Moonrise
A barrier surrounded the carriage, blunting the force of the storm. Time wasn't slowed anymore. The storm still raged outside, but the carriage had steadied, floating in place.
The rest of them stared at each other, then at Alya, standing at the center of the cabin, light still fading from her hands.
"Thank the spirits, Alya!" Nyla yelled.
"My life flashed before my eyes," Kellan said, breathless.
"Kaelith, can you steer it now?" Alya asked, still holding the barrier steady.
Kaelith nodded and glided them safely to the ground.
Kellan rushed into the pit and pulled out Bram, the pilot, who'd been hurt.
"There! There's a cave over there!" Kellan pointed, then lifted Bram over his shoulders and started for it. Nyla followed.
Alya looked back at the storm just as lightning struck.
She saw something.
She creased her brows and squinted, right as another bolt of lightning struck. Then there was nothing.
"Alya!" Nyla called, pulling her attention back.
Alya turned and yelped, nearly walking straight into Kaelith, who'd been standing behind her.
"You scared me!" She stepped past him and hurried to catch up with the others.
Inside the cave, Nyla ran and threw her arms around Alya. "You saved us!"
"Thank you, Alya," Kellan said.
"I would've found us a way out regardless," Kaelith said, leaning against the entrance.
"Left to you, we'd have been picking up our pieces splattered all over these rocks," Nyla said, rolling her eyes.
"If our dearest Pure Tide had held on a little tighter, I wouldn't have lost focus in the first place," Kaelith said with a shrug.
Nyla facepalmed and went to check on Bram.
"Is it just me, or did that storm not feel natural?" Kellan asked, gathering sticks for a fire.
"It felt… dark," Nyla said, hugging her arms to herself.
"I saw something. In the storm," Alya said.
Nyla gasped. "What was it?"
Kellan looked up, just as Kaelith walked inside.
"I don't know how to describe it. It was just… dark. Darker than the usual dark."
Kellan and Nyla shared a look.
"Could it be Nyxara? Has she broken the barrier? Should we call for backup?" Nyla asked in panic.
"Nyla, calm down," Kellan said, striking two stones together until sparks bit into the tinder and caught fire.
Kaelith took a step back, eyeing the fire as it consumed the wood. "You guys should get some sleep. We set out at first light," he said, then turned and walked back toward the entrance.
"Where is he going?" Alya asked.
"He's an ice elf. He hates fire," Nyla said with a shrug.
Alya nodded, and they all settled around the flames, the warmth cascading all around them.
They spent a good part of the night talking and laughing.
Alya asked what growing up in Veyloria had been like, and Nyla launched straight into a story about Kellan.
"He was always the sneaky one," Nyla said, "always stealing food off the neighbors' land because he was permanently hungry. Once, he'd stolen a duskfruit straight off a neighbor's vine before it was properly ripe, and spent the next three days bloated and miserable."
"You besmirch my honor, Nyla!" Kellan held his heart.
"He looked like he'd swallowed a whole pumpkin," Nyla said, laughing so hard she nearly toppled over.
"You're one to talk," Kellan shot back. "Tell her about the Elders' gathering."
Nyla's face went red. "No."
"Nyla had the biggest crush on Kaelith," Kellan said, grinning. "The second she saw him at that gathering, that was it. She was gone."
"Shut it, Kellan," Nyla smacked Kellan's shoulder, making him throw his head back and laugh harder.
"He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen," Kellan said dreamily.
Nyla buried her face in her hands. "I was eleven. I didn't know any better."
"And now?" Kellan asked, grinning.
"Now I know he's a pompous prick," Nyla said, and they all dissolved into laughter so infectious that even Bram, still nursing his shoulder in the corner, smiled along.
Alya's laugh reduced to a smile as she watched them laugh, imagining how it would've been growing up here with her family, stealing duskfruit with Kellan, sitting through Elders' gatherings beside Nyla, whispering about boys. A childhood spent among her people.
Would things have turned out differently? Surely, they would've.
Would she even have met Jayden, though?
If her grandfather had never taken her from Sapphire, there would have been no field, no hand reaching out to pull her off the ground.
She might have had everything, but Jayden.
A rumble in the distance woke her. It was still dark outside, but Kellan and Nyla were already packing up.
"What's happening?" Alya asked, still groggy.
"Kaelith says the cave is flooding. We need to go," Kellan said.
Alya sprang up and gathered her things. They rushed out of the cave just as water surged in, swallowing the fire they'd left glowing on the stones. They climbed back into the carriage and set out again, straight into the storm still raging outside.
Alya looked back and watched the cave disappear under rising water. All around them, the water had climbed so high it looked ready to swallow the whole mountain.
Kaelith and Kellan went to the pit with Bram, leaving Nyla and Alya to hold on to whatever they could find.
"Can we make it through this?" Alya asked, staring into the dark, lit only by flashes of lightning.
"We won't," Nyla said.
"What?" Alya turned, and Nyla was gone.
"Nyla!" She rushed to the edge and looked down but was met only by a dark abyss.
"Nyla!" she screamed again. "Kellan, Nyla fell!"
She turned, expecting to find him coming out. No one did.
"Kellan! Kaelith!"
She rushed into the pilot's cabin. It was empty.
Her breathing came in gasps as she searched for everyone.
"Nyla! Kellan! Kaelith!"
No one answered.
She walked out slowly. The carriage door hung ajar. The storm had gone completely silent.
She stared into the dark around her. The only light came flickering in the distance. She started walking toward it, and that was when she heard it.
"Car horns?"
She got closer, squinting to see through the brightening light. She looked back and the whole carriage was gone, replaced by darkness. She swallowed hard and walked through the door, stepping into her old attic room in Willow's Haven.
Her eyes went wide as she looked around. Everything was exactly as she'd left it. It wasn't dark anymore. Sunlight poured through the window, lighting up her narrow bed and the small reading table beside it.
She reached out and pinched herself. Of course it was a dream. But it hurt.
It shouldn't have hurt.
Her heart dropped.
"What's happening?"
Just then, heavy footsteps started up the stairs. She knew those steps. She'd know them anywhere.
Alya lurched for the door and locked it, just as the footsteps stopped right outside. Then the handle turned.
Everything went silent.
Alya stared at the door and backed away, her own heartbeat so loud it was deafening.
The footsteps shuffled, then began to retreat.
Alya let out a breath and rushed to the window, sliding it open. She leaned out and was about to look when suddenly, a bang rang out, sending her heart plummeting into her stomach.
"Alya! Over here," someone called from below.
"Jayden?"
Her heart soared as she looked out and saw him standing, his arms outstretched and a smile on his face.
The bang came again.
"Jump!"
She didn't hesitate this time. She climbed out and leapt.