Page 36 of Draekora

No pressure, Alex thought miserably, forgetting that Xiraxus was listening in.

Sucks to be you, he returned. Somehow his blatant stating of the obvious caused Alex’s lips to twitch.

Good to know you’ve got my back, ‘forever and always’, she replied, her tone light.

Let’s consider those words more like guidelines rather than hard and fast rules, shall we?

Alex actually snorted.Don’t tell me you’re giving up on us already, Xira? Where’s the loyalty?

“Ahem,” called Lady Mystique, reminding Alex that she should probably be paying attention to the woman who was somehow knowledgeable about both the past and the future.

“As I was saying,” the woman said, giving Alex a pointed look, “the girl must return to the future,exactlywhen she left it—not a moment sooner, not a moment later. The only one who can make that happen is the one who was already there with her: Xiraxus. He is also the only one who can keep her safe on the return journey through theabrassadue to their bond.”

“Sounds good to me,” Alex said. “When do we go?”

Lady Mystique furrowed her brow and looked up at Xiraxus. “She does not know?”

“She’s had a lot of other questions,” Xiraxus defended, twitching his tail. “I was getting around to it.”

“Would someone like to tell me what everyone keepsnottelling me?” Alex asked.

Lady Mystique turned back to her. “Opening a pathway through theabrassatakes a tremendous amount of power, no matter how relative the time difference. There are only two races in all the worlds that can create the pathways—draekons being one of them. But they can only manage two jumps at a time without needing rest to build their strength up again.”

Alex frowned in confusion. “I’m sensing there’s a problem, but I’m not sure what it is. Xiraxus was pulled through to my time against his will, right? So it wasn’t his power that was used.”

“He was indeed pulled from this time against his will,” Lady Mystique confirmed. “It was the power of another that opened theabrassathat transported him to your time. But the only reason Xiraxus was able to return here was because a shadow of the original pathway lingered—a mapped route, you might say—allowing him to retrace his steps through the Void. To do so, he had to re-open theabrassausing his own power.”

Alex saw the problem straight away. “You’re saying he’s technically used one jump, meaning he only has one left in him until he regains his strength?”

Lady Mystique nodded. “That is correct. And before you ask, he cannot take you back to your time and remain with you there while he recovers. He is needed here, perhaps as much as you are needed there. And in order for him to return to the exact time in which he leaves, which hemust, he will need to jump straight back through the same pathway to return home.”

Alex ran her hands through her lake-drenched hair, tugging at the drying roots in an effort to relieve stress. “How long will I have to stay here before he’s strong enough for the double trip?”

It was Zaronia who answered. “If he were an elder, it would only take a few days. But he is just a hatchling like you.”

“So…?”

If it was at all possible, Zaronia actually seemed to give her a pitying look. “It will take weeks at the minimum. Possibly a month or more.”

“Amonth?” Alex cried. “But—I—What—” She didn’t even know what to say. “What about everyone back in my time? They’re going to lose their minds if I just up and disappear forweeks!”

Lady Mystique waved a careless hand through the air. “They’ll never even know you’re gone.”

Alex sent her a look that spoke volumes. “Forgive me if this makes me sound conceited, but I’d like to thinksomeonewould notice if I went missing for that long. My friends, my parents—jeez, evenAvenwould be better than no one.”

“What I meant was,” Lady Mystique said, “as I mentioned before, Xiraxus will be returning you tothe precise momentin which you left your time. That is why only he can take you back, rather than Zaronia or any of the other draekons. It is not just because your bond with him will keep you safe, but also because the odds of anyone else returning you to the correct time are not in your favour. And for there to be any hope at all, youmustreturn to your correct time.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah—survival of the world and all that,” Alex said, beyond the point of freaking out and well into denial.

Lady Mystique remained unruffled despite Alex’s flippant attitude. “To you, weeks may pass,” she said. “But to those in the future, not even a second will go by.”

Alex shook her head, trying to control her rapidly growing dread. “This all seems crazy. What exactly am I supposed to do here for all that time?”

“You’ll do exactly what it was you were planning to do back in your time.”

“What?” Alex gave an unamused laugh. “Train with the Meyarins to learn how to fight Aven?” When the old woman just looked at her, unflinching, Alex raised her eyebrows and said, “In case you missed it, I’m not sure that’ll go down so well in this time period. They all seemed pretty buddy-buddy to me and will probably take offence if I try to attack one of their own.”

“That is why, as unfortunate as this event might seem to you, it’s also rather perfect.”

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