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Alina

The Darkling danced just as well as I remembered. We seemed to move as one, connected by invisible strings. Everything was so fluid, so slow. The music snaked around us, filling all of my senses with its otherworldly melody. I never wanted to stop. People were gawking at us, unable to believe that Ravka's savior would dare to be seen with the Darkling in this way. Their disapproving mutters reached me. Suddenly, the word Sankta was being spoken like a curse. I felt immediately uneasy.

The Darkling's hand on my waist drew me in closer, leaving a breath of air between us. "You're not used to them speaking like that, are you?" he asked. "Calling you a traitor?"

I shook my head. "No," I confessed. "I'm not. They want me to be their Sun Summoner. But I can't."

"Why not?"

My eyebrows flicked up in bewilderment. "You know why," I muttered, not wanting to be overheard. "I have nothing now."

"True." He waltzed me through the room, letting the crowd part for us. "But you can still play the part, as Nikolai showed you. You can still be their hope."

"I don't want to," I replied. Then the truth of that statement sank in. I was done being these people's saint. I didn't want them to make my life into a lie. But what if it was already too late?

"Oh? And what do you want to be instead?"

I met his gaze daringly. "I can be someone else's hope. If he'll let me."

He smirked, and the butterflies in my stomach whirled. "My hope," he murmured slowly, as though trying out the taste of the words. He cocked his head slightly to one side. "Maybe. But then what am I to you?"

The voices swirled around me, whispers of traitor, murderer, abomination, monster. But I was none of those things. And neither was he. I was suddenly bold, uncaring of what they would say behind my back. I sidled up beside him and our bodies brushed together. His scent claimed me as I whispered to him, my lips on his ear. "You are Aleksander. You are the only person I want to save."

I pulled back again. When he looked down at me, the smirk was gone and there was an emotion in his face that I'd never seen before. Our eyes locked. I had never held someone's eyes for so long, never looked into the place where their soul resided. Did the Darkling still have a soul? I wanted him to.

The dance had brought us to the front doors of the Little Palace. There weren't many people here and the ones that were there all inched away when they saw us. The distrust in their faces was obvious. Their Sun Queen was lost.

Suddenly, and without any warning at all, the Darkling's arm tightened around my waist and he tugged me away from the other dancers. He shouldered open one of the doors, and cool night air flooded over me. I didn't have any time to glance over my shoulder at the room before he had yanked me outside and kicked the door shut. Then my back was against it, and there was moonlight caught in his hair, and he was stroking his thumb over my lower lip. My pulse jumped.

"Alina," he murmured softly. "I need you to tell me why. Why you want to save me. I want the real reason."

I couldn't concentrate on the question. I couldn't concentrate on anything because his hand was cupping my face now, gentler than he'd ever been, and his other hand was at my hip. "I—I couldn't let you die," I stammered.

His eyes were as gray as distant mountaintops, filling with some unknown feeling. I held my breath when he bent his head, touching our foreheads together. "I said I wanted the real reason," he reminded me.

Ice trickled down my spine. I remembered the day he'd first told me his true name, the moment when he'd asked me to say it and I felt the danger of his closeness. It felt like that now. I swallowed hard. "I...I was falling in love with you," I whispered. The confession hung between us. "I still am."

He let out a breath. "A saint in love with the Darkling," he said, almost thoughtfully. "Impossible." He tipped my chin up, angling his head, and kissed me. I heard the blissful sigh that escaped me and I didn't care if he did too. I hadn't realized how much I needed this until it was happening. I shut my eyes and kissed him back, drinking in the taste of him. He made a low sound in the back of his throat and abruptly broke the kiss. My eyes fluttered open to see him gazing down at me, breathing raggedly, conflicting emotions flickering over his features.

"Aleksander?" I asked, wondering if I'd done something wrong.

He closed his eyes and bowed his head, looking nearly pained. "How do you do that?" he asked, his voice thick. "How do you make me need you so much?"

I stared at him. "What are you saying?"

"I don't know," he said, shaking his head. "I'm not sure of anything when I'm around you. Not even myself." His hands were at my waist, fingers splayed over the small of my back. "I don't understand. I'm not supposed to feel like this. I'm not supposed to fall in love."

My mind went blank at his words. He's in love with me? "I...I don't know what to say," I managed.

He was silent for a long moment. The night was cold around us, the stars glinting from high overhead. The full moon touched the world to silver. Then he took a shuddery breath. "Just say you're mine," he whispered. "Tell me that you'll stay with me this time. That I don't have to fight anymore." His eyes moved over me with so much longing and so much affection that it took my breath away. "I belong to you, Alina. You could do anything to me and I would never ask you to stop. Even if you broke me, I would still be yours."

I gazed at him, at this man who had once been the Darkling, and realized that I'd never fully understood that connection between us. What we had was something unfamiliar to me but so complete that it made me willing to believe his every word. I'd given him my heart long before this. But I didn't really know that until tonight. "I thought you didn't want to be saved by me," I breathed, not knowing what else to say.

He took my hand in his and twined our fingers together. He lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed each knuckle, so tenderly that it nearly brought tears to my eyes. "You saved me long ago," he said. "I never knew until now."

I trembled. "Aleksander."

I crushed my mouth to his. He kissed me back hungrily, his strong arms wrapping around me in the dark. I gave in to it, to him, for the first time. My fingers threaded through his hair, aching to feel all of it. One of his hands was closed on my hip, the other searing into the bare skin of my back that my dress exposed. He slid his hand down my spine, pulling me up against him. I felt his mouth leave mine and trail down my jaw, leaving a delicious heat on my skin. I tilted my head back. He nuzzled my neck and his lips moved lower; he kissed my shoulder in a way that sent electricity dancing down my spine.

"My Alina," he whispered between kisses. "Moi svet."

His words shook me at my very center. I wasn't thinking straight anymore. Delirious with his touch, my hands sought out the front of his jacket, fumbling the buttons open and shoving it from his shoulders. Growling under his breath, he pushed himself even closer to me. I had his shirt halfway unbuttoned when a sound came to us from the darkness.

We both froze.

Shoes were clacking in the stones of the pathway leading up to the front doors of the Little Palace. Muted voices followed soon after, growing louder as they came closer. Panic overwhelmed me. But the Darkling was already moving, his arm secure around my waist, dragging me away from the doors. He led me through the night with ease, around the corner of the palace. We ducked into a shadowed place behind the wall and waited. My heart was pounding wildly in my chest. The footsteps stopped outside the doors and it was obvious that the people were having an important conversation. They were, of course, blocking the only easy way back into the entry chamber where I was sure Genya was looking for me.

"We almost got caught and now we're stuck here," I hissed to the Darkling.

He chuckled with dark intent and yanked me up against his body. His shirt was still open, his bare chest a sharp contrast with the black fabric, and the hint of his abs just barely showed. He curled his fingers in the fabric of my dress, bunching it up in a show of desire. "Too bad," he murmured. "And you were just about to take my clothes off too."

My face flushed. "I was not," I spluttered. "Just your shirt, not everything."

"My shirt counts as clothes, Alina." He inched my dress higher, skimming his hand up the side of my leg. My flesh burned where he touched me.

"So does my dress, Aleksander." I felt his hand still, then tremble. He let my dress swing back into place and looped his arms around me. I let him drag me into him. He buried his face in my neck.

"I want you to call me by my name every day," he whispered. "You've changed me.I can't call myself the Darkling any longer. Not when I'm with you."

I nodded, overwhelmed by how much I felt for him in that instant. "Okay," I said. "I will." Sudden tears blurred my vision and I clung to him. A sound close to a sob racked my chest. "Don't ever leave me again. I don't know what I would do if you went back to that place you were at before. It was so—" I broke off, gasping. "I needed you so much and I couldn't even tell you."

"Shhh," he hushed, rubbing my back in soothing circles. He cradled my face in both hands and wiped the tears away with his thumbs. "I'll always be here. I couldn't go back, even if there was a way to have all of my power again. You mean more to me now than any of that ever did. You have my heart, moi lyubov."

I wanted to cry even more at his confession. He loved me. Finally, he loved me.

I would never be the same again.

-o-o-o-

Translations (based on Google and altered into what I assume is Ravkan)

Moi svet. My light.

Moi lyubov. My love.