#01 - Walking
He's supposed to be the most powerful Grisha in the world, and yet he still can't stop one mousy little girl from walking away from him (again, and again).
#02 - Waltz
Alina stiffens when he takes her in his arms, but it wouldn't do to split the ballroom in two; she allows him to pull her into a waltz, and ignores the smirk of triumph tugging his lips.
#03 - Wishes
She wishes that things had been different, that he had been different – not because she can't live with what he's done, but because she can.
#04 - Wonder
"Aleksander," she murmurs softly, and the faint hint of a smile spreads across her face as she watches his eyes widen.
#05 - Worry
Sometimes, they don't see each other for decades; it always seems to bother him more than her.
#06 - Whimsy
The Darkling watches her, the way she stretches out her fingers and lets the sunlight dance through the leaves, and remembers what it is to use power as a joy instead of just a tool.
#07 - Waste/Wasteland
He makes a wasteland of himself, and tries to drag her down with him.
#08 - Whiskey and rum
It would be so easy to get drunk on him, Alina thinks – to consume him, and let him do the same to her.
#09 - War
"You started this," she reminds him, merciless as her arm sweeps down in the Cut.
#10 - Weddings
Occasionally he takes her name, but she returns over and over to Oretsev; a quiet and pointed reminder of what he took from her.
#11 - Birthday
They never celebrate – orphans don't have birthdays, and neither do Darklings.
#12 - Blessing
It's a thoughtless action, absently kissing him on the forehead one night; he snorts quietly and murmurs, thank you, Sankta.
#13 - Bias
He accuses her of caring too much about the otkazat'sya; before she leaves for another ten or twelve years, she quietly reminds him that they are people too.
#14 - Burning
The worst part is that every time he visits her, Alina can still feel his touch hours later, long after she's asked him to leave.
#15 - Breathing
She sleeps more than he does, and the Darkling takes full advantage of this, watching the way her chest rises and falls for hours at a time as she curls up in his bed.
#16 - Breaking
He had thought he could withstand the breaking of her; a knife to the heart is, he supposes, a fitting way to be proven wrong.
#17 - Belief
He sneers at the pilgrims, at the multitudes chanting her name, Sank-ta-Ali-na Sank-ta-Ali-na – not because they believe, but because they think their belief makes her theirs; she will only ever be his.
#18 - Balloon
He isn't sure how it happens, but they end up on one of those damn airships at some point in their history; she doesn't say a word when his fingers curl tightly into the wood, but her smirk is enough to make him briefly consider pitching her overboard.
#19 - Balcony
She tells him to stop sending his shade into her room; he chuckles and asks if she would prefer he stand under her balcony and throw pebbles at her window.
#20 - Bane
He tortures himself sometimes, standing at a distance and watching her with the tracker.
#21 - Quiet
They never say the words; him, because what he feels for her cannot be encompassed by mere language, and her because it would feel like a betrayal.
#22 - Quirks
He puts extra sugar on his porridge in the morning.
#23 - Question
He getsthat look on his face sometimes, like he's going to ask her something; Alina says no on reflex before he can even voice it.
#24 - Quarrel
Either their fights are silent, cutting things that stretch on for decades of separation, or quick and explosive and involving mass property destruction.
#25 - Quitting
He's worked his way under her skin, settling in and making her his home; no matter how hard she tries, she can't claw him out.
#26 - Jump
It takes her centuries to take that step, to prove him right and return to him.
#27 - Jester
It's the tracker who is the fool, and yet the more Aleksander watches them together, the more he feels that he is the one being turned into a joke.
#28 - Jousting
They rarely have just conversations anymore; there are always ulterior motives, each of them seeking to unseat the other.
#29 - Jewel
He destroys every green emerald he comes across.
#30 - Just
It's distressing, how much his ideas of justice fall into line with hers with their extended contact (she doesn't want to think that some of it might be her coming to see things his way instead).
#31 - Smirk
His smirk as always done something awful to her insides, so the day she twists her mouth at him and watches his lips part for a moment is immensely satisfying.
#32 - Sorrow
The Darkling doesn't understand pain, doesn't know how to deal with it; the only way he can think of surviving it is by lashing out at her, making her feel the same thing he is forced to every second he is without her.
#33 - Stupidity
Calling him a liar is probably the nicest thing she could say about him, and yet there are moments, brief flashes in time, where she thinks she can trust him.
#34 - Serenade
"The screams of my enemies is not a fitting present, Aleksander."
#35 - Sarcasm
"That's a shame, now I have nowhere to put my rack."
#36 - Sordid
She wakes up with a gasp, cheeks flushed red and an ache between her thighs; the Darkling perches on the edge of her bed and smirks at her, like he knows exactly what she was dreaming about.
#37 - Soliloquy
Sometimes after a long separation, he catches her talking to herself under her breath; he can't decide if he likes it, or if it's just another sign of how she gets used to being without him.
#38 - Sojourn
It's a little galling when he realises that he is almost never the one to leave her.
#39 - Share
There are, occasionally, moments; she'll show him something she's found, or tug him outside to watch the sunset.
#40 - Solitary
He hadn't realised how very alone he had been until he had her; losing her was unacceptable.
#41 - Nowhere
Eventually, she will understand that there is nowhere she can find true peace without him at her side.
#42 - Neutral
It seems that the closer she allows herself to get to him, the better she is at remaining separate, until the day comes when he can look at her face and not discern a single thought that she doesn't want him to see.
#43 - Nuance
He learns her in other ways – the hitch of her breath, the arch of her back, the harsh sensation of nails clawing into his skin.
#44 - Near
She is, he discovers when she allows him that close, a blanket thief.
#45 - Natural
They've both done hideous things, created abominations – and yet the thing that sets them both apart at the end is the longevity that nature wrought.
#46 - Horizon
There is no end to our story, words she had once clung to; she wonders what it makes her that the grips them a little less tightly as the years wear on.
#47 - Valiant
He considers it a synonym for stupidity, and she is only ever accused of it when she acts against him.
#48 - Virtuous
"For a saint," he murmurs as his fingers dig into her hips, her body moving over him, "you are terrible at virtue."
#49 - Victory
Alina doesn't know what winning means when it comes to him anymore; she isn't sure it matters.
#50 - Defeat
Eventually, she comes to love him again.