To Learn To Fall (Sequel to the Other Side)

Chapter Twenty Nine (The Lord of the Sky)

"Okay, ready?"

"I'm a little worried," Alexander responded, a hint of humor lighting his tone. "Are you going to kill me?"

"Don't be dramatic. The only one dying any time soon is gonna be me," I said. I found it easier to handle if I joked about it, made it seem less of a thing than it truly was. I took a deep breath and took my hands away from Alexander's face, revealing to him the surprise that was waiting in front of us.

It took a second for it all to sink in, but he laughed, stepping forward into the grass. His smile was brighter than anything I'd seen before.

"What do you think?" I asked, taking him by the hand and leading him to the cloth I had spread across the ground.

"It's beautiful," he said, joining me as I sat down. He took in a breath of the fresh night air and sighed in content.

"It's been such a long time since I've been here," I said, looking around the garden. It wasn't natural of course; it couldn't be. It looked real, but at the same time, it looked like something from a fairytale. The trunks of the trees were shades of blue and purple, while the river that cut through the room was a color so clear that you could see the fish that swam by.

This garden used to be one of my favorite places to go back before I had met the King. Back before when everything was peaceful and perfect and I wasn't spending every night worried it would be my last.

But maybe now I would get the chance to pretend like everything was alright again.

It was twilight in the garden, the 'sky' a light shade of blue, and the moon and stars glimmered from their positions against the wall.

Alexander frowned as he looked back at me, and my heart fell for a moment. "I feel like I've been here before."

"That's impossible. Only the nobility are allowed in here. Even in your past life, you never would have—"

"That's the knoll over there," he said, pointing across the bridge to where the floor slid up into a hill, the unreal moonlight dancing across the grass. "I've been there—oh! Wait, I remember!"

"There's no way you would have—"

"Do you remember after you ran away from us when we found out you were a Tenebrie? You played that song for me, the one from Great Comet. Well, when you were singing—I don't really know how to explain it. I envisioned that," he said, pointing over to the knoll.

I froze, the gears in my head turning. I had never heard of anything like that before, but at the same time, that's because I've never heard of another Peritum singing before. "What about a few days ago with the performance?"

"I don't know, there was like... just nothingness. I didn't want to tell you because I thought you were going to freak out or something, but I also saw a gray sky behind a forest when you played the song after the Great Comet one."

"Huh," I said, at a loss for words. "Is it possible that maybe I somehow... broadcasted my emotions? Like what Eliza does with her thoughts, but with my feelings through song?"

"I guess so," Alexander said with a shrug. He paused suddenly, his expression dropping into one of confusion. I was about to say something when he lifted his hand up to my mouth and dragged my lip down. "Oh my God," he said, and I still found it adorable how he always automatically jumped back into the Earth sayings whenever he was puzzled or surprised by something. "You have fangs!"

"What?" I demanded, quickly pushing his hand away from me and covering my mouth. "I have what? Oh, curse the fucking stars. Of course."

"I think it's cute."