Noble Hope| General Kirigan

𝟘𝟙𝟘

{Chapter ten}

THAT NIGHT, ADALINE COULDN'T HELP BUT BE DESPERATELY ANNOYED WITH HER CHOICE OF ACTIONS AS SHE LAID BENEATH THE BLACK COVERS OF HER BED. She was kept awake that night. 

She tossed and turned, constantly ruffling her pillows. The thought of Aleksander was fresh on her mind and almost seemed to refuse to leave, no matter how hard she tried to force it away. She didn't like the way he left things that morning.

With an irritated groan, Adaline slipped out of her bed and into the bathroom, roughly grabbing her dark grey robe from the back of a chair and pulling it onto her shoulders before rounding to the sink and splashing cold water onto her face.

She looked at herself in the mirror for a moment, examining the messy braid she had done before she laid down and the slight haze to her nearly black eyes. 

Adaline sighed before sliding her feet into a pair of slippers by her bed and quietly opening her front door and stepping into the hallway. She wasn't exactly sure where she was going as she looked around at the painting lining the walls until she noticed an open door at the end of the corridor. 

A door she knew all too well. 

She silently stood in the doorway, tilting her head at the sight of Aleksander standing in front of his round table with folded arms across his chest and a black robe adorning his body. His hair seemed messier than before, not as slicked back and a bit more stuck to his forehead. She just watched him stare at the maps blankly before he must have felt her eyes on him and turned to meet her gaze. 

"Adaline." he greeted softly. 

"I'm not disturbing you, am I?" she asked with a shy smile, pushing the door open a little wider. 

A shy smile. What the hell was this? Adaline didn't do shy. She was bold and confident and sarcastic. Not a nervous wreck in front of a man, but this man certainly had an effect on her.

He stared at her, a gentle look in his eye. "Not at all." His expression turned worried. "Can't sleep?"

Adaline shook her head as she came into the room, closing the door gently behind her. She walked slowly towards Aleksander, who never once removed his eyes from her. She glanced up and quickly reverted her line of sight to the maps. "Is this map current?" 

This is stupid. She told herself. You came here for a reason, and now you're talking about maps?

"It is," he confirmed, leaning a bit farther over the table. "There is talk of an uprising in the West, led by our...esteemed First Army General," he spoke as he moved, dragging his fingers across a picture of the general. "Our own people, turning their backs on us," he spoke grimly. 

Adaline could feel her heart hurt for him. She knew it was in his best interest to make Ravka a safe place for Grisha, and this retaliation wasn't making his goal any easier to achieve. 

"Aleksander–"

"I have been fighting this war..." he cut her off. "alone for so long." 

Shadows began to come from nothing, filling the room and slowly submerging into darkness as he continued. "I have buried so many good soldiers." he looked down with teary eyes. "Friends." Adaline could feel the sincerity beneath his words. She wanted to comfort him, but a man like Aleksander was difficult to understand, though she felt she may be the only one who could come relatively close to understanding him.