The Vortex: Rectification

Chapter Seventeen.

Chapter Fifty-Seven.

If it wasn't for the fact that Jackson has a bright smile on his face when he walks into Aleera's bedroom then I would have thought that we finally went too far, he might be the one risking his neck for the ingredients, but Aleera and I have adopted the potion making. It's nice to have something mundane and routine to break up all the duelling practice that we roped Alexander into.

It's becoming easier as time passes to ignore the dull coil of tension that lingers between Aleera and I, even as our fight dissolved there's this chip in the fortress of our relationship. Maybe most people have assumed that I can't forgive her entirely for the secrets she kept but that doesn't mean I wasn't keeping my own. Should she have told me all those years ago? Probably, but she was dying and the last thing she expected was for me to leave them all behind before she had the chance to confess.

Regardless of any of it, any of the pain or anxiety that seems to float through the house as the whispers of The Society's plans become more factual as the days pass. As it turns out we weren't ready with a plan to end all of this but they have been this whole time, they're more steps ahead of us than we can see.

"I like relaxing" Jackson shrugs, tipping his latest haul of contents into the empty basket beneath the desk in Aleera's room. Green eyes are rimmed with dark bags that blurring spells can't smother, "Besides, potion making was always Annabella's thing and- never mind, now that you're both pottering about the house and shattering vases I have more time for myself"

It may be a strange observation but both Aleera and I feel this connection to the strange man, he like the both of us has been robbed of time he should have had. Frozen at an age they shouldn't be, at least Aleera isn't the only one who's decades younger than they should be.

Where Alexander and I would have never recovered from that missing time, the age gap that comes second to Jamie. I know somewhere deep that it wouldn't have worked out. Besides, he talks about Willa a little more now that he knows Aleera and I are confirmed vaults, it felt a little tender when he said it but there's no use in pretending Aleera isn't better at keeping secrets than any of us.

"And what have you decided to do, finally found a hobby that isn't eating all of Liylah's snacks?" Aleera grins, and the smile on her cheeks has the most delicious kind of pain rip open my chest.

I was so convinced that I was going to have to let her go, that there was nothing more I could try to bring her back but as much as people thank me for it. Jamie and Liylah were the catalysts for all of it, if I knew they wouldn't yell at me I would have been blurting out that it was all because of them.

Their bloody humility makes me want to pull my hair out constantly, yes, I love them all dearly but holy hell I just want everyone to appreciate their brilliance instead of taking the brunt of it every time. Aleera would not, in any sense, be sitting in front of her newvanity and curling her hair with happiness blushing her cheeks and shining her eyes if not for them.

Taking the title as saviour for them is the only thing they let me do when it comes to thanking them, and at this point I am pretty desperate to do anything. Hence why I have been periodically pulling out every piece of clothing that Harry has gone and picked up for her very belated birthday party tonight.

Once again no one in their right mind is going to deny her that, in fact Harry, Nessa and Alexander all jumped at the idea and it's not advanced potions to realise they need a way to rectify all the guilt even if Aleera insists it's all forgiven.

"After everything that's happened, I don't think any of us needs a hobby to fill our time. We have more than earnt just laying around, eating snacks"