Alex rose shakily to her feet, closing her eyes against a sudden attack of lightheadedness. She would have given anything for some water and something to eat, since other than a meagre slice of bread, the last thing she’d consumed was the haesondel sludge Niyx had forced her to swallow before the battle at Graevale. The instant shot of adrenaline had helped her recover from the night of torture, just as it had helped her survive the fight against Aven and his Claimed army, but with the time she’d spent burying her friend afterwards—then her hours wandering through the Tia Auran desert—it had been nearly two days since Alex had last eaten anything of substance. And while the immortal blood in her veins was helping to ward off the effects of dehydration, she was still close to reaching her limit. But she wouldn’t give up—she couldn’t give up.
Blinking through her dizziness enough to look across the rolling dunes and overhead at the streaking stars once more, in a hoarse, dry voice she whispered, “If you can hear me, I could really, really use a way out of here.”
An answer came as swiftly as the wind that swept the sand up at her feet.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
Goose bumps rose on Alex’s skin as déjà vu hit her so strongly that she felt as if she’d been struck in the stomach. The voice, as clear as the night’s sky, echoed some of the very first words the Library had ever spoken to her.
“You’re here,” Alex breathed, not believing it. Fearful, perhaps, that her exhaustion had made her delirious.
“I told you I’d always be with you, Alexandra Jennings. It is you who keeps forgetting.”
Overly emotional from both her fatigue and the events of the last few days, Alex felt tears spring to her eyes. For the first time since she had arrived in the never-ending desert, she didn’t feel quite so alone anymore. And apparently, she never had been.
“Is Kaiden all right?” she rasped, needing to know.
“He is safe and waiting for you,” the Library answered. “You would have been with him much sooner had you not taken so long to remember to call on me.”
Alex marvelled at the fact that a library was somehow managing to make her feel guilty. But she also knew more than anyone that the Library was no ordinary library.
She cleared her parched, croaky throat and gave the only excuse she had. “It’s been a rough couple of days. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Your trials of late have been many, Alexandra,” the Library said in a deep, soothing voice that caused Alex to swallow thickly, the compassion both comforting and painful. “And I need not tell you what you already know—that they are not yet over.”
Alex did know that. Despite what she had already endured, until Aven was defeated, there was still much more that she had to do.
“Can you help me?” she asked. “Can you take me where I need to go?”
In answer, a doorway rippled into existence barely a few feet from where she stood.
“You need only ask, Alexandra,” the Library said. “Try not to forget again.”
Alex’s shoulders sagged with the knowledge that she had been wandering the desert for so long only because of her own stupidity. A similar experience had occurred during her time in the past—she’d forgotten all about the Library and the possibility that it could return her to the future. She should have learned from her mistake then, not continued to make it over and over again.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” the Library said, as if reading her mind. “When the time comes that you need to remember me, you will.”
A shiver ran down her spine, and all she could do was nod her head. “Where will it take me?” she asked, looking into the doorway that showed nothing but darkness.
“Where you need to go,” the Library answered, back to being as vague as Alex expected.
Feeling the need to double check, Alex squinted her eyes and confirmed, “And Kaiden’s waiting for me there?”
“You will have to step through and see.”
With that, Alex could almost feel the Library’s presence disappearing. Or, if not disappearing entirely, at least… quieting. Leaving her to make her own decision about what to do next.
While she wasn’t thrilled with the Library’s ambiguity, Alex knew that wherever the door led, and whoever was— or wasn’t—waiting on the other side, it had to be better than continuing to wander aimlessly through the desert.
“Thank you,” she whispered, knowing the Library would hear her.
And then she stepped into the doorway.
Two
Light, blinding light assailed Alex’s vision the moment she was through the doorway. She blinked back tears as her retinas burned, and when her eyes finally adjusted, all she could do was stand there and gape at the sight before her.
It was as if the doorway had relocated her to yet another new world, as if the unending desert had been some kind of purgatory stopover on the way to her true destination. And Alex would have continued believing that if not for the three suns high in the sky, set in the exact same position as where the blue and red moons had been. Like the flipping of a switch, the world had turned from night into day.
But that wasn’t all that had changed, because no longer was she standing in a desert. Instead, she was surrounded by clouds. No, not just surrounded by them—she was standing on them. They weren’t like the vapour clouds she knew; these were substantial under her feet, like a solid mass, reminding her of the cloud-chair the Dayriders had summoned for her to sit on, fully solid and capable of bearing weight.
Alex would have crouched down to explore with her fingers had she not been so transfixed by what else she was seeing—by the city that was resting atop the clouds and rising high into the heavens.
‘One does not live a single day amongst the splendour of Tia Auras and then choose to leave.’
Given the view before her, Alex could understand why Athora might have made such a bold statement prior to her leaving the Library.
The city was made of gold.
Brilliant, shining, almost overpowering gold.
Spiralling arches reached dizzyingly high before cresting back down again, like semi-circles of shining, curved light. The design reminded Alex of Meya—but an impossibly more advanced Meya, with spires that were spherical and horizontal rather than straight and vertical. The gold was nearly blinding, but added to that were glass highlights— or perhaps diamond, given the rainbows bouncing off the arched, transparent towers. The effect was breathtaking, with even the fluffy, white clouds surrounding the city taking on the dispersed light and absorbing the colour, like kaleidoscopic mountains.
Athora had been right—the splendour of Tia Auras was beyond compare.
But Alex also couldn’t help thinking it was a little over the top, especially with the periwinkle-blue sky still streaked with stars, like an unending daytime meteor shower. The visual overload was too much; too bright, too colourful, too perfect.
Was it beautiful? Definitely. But Alex had seen her share of beauty. She knew better than to be swayed by a pretty view. She was here for only one reason, and it wasn’t to play awed tourist.
Determined to carry out her mission, Alex took a wobbly step forward, half expecting the clouds underfoot to start acting like they were supposed to and give way. But when her weight came down on the cottony ground, it remained solid. Like walking on packed fairy floss, there was perhaps a hint of springiness, but otherwise the surface remained fully stable.