“Come on, I need to eat,” D.C. said, dragging Alex forward.
They stopped walking after a few minutes and D.C. stepped up to one of the shopfronts on the side of the road and entered the doorway into the building.
Inside, Alex was hit by an aroma so incredible that her mouth instantly began to water.
“This is the best shop in the whole city,” D.C. said with a contented sigh.
Alex looked around the comfortable room with its cosy couches and coffee tables. She followed D.C. to a glass-fronted bench and her eyes widened at the cakes and slices on display behind the “It’s a bakery?” Alex asked.
“Mmm-hmm, and it’s amazing,” D.C. said.
Alex had visited plenty of bakeries and patisseries, but she decided to humour her friend and see what all the fuss was about. And it turned out that D.C. was right; Mrs. Gribble’s Cupcakes and Nibbles provided them with delicacies that, in Alex’s honest opinion, defined ‘ambrosia’. Food of the gods, indeed.
After half an hour of scrumptiously decadent binging, Alex’s moans of pleasure turned into groans of discomfort.
“I’m never eating again,” she said, pressing her hands to her aching stomach and following D.C. back outside. “But that was incredible.”
D.C. nodded emphatically and asked, “What now?”
“I’m the tourist. You’re the guide,” Alex reminded her as they set off again. The streets remained crowded with people but they seemed less congested than earlier.
“Yeah, but is there anything in particular you want to do before we leave?”
Alex thought about for a moment then said, “I’d like to see the parade your dad mentioned.”
“Sure, we can do that, so long as we keep out of sight. My parents will be able to recognise the cloaks, even if they can’t identify us through them,” D.C. said. “If we keep following this road, it’ll take us right to where we need to go.”
They picked up the pace and continued onwards, with Alex marvelling anew over the energy and vibrancy of the street vendors and their customers, but her focus shifted when the throngs of people became thicker the closer into the city they travelled. The congestion deepened until Alex and D.C. were forced to walk in single file as they pushed their way through the crowd.
“If we get lost, meet back at Mrs. Gribble’s, okay?” D.C. called over her shoulder. “Just follow the street back.”
“Sure thing,” Alex called back.
There were so many people that Alex began to feel claustrophobic. But she continued to follow D.C. and soon enough the noise of the crowd was drowned out by a loud voice speaking through some kind of amplifier.
“… is such an honour, and we hope you enjoy the rest of the festivities.”
Alex and D.C. finally pushed through to a clearer spot that gave them a view up to a platform in the distance where the king and queen stood addressing the crowd.
The sound of cheering and applause drowned out all else and Alex realised they must have just heard the end of the king’s speech. People began to surge towards the stage and Alex was hard-pressed to keep her feet on the ground in the mass of bodies.
“Bad timing, hey?” she called to D.C. over the noise.
D.C. didn’t respond and Alex turned around to get her attention, only to discover that D.C. was nowhere in sight.
“Dix?” Alex called out. But the cheering crowd was too loud for her voice to carry very far.
Despite the clearer area, there were way too many people nearby and D.C. could have easily been swept up in the crowd.
“Dix!” Alex called again, and she started moving forward with the people in the hope of finding her friend. She continued with the flow of bodies for a few minutes before realising that finding D.C. in such a large crowd was on par with finding a needle in a haystack. She knew her best course of action was to head back to Mrs. Gribble’s like they’d agreed and wait for D.C. there. Her friend might already be waiting for her, if she’d taken the wiser option and left straight away.
Alex managed to forge a path through the crowd until she was snugly against the wall of a building. The traffic was still flowing heavily, but the wall next to her made it easier to move than when she’d been in the middle of the mass. She fought to walk against the tide of bodies and slowly managed to break through the crowd.
“Excuse me, pardon me, sorry, excuse me…”
The apologies poured from her mouth as she pushed against the stream of people. They grumbled and glared, but she didn’t care since she was focused on reaching her destination.
Finally the crowd started to thin out and her excuses were needed less and less. A few minutes later she could see the doorway to Mrs. Gribble’s store about fifty yards away on the other side of the street, and she was relieved to see D.C. standing out the front.
“Di—”
A hand reached out from the doorway she was walking past and covered her mouth, muffling her call. Too shocked to react fast enough, Alex was yanked roughly into the building, the door slamming shut behind her.
“I told you we’d meet again, Alexandra.”
Alex’s blood froze at the sound of Aven’s smooth voice whispering into her ear.
“Mmmfffnn!”
She struggled against his hold but was powerless against his Meyarin strength.
“Uh-uh-ah, we can’t have you calling out to your friend,” he said calmly as he tightened his grip on her. “You wouldn’t want anything to happen to her, would you?”
Alex didn’t know why Aven was warning her now, when only a few months ago he’d intended to kill D.C. himself—or use Alex to do it. But despite her lack of understanding, she wasn’t willing to risk her friend’s life, so she stopped struggling. Her efforts weren’t getting her anywhere, anyway.
“That’s a good girl,” he said mockingly. “I’m going to let you go now, and you’re not going to scream, understand? If you scream, the princess will die before the breath has even left your mouth.”
Alex swallowed and nodded against his hand. The moment he released his hold on her, she jumped away and turned to face him, vaguely noting that they were in some kind of unused storage room.
“It’s good to see you, Alexandra,” he said, moving to lean casually against the wall of the empty room. “You’re looking well.”
Alex didn’t let her guard down. Regardless of his relaxed demeanour, they weren’t exactly old friends. Aven’s calm fa?ade worried her, especially since the last time they’d seen each other hadn’t ended well for either of them. He’d been forced to flee, and she’d nearly died.
“What are you doing here, Aven?”
His golden eyes lit with amusement. “You’re not happy to see me?”
She wasn’t willing to play his game, whatever it was. Instead, she stood with her arms ready by her sides, waiting to see what he would do next.
Aven realised she wasn’t going to answer him, so he continued, “Imagine my surprise when I learned that Marselle had finally allowed you to leave the safety of his precious academy, knowing that you could so easily fall into my hands.”