Page 54 of Draekora

“Tonight was nothing.” Zain brushed aside her concern with a wave of his hand, flinging more water everywhere. “But back to the prince—you seem under the impression that he sent me after you like some hound doing his master’s bidding, but you’re wrong. I just happened upon you at the right time to hear your distress, nothing more.”

Reeling from the idea that Zain and Roka weren’t, well,Zain and Roka, all Alex could do was nod and offer her gratitude again. “Well, thank you, Zain. I really appreciate you stepping in for me.”

Eyeing her thoughtfully, Zain’s lips pursed at what he saw. He raised his hands to unclasp his cloak, swinging it from his shoulders—again, with water flying everywhere—and then stepped determinedly towards Alex, handing it to her. “Here. It’s only wet on the outside. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you look like you’re freezing.”

That’s because Alexwasfreezing—from the rain and wind, but more from the shock of the last twenty minutes. However, she also knew Meyarins were supposed to be hardier than humans. A little storm shouldn’t have caused her to be so shiveringly cold, regardless of how minimal her clothing was.

“Thanks again,” Alex said quietly, throwing his bulky cloak around her, pleasantly surprised to discover his words true since it offered instant, dry heat.

“You can thank me properly by telling me two things,” he returned, his dark eyes watching her closely. “First, why would the crown prince send hisZeltoraafter you?”

That was easy, at least.

“I’m a guest of the palace,” Alex answered. “I was meant to meet with Roka tonight but I spent the day in the city with Aven. He, uh, had to take off unexpectedly, leaving me to walk back. I figured since I didn’t make my meeting with Roka that he would have found out what happened and sent someone to come find me.”

“Why didn’t you use theValispath? The storm didn’t begin until after sundown. You could have activated it anytime before then.”

“I’m new to Meya,” Alex said, mentally adding,this one, anyway. “There’s a lot I don’t know, including how to call upon the Eternal Path.”

Zain’s eyes narrowed. “How can you be new to Meya if you are Meyarin?”

“I grew up with humans,” Alex said as casually as she could manage, neither accepting nor denying his assertion of her race. “I don’t know anything about Meya or the ways of Meyarins—including how to activate theValispath. Roka and Aven have just started to teach me.”

Zain placed his hands on his hips, his stance wide, his features alert. “That brings me to the second thing you’re going to tell me.”

“And that is?”

“You know me,” he accused. “You called my name back inNarsae de Trigon, but I’ve never seen you before. I want to know how you know who I am, and I want to know right now.”

Alex stilled, and all she could think was,Well, triple crap.

Eighteen

“You called me by my name,” Zainrepeated when Alex remained silent. “Without hesitation, like you knew exactly who I was.”

She quickly tried to recover from her unnatural stillness and lack of speech, figuring her only option was to lie. “No, I didn’t.”

His lips thinned. “You said it twice in the tavern; once just my name, the second time you yelled, ‘Zain, look out!’”

“You’re name’s Zain?” Alex asked, playing dumb. “That’s so weird—I was actually calling out ‘rain’ since the door was open and the rain was blowing inside from the wind. Half the benches in there were wood which would have ended up wet and rotting, and no one wants to sit on rotting wood, don’t you agree?” Reading his expression, she cleared her throat. “So you must have heard me wrong. But nice to meet you, Zain. I’m Ale—Aeylia.”

His voice was dripping with disbelief when he repeated, “Ale-Aeylia?”

At the second stuff up of her name that day, Alex wondered what the chances were of her stepping outside and convincing the lightning to strike her. Given her lack of fortune to date, it would be more likely to strike everywhere else and she’d still be left facing the irate Meyarin across from her, only surrounded by more water and wind than the dark, abandoned room they currently inhabited.

“That’s right,” she said, rallying. “But mostly I’m known here as Aeylia. Fewer syllables. Easier to say. You know how it is.” She almost tacked on a question about whether ‘Zain’ was short for anything, but she figured she was already pushing her luck.

She was right.

“Well,Aeylia,” Zain said, his tone as hard as his features, “even if I believed for one second that you called out, ‘Rain, look out!’ back at the bar—which Idon’t—then how do you explain two minutes ago when you thanked me by name?”

Flipping heck. Alexhaddone that.

“I’m a mind reader,” she blurted out, wincing internally at how stupid she sounded.

Zain shook his head. “Try again.”

“No, really,” she said, rolling with it. “Right now, for example, you’re thinking I’m crazy.”

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