Blood and Water - The Darkling

Chapter 24: Not a Choice

*Unedited

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𝕾𝖑𝖊𝖊𝖕 never found me, probably for the best.

Mal wakes early and together we silently make a pot of hot tea. Begrudgingly, I help him place it on a tray and surround it with apple blossoms.

"For Alina," he says.

After I pack my things, I find a nook in the library. I rub my sleeve against a pane of glass and look out into the deep blue of early dawn. A deer is moving between the trees, head bent to the sweet grass.

If only this moment could last forever. I could convince myself that people are not depending on me. The broken world could fall away, leaving just me and the view from this window.

But that wouldn't be living.

The rest of the house slowly arises and I can hear the sounds of them in the main hall. With a sigh and one last look out into the window, I join them. We pack up the rest of our stuff. From the corner of my eye, I see Genya talking to my sister at the door. When she's done, she walks toward me with a coat in her hands. The navy wool is freshly pressed.

"You should look your best when you face the Darkling again."

"Thank you," I reply with a smile.

She kisses both of my cheeks, "Good luck. We'll be waiting when you get back."

I take her hand and place Nikolai's ring in her palm, "If something goes wrong, if we don't make it - take David and Misha and get to Os Kervo. This should buy you all the help you need."

She swallows, then hugs me hard.

Outside, the Soldat Sol i Zvezda wait in frigid formation, rifles on their backs, canisters of inactive lumiya slung over their shoulders. The tattoos on their faces look fierce in the dawn light. The Grisha wear roughspun.

Harshaw leaves Oncat curled up with Misha, but she moves to sit in the parlor window, lazily grooming herself and watching us assemble. Tolya and Tamar have their golden sunburst inlaid with a silver star pinned to their chests.

The deer have scattered. The orchard is empty as we move through it, boots leaving deep marks on the soft earth. A half-hour later, we are standing at the shores of the Fold.

Alina and I join the other Etherealki: Zoya, Ziva, Adrik, and Harshaw. It feels somehow right that we should be the first to enter and that we will do it together. The Squallers raise their arms, summoning current and dropping the pressure as Zoya had apparently done back in the caves. My ears crackle as they layer the acoustic blanket. If it doesn't hold, Harshaw, my twin, and I are ready to summon light and fire to drive the volcra back. We spread out in a line, and with measured steps, we enter the darkness of the Fold.

The Unsea always feels like the end of everything even though it sets the vibrations off within me. It isn't only the dark, it's the terrible sense of isolation as if the world has disappeared, leaving only you, the rattle of your breath, the stuttering beat of your heart. But it also feels familiar, oddly like home.

As we step onto the dead gray sands and the darkness thickens around us, it takes everything in me not to raise my hands and wrap all of us in safe, protective light. But I also know full well that sometimes the dark is safer. I listen closely, expecting to hear the beating of wings, one of those horrible, inhuman shrieks, but I hear nothing, not even our footsteps on the sand. Whatever the Squallers are doing is working. The silence is deep and impenetrable.