Shadows and The Sea - The Darkling

Comfort & Trippy Tea

Alina's POV

I heard Percy come through the hall and into her room but it's been hours since I had actually seen her. Ever since the scene in front of the Little Palace, Aleksander had kept her in his chambers for the rest of the night and through the morning until I heard her in the hall.

Still wrapped in my grey robe, I gently pushed my double doors open and looked down the hallway in each direction. After making sure no one was there, I rushed to the doors directly next to mine and knocked lightly.

"Percy? Percy, are you there?" I asked softly.

When I didn't get a response, I quietly turned the knob and pried the door open just a crack. I poked my head in and saw a lump under the covers of her bed.

I walked into the quiet room and closed the doors slowly so as to not startle her or anyone else in the Little Palace with a door slam echoing through the halls. I walked cautiously to my best friend on the bed and when I was actually able to see her face, I abandoned all nervousness and ran to her side.

Her face was stained with tear streaks running down her face and her eyes were red and raw. Her hair was more unruly than usual and I could see that she was covered in something that didn't look like her duvet. I gently reached a hand to her face and wiped a tear that started its rush down her skin.

"Oh Percy... " I whispered.

As if my voice unlocked something, she sat up quickly and pulled me onto the bed. I wrapped my arms around her as her body began to shake and small whimpers escaped her lips. I tucked her head into my chest and rocked us back and forth in attempts to soothe her.

"Shh...shhh. It's okay, Percy."

I took some time for her to calm down but once she did, I didn't let her go because her grip on me was still firm. I didn't mind comforting Percy because she did it every time someone was especially cruel at camp or even during training. She was there for me so I'm going to be there for her.

I rubbed my hand up and down her back and quietly started to try and understand why she was crying like this, "What happened?"

So she explained. It came out like a geyser and she just started ranting about how Aleksander knew almost everything about her past. He knew about the battles and the quests and the death that lingered in her mind. She got more and more frantic as she explained how he didn't believe her at first so she showed him everything.

I didn't quite understand how she could show him her memories but I wasn't going to bombard her with questions until she got everything out of her system.

She kept going about how he actually cried about her past and what she went through. Then she dropped the actual bombshell.

"And th-then I had to tell him that we're soulmates that were bound by something that can only be described as fate. A-and he looked like I had just sh-shot him or something because he looked so conflicted and and... " she ranted on and on.

I vaguely heard everything else after that but I was still focused on the first part.

Her and Aleksander are soulmates?

She started to breathe heavily again and I knew as much as she needed to get everything off of her chest, it would have to be later but now I needed to make sure she didn't hyperventilate and pass out.

"Okay, okay. Percy, breathe. In...out...in...out... " I coached the distressed demigod.

She copied my exaggerated breathing pattern until hers was down to a regular pace. Her face still looked so shaken that I wanted to hold her close and just shut her away from anything and everything that could hurt her. But I knew that she wasn't that type of person. Percy's a fighter and always will be so the next best thing was going to be to try and take her mind off of everything.