Page 117 of Draekora

Alex. Alex, wake up.

“Alex! You have to wake up!”

WAKE UP, ALEX!

With a shudder, Alex came to, her eyelids fluttering open to find she was slumped over Xiraxus, held in place on his back thanks to thetraesosbindings.

She looked around in confusion, seeing that they were perched on top of the Golden Cliffs again, but without Niyx or anyZeltorain sight. Summer was now replaced with a thick snow blanketing the ground and dusting the city in the distance. It was also the middle of the day, rather than the moonlit night from which she’d fled. One thing remained the same, though—her thin, silky formalwear, leaving Alex frozen to her very core.

“Xira?” Alex slurred out through chattering teeth.

“Alex, you have to hurry,” he said, his voice sounding anxious. “It was harder to wake you than I anticipated.”

“’s okay, Xira,” Alex mumbled. “’m just tired.”And ridiculously sore, she thought, her shivering frame aggravating the throbbing in her stomach. That said, the agony had lessened considerably, the previously excruciating pain now replaced with what felt like a whopper of a bruise across her midsection as opposed to a blade still twisting through her insides.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Alex, really I am. But I’ve been here too long—theabrassais closing. I don’t have much time to return home. Aven is still nearby and will have seen our return through the Void. And in your state, you’re in no position to face him. We both need to get out of here, and quickly.”

A bolt of adrenaline shot through Alex and she pushed herself upright, ignoring the pain in her stomach and the biting cold. She didn’t hesitate to summon A’enara, overwhelmingly relieved when the weapon materialised in a blaze of flames.

Wasting no time, Alex sliced through her bonds. The mere touch of A’enara burnt up thetraesoscoils entirely, disintegrating them before they could even reach the ground.

She quickly slid down to the snow, wincing as the move jarred her wound. She then looked up at Xiraxus, realising with sudden grief that this was likely the last time she would ever see him.

“Don’t be upset,” he said quietly, sensing her heavy heart. He lowered his large head to her face, his fiery blue eyes as soft as ever. “Do you remember the oath I swore to create the link between us?”

Alex shook her head, trying to control the urge to give into her sadness.

“It translated to, ‘Heart I give you, soul to share, strength and mind, both here and there. Forever and always,vaeliana.’”

Alex did remember that from seeing his memories, uttered in the lilting, musical language that she now knew belonged to the Tia Aurans.

“Forever and always, Alex,” Xiraxus repeated, nudging her gently. “Both here and there.”

Gritting her teeth against her welling tears, she wrapped her arms around his snout, barely managing to circle him halfway but still feeling comforted by their embrace. “I’m going to miss you so much, Xira.”

“And I you,” he said. “But we are bonded, now and forever. No time or distance can change that.”

Heedless of her pain, she squeezed him hard, throwing all of her love into the hug before letting him go, conscious that time was of the essence.

“I hope to see you again, my friend,” he said meaningfully to her. And then with one final rub of his head, he crouched down on his haunches and leapt off the snowy cliff and into the sky, opening the inkyabrassaand disappearing from sight.

Thirty-Six

Drawing a broken breath, Alex knew shehad to move before Aven caught up to her. He was likely furious, having lost his only chance at securing a draekon—unless, of course, he knew another Tia Auran willing to be captured in order to make sure Alex’s journey to the past led to the events of their current time. As annoyed as she was at Lady Mystique for giving no warning of the catastrophic outcomes she would be responsible for, Alex still hoped the ancient woman could escape from Aven’s wrath unharmed. All she could do was believe in Xiraxus’s faith that ‘Aes Daega’ was capable of handling herself.

A crashing in the bushes reached Alex’s heightened hearing, the sound still far away but loud enough to remind her that she shouldn’t tarry. She summoned theValispath, only to find that shecouldn’tsummon theValispath. Thinking that she perhaps wasn’t concentrating hard enough, she tried again, but to no avail. When her third attempt failed, she realised with a jolt of horror that now, thanks to Aven’s disinheritance, his blood was invalidated—the blood in her veins—and now neither of them could access the invisible rollercoaster.

Thinking a very nasty word that would horrify her mother, Alex paced along the edge of the cliff, wondering if she had it in her to make the gruelling climb down the icy rock face. She knew from experience that it was hard enough doing it in summer, but now, having been stabbed with a flaming sword, it would be even more challenging—impossibly so. That left her with only one option if she wanted to make it back to the city on her own.

Grasping the hem of her bloodied dress that had definitely seen better days, Alex forced herself into a sprint, panting against the glacial air burning her lungs and the jolting of her still healing wound.

She slid to a halt atop the nearest waterfall, knowing that jumping over the edge would be the swiftest and safest plunge into the valley. But she was also aware that entering the frosty water with her already weakened, blood-deprived body would quite possibly send her into a near catatonic state of hypothermia.

Pacing restlessly, she came to a quick decision and took off into the forest, yanking up a fistful oflaendraas she heard the sound of Aven’s footsteps closing in on her.

Sawing A’enara into one of the flowers, Alex swallowed a mouthful of the sticky nectar, relieved to find that even with how much was already working in her bloodstream, the healing plant still gave her an instant kick and warmed her from the inside out. Balling her fingers around the remaining stems, she spun on her heel, sprinted back to the edge of the cliffs, and before she could talk herself out of it, leapt off the waterfall.

Sailing down with the icy water, Alex was aware in a distant part of her mind just how impossibly cold she was. But thanks to thelaendrafiring through her nerve endings, the temperature wasn’t as debilitating as she knew it should be. And when she finally crashed painfully—oh, so painfully—into the surface of the river, Alex was able to swim to the shore and drag her quickly numbing body up onto the ice.

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