Heretics

Chapter 32: The Un-Folded

YELNA'S POV

     I looked directly into Alina's glowing eyes. The sides of my vision blurring black. My hands shook with the power waiting to be released from them. My whole body felt like it was on fire with power.

     Alina and I were at a stand still. The winter fete was in a week. She and I would never been the same. I was going to have a baby. I was in love with someone who could give me the world and still I wanted to make Alina suffer more than anything else in the world.

     I watched Zoya run off to the grand palace in the corner of my vision. She was probably going to get Aleksander. Not that I minded. I wanted him when I killed his sun summoner. Sankta Alina would die by my hand. I would make sure of it. One way or another.

"Yelna, please listen to me. I didn't want to hurt you. That was never the intention." She started to make a plea for herself in this moment. I was seething I saw the black smoke and shadows tangle around my feet. "I thought you knew. Please see that. Please see that this is just a misunderstanding."

"This isn't just about that Alina and if you really think it is you're thicker than I thought." My words were thick with venomous rage. The anger oozed from my very bones.

"Then what is it about because I'm at a loss here." She sighed in defeat. That isn't what I wanted though. I wanted her to fight me. I wanted her to beg. I wanted her to bleed.

"That's right Alina. Poor you. Poor Sankta Alina the girl who could change the world. Poor little lost orphan girl who got her parents killed." She froze at my last words. I had gone to far and we both knew it.

Her hands clapped together. Light engulfed her and I hear it. I heard it slice through the air. I clapped my hands together and sent the cut out. They clashed with a defining boom against one another in the middle of the field. A horrible gush of air swept us off our feet and we went flying. Her into the lake and I in front of the main doors to the little palace.

Aleksander stood above me. Worry etched into his features when he saw me lying there. He had been on his way apparently and Zoya was right behind him. She held onto his kefta for dear life. I groaned and tried to stand only to have my legs buckle under me.

"Yelna stop." Aleksander's voice was commanding. It was deep and full of concern.

"Not until she pays. Not until she's dead." I pushed him from me and a geeky walked back up yo where Alina was climbing from the lake. My eyes still oozed the black shadows as I brought my hands together again.

Instead of sending the cut her way a light that wasn't Alina's shown brightly. Blinding the two of us momentarily. I covered my eyes and turned my head but it was like the light followed me.

Then I realized. The light followed me because the light was coming from inside of me. My child was a sun summoner. Not a shadow summoner like I had assumed. Instead the two darkling created the light instead of another dark and I gasped placing my hands against my stomach.

I heard Aleksander before I felt him grasp my shoulders. He was yelling my name. He turned me around to face him and I was in pure shock. His face the same as mine when he looked to my still glowing stomach. It wasn't as bright now but you could still see. It was definitely the baby.

"Aleks?" Instead of an answer he picked me up and took me to the healers. I was dizzy. The world swam around me and I watched as a few grisha went to help Alina out of the lake and to the healers just the same as me.

When we arrived Aleksander laid me on a bed and told them to start working. He held my hand the whole time. I was scared. I wasn't going to lie to myself. I feared that I had done something wrong and the baby wasn't even born yet. The healers were taking their time to make sure everything was okay with myself and the child when Alina was brought into the room unconscious.

"Aleks?" He turned to her and sighed looking back at me. I feared the worst at this moment. He dropped my hand and walked to Alina's side as the curtains were drawn around me. Zoya broke through them a few moments later and I saw what I had feared most. Aleksander was holding onto Alina's hand. Her fingers against his lips. Her beautiful face covered in dirt and mud the same as her kefta.

I let the tears flow freely down my face now and Zoya came up to me pulling me to her. The world slowed to a stop for me in this moment and I screamed inside myself for I had pushed the person I loved the most away with the thing I thought I needed. Not realizing that all I needed was him.

Zoya held my hand as the healers worked. A pillow was put under my head at some point and a thin blanket was put over me. My boots rested on the floor by the bed and I refused to look at Zoya or anywhere by the window next to me for that matter.

I let her play with my hair and draw lazy circles into my skin. She climbed onto the bed and put my head in her lap when she heard me crying again. That's how I fell asleep that night. My head buried in Zoya's lap her fingers playing with my hair and watching as the sun went down. If I wasn't so completely and totally depressed I would have thought the sunset was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.