Sound Your Name (Oh, My Darling)

6. Glow

She was the Sun, the Stars and the Moon. His whole world in a single moment. Even as her soul glow faded her skin seemed to almost shimmer in the mid-morning light. 

His lips parted some sort of prepared speech on his tongue but it stopped when he found himself caught in her amber gaze. 

It was something in the way she looked into his eyes that stopped his words in his throat, causing them to dissolve and become forgotten in his mind’s eye. 

She stood tall, her chin raised and she looked at him straight on...it was then he realized what it was. She was missing what everyone else had flickers of in his presence, fear. There was her stubborn sparkle and as his eyes traveled down her face he noticed how her lips pursed as she no doubt tried to stop her nervous tick from biting the inside of her lip. She was affected by his presence, by at last meeting her soulmate; but she was not afraid. 

Aleksander clenched his hands at his sides as he barely restrained himself from reaching out and tucking her stray hairs that had come from her braid behind her. His fingers tingle with his need to touch her, feel her. Already his shadows were fulfilling his desires by wrapping around her ankles, a couple more started to reach toward her face when Zoya interrupted. 

Then he heard his soulmate’s voice for the first time in several years, it had matured giving it smooth elegant undertones. 

Her growl at the healer woke him from his slight daze, Aleksander found himself embarrassed to have let down his guard so far. However, to see his soulmate protect fiercely and then smoothly calm the ruffled feathers within moments caused the deep part of him that was always calculating and planning ahead to perk up. She was young and yet she already had some poise, even if she was a bit impulsive. 

“We can speak in my private tents.” 

Aleksander was glad his voice did not break, he had an image to protect. He offered his soulmate his arm which she politely declined due to her brother needing help to the tent. 

Striding to the side of the ship he found his Corporalki had followed him to the docks. 

“Fedyor, Ivan, assist Zoya’s husband to my private tent and get Klara for him.”

As soon as the two left, supporting the tracker with Zoya trailing after them, Aleksander turned and offered his arm once more.

He was rewarded with seeing a slight blush upon her still slightly shimmering cheeks. He watched as she looked down at her ripped and stained First Army uniform before straightening and placing her hand on his forearm. At one point his gloved hand clasped her hands as he helped her clamber onto the docks from off the leaning skiff. His eyes roved over her, checking once more for injuries that he might have missed.  

She let out a little sigh of relief as their feet made it onto the solid ground of Kirbirsk. 

As they walked it was silent for a bit and Aleksander waited curious what her first words to just him would be, when not surrounded by others. They made a wide circuit around the First Army camp in order to come into the Second Army from the back. 

“I’m Alina, Alina Starkova.” 

Aleksander paused in the short stretch of road between the two camps, “At last we meet Alina. I’m Aleksander.” 

Her face lightened, dropping its earlier practiced masks, and he at last was able to see one of her true smiles. 

“Nice to meet you, Aleksander.” 

His lips pulled up briefly, “Likewise.” 

They were nearly to their camp and he felt like he needed to say something before they had an audience. 

“You ran from me.” 

Her face sombered slightly but her eyebrows were set determinedly, “I was going to find you soon if nothing happened.” She let out a little sigh, she tucked one of the stray hairs that he had wished to touch himself. His eyes followed the small action before returning back to her eyes when she turned fully toward him, “My family was on the skiff. I had no choice but to be on it and protect them.” 

Aleksander looked ahead and directed the both of them forward, “Yes, you have always been sentimental.” 

Alina pursed her lips and tapped his shoulder, “It is not sentimental to care.” 

By this point they had arrived at his tents, just in time to hear the drama ensuing inside. 

“You touched him!” 

“You know very well, Miss Nazyalensky, that sometimes a healer may need to touch their patients to heal them.” 

Both Aleksander and Alina tensed at the same time. 

“I am General Kirigan’s private healer.” There was some mumbling that neither could hear, so they stepped into the tent together. “...the time when Grisha would hurt a human amplifier has long passed, you are being silly.” 

Before Aleksander, Alina or even Mal could stop her Zoya had punched the healer. Alina rushed forward to Zoya’s side. 

“If I find out you told anyone that Mal is an amplifier you will wish you could have had a quick death. However, Klara you should know by now I’m not known for showing mercy.” 

Mal spoke up from the bed he was laid out on, “Could you not threaten the only healer you allowed to work on me?” 

Aleksander turned his head away from the couple’s ensuing squabble as he saw Alina leave the tent to catch up to the healer. 

They were thankfully just outside the tent well within hearing range. 

“I would like to thank you for healing my brother.” 

The healer’s eyes widened. 

“He may not be my brother in blood, but he protected me numerous times growing up. He’s my only family.” She placed a hand on the healer’s arm, “As my only family, I would do whatever is necessary to protect him. Nothing and no one could stop me from getting to him if he needed me.” Alina tilted her head to the side, before patting the healer’s hand with a deceptively gentle smile as she glowed ever so slightly in the light. “Do we have an understanding?” 

Healer Klara’s eyes widened before nodding quickly. Aleksander could see the flicker of fear that passed through the women’s eyes before she turned away. He shivered as he could feel the power beneath his soulmate’s words, she’d meant every word. Fedyor and Ivan who had been standing outside on either side of the tent's entrance eyed him curiously as his heartbeat raced, he shook his head. Fedyor grinned impishly while Ivan kept his stoic face.  

As Alina came back through the tent’s opening and saw him standing there, she still had that terrifying gentle smile. One most in power took many years to cultivate.

“You are my soulmate, Aleksander; which means you are part of my family now. The same principle will apply to you. If someone tries to kill you, they better hope I’m not nearby.” 

Her eyes were glowing now and Aleksander remembered the first memory he had of her. The little four year old who promised her mother to protect her with the fiercest look in her eyes, he had thought they almost glowed then too. However, now they glowed for him.