Chapter 17
Once I'm dressed in my beautiful dark purple dress, I walk out of the tent and over to Aleksander, who's waiting outside of Alina's tent.
He sees me coming and just stares.
I smile while coming to stand in front of him.
"You look breathtaking, Pchelka." He compliments, after having looked me up and down.
"And you look very handsome." I say, straightening his Kefta.
Alina walks out of her tent. Our eyes meet and she immediately looks away.
Aleksander looks between the two of us, before offering me his arm.
I smile up at him and link our arms together, before the three of us walk over to the ship.
We walk between all the tents and soldier, who are all praying when Alina passes by, in silence.
"The tracker's being kept in camp, under guard." Aleksander says, breaking the tension filled silence. "Do what's expected of you and he'll be released."
I nudge him in his side, making him look at me. I give him a disapproving look and he gives a look that says 'it's the only way to motivate her'.
Maybe, but lying to her about Mal isn't the best idea.
When we arrive at the ship, I stop walking and look up at it. This is giving me a lot of flashbacks. It feels like a century passed since I've last crossed the Fold, but it's only been about 3 months.
Alina is the first one to walk onto the ship, followed by Ivan and then Aleksander and I.
We walk up to the front of the boat, where Ivan attaches Alina to the deck, while I walk closer to the edge.
"This isn't a good look for you." Alina says to Aleksander, disdain filling her voice. "Everyone will see that I'm your prisoner."
"I doubt very much they'll notice your feet." Aleksander shoots back, before walking over to me.
He places his hands on my arm and kisses the top of my head.
"Are you okay." He whispers in my ear, making me shiver.
I turn around in his grasp to face him.
"I'm fine. It's just last time I was here, I fell unconscious in the first 5 minutes." I say,
forcing out a small laugh.
"I'll be there next to you the whole time." He reassures me, before giving me a quick kiss and walking over to the middle of the deck.
The ship starts moving forward and we enter the Fold.
"Can you feel them?" Aleksander asks Ivan, after a couple of minutes.
"No heartbeats yet, sir." Ivan responds.
My hands go to my amplifier, while I hear the Volcra screech and growl in the distance.
"They're coming." Alina says, looking around in the darkness.
"Yes." Aleksander responds, calmly.
"I should just tear this down now." Alina says.
"And what can you really do on your own?" Aleksander asks, turning to look at her and lifting his hand to his collar, showing her his amplifier. "Besides, it would be a monumental waste of power."
I walk over to the side of the deck and see a marker with a skull attached to it.
Shivering, I walk back over to Aleksander. Saints I hate this place.
Aleksander gives me a concerned look, before sliding his hand into mine and moving his fingers over my amplifier.
The screeching of the Volcra is getting louder and louder and we can start seeing them through the layers of darkness.
"Do something." Alina demands, turning to Aleksander.
Sensing he wont respond, she puts her hands together, ready to summon.
"No." Aleksander says, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Remember who's driving."
She gasps and a tunnel forms itself around us, making it a lot easier to see.
People start murmuring, while Alina slumps back.
"Your power is mine now." He reminds her, removing his hand from her shoulder.
"What's he doing?" One of the noble woman asks.
"Why this half measure?" Alina asks, while Aleksander starts walking around the deck, looking at the light keeping us save. "Why just carve a tunnel? You have me. You have this." She says, raising a hand to her amplifier. "Destroy the Fold. You said we could."
Out of all the tales Baghra told about Aleksander, the only one that was true, is the only one Alina doesn't want to listen to.
Aleksander won't destroy to Fold. He never will.
"And why would we destroy the Fold?" He asks her. "It's the greatest weapon that we've got."
Breathing loudly, Alina looks at him, as if he betrayed her.
We stop right at the edge of the Fold, just as we had planned.
"Why have we stopped?" A noble woman asks.
"One more demonstration." Aleksander starts his speech, turning towards the ship, with his back to the outside world. "You've seen what the Sun Summoner can do. Now bear witness to what I can do... with her power." He walks over to the front of the deck, facing Novo Kribirsk. Alina tries to walk forward to stop him, but the cord around her foot is keeping her in place.
This is the part I've thought about the most. When Aleksander told me his idea, I wasn't too fond of this part of the plan. We tried to find any other possible way to do it, but nothing had the same impact as this. Besides, these are the people who ordered an attack on Alina. The people who killed Marie and shot Genya. They kind of deserve it.
"Whatever it is you want me to do, I won't do it." Alina says, holding her head high, clearly not scared of Aleksander.
What a mistake.
"You've done your part." He says. "Now I shall do mine."
He slowly moves his hands forward, making the Fold grow towards Novo Kribirsk. The front of the tunnel closes in a cone shape.
You can hear people scream on the other side. I decide not to focus on that and instead focus on the rumbling sound there always is when Aleksander summons shadows.
Zoya runs up to the main deck, while the people on the ship are eerily silent, still in shock of what Aleksander did.
"What have you done?" Alina asks, not believing what she's seeing.
She places her hands together, summoning light and expanding the tunnel, so we can see the empty buildings that once were Novo Kribirsk.
"No, you don't." Aleksander mumbles, walking over to Alina and twisting her wrist, making her fall to her knees. She grunts in pain and the tunnel goes back to it's original size.
"They are traitors who tried to kill you." He explains to her. "This is retribution."
He drops her wrist, making her fall back.
He looks over at me and I give him a reassuring smile.
He turns back towards the people on the ship.
"Today, we redraw all the maps. With the power of the Sun Summoner at my command, I control the Fold. And its monsters. I can move it to any border I like. Engulf any harbor. Consume any city. Take what you have seen back to your home countries." He starts walking over to me, who's standing next to a panting Alina. "Tell the Fjerdans. Tell the Shu Han. There will be no more war with Ravka. All countries will answer to us. For who would oppose us now?" He finishes, looking at me, with so much passion in his eyes. He's worked for this for so long, and it's finally coming together.
Our peaceful moment is interrupted by a gunshot.
I look up to see...
"Mal" Alina and I say at the same time.
There's another gunshot, and Aleksander nods towards Ivan, making him use his powers on Mal. Mal has his finger on the trigger, but can't shoot. He slowly falls to the ground in front of Alina. She yells his name, while his gun falls out of his hand.
"Keep him alive. He could be useful to us." Aleksander tells Ivan, while I walk in between Alina and Mal. I place my foot down on the gun and push down.
You can't actually break a gun with just a heel, but I'm a Durast, I can make it look like I did.
Once the gun has flattened down enough so you can't use it, I turn to Alina.
"You need to focus. Keep your attention on the light that's keeping us all safe." I say to her. She glares at me but still does as I say.
The tunnel grows back to it's original height. Aleksander looks up, not even having realized that the tunnel had shrunk.
I walk back over to Aleksander, who gives me a proud smile. He must have seen my little show with the gun.
"General Kirigan," One of the noble woman starts, "this will only turn the world against you and all Grisha. You'll be seen not as a savior, but a heretic."
Aleksander turns towards Ivan, giving him to green light to do what he needs to do.
Ivan turns towards the group of nobels. They start groaning and slowly fall to the ground.
"Shame." Aleksander says, looking at all the body's on the deck. "I'll have to give that speech again now."
Suddenly there's a gust of wind, making the ship move towards Novo Kribirsk.
"Zoya?" Aleksander screams, trying to get her attention. "Zoya!"
I hear a gunshot and see Ivan fall down. Aleksander summons the Cut towards the sound of the gunshot, while I decide to stop Zoya.
I take a deep breath and make the wind push on the other side of the veil, making it stop.
Zoya pushes the wind harder, trying to make the ship move, but I have an amplifier. I'm a lot stronger than her.
A girl next to Zoya throws a small knife, that stabs Aleksander in the chest.
"No!" I scream, losing my focus, making the ship move forward.
Aleksander starts wheezing and black veins start spreading over his cheeks.
He looks down at the dagger and pulls it out of his chest.
"It will take more than this!" He screams holding up the knife, before throwing it to the side. He does some hand movements, summoning shadows.
"You stay in the dark." He says, while the bubble of light we're in becomes smaller, so that only Alina, Mal, Ivan, Aleksander and I are in it.
Suddenly the light becomes a lot stronger. I look over to Alina to see if she's the one doing it, but Alina just staring in front of her. Where's Mal? And Aleksander?
I follow Alina's line of sight to see to Stag walking over to us. It nods towards an area in between Alina and I. We both turn to see the small knife that Aleksander threw to the side.
We both look back up at the Stag, before it disappears and the light dims.
Our eyes meet. We both know what's she about to do. And we both know I'm going to try to stop it.
Aleksander walk over to Alina and I and takes one of our hands in his.
"It's just you, me and Anya now, Alina." Aleksander says, in a soothing voice, while I try to pry to knife closer to me with my foot."And we are all we need, anyway."
"You may have needed me..." Alina starts, tightening the hold on his hand, "but I never needed you."
She takes the blade from underneath my foot and before I can react, she plunges it into Aleksander's hand, making his amplifier fly away.
Alina stands up, while Aleksander falls to the floor. I run over to him and take his bloodied hand into mine, removing the knife from his hand.
"Your first words to me were 'What are you?'" Alina starts, while I place the fabric of my dress around his hand trying to stop the bleeding. "This is what I am."
She summons light, and makes the bubble around the ship twice as big.
"How do you claim such power?" Aleksander asks, in a quivering voice. "I am the one who killed the Stag."
"I didn't understand before, but I do now." She starts
"You cannot claim what was not given to you." I continue for her, having understood what she meant. She looks over at me annoyed that I interrupted her moment.
"The Stag chose me." She continues, while I place Aleksander's hand in another part of my dress.
"You chose to betray our people." Aleksander says, standing up, making me go with him.
"I was trying to save us."
Suddenly Mal runs up to Aleksander and jumps off the boat with him.
"Aleksander!"
"Mal!"
Alina and I scream at the same time leaning over the edge to see what's happening.
They both slowly stand up. Aleksander still clutching his hand.
"You betrayed us first." Mal says, once he's on his feet.
They both start fighting back and forth.
Alina and I share a glance. We're close enough that we could also fight, but we mutually decide not to. The people we love most are in danger, that's all that matters.
Suddenly Alina's nose start bleeding and she starts making chocking noises.
We turn around to see Ivan.
"How dare you?" He says to Alina, while the light keeping us save disappears. "He gave you everything. Remember your place."
Alina's still chocking and bleeding.
"Ivan, stop. We need her." I say, making him look at me.
Realizing he's not stopping, I decide to do something a bit reckless.
"You should listen to me." I say with more confidence. "I'm the General's wife. My orders are his orders." I lie. Well it's not a complete lie, I am his fiancé.
He stops what he's doing and looks over at me, shocked.
"What?!" He asks confused, before he gets shot and falls back.
Alina drops to the ground and I run over to her.
"Still couldn't shoot the pretty face." I hear a man say, after another gunshot. "I've got to stop doing that."
The man turns to me and points his gun. "The General's wife? I didn't know he got married." The man says.
I slowly stand up with my hands next to my head.
"I won't do you any harm, I promise." I say.
"Really?" He asks, cocking an eyebrow. "Because you're married to a man who just swallowed a whole city in darkness."
"You don't understand." I say, bringing my hands down.
"Than help me to." He says.
"That would take a long time." I sigh. "Look, Alina's my sister. I would prefer for her not to die, so if you could please let me go to her."
He thinks about it for a moment, before lowering his guns.
I send him an appreciative smile, before kneeling next to Alina.
A man dressed in all black, Mr. Brekker, and a Suli girl walk onto the deck. Mr. Brekker starts looking around, while the girl comes closer to me.
"What happened?" Mal asks, coming onto the main deck. He looks at me for a second before kneeling on the other side of Alina.
Wait, if Mal's here, where's Aleksander?
"It's Kirigan's Heartrender." The girl says, kneeling next to Alina, while I stand up and walk to the edge of the ship. Zoya started moving the ship again and because Alina is unconscious, I can't see him. I place my hand on the edge of the ship and lean over to get a better view. Where is he? He can't be that far. Right? He wouldn't leave me. He can't.
But Mal's here and he isn't. They were fighting and only Mal came back. He's...
Alina remakes the bubble of light around the ship, as we leave the Fold.
Once the ship stops moving, I fall to my knees, sobbing.
A/N: Next chapter is the last one!!! Hope you enjoyed. (also we passed 600 readers, like what the actual heck, thank you so much)