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11. Amends

September 2026,
Ovzdusia, Soare-Luna Kingdom

Katerina

My eyes quickly filled up with tears. "You really are alive."

Her chin trembled, she gave me a tumultuous smile, and her eyes welled up. She nodded, unable to say anything.

The next thing I knew, we were hugging each other. I hugged her tighter. I couldn't believe that she was here. That she was alive. I was right. After all this time...after all those people calling me delusional for coming up with 'conspiracy theories'... after giving up...I found her. I found Alyanna. My heart was full and my throat had a lump lodged in it. My tears seemed unstoppable. I couldn't believe that she was real.

I pulled away and looked at her again. I couldn't stop looking at her. She looked the same and yet different somehow. More mature, more...subdued. She wasn't the same lively girl she was once. Of course, she wasn't.

She wiped her tears from the bottom of her eyes and then gave me a sad smile. "It's been a minute and a half."

I couldn't help but smile back. The rest of the tears in my eyes escaped and I quickly wiped them away. "Felt like five Goddamn years."

I glanced at Dimitri and saw him looking at us with a small smile. That's when I realized it. "You knew exactly who I was when you came to talk to me. And bringing me in here was your plan all along."

"Guilty as charged." He smiled and then looked at Alya. "Do you want me to get Jayden as well?"

Alya froze for a moment before releasing an unsure breath. "I - um..." She glanced at me before looking at him again. "Maybe not right now."

"Alright. I'm going to give you two some time to catch up," Dimitri replied.

"Jayden knows too, by the way," I told them. "So do Cameron and Grayson."

"What?" It looked like he was almost freaking out. Why? Were we right? Was Alya in some sort of trouble? "Does anybody else know?"

I shook my head. "No. Not that I know of."

"How did you find out she was alive?" he asked.

"Pictures. Tourism is thriving. You've been spotted in the background of multiple pictures of people all over Soare-Luna. Especially in art galleries. And we know you're Raon. You couldn't have been more obvious with the Everlasting Love painting."

Dimitri and Alya looked at each other with panic in their eyes.

"I'll look into it. Do not leave this suite," Dimitri said, gave me a glance that seemed full of unsaid words, and then walked into a bedroom.

I looked at Alya again. It was still hard to believe that she was here. "How?"

"Why don't we talk over a glass of wine?" she asked, looking a little uneasy.

"I quit drinking a while ago," I said and took a seat on the couch.

"Right." She took a seat beside me and then both of us turned to we were facing each other. Her expression turned wary like she didn't even know where to start. She looked troubled.

"Are you in some trouble?" I asked in a low voice. "Whatever it is, I can help you."

Her eyes lowered and she shook her head slightly. "You can't. Not this time." So I was right. She was indeed in trouble.

"Is it...?" I pointed towards the door Dimitri had entered. He seemed trustworthy but he definitely had a dark, mysterious, 'I'm more than what meets the eye' vibe.