Noble Hope| General Kirigan

𝟘𝟙𝟛

{Chapter thirteen}

ADALINE AND ALINA WERE ENJOYING PLAYING WITH THEIR POWERS WHEN A FIRM KNOCK CAME FROM THE DOOR OF ADALINE'S BEDROOM. The two must have lost track of time as she very rarely got visitors. She was either out training with Aleksander or sitting across his lap while he smothered her neck in kisses and love bites. 

Adaline quickly scrambled from her comfortable place on her bed and padded somehow gracefully across the room to answer the door. Standing in the doorway was a neatly put-together Genya standing professionally in her white kefta with another dress cover rested over her arm. 

The ginger girl pushed past Adaline gently and strutted into the room, keeping her gaze dead set on the space in front of her as she greeted Alina who sat still on her sister's bed. "Good morning, Sunshine." 

The closing of the door and a huff were heard from behind Genya. With an exasperated sigh and an eye roll, she turned on her foot to face an annoyed Shadow Summoner with her arms folded and one hip sticking out sassily. 

"You too, Mini Darkling." 

Adaline's expression changed instantly, her playful annoyance replaced by her regular mischievous grin and twinkle of banter hidden between her dark eyes. Adaline was still smiling as she lightly jogged back to her bed and jumped onto it, landing on her stomach and using her arms as pillows to gaze up at the Tailor. "What can we do for you, my dear, sweet, Genya?"

Genya chuckled and rolled her eyes again as she placed her kit on Adaline's table. She looked over, making eye contact with a smiley Alina. "Still nothing from Mal." 

The girl sighed and stood with her sister, both taking seats on opposite ends of the wood to glance at the redhead. 

"You don't have to update me anymore. I'm sure you've got enough on your plate." Alina insisted, plucking a mirror from Genya's box and expecting her face, tracing her finger carefully over the scar above her eyebrow. Adaline knew the real reason Alina didn't want to know of Mal anymore, and it was because she thought it would be easier to let him go, to move on. But it wasn't that simple to forget someone you knew and loved for so long. 

"You have no idea." the Tailor began as she pulled a pink flower bud from a glass jar in her kit. "The Queen, Her Royal Bossiness, Tatiana, has absolutely no regard for my need to sleep." her eyes widened in annoyance, turning to face Alina. "She woke up before dawn and demanded I touch up her face before the rest of her team arrived." 

She sighed before leaning forward and swiping her open thumb across Alina's lips without touching them, leaving them with a rosy tint. She turned to Adaline and did the same. "What a bitch." the Shadow Summoner grumbled. 

Genya chuckled, placing the bud back into its jar. "We don't speak ill of the Queen, Addy, but I must agree." 

Both Starkov's laughed. Alina was first to settle and smirked behind her silver mirror. "I could accidentally blind her in the demonstration, if you like." she said with a faint giggle. 

Adaline's eyes widened after seeing what Genya pulled from her kit. "What in the bloody hell is that for?" she asked disgustingly, staring at the blue beetle between Genya's thin fingers. 

All she said was, "Relax your eyebrows." to Alina, ignoring Adaline's comment. With two elegant swipes of her thumbs, the blue pigment was found on the Sun Summoner's eyelids. "I don't mind, actually. It tends to shift the King's gaze in her direction," she said loosely, not noticing Adaline's look of horror as she muttered her next words. "At least until nightfall." 

Alina didn't seem to register Genya's words before the ginger moved her thumbs again and the color vanished. 

Atop the red velvet of Genya's kit, sat a black and partially grey ring. She delicately picked it up and turned to face Adaline, nodding at her to close her eyes and making the color appear on her skin, then slipping the ring onto the other sister's finger. 

The shades of black and grey would contrast beautifully with her kefta, and Genya knew it would drive Aleksander absolutely mad to see her wearing his color in different ways. 

She didn't say another word as she closed her kit and took Alina's hand in hers, pulling her to her feet. "We should go back to your room, Miss Sunshine. I know that Adaline is fully capable of plaiting her own hair, unlike someone I know." 

Alina scoffed and rolled her eyes, but regardless bent down to kiss her sister's cheek lovingly and left the room, leaving Genya and Adaline to themselves as the ginger packed and closed her kit. Just before she left, she paused, and placed her pale hand onto Adaline's shoulder, looking at her worriedly. 

"I want you to be careful, Addy," said Genya. She didn't need to meet her eyes to understand the questioning glance. "Of powerful men."

Then without a word, she left the room and closed the door behind her, leaving a very confused Adaline. 

The girl wasn't stupid, she knew Genya was talking about Aleksander, and it only made her the slightest bit more certain that her lover potentially created the Fold. 

It was probably not a good thing that she wasn't terrified of that thought. 

The stories always told that the Black Heretic did it for power, so he could hold leverage over the Grisha and their loyalties. But he died in the process. 

It seemed unlikely that someone of that much power could die so easily, and Adaline knew it. She just wasn't sure if she wanted to believe that her Aleksander made the thing that killed her parents, her friends. 

She had written stories of the Fold. Good ones, bad ones. All sorts. One of her favorites was when she re-wrote the legend of the Black Heretic. She made him misunderstood, a misfit. No one could quite unravel what was inside his head, except a character she had created, Maeve. She wasn't understood either. Always cast out of conversations, bullied like she was nothing. 

The two bonded over their similarities. And her favorite line that Adaline had written was when the Black Heretic tried to connect, to understand. 

"You're the only person I can't read like an open book."

"People like us aren't meant to be read."

And Adaline was right when she wrote those lines. 

People like Maeve, the Black Heretic, Aleksander, and herself weren't meant to be read. 

****~****

a/n

I honestly hate this chapter since it was a filler but chapter fourteen is much more eventful :)