"That's quite enough, Mother." Of course it was Baghra. Who else would dare to try to take what was mine? My Alina. My Solnishka. The only good thing I'd found in quite a long time.

She looks frightened, whether it was of me, or of Baghra, I couldn't tell. I can't bring myself to look into her eyes and see what awaits me, even as my shadows reach out for her impulsively. Fear? Revulsion? Perhaps hatred? Would she despise me now, knowing who I am and what I've done? Perhaps once it would not have mattered...but now...

I focused on Bagrha instead. My mother's expression was hard, uncaring. She swept away my shadows with a wave of her hand, making me grit my teeth. Useless. Still no match. I should have known she would betray me, shouldn't have allowed her to worm her way back into my life, with promises of training my charges. She had never meant well, never did anything for anyone but herself.

"You do not command me, boy. She comes with me." Her hand tightened around Alina's wrist, dragging her closer, her own shadows pushing out to confront mine again. It was futile, I knew, to try to fight her off alone. She was much older, had a control over her power like no other. I learned nearly everything from her, what could I hope to use against her?

As a child Baghra did not seem to care a great deal for me, she always maintained a distance that my childish mind could not understand. Until the day shadows spilled out of me, as dark as her own. I was no more than a frightened child, and wanted nothing more than my mothers protection. I remembered reaching out to her, terrified of the shadows clinging to me. She drew away with a cold look and left me to the shadows, to the fear. Left for days, so long that I feared her gone forever. Feared beating alone, feared the shadows that would not leave.

But then she had returned, and gone was any semblance of caring. She'd found me in the garden, desperately searching for any leftover fruit or berries, anything. I was so hungry, and the relief I felt at her return was overwhelming. All until she grabbed my arm in a tight painful grip, dragging me back inside and depositing me on the floor. She'd explained to me, that in order to survive, we would leave immediately and begin my training. Power was the only thing that would keep us safe. I would need to gain control of my powers and hone my skills. She looked at me with something akin to greed when she talked about our gifts. There is no one like us, and never will be. Everything else, everyone else was inconsequential. No one would be able to do what we did, live as long as we did. She'd tried many times to pass her gift along to her offspring. It always failed, until now, until me...lucky me.

She was never fond of anyone, not even our own people. She was careful to keep us apart from everyone else, reminding me constantly of their mortality, and our own immortality. "The problems of the world are not our problems," she always said. She had no issue with the way Grisha were hunted and killed for simply being.

She was a cruel woman, always had been. We had never seen eye to eye. She always thought me foolish for trying to her my people, our people. "They all die sooner or later, and people never change," she reminded me.

But she had trained my powers well enough, she knew more about bringing Grisha powers to the surface than any other, no matter how cruel her methods. In order to keep my people safe, I had to teach them as quickly as possible, and she was the best choice at the time. Even if I hated her, I still needed her help.

I should not have let her come here, anywhere near Alina, near any of my Grisha. But she had played on my foolish hope she could change her mind, that she could care what happened to their people. She only cared for herself. But what did she want with Alina?

She had not cared about any of my progress, or any of my plans, thought it seems she payed closer attention then I thought. But why? Why does she care now?

I knew my mother. She did not tell our secret to anyone, so why Alina? Why did she want Alina away from me so badly? She didn't care about Alina, and she hadn't cared who I bedded in hundreds of years. It couldn't just be out of spite. Alina was my equal, the only other person in the world that could spend eternity with us.

She knew I had no intention of following through with my plan to control Alina. I was foolishly honest with her, for the most part, about Alina. And yet she tried to manipulate her away from him. Why?

She helped Alina bring her beautiful light to the surface. While nowhere near a master, her summoning had improved by leaps and bounds. Baghra made no effort to harm her, aside from that blasted cane that she was so fond of. However, Alina's summoning, while beautiful, was still weaker than it should be, from her many years of suppressing her gift. Hiding. She wasn't powerful enough yet to be of use to Baghra. But what use would she have for her? Her only real goal was to survive, so why did she need Alina?

Whatever her plans for Alina, I knew they were malicious. And while I am no match for my mother on my own, now I have resources, power, loyal soldiers on my side. I am not a scared little boy anymore, and I will fight her tooth and nail. I will not let her have Alina. I will find a way to destroy her, if she tries to hurt Alina. No one will take Alina from me. No one.

"Aleksander..."