Noble Hope| General Kirigan

𝔸𝕝𝕝 𝕚𝕤 𝔽𝕒𝕚𝕣 𝕚𝕟 𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕎𝕒𝕣

{Chapter twenty-seven}

ADALINE WAS PAINFULLY AWARE OF THE LOUD CRACKS OF THUNDER AND RUSTLE OF DISTURBED SAND AS THE SKIFF PUSHED FORWARD.

Adaline stood beside Kirigan on his demand, where he knew he could keep her close. "Can you feel them? he asked.

"No heartbeats yet, sir," Ivan responded from his post behind them where he kept a feel for any inhuman blood-flows. Distant screeches and cries came from the volcra in the distance. Adaline's heart pounded as they passed the sixth marker.

"They're coming," Alina breathed nervously. The familiar hint of fear in her voice made Adaline want to grasp her hand and stroke her hair as she did when they were children, no matter how angry she was at the moment.

"Yes." Kirigan confirmed.

"I should just tear this place down now."

"And what can you really do on your own?" Kirigan sneered. He could feel Adaline's glare on the side of his face as he held his marked hand up to his chest. The gesture made the second Darkling's heart wrench at the manipulation. "Besides. It would be a monumental waste of power."

The noises made by the volcra intensified, a sure sign they were getting closer. It put everyone on edge to watch them begin to circle the skiff. The thick leather of their wings and hundreds of sharp teeth brought back memories from Adaline's first trip through the skiff that she did not want to remember.

"Do something!" Alina pleaded.

Adaline couldn't help but allow her thoughts to wander somewhere safer. She wanted nothing more than to cuddle up close to Kirigan's warm chest as his arms circled around her, but she knew that wasn't an option right now.

The Sun Summoner seemed to have had enough. She pushed her hands together, a clear attempt to create her own sunlight and protect the skiff but a hard hand clamped onto her shoulder, dangerously close to her collar. Kirigan's other hand searched for Adaline's arm and quickly grabbed hold of it in a tight grip.

"No. Remember who's driving." A rush of light followed Alina's shocked gasp. A whimper of her own caught in the Shadow Summoner's as a burst of energy suddenly left her body.

Kirigan didn't notice Adaline's weakened body and hooded eyelids as a tunnel of sunlight formed over the skiff. The use of power made Alina stumble as well, but still, she seemed more stable than Adaline once Kirigan let go of them.

The older Starkov couldn't keep upright as she tripped over herself and her blurring mind and landed in a puddle of black fabric and hair that spilled over the side of her face. Everything was hazy as Adaline reached a hand to her face and felt under her nose, shocked at the cold drip of blood that she found on her fingertips.

She could barely process the firm hand that pressed against her lower back and pushed her hair away from her face to study the liquid dripping from her nostrils.

Aleksander's face was excruciatingly clear in her eyesight.

Though she couldn't think the clearest, and her head pounded, she understood one thing.

Aleksander had dropped everything the moment he knew Adaline was potentially in danger. She knew that his power was important to him, but she also knew that it was more than likely he was doing all of this for the sake of Grisha.