Sooo... yep, major SPOILERS of everything in the shadow and bone trilogy in this chapter.
Mention of Mal. Baghra is Baghra. Aleksander is infuriated.
-Flora
Alina went straight to her bedroom and sat on her vanity chair.
She watched herself in the mirror for a few seconds and then lightly slapped herself.
"What are you doing?!" She whispered to herself.
Then she buried her face in her hands.
What was she supposed to do? What was she supposed to do when he was so... normal?!
So caring!
By that time Alina understood that he genuinely cared for her, but it probably wasn't all... her... it was what she embodied, her persona, the sun summoner.
From what she had gathered he had waited for someone to be like him, to balance him, to stay beside him.
He didn't want to manipulate her and lie to her, but he did it anyway because he couldn't do anything else. In his perspective.
Alina looked at herself in the mirror. Her lips were swollen, her hair a little messy and her cheeks were red.
"Why am I the fucking Sun summoner?! Ugh," she took her brush and started to comb her hair to something decent.
She even found a leaf in it.
When she entered his room without knocking, he was there with two glasses in hand.
"You wanted to talk to me, I sensed it," he said staring intensely into her eyes. She nodded silently and went to take the glass.
When he gave it to her, his now free hand went to her hip.
This action was so intimate. It was like they had been lovers for years.
She hid behind her glass for a moment and then said: "Aleksander... Can I ask you a very bold question?"
His gaze was unshakable, "Go on."
Alina was ready, she didn't want to hold back, she had to do something. Her mouth opened to start asking him a very dangerous question but before she could emit a sound, someone started knocking insistently at the door.
"Moi sovregnyi, it's urgent."
"It has to be a curse!" muttered Alina under her breath.
Aleksander chuckled lowering his glass on the table but Alina noticed the irritated expression on his face.
"Come in," he said with his deep General voice.
Ivan entered the room and she was so lost in her thoughts that didn't even notice when he exited the room.
"Alina," she heard Aleksander.
Alina was brought back to reality and her gaze went from her own hands to his face.
He seemed concerned when he got near her and caressed one of her cheeks.
"I'll come to you tonight," he whispered on her temple before kissing it and distancing himself from her.
She nodded and together they went outside of the room, parting their ways and their hands.
Alina returned to her room but didn't know what to do, she seated on the vanity chair again and took the leaf that she had found in her hair, less than ten minutes before.
" what should I do?"
Her temple still tingled from his kiss.
Aleksander went for the hut.
Ivan had told him that a strange beautiful young woman was in there and was asking of him urgently on Baghra behalf.
This didn't seem something his mother would do, though the urgently was likely her.
It was almost sunset, shadows were starting to expand and the air was chill.
The hut's door was closed, as always.
When he saw her he couldn't believe his eyes. He hadn't seen her so young in centuries: her back straight, her hair black again, no wrinkles, no bags under her eyes.
He gulped. "Madraya," he whispered incredulously.
"Before you ask, I killed an Amplifier and using its power got me young again." The stern face was still there.
Aleksander recovered quickly from the shock of seeing his mother young and beautiful like when he was a child, he instead focused on her sentence and rage started boiling, "what kind of amplifier?"
"The Firebird."
"What do you mean the Firebird, when did you have the time to hunt a mythological creature, between lessons?" A mirthless laugh escaped him.
"It wasn't really a bird of fire, it was a person."
Aleksander's forehead wrinkled "Another human Amplifier, what does it mean?"
"It means he was Morozova's descendent, not from my side obviously."
"So your sister-" "My sister survived and her line continued until today."
"You killed the last offspring of your sister? Don't you feel guilt, regret?" Aleksander was a little shocked by the revelation.
"I preferred to kill a man I never knew instead of having you take its power."
His mother was good at changing his shock in rage.
"Who was it?"
"Malyen Oretsev, the tracker."
Aleksander's lips parted to take in air.
"Shit," he said closing his eyes. Every piece was going in place.
"You're not going to have the stag so easily now," his mother displayed a sneaky little grin that he had forgotten could be on her young face.
"Shit," he repeated under his breath, his left hand covering his eyes.
Baghra lowered her eyebrows, her forehead didn't have any wrinkles.
"It's not only the stag, what is it?"
"He was Alina's only family," he said watching her furiously.
Baghra's breath stopped for a second "Well, you already wanted to separate her from every other attachment she previously had, didn't you? What's the matter then?"
"Separate is one thing, kill is another!"
"You never thought that way before," she stated.
"Alina was not involved before!" He took a deep breath, "I will not forget this, mother."
"Well, what do you want to do now? You're obviously not going to stay, you don't want to nor you can," he said turning around and going for the door.
"I can take care of myself, return to your sun summoner, I'll stay here for another week then I don't want to see you and your troubles for the next decade at least."
He went out of the hut furiously.
His mother had crossed the line this time. He couldn't let this pass.
She had killed the last scrap of family they could have had.
He never had anyone except for his mother. Malyen was like him in more than one way, he was an amplifier and Morozova's descendent and...
He could have been a brother.
He could have been family.
That's it for today!
Do you think Aleksander and Mal could have been brothers in another life? I honestly don't know, it feels there could have been a mutual agreement between the two about Alina and you know... some sharing IYKWIM!
(I say this only for Archie's Mal, not the books' Mal. No no. I hate him.)
Maybe in another story!
The next chapter will be out at the beginning of next week and it will be very emotional!
Hope you enjoyed it! Leave likes and comments, I'm really interested in your opinions about the story!
And obv (please) tell me if there's any mistake! (I found out that I wrote thong instead of tongue some chapters ago...)🙈
-Flora