2 | flatline [darkling]

eighteen

RUSHING TO THE FRINT OF THE Little Palace, Nyx gasps for air as she comes to a stop where all the other Grishas are standing. She sees Aleksander standing at the very front. Her shift away from him as something catches her attention and sighs as she notices Alina looking at her. The sun summoner seemed relieved to see the former second in command.

Nyx looks away and focus on the issue at hand. As she lets herself block out all other sounds, she focuses on the heartbeats of everyone around her. Some were faster than others, a clear sign of panic and fear. Filtering out all the heartbeats, she focuses on his. She feels the flow of blood through his arteries and into his veins, his heartbeat slow and steady.  She wondered what was going through his mind in this moment. How angry was he at her? Would he be willing to sacrifice her for the sake of Ravka?

Shaking her head, she empties her mind of all those thoughts. What mattered was making it through this battle, she'd focus on whatever else when the time came. The battle ahead would not be merciful. Whatever happens would be the consequences of her choices and she would have to live with it. There was no turning back time. She should have listened to the ones who had advised her against this plan.

Aleksander turns around to face his army and Nyx feels her heart break as she remembers that she used stand next to him during battle. That's when she realises, that even though she had never had her black Kefta, she'd always been his equal. They fought side by side, her opinion would be as important as his, he'd never do something without her approval.

What had really been the issue then? Alina? Had she been that jealous of how his attention was slight focused on her? Alina, herself admitted that she put herself in between them. Was that jealousy enough to blind her of what she had had while being at the Little Palace? Insecure of losing her position, insecure that he would never love her the way she loves him.

"I need the Second in Command to report." Aleksander speaks up, breaking her chain of thoughts. She looks away, not wanting to know who had replaced her. She could imagine it being Ivan, after all he was by far one of his best Heartrenders. "Commander Nyx, report?"

Her head snaps in his direction, her eyes wide in disbelief. He was looking directly at her, before his eyes shifted to the empty spot in his right side, where she used to stand. She looks around and notices all the attention on her, making her heartbeat faster.

"What are you waiting? Go." Zoya pushes her forward slightly, making Nyx stumble a little. She takes in a deep breath as she walks up to him. Was he really willing to have her by his side?

"General." She acknowledges him and he nods.

"Before we start. Let's get one thing right. I don't trust you at all. Nor do I forgive you." At his words, her heart drops to her feet. "But Alina said that if you were to come, it meant you'd want to right your wrongs. And no matter how much anger we may have for each other, you were and still are by far the best second in command I've known."

"Thank you, General." She looks down, not wanting him to see her tears. They were truly broken. There was such a big distance between them, even if they stood right next to each other.

"So what do you think is our best plan of action?" Aleksander asks, marking her take in a deep breath as she blinks away the tears and looks back up.

"Normally when we're under attack, we have our set positions and attack plans. But I may have told them about it." She says, not letting herself be affected by the look of disappointment in his eyes. "So our best plan would be to counterattack our very own plan. They expect us to go through with that, so where we normally have soldiers hidden, they'll be hiding in wait for the ambush to start."

"So, what you're saying is..."

"Instead of thinking we are protecting the Little Palace, we have to have the mindset of the enemy. What would the enemy do in this situation to take over the Little Palace. Of course, we do have the advantage of knowing what they probably will do." Nyx explains, making him nod in approval. There were possible risks in the plan, but there always was in battle.

"So, let's create blind spots. In the eastern and western side, that's where we'd have soldiers wait for ambushing the enemy. We must expect the Fjerdans to plan the same thing, so our best is tactic would be to ambush them back." Aleksander says, making her frown.

"We can't use your shadows, because then our soldiers wouldn't be able to see and we'd all be in a blind spot." Nyx points out, while Aleksander looks up at her and a small smile tugs at his lips. He could imagine her not having even noticed the use of our soldiers but for him it had his heart skip a beat. "We have Alina use the light to blind the Fjerdans and then we come in for the ambush."

"I'll give it you, Nyx. If your army had been stronger, you could have easily won the war." Aleksander admits, making her bite her lip to avoid the smile to form at the corner of her lips.