She hadn’t expected him to stab them when he demanded this meeting. But then again, when isn’t Aleksander plotting or scheming. Of course this would always be about getting his powers back or attempting to. Aleksander would never live an ordinary life that he found so disdainful.
So he had gotten his powers back. She hadn’t expected the stab to bring hers back too. Zoya had vowed nobody but Nikolai, Genya, and David would ever know. Alina had told her that she could easily be ‘resurrected’ if the world needed The Sun Saint back, but for now, she wanted to go back to living her quiet life with Mal and her children.
It’s truly a shame when tragedy strikes.
Mal, the Staff and the Children had all fallen ill with a cold, her newly reawakened Grisha powers had spared her such nonsense, and as such she ventured out into the local town for medicine and soup to tend to everyone. To take care of them all. Oncat perched on her shoulder.
That’s when the Blight hits. Cruel and unyielding it takes out the Orphanage and half of the town. Alina wants to scream, but she is too shocked, too horrified. Mal, Misha…her children, her Staff. All gone.
Despite the fact she has no more amplifiers, they are still connected. He must feel her rage, her grief, her anguish, because she feels a gentle tug, guiding her to him. She should turn away, she should go flee to the safety of Nikloai, Zoya, Genya, David. They will hear of the fall of the Orphanage and fear her among the lost too, but instead, she turns and goes towards the pull, towards safety. He will help her. Will help them. Even if she has to make him. Even if she has to beg.
She’s dirty, clothes torn, and still dazed with a tear-stained face, clinging to Oncat, when she finds him nearly 3 hours later in a makeshift campsite in the woods. Just him. He had not gone to the Order of the Starless Saint yet. He’s here alone, but looks quite at home, relishing in the fact he has his powers back, his own face back. He wonders if he knows she has her powers, or if it was just instinct to call out to her when he felt her panic. If she’s forever tied to him, Grisha or no.
“Dead…all dead…” is the only thing she can utter to him.