Page 65 of Draekora

With a promise like that, what am I waiting for?she thought, sucking in a deep breath and stepping forward.Here goes nothing.

Unlike every other time she’d walked through the Library’s doorways, this time she felt it as if it were a physical thing, like oil coating her skin, stumbling through a spider web, or wading through water—perhaps all three at once. When she came out the other side, she had to shake her head a few times before her vision cleared, and then she stumbled back a step at the sight before her.

She was in Tryllin, the capital city of Medora.

Or what was left of it.

Standing before her was the smouldering wreck of a once thriving metropolis. The centre of the city was nothing more than a smoking crater, with the majestic palace half destroyed and the rest collapsing in on itself. There was fire everywhere, with people running through the streets, screaming in pain, crying for help.

Alex just stood there, frozen in horror.

“What happened here?” she whispered to herself—or so she thought.

“This is the future, Alex.”

She woodenly turned her head to the owner of the voice as he stepped up beside her. He looked exactly the same as when she’d last seen him, his stunning blue eyes captivating her own as she mouthed his name in disbelief.

“Kaiden?”

“This is the future,” he repeated, “or it will be, if you fail.”

Twenty-One

“You’re not real,” Alex gasped out. “Noneof this is real, it can’t be.”

“It’s not real yet,” Kaiden told her. “But only you can stop it from happening.”

“How are you—Whatare you?” she demanded.

He stepped around to face her. “I’m a manifestation you’ve called forth from your subconscious as a guide.”

She blinked at him. “You’re a what now?”

His lips quirked up at one corner. “You’re in a simulation, Alex. A virtual reality created to show you the plausible future that may occur should you be unsuccessful in defeating Aven.”

Alex looked out at the burning city. “So I was right—none of this is real. It’s just a… hypothetical possibility.”

Kaiden reached out and wrapped his fingers around Alex’s upper arm. The moment he made contact, the world swirled around them and suddenly they weren’t in Tryllin anymore, they were at Akarnae.

Alex wasn’t sure if she was more shocked that she had felt Kaiden’s touch, or at the newest sight in front of her.

Akarnae was a wasteland. If it weren’t for Lake Fee and Mount Paedris, Alex never would have recognised where they were, even though the lake was the colour of blood and the mountain spewed ash high into the sky. But that was nothing compared to the academy itself where all that remained were some crumbled buildings surrounded by destroyed forests.

“Hypothetical or not, I’m here to show you what may become of our future.”

Alex turned from the devastating sight and asked, “Why you?”

Kaiden met her eyes. “You chose me.”

Alex spluttered, “Excuse me?”

“You feel safe with me.”

“Iwhat?”

A confident light came into his eyes. “Go on, Alex. If you can’t admit it to yourself, who can you admit it to?”

“You’re a figment of my imagination,” Alex hissed out. “Literally. I’msonot having this conversation with myself.”

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