Akarnae (49 page)

Karter turned to her, heaving a sigh deep enough to blow storm clouds off course. “The headmaster wants to see you, Jennings.”

She blinked at the unexpected words. “Err—okay. When, sir?”

His eyes narrowed. “When do you think, girl? Use your brain. He wants to see you
now
, obviously. In the administrator’s office.”

“Oh, right. I’ll—I’ll just go now, then?” she asked, uncertain if he was giving her permission to leave his class or not.

“Go,” he said dismissively.

She hesitated, wondering if she should say something like ‘See you next term’ or ‘Enjoy your summer’ or ‘Thanks for teaching me how to dodge things in your own stupid way’. But
in the end, the moment passed and she walked away, glancing back only briefly to look at her classmates one final time. Her eyes caught Declan’s and the big guy gave her an easy grin and a goodbye wave, which she returned.

Just as she began to turn away another set of eyes caught hers, and she became trapped in Kaiden’s searching gaze. After a moment he nodded and gave her a slight smile before he turned back to face his opponent.

Alex walked quickly out of the Arena, ignoring the fact that her heart was beating faster than normal. It was probably just nerves because she was finally going to meet the headmaster. That was all. Nothing else.

Yeah, right.

By the time she reached the Tower she was too distracted by her upcoming meeting to think about anything—or anyone—else. She’d been waiting months to meet Marselle, and there was a lot riding on their conversation—her entire future, really.

Alex ran up the stairs and across the room before knocking on the door and waiting for the muffled invitation to enter. When it came, she straightened her spine and opened the door, fully expecting to see Jarvis with the headmaster. Instead, the only person in the room was—

“Darrius? What are you doing here?”

“Alex,” he said, smiling at her. “It’s good to see you up and about. Are you feeling better?”

“Good as new,” Alex answered, looking around the room and wondering where Jarvis and Marselle were.

“I’m pleased to hear it,” Darrius said. Noticing her distraction, he asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Huh? Oh—sorry, Darrius,” Alex apologised, turning her attention back to him. “I’m just looking for someone.”

Darrius made a show of glancing around. “It doesn’t appear that anyone is here but me, Alex. Are you here to see me?”

She smiled and said, “I wish that was the case, since at least I
know
I like you. You haven’t been AWOL all year, unlike… some people.”

Darrius’s eyes were full of understanding. “Come and take a walk with me.”

It wasn’t a question, and she frowned slightly in confusion. “I really shouldn’t. I’m supposed to be meeting Headmaster Marselle here. Right now, I thought. But… well, clearly he’s not here. Have you seen him by any chance?”

“I have, as a matter of fact,” Darrius said. “I believe he’s waiting for you in his office. Allow me to escort you there.”

Alex was happy to accept, because even though she had been outside the headmaster’s office twice, she still wasn’t sure what floor it was located on.

“Thanks, Darrius. That’d be great.”

He opened the door for her and led the way up the stairs. Up and up they stepped, until finally the staircase ended at the very top of the Tower.

Darrius led her through the somewhat familiar antechamber and stopped in front of the closed door. He pressed a code into the TCD display beside it and the door sprung open. Alex was just about to ask how he knew the password to the headmaster’s office when she glanced into the room and her mouth snapped shut.

She followed Darrius inside and looked around the small space. Realisation dawned on her so hard and fast that she almost had to sit down. She covered her reaction by walking unsteadily over to the other side of the room and leaning against the wall.

“It didn’t look like this last time,” she said quietly, looking out the familiar window and down into the endless cloud-filled sky. “During the first Lockdown, I mean. It was more like a boardroom then, with a glass wall looking out over the entire academy. It looked like a headmaster’s office. I guess you get
to pick and choose what you want, huh? One of the perks of the job?”

Her throat was clogged with emotion. It took her a moment to realise that she was angry—at him, definitely, but mostly at herself. She felt stupid for not making the connection sooner. It had been so obvious, in hindsight. But she’d been so overwhelmed by the weirdness of everything else that she hadn’t even paused to question his identity. If she’d stopped to think for just a moment, the truth would have been glaringly apparent.

“This is my private study,” Darrius told her simply. “We’re now back in the Library, having walked through a doorway connected by the code I used with the TCD. A password isn’t necessary to reach my other office, which is always accessible to others—except in the case of a Lockdown. That office is used for my more formal duties as Headmaster of Akarnae.”

“All this time?” Alex asked, her voice almost a whisper. “All this time, and you never said anything?”

“I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I told you it was for the best?”

“You lied to me,” she said, ignoring his question.

“I did not,” he said calmly. “I merely withheld certain information.”

“
Important
information,” she said, her anger rising.

“I don’t believe that to be the case,” he returned, still completely calm despite her darkening mood. “How would knowing my identity have benefited you in any way?”

“You could have helped me get back home,” she answered. “That was all I ever wanted.”

“Which is precisely why I didn’t reveal myself to you,” he said, taking a seat on the edge of the couch that she’d once woken up on many months ago, on her first Library ‘adventure’.

“You had no right to do that.” She felt resentment burning in her chest. “You should have told me.”

“You weren’t ready to leave,” Darrius said, his eyes sad. “Even if you didn’t know it at the time.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded.

“Think, Alex!” he cried, his suddenly loud voice startling her as it echoed around the small room. “Think about what you’ve learned here! All the things you’ve done, the experiences you’ve had, the people you’ve met! None of those things would have happened if you’d known who I was. You would have wanted me to take you straight back to your world, and your time here would have ended before it even began.”

Alex wished she could deny his assumption, but he was probably right. Her anger deflated and she walked over to drop onto the opposite end of the couch. “It still wasn’t your decision to make.”

“Believe it or not, in the end it was entirely up to you,” Darrius told her. “The moment the Library Chose you, your will reigned over mine since I only have the rights of a headmaster—given, but not Chosen. Add to that your natural gift of willpower, and there was your immediate ticket home.”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked, not following.

“I spoke with the librarian after our first meeting,” Darrius said. “Tell me, how did you get out of the chequered room with your friends? Did you just go back the way you’d entered?”

“No,” she answered. “I opened a door in the wall.”

“A door that wasn’t previously there and one that led straight back into the foyer, correct?”

She nodded.

“How did you do it?” he asked.

“I just knew I could,” she answered truthfully. “I was tired; I didn’t want to have to cross the room again. I just wanted to get out of there.”

“So you willed it to happen.”

“I—I guess so,” she agreed. “But I didn’t know what I was doing. It wasn’t deliberate. It just felt… right.”

“What happened the next time you entered the Library?” Darrius asked, before clarifying, “Not for study reasons, of course.”

“I went with Bear and Jordan,” she said, thinking back to the day she’d met Sir Camden. “We were curious about what it meant for me to be Chosen. We wanted to know what the possibilities were, so went looking for an adventure, as weird as that sounds.”

“And did you find it?”

Alex thought over her experience—the fight with the suit of armour, all the doorways leading to far-off places, befriending the knight. “Absolutely.”

“The next time?” he prompted.

“It was just before term started back,” Alex said, “straight after the Gala. I was bored. I wanted a distraction.”

“Did you find one?”

“I found a door back to my world, so yeah, I’d say I was pretty distracted.”

Judging by the look on his face, Darrius hadn’t expected that answer. “You found a door to Freya? Why didn’t you go through?”

“I wasn’t ready to leave,” she said quietly. “And—I don’t know—but it felt like I was still needed here. Like I
am
still needed here. It’s an inner knowledge, just like how I knew I could open that door in the wall—even if it didn’t make any sense.”

Darrius remained quiet for a moment as he thought over her words. But then Alex cut into the silence.

“Is that why there were so many doorways when Aven held me and D.C. hostage? Did I unconsciously will them into existence?”

“I believe so,” Darrius answered. “It’s also possible that the Library realised you didn’t want him to find what he was searching for, and it sought to stall him.”

“Then why was he able to find the right door in the end?” Alex asked.

“Because he’s Meyarin, and exiled or not he still holds some sway with the Library because of his ancestor.”

“Ancestor?” Alex asked. “What ancestor?”

“Eanraka. The Library’s first Chosen, and Akarnae’s first headmaster,” Darrius said. “The Meyarin royal family are direct descendants. Eanraka’s daughter, Queen Niida, is Aven’s mother.”

Alex opened her mouth to question how that could be possible considering how much time had passed, but then she remembered that a few thousand years was probably just a ripple in time for the Meyarins.

“Those from Eanraka’s bloodline will always be granted access to the Library,” Darrius said. “But when Aven was disinherited, the Library no longer recognised him as a descendant, and that’s why he needed you to allow him permission to enter.”

“Which I did,” Alex muttered unhappily.

“You had little choice in the matter,” Darrius said. “But unfortunately, it means he can now access the Library anytime he wishes.”

“What?” she gasped. “But—but that means… What does that mean?”

“It’s okay, Alex,” Darrius soothed. “He can cause little damage without you. He’s still exiled from Meya, and only one who is Chosen can open that particular doorway for him. I’m not sure if even I would be able to do so, with my Library accessibility more limited than your own. That isn’t to say he hasn’t tried to overpower me and force my hand, but we
headmasters are covered by additional protection—including the wards around the academy and the Lockdown protocol. The safety of our students is of the highest priority, and the Library seems to agree.”

“I wondered how that worked,” Alex admitted. “The wards and the Lockdown, I mean.”

“I couldn’t tell you even if I tried,” Darrius said. “I have no idea how it works, just that it does. It’s some kind of security system the Library has set up. The Communication Globes are also Library-designed, which is why they work so efficiently, even during the Lockdown—or when a quick getaway is needed from, say, a New Year’s Eve Gala.”

Alex shook her head slightly, feeling a headache coming on.

“I do believe we’ve moved from our original topic,” Darrius said, steering the conversation back around. “We were discussing your ability to influence your Library destination.”

“I never really got to choose where I went,” she protested quickly.

“But you can see now that you had some influence over the events?” Darrius asked, and she nodded, albeit reluctantly. “Then I believe we have the answer you’ve been searching for.”

“The answer…?”

“Didn’t you want to find a way home?” Darrius asked. “Isn’t that why you’ve wanted to meet with me all year?”

“Oh.” Her head felt muddled, but she eventually realised what he was getting at. “Are you saying I could have gone back to my world anytime I wanted? That I could have just… made a doorway appear?”

He nodded and sent her a smile of approval. She found herself wishing he was more irritating, or just downright unpleasant. But despite his deceit—or his ‘withholding of
certain information’—she still really liked Darrius. It was hard to stay mad at him, as much as she would like to.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“That you’re too nice,” she said. “It’s annoying. I’d very much like to be angry at you, but I can’t because it’s me who I should be angry at. I can’t believe how unobservant I am. Not just with you, but with the Library too. If I’d figured out that I was influencing it, then… well, let’s just say I might have had a lot more fun and a whole heap less heart failure.”

Darrius chuckled lightly and, as always, it was a comforting and peaceful sound.

“At the same time, I can understand what you said about everything I would have missed out on,” she continued. “The things I’ve experienced, the challenges I’ve overcome, the friends I’ve met along the way—none of that would have happened if I hadn’t been here.”

Alex thought of her blossoming friendship with D.C. She thought of her amazing Kaldoras break with Jordan and Bear and the entire Ronnigan family. She thought of the things she’d learned just by being at the academy; how they’d shaped her identity and built her character.

Her memories led her to a single question, “Darrius, if I open a doorway to my world, will I be able to come back?”

“I certainly hope so,” he said with a laugh, “or else I think Karter will find a way to circumnavigate distance and space to drag you back on Monday for your lesson.”

Alex looked at him blankly. “My lesson?”

“He didn’t tell you?” Darrius asked, his eyes still sparkling with amusement.

“Tell me what?”

“Karter has agreed to train you for three days each week over the summer to bring you up to speed in your Epsilon Combat class.”