Immortals | ✓

17 | art

"SHE would have a heart attack," Aethera chuckled.

"True, because Clarissa would not let you walk in and steal her spotlight like that!"

We had been laughing and talking for hours, much to Jace's dismay, who had been forced to board the flight with us. Jace tossed, turned, and grumbled synchronously, but we ignored him. We needed this, even if all we had left was a few more minutes.

On a nine-hour and twenty-minute flight from Seattle to London, I learned things about Aethera that I could have never imagined. But then, so did she. Our conversations were limitless; the genre moved from ice cream flavours to movies to stories about seeing beaches for the first time and hiking alone.

Nine hours had turned into a quest to know everything about each other, but we both knew nine hours couldn't compensate for the twenty-one years we hadn't shared. I knew before that we had nothing alike.

I had been raised in a concrete jungle, and she was in the middle of an actual one. She didn't know her parents; I didn't want to acknowledge that I knew mine. Her core memory is seeing the beach for the first time, and I am no fan of the ocean. If anything, I have been indifferent to it and would rather hike in the mountains than be wiped off by the current of the unpredictable waters.

We are nothing alike. We have never been.

And that's okay.

That means we can spend more time being in awe of each other. Compensate for the years lost in being amazed at how differently we have viewed the world. She can be shocked that I got arrested for breaking into my school once at midnight, and I can be creeped out by her obsession with organising her space in weird ways.

The person I was will not recognise me today. I wasn't indifferent to emotions; I had raised myself pretty saner than those around me, but I never felt this way with someone I had barely known a few days ago. I have been on dates to far better places than a dull private jet. I have been to dates on planes, but this is good.

My nine hours with her feel like an eternity and a mere second. The way she smiles and averts her eyes when I look at them for longer, her laugh irritates Jace, and her fingers brush against mine until I am compelled to hold her hand; everything is incomparable to any exhilarating moment I have ever felt.

Maybe I am getting ahead of myself. Perhaps I should stop and think again because a saner version of me will divert me back to things that matter. It will make me think about my father, my grandfather and how I plan to find him. But I can't.

All this leaves when we get off this plane in twenty minutes.

Nine hours ago, when the plane took off, I found myself beside Aethera. I expected her to be scared of her first flight, but her fear was focused elsewhere. She was more scared about what was to come after reaching London than reaching London.

I held her hand and asked her what would take her away from the anticipation. I wanted to understand, but I know I can't. She has been scared to do this no matter how much she is, making me believe she's okay. We spent the day we had before travelling, cooking and eating together. I tried to talk, but she seemed distracted for the most part. After lunch, she spent her time walking outside in the gardens. While letting her spend time alone was better, I also wanted to be beside her. I wanted to jump in and ask her repeatedly what was bothering her.

But after a while, I understood. Of course, this is scaring her.

We had burdened her with many expectations even before she had any powers. I failed to understand any of this until I felt it in my veins, the burning sensation when the bow touched my skin. I felt it when I held the dagger and threw it for the first time. The lust for the hunt, the need to feel control over that kind of power, she couldn't understand it yet. And she won't, not until she sees and feels it herself.