alex?” Kieran’s voice was hoarse, raw, and Alex turned her head to the right to see him sitting in a chair next to her. “Alex.” His hand gripped hers, and Alex looked down at it, and back up at her Companion.
“Kieran,” answered Alex, still not quite believing what she was seeing.
Kieran didn’t stand, though he looked like it was taking a lot for him not to. “We didn’t know if you were going to wake up.” His eyes were the darkest Alex had seen them, and shiny. Her own eyes filled at the expression on his face. “I’m so happy you woke up,” he continued, and cleared his throat against the break in his voice.
Alex tried to smile, but winced and inhaled sharply at the tug of stitches on her face. “Ow.” she said.
“What do you need? Water? Medicine?” Kieran did stand now, about to go and grab the doctor, but Alex held tight to his hand.
“No, I’m okay. Just… stay with me? Please?” At Alex’s request, Kieran sat, but on the edge of her bed this time.
“I’ll stay,” he replied, tucking a strand of hair back from Alex’s face. “But you have to tell me the second you need anything. Even if you have to pee.” This made Alex laugh, and she was happy to see an answering smile on Kieran’s face.
“I may ask you not to be here if I do have to pee,” she said.
“Oh no, you’re not getting rid of me, not even for that.” Kieran chuckled. “There’s no way I’m leaving you alone, after what you’ve been through.” His words brought forth flashes of memory.
She placed a hand, with two sets of stitches, on his. “What did happen? Who came in to get us?”
Kieran’s face turned serious. “It was the Prince of Air.”
“What?” Alex tried to lean up, but hissed at the stretch of thread in her skin. Kieran eased her back, chastising, until she was able to breathe properly again. “Why? How?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Kieran said, sitting back. I didn’t get much of a chance to question him after we got here. He’s meeting with my parents right now. He should be back here soon. He wants to talk to you.” Her Companion’s face darkened. “Why, I’d like to know. I’m grateful for what he did, don’t get me wrong. He saved your life.”
“And yours,” interjected Alex.
“Sure. My thing is, he only met you the one time, and he and I were never close friends. It just makes me wonder what his motive was.”
“And I will explain those, given the chance,” said a male voice from the doorway. Alex and Kieran turned to see the Prince of Air step into the room. He was wearing casual clothes, which threw Alex. She’d been expecting a suit. “I would like to speak with Alexandra privately, first. If you’re up for it,” he added, meeting Alex’s gaze. She nodded before she had a chance to stop and think.
“I’ll be right outside,” Kieran told her, looking pointedly at the Prince before he exited the room. Alex could see him take a position next to the door.
The Prince watched him leave with a small amount of amusement. “He’s very protective of you,” he said, taking a seat in the chair that Kieran had occupied. “Then again, I would be too.”
“You don’t know me,” started Alex.
“You’re right, I don’t,” answered the Prince. “My name is Thresh, by the way. It’s nice to formally meet you, Alexandra.” His eyes, still as intense as they were in the cavern of Portals, held hers.
“Alex.” She corrected him automatically. “I go by Alex.”
“Alex,” Thresh inclined his head. “I’m sorry for what you went through in that cave. It’s a blessing to see you awake.”
“Is there a point to this?”
“Of course, sorry. You probably don’t want to talk about that.” Thresh crossed a leg over his other knee. “I’m sure you have a few questions for me.”
“Yeah, I do.” Alex did her best to turn so she could face him. With effort, she kept the wincing to a minimum. “Why did you come to rescue us? You don’t know me, you barely know Kieran, so why bother? And how did you even know where to look for us?”
Thresh studied the girl in the bed for a moment before answering. “I came to save you because believe it or not, I care about you both. Kieran, because he is the future of this Realm, and while the Vin are somewhat… hotheaded, it shouldn’t go without a King once the current monarchs pass. As for how I found you, well that much should be obvious.” He leaned forward. “I’ll always be able to find you, Alex.”
“Um… okay, creepy.” Alex leaned away slightly. “Care to explain?”
“When your mother was taken by the Unseen the first time, what happened?”
“Really? Story time?”
“Just humor me.”
Alex sighed. “Fine. When he took possession of her, it wasn’t him personally, not until later. Before that, it was one of his little minion thingies. Anyway, it took control of her body, and made her crush her eggs. With the exception of one, which my father took and ran with. That egg was me.”
“You’re correct. Mostly.” Thresh smiled slightly when Alex’s face filled with confused indignation. What was he playing at? “There wasn’t just one egg that he was able to salvage. There were two.”
“No, Adrien said that there was one,” protested Alex. “Just me.”
“Maybe that’s what she saw, but it’s not the truth.” Before Alex could argue, Thresh spoke again. “There were two eggs. You were the first, and the second… was me.” When Alex only gaped at him, he chuckled. “You’re going to want proof, of course. Here you go.” He held out his hands. “I wasn’t totally sure of who you were when I met you. Not until we went to try and stop the toxin. When we were in that cavern, and you used multiple elements, that’s when I was certain that you’re my sister.” Air manifested between his palms, circling playfully. “I hadn’t seen that kind of power anywhere before in my life.” Alex’s eyebrows shot up as Earth came next, tossing around in the miniature gale still puffing about in front of him. “There were only whispers, legends. I didn’t believe it when I started to be able to manifest more than one element.” Finally, light came into existence, like a tiny sun, above the other two elements. Alex realized that they were the three she hadn’t been able to access yet. “These are the three I can make appear. I saw you use the other three, and it was a funny kind of symmetry to me.” He looked back up at Alex, who was dumbfounded.
“You’re… my brother?” she whispered. “How? You weren’t raised with humans.”
“No, I was dropped off at my adoptive parents’ home.” Thresh smiled wryly. “I was raised as theirs, I’m sure you know the story. They couldn’t have a child, something genetically wrong with my father. He’s sterile. So when I showed up, they took it as an opportunity. They didn’t question the circumstances.”
Alex let out a breath. “Do they know?” she asked, gesturing to the elements that disappeared when Thresh closed his hands.
“No. I haven’t told anyone, except you. I’m sure you’ll be telling your Companion, which is fine. He should know, secrets like that between Undari bonded in that way are toxic to the relationship. But I will ask you.” he said, watching her intently, “not to tell anyone else. The less people that know about me, the better. I’m sure you’d rather have it that way, too, or you wouldn’t have hidden it from the rest of the Council.” He stood. “I need to head back.”
“Wait,” said Alex, trying to sit up and failing. “When will I see you again? If we can both manifes
t all of the elements-”
“All of them?” Thresh laughed out loud this time. “I’m only able to access these three. You have access to all of them?”
“Well, no, not right now. I can feel all of them, though. It takes certain things to access certain elements, as I’m sure you’ve seen.” She held up her hand, where her ring sat with it’s multicolored jewels. “That’s why I have this. They get pretty hard to handle.”
Thresh nodded. “I didn’t expect that,” he said. “That’s very interesting. I’ll try to meet with you more in the future, but for now, you need to rest.” He left, stopping to talk for a moment with Kieran before continuing down the hall.
Kieran went to Alex, taking note of the stunned expression still on her face. “What happened? What did he tell you?”
Alex recounted what she’d been told, and when she was done, Kieran sat down heavily in the vacant chair.
“So there’s two of you.”
“Somewhat.” Alex ran a hand through her hair. “He only has access to three of the elements. I have access to all of them, I just don’t know how to use them all yet.” She thought for a moment longer before shaking her head. “I don’t want to think about any of that right now though. My head hurts, and thanks to Dr. Drake, I’m alive to talk about it another time. For now though,” she looked at her Companion. “Do you mind helping me to the bathroom? I want to see myself.”
Kieran’s face went from thoughtful to apprehensive. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’m going to see it eventually, right? Might as well get that shock out of the way. I know it’s a lot already, I just want to see exactly how ugly I’m going to be once all these stitches come out.”
“At the risk of sounding sappy, you will never be ugly, Alex. Not even scarred up and covered in stitches. And you’ll be back to training in no time.” He came forward. “Put your arms on my shoulders.”
Alex complied, gritting her teeth as he lifted her into a sitting position. “If you say so. I just want to look at what he did to me.”
“Why, Alex?” Kieran held her hands gently against his shoulders.
Alex looked back steadily. “Motivation.”
With the help of her Companion, Alex stood, then walked slowly to the bathroom. Kieran flipped on the light.
The first thing she focused on was the enormous gash on the left side of her face, starting at the top of her forehead and ending at roughly the halfway point of her jawline. The raw edges of it clashed with the black thread Dr. Drake had used to sew her skin shut. The next set of stitches was at the base of her throat. Alex pulled the neck of her gown aside as it continued across and down to stop at her right shoulder. Her right arm had one of the biggest wounds, from the end of the second cut all the way to the tip of her middle finger. Alex saw several other smaller ones decorating the spaces around the large slices, most of them small enough that they didn’t require stitches. With the hand that wasn’t holding Kieran’s arm, she felt her ribs and found the first cut the Unseen had made. It was by far the longest. Grimacing with the effort, she stuck one leg out, then the other, examining them. The Unseen was smart. He hadn’t hit any major arteries, she noted. Not any she was aware of, anyway. There was a cut from mid thigh to knee on her right, and from knee to ankle on the other side.
She turned her head to look at Kieran, who was watching with both anger and helplessness. “How many cuts total?”
“A little more than a hundred, varying in size.” The number was bigger than she expected, but Alex started to realize that her torture had gone on for longer than it had seemed at the time. “Alex, I- I’m so sorry.” His voice cracked, and his eyes shone as he took in the extent of his Companion’s injuries.
“Hey,” Alex reached up, and cupped his face in her hands. “ Look at me. You don’t get to apologize, because you didn’t do anything wrong.” She pulled up the hem of his shirt, revealing dark bruises on his ribs and chest. “I saw how hard you tried to save me. Even if you weren’t there, I wouldn’t have blamed you for a second.” She made him walk with her back to her bed, where they sat together, her leaning against him. “This wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t even Adrien’s fault. It was his. The Unseen.” Fury filled her, but she stayed where she was. “He’s hurt too many people, for too long. And now he pays.”
Kieran didn’t say anything. He only draped his arm around Alex’s shoulders, and they sat in silence together as the day shifted from morning to afternoon, and the scarlet sun burned brightly overhead.
To be continued in Book Two:
Broken
