Chapter 141: Alden and Seris [1]

Alden stared at her. "For what?"

"For saving me from Augustus." Seris’s voice stayed soft and even. "I found out everything after I woke up. Headmaster Darius told me."

"Oh." Alden rubbed the back of his neck, looking slightly sideways. "I see."

Inside, he released a breath so long and quiet it could have powered a small sail.

’She was unconscious the whole time.’ He stared at the road ahead. ’Good. That means she didn’t hear any of the embarrassing things I said.’

Because what he had said over an unconscious Seris on that battlefield, the confession that had come out before he had time to think about whether to let it, was the kind of thing that needed to be said properly when she was awake. Not blurted out over her when she couldn’t even respond.

He was counting that as a saved life.

"And I’m sorry."

Alden looked at her. "For what?"

"For how I’ve treated you." She didn’t look at him, just kept her eyes on the road. "I teased you more than I should have. I pushed past your limits even when you made it clear you weren’t interested. I kept doing it anyway." A short pause. "So I thought about it. A lot."

Something in Alden’s posture slowly changed.

Seris continued, her tone gentle and unhurried. "If you don’t feel the same way, I have no right to put you in an uncomfortable position. You helped me when I was at my lowest point. You looked at me like a person knowing I’m a vampire."

Her crimson eyes softened slightly.

"I’m really grateful for that, Alden."

He said nothing. His jaw was tight.

"So from now on, I’ll respect your space." She offered a small, quiet smile at the road ahead. "And so you don’t have to feel like you’re carrying anything awkward around... I’ve moved on."

Alden stopped walking.

"...What?"

Seris took one more step before she realized he had stopped, and turned to look back at him. "I won’t bring up becoming your partner anymore. You don’t need to feel strange around me."

He stared at her.

She had gotten everything wrong.

That was his first clear thought. She had taken his silence and his distance and his running away and built a very reasonable, very incorrect conclusion out of all of it. She had wrapped it up neatly, tied it with the specific dignity that she always wore, and offered it to him like a kindness.

And hearing her say it so calmly, like she had already finished grieving something and come out the other side at peace, hit him somewhere in the chest that he hadn’t expected.

’So this is what it feels like,’ he thought. ’When someone lets go of you.’

He didn’t like it at all.

Seris turned and began walking again.

Alden watched her back for exactly one second.

Then he closed the gap in two steps.

Flick.

His finger struck the center of her forehead.

"OW!" Seris stopped dead and pressed both hands to her forehead, spinning around with her eyes wide.

"What was THAT for?!"

Alden crossed his arms. "Because you’re talking nonsense."

She stared at him, completely lost. "What?"

"You got it wrong," he said, his voice flat and certain. "I never said I hated having you around."

Seris stood with both hands still over her forehead and looked at him.

"And I definitely don’t want you walking around being distant and formal like some stranger," Alden continued, holding her gaze. "So stop it. Just be the Seris I know."

Several seconds passed.

Seris looked at him. At his expression dead serious like this was the most obvious thing in the world and she was the one being unreasonable.

Then something happened on her face that wasn’t quite a smile yet but was clearly heading there against her will.

"You really are something," she said slowly.

Alden raised an eyebrow.

"You break a girl’s heart." She lowered her hands. "And then you flick her on the forehead and tell her to go back to normal."

Alden’s mouth moved slightly. "Did it work?"

Seris looked at him for a long moment with an expression that said she was genuinely trying to decide whether to be exasperated or fond, and was landing somewhere in the middle of both.

"How shameless," she said finally, though the warmth in it took the edge off entirely. "Fine. If that’s what you want." The smile settled properly. "I’ll stay the same."

Alden’s shoulders came down an inch. "Good."

The weight that had been sitting between them since they left Apothesis lifted.

They started walking again.

Half a minute later, a loud, deeply inconvenient growl rolled out from Alden’s stomach.

He stopped walking immediately.

His face went rigid.

Seris turned very slowly and looked at his midsection. Then at his face.

Alden stared straight ahead at nothing. "...Anyway."

"’Anyway,’" she repeated.

"I was going to say." He pointed toward the food stalls visible up ahead, the warm light of lanterns catching the smoke from the grills.

"We should eat something. I haven’t had anything since before we left." He sniffed the air as the smell hit them both. "That smells good."

Seris followed his pointed hand and her expression confirmed what her stomach was apparently agreeing with. "I won’t argue with that."

The two walked through the crowd toward the row of food stalls. Seris stayed slightly ahead while Alden lagged just half a step behind.

<anno data-annotation-id="45a821c3-0cda-14fb-b1fa-9598a05352f8" data-title="Alden slipped his right hand deep into his coat pocket. His fingers touched the smooth velvet of a small square box. He looked down for a second at the gift he had bought back at the Apothesis.">Alden slipped his right hand deep into his coat pocket. His fingers touched the smooth velvet of a small square box. He looked down for a second at the gift he had bought back at the Apothesis.¹</anno>

A soft smile touched his face.

He took his hand out of his pocket and lengthened his stride to walk right beside her.

"Hey! You two!"

A big, warm voice came from one of the busier stalls. Behind a heavily smoking grill stood an old man with a wide, weathered face and the particular smile of someone who had been feeding people for decades and genuinely loved it.

He leaned on his counter and looked them both up and down, his eyes landing immediately on the pristine uniforms.

"Upper Academy cadets, are you?" he called out.

Seris smiled politely. "Yes, we are."

The old man’s face lit up. He stepped out from behind his stall, waving his apron at them like he was flagging down a ship. "Come here, come here! You two look like you’ve been walking all day. Don’t tell me you haven’t eaten yet!"

Alden blinked. "It’s fine, sir. We can wait in line like everyone else. We’re not even that hungry."

"Nonsense!" The old man laughed hard enough that a soldier nearby turned to look. "I’ve been running this stall for thirty years. I can tell when a belly is running on empty by looking at someone’s face." He gestured toward a clean wooden table tucked beside the stall. "Sit down! I’ll give you my world-famous special grilled fish. Two minutes!"

Seris glanced at Alden.

Alden shrugged.

They sat.

"Thanks for the special treatment? We’ll be waiting," Seris said, leaning her chin on one hand with a gracious smile.

The old man was already back behind his grill, slapping two large, freshly prepped fish over the roaring coals.

The sizzle hit immediately with a loud pop and a wave of fresh smoky air that smelled incredible.

Seris closed her eyes briefly and inhaled. "That’s incredible."

Alden nodded. "Yeah."

A few minutes later the old man arrived with a thick wooden platter. Two massive golden-brown fish, each skewered on a solid stick, glistening with juices and still steaming aggressively in the cool evening air.

"There you go! Fresh off the coals! My absolute masterpiece!" He set the platter down with the pride of a man presenting something he had spent years perfecting.

"Thank you so much," Seris said warmly.

Alden grabbed his skewer.

The fish was still producing visible steam. The skin was still crackling. A man with any basic awareness of how heat works would have blown on it first.

Alden brought it straight to his mouth and took a massive bite.

The result was instantaneous.

"AGH!"

His eyes shot open to their full size. His entire body lurched backward. He dropped the skewer back onto the platter and lunged for the cup of water beside him, pouring most of it down his throat in one desperate move.

"HOT! HOT! IT’S SO HOT!"

Seris stared at him for exactly one second.

Then she broke completely.

"Pfft!" The laugh came out before she could catch it, and then she stopped trying to catch it. "HAHAHA! Of course it’s hot, you absolute idiot!"

Alden glared at her with genuinely teary eyes, fanning the inside of his open mouth with his hand. "I didn’t know it was THAT hot!"

"You watched him pull it out of an open fire thirty seconds ago!" She pressed her hand over her mouth but her shoulders were shaking. "You walked up to an active grill and took a giant bite! Who does that?!"

"I just wasn’t paying attention!"

"CLEARLY!"

Alden picked the skewer back up, holding it by the wooden handle only, and blew on it furiously with the face of someone who had learned an expensive lesson.

"Why weren’t you paying attention?" Seris asked, finally getting the laughter down.

Alden kept blowing on the fish. "I was thinking about something."

"About what?"

He shut his mouth and looked away. "Nothing."

Seris studied the way his ears had gone slightly red. She decided not to push it and picked up her own skewer. She blew on it twice, took a small and careful bite.

"Oh." She chewed slowly. "Mmmnn... that’s really good."

She turned toward the old man and gave him a genuine thumbs up. "It’s delicious!"

The merchant beamed with the full happiness of someone who lives for exactly this.

Alden finally attempted his fish again, properly this time. The moment the heat stopped being a hazard.

He ate in peace for a moment.

Then he glanced at Seris.

She lifted her skewer for another bite, staring straight ahead with a quiet smile. The lantern light from the stall caught her silver hair and made it look warmer than its usual cool shade.

"Here."

She paused and looked over.

Alden was holding his own half-eaten skewer toward her side of the table. His expression was easy and unhurried about it, like this was just a practical suggestion.

"This part has more of the herbal glaze," he said, nodding toward the section he was offering. "Try it."