The light behind the darkness (Darklina fanfic)

Chapter 9

She opened an old journal, it was signed «Ilya Morozova». She gasped. She knew the stories about the power that he had used to create his amplifiers, the one the Black Heretic had used to create the Fold. Morozova's journals with the notes about merzost were destroyed after the Fold had been created. The Darkling destroyed Morozova's journals. But here they are.

Her hands were shaking when she was reading the old journals. Some notes were like madness, obsession about the way to create amplifiers. Creation with merzost. The power of life over death. The forbidden power.

Her eyes stopped on words: Are we not all things?

She almost jumped on her place from the surprise of hearing the familiar voice behind.

"What are you doing?" Aleksander asked.

She sucked a sharp breath, hesitating what to answer.

"What is that?" The look on his face was unreadable, the voice calm. "What did you search for in my personal belongings?"

"I...just...looked on your wardrobe," she mumbled still holding a journal.

"And broke a lock," he cocked his head to one side.

"Why do you have Morozova's journals?" Alina asked and lifted her head to meet his gaze.

He shrugged. "Just old notes of a mad man."

She tried to find some confidence in herself. The man who was standing in the doorway was still her Aleksander. She needed to talk to him.

"So how did you get that from the place where they had been hidden?"

"I wanted to find some evidence," she whispered.

"Evidence?" he arched his eyebrows.

She rose and took a step closer to him.

"I talked with Baghra," she said looking into his eyes. His eyes became dark like a midnight sky without stars. She stood before him feeling her heart sink.

"So what the old woman had whispered to your ears that you started to search evidence?"

"Something that I could not even imagine," Alina's voice trembled. It was so difficult for her to look on the beloved face and spoke about the horror Baghra had told her. She turned from him and took a decanter of water to fill a glass for herself. Her hands were shaking. She'd taken a sip of water then she talked again, "She said that you had lied to me. You lied to the whole world by showing the false face of the noble general. The one who wants to save the country, but actually the one who is guilty of spreading it apart."

Alina's fingers tightened around the glass. She looked back at him. His expression hardened, but he stayed silent.

"All of her tellings had seemed like madness so I decided that I need to check her worlds. Because according to her words the man who should have been dead for centuries, is standing in front of me now," she said feeling how her heart hammering in her chest. All the time she was speaking he kept his eyes on her.

"Did you believe her?" His voice was cool.

"I don't want to," she whispered. "It can't be true," she shook her head. She felt fear, not of him, but of the possibility that would be the truth. A tremor ran up her spine, as she said, "You can't be... it's impossible." She dropped the glass from her trembling hands. The glass broke with a tinkling sound. Alina kneeled to gather smithereens. One of the pieces cut her palm on a place where the old scar had once been.