Little Shadow//Shadow & Bone

one

We've spent days on this boat. Restless days and sleepless nights. Alina is the only person who can begin to understand what I'm going through. But she cares more about Mal right now. Alina has spent every moment with Mal. Leaving me to sit alone with my thoughts. Even in my sleep I cannot seem to find peace. I just stood and watched as Aleksander grew the Fold. Now in my nightmares I see the same thing.

Every time it is the same. The Fold growing bigger. Consuming me. Then I see him. I hear him call out to me. Clear as day. But it doesn't feel like a nightmare, it feels real. Like Aleksander never died. Like if I just reached out, I could touch him.

I watch as Alina suddenly sits up straight beside Mal. I'm sure it was a nightmare.

"It's all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's okay," Mal tells her. "More bad dreams?"

I see Mal hold up a sketch of the nightmares Alina had described to him.

"Same as what you showed me before?" Mal asks.

"Worse," Alina tells him. "Tell me again."

"Kirigan is dead," Mall assures her. "I saw the Volcra take him. No one survived.

"I keep seeing the Fold growing, sometimes a little, sometimes in a surge," Alina explains. "I don't know what it means."

The bell on the ship rings. I stand up and move to the side of the boat.

"Approaching Weddle Harbor!"

I've been to Novyi Zem once before. When I was younger. I had begged to go along with a group of Grisha. Aleksander was hesitant but relented eventually. Only agreeing because I told him Genya would tailor me first.

Even a place as far away as Novyi Zem has been tainted for me. Aleksander was such an important part of my life for so long that everything reminds me of him.

Alina, Mal, and I stand in line at the checkpoint.

"Have your papers ready. First class, all left line. Returning Zemeni citizens, use the green line."

"I hope we look like tourists from Ketterdam," Mal states.

"As long as these papers from Kaz work," Alina offers.

"Forged papers," an officer says.

"I have my real card. It's legal," a woman pleads.

"Come on. Let's go," the officer says.

"So we go with my plan," Alina insists. "We find the Sea Whip. That's why we're here. One amplifier might not be enough, so I'll get two."

"Alina, we don't know the risks if we try this," Mal tells her. "No Grisha's ever done it before. Not even a Saint."

"No one's ever torn down the Fold before either," Alina argues.

"I know you can do it someday. You will get there," Mal says. "I just don't want to see it kill you in the process, okay?"

"Hot stones?" Alina asks.

Mal smiles at her.

"Ravkan refugees, this line please."

"Refugees," Alina says. She turns to walk away.

"Wait," Mal tells her. "Alina, wait."

I can hear Alina speaking with one of the women in the refugee line. "Excuse me. What happened? The war?"

"The Fold. It moved overnight. Swallowed half our village. It keeps growing."

Alina walks back over to Mal and I. "They're not nightmares. It's really happening."