“Any day now, little human.”
Alex glanced up to see Zain waiting for her to follow Bear and D.C. through the very same doorway she had once used on her midnight visit to Meya after crossing paths—and swords— with Aven at Sir Oswald’s dinner party. That felt like years ago to Alex, given everything that had happened since.
“Sorry,” she said. “I spaced out for a moment. This headache is killing me.”
Sliding past him to enter the room beyond, Alex was surprised to see him continue on down the corridor rather than join them. Shrugging mentally, she turned back to the room and found Roka and his betrothed, Kyia, waiting for her. Alex easily returned their smiles, but the expression slid from her face when their eyes widened at her appearance and they burst into laughter.
“And I thought your friends looked bad,” Roka said, walking over and placing a welcoming hand on her shoulder. “It’s good to see you, Alex, even if it looks like you found a swamp and missed the ‘watch your step’ sign.”
“Ha, ha, you’re hilarious,” Alex grumbled, crossing her arms. Unfortunately she was too happy to see the Meyarins to feel any real annoyance at their reactions. That, and she was fully aware of how ridiculous she and her friends looked. Bear’s hair was still standing on end from their earlier encounter with the lightning, his face streaked with charcoal. D.C. also looked particularly wild, with her red hair frizzing exponentially by the second as it aired out naturally. Dried mud covered both their legs, but even that couldn’t compete with Alex’s state of crustiness, her body coated from head to toe.
She couldn’t blame Roka and Kyia for their laughter—in fact, she was surprised Zain had held back from commenting earlier. Furrowing her brow, Alex looked around, but their bulky escort was still nowhere to be seen. Then, as if on cue, Zain strode back into the room.
“Here,” he said, handing a golden chalice to Alex and passing two others to her friends. “Drink.”
Alex watched the steam rising out of the goblet and looked down at the silvery liquid with suspicion. “Is it supposed to be glowing like that?”
Zain huffed with impatience. “Just drink it, Alex.”
She felt the need to quote from a responsible-drinking advertisement, but she figured it would go straight over their otherworldly heads, so instead of making a fuss, she did as commanded, taking a small sip of the pleasantly sweet liquid.
“Mmm.” She smacked her lips together and took another sip, larger this time. “Tastes like vanilla.”
And indeed it did taste like vanilla, or perhaps caramel. She couldn’t quite decide, almost like it was a mixture of the two rich flavours. Either way, it was delicious, and she made a note to never doubt Zain’s drink offerings again, regardless of how psychedelic they looked.
“What’s in it?” Alex asked, entranced by the glowing liquid.
“You said you had a headache,” Zain answered just as she took another large mouthful. “Meyarin blood is known for its healing properties. Enjoy, little human.”
Alex violently spat out her mouthful. The silver liquid sprayed everywhere as she bent at the waist and tried to repress her urge to vomit all over the floor. She was only able to gain control of her gag reflex when she heard the uproarious laughter and realised she’d been played.
Alex stood straight again and scowled at Zain who was laughing the hardest.
“The—look—on—your—face—” he managed to get out between guffaws. “Priceless!”
It took every fibre of her being to resist throwing the remaining contents of her goblet at the hulking Meyarin. Instead, she grit her teeth and waited for them all—D.C. and Bear included—to settle down again.
“That was unkind of us, Alex,” Roka said, looking apologetic even if his golden eyes still gleamed with humour. “Of course Zain didn’t give you blood to drink. Your chalice contains an infusion of what we call laendra. It’s a plant native to the Silverwood and has fast-acting healing properties. You should already be feeling its effects.”
True enough, the headache Alex had endured since being Stabilised had disappeared the moment she’d begun drinking the laendra, and now that she thought about it, she couldn’t feel her itchy bites anymore, either. Looking at her friends, she could see the blisters on Bear’s forearm were healing before her eyes. D.C., too, was in the process of unwrapping Alex’s scarf bandage from her wrist, and when she was free of the makeshift splint, she handed the ComTCD back to Alex, rotating her hand with a look of incredulous wonder.
Swallowing her ire—because Zain had gone to retrieve the medicine after hearing her complain about her headache—Alex finished the remains of her goblet and offered a quiet, “Thanks, Zain.”
He chuckled quietly in response, still amused by the whole scenario, making it challenging for Alex to maintain her gratitude. She decided her best course of action was to instead turn her attention to the other Meyarins.
“Thanks for sending Zain to come get us,” she said to Roka. “His timing was perfect.”
“Yes, Hunter mentioned you could use some assistance,” the prince said, his lips quirking at the corners. “Tell me, did you find what you were after?”
At his question, Alex turned wide eyes to D.C. and Bear. “Johnny! He’s probably freaking out!”
Understanding immediately, Bear pulled out his ComTCD and activated a link to his brother. Just before it connected, he glanced around the opulent room and evidently remembered that even if Johnny knew a lot more about their story than most, they were still technically in a hidden city and it was probably best to keep it that way until someone more important decided to change the ‘Lost City’ status. Upon making that realisation, Bear swiftly deactivated the holograph feature so that their connection was audio only.
“Bear? You there?” Johnny’s voice called.
“We’re all here,” Bear answered. “We’re okay.”
Johnny let out an audible sound of relief. “You had me worried, little bro. I watched on the surveillance feed as they blasted you and dragged you through a Bubbledoor—that was intense! It took me a while to find you again at the High Court since that place is wired like you wouldn’t believe, but when I finally made it into their system and found a way to get you past their security, you were gone. The guards are still in an uproar—what gives?”
Bear shuffled his feet and mumbled, “Long story. I can’t really talk now, but I wanted you to know we’re all safe. Do me a favour and distract Mum and Dad until we get home, yeah?”
“Blake’s already on that,” Johnny answered. “He’s been running interference all day.”
At that moment, Alex was relieved they’d decided to trust not only Johnny, but also Bear’s other brother, Blake, with the truth about Jordan’s Claiming. Both brothers had helped to keep the rest of the Ronnigan household—Dorothy, William, Gammy and Evie—oblivious to what was going on.
“They think you’ve spent the last few hours at On The House with Benny and Sal,” Johnny continued. “But I’m not sure how long you’ve got left before they send one of us down to get you. They probably think you’re all in dillyberry-induced comas by now.”