Hall of Games [ REWRITE ] | The Varya Chronicles #1

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Cadence found herself walking through the familiar corridors of Mansion Orelik. She was back in her worn-out handmaiden dress. Cadence grabbed the fabric in surprise.

Is this real? She had never been so happy to see her stained overalls and the too-tight dress. Was everything just a bad dream?

She ran up the stairs into Khazaria's room and threw the door open.

Khazaria was lying on her bed with a book propped open in front of her. The winter light was muted against the great window panes. Cadence rubbed her eyes, then slowly opened them. She was scared that everything would be gone in a wink if she opened her eyes.

"Didn't I tell you to always knock?" Khazaria said crossly. "Now you've broken my reading mood."

"Apologies, my lady." Cadence hastily bowed. She found her movements clumsy, as though her body had forgotten how to bow.

"Why are you here?" Khazaria said. "You've been dismissed. Go do whatever you servants do in your spare time."

"I-" Cadence scrambled for words. "I needed to dust the wardrobe, my lady. Wintermites love making nests in places of rich silk and satin."

Khazaria grunted. "There are no mites. Now be off with you."

Her heart thudded in her chest. Khazaria was alive! She gripped the banister and stared at the maids and servants scuttling below, all busy with their daily schedule. Hope bloomed like a flower in her chest. If Khazaria was still alive, the mansion still intact, this meant her father was still alive. Sick, bedridden, but alive.

She flew down the stairs and went bump into someone.

"Sorry!" she apologized. "I should have watched where I was going!"

She looked up to see Ales staring at her with a nonplussed expression.

Cadence flung her arms around Ales' waist. He was too tall for her to reach his neck. She hugged him tight and buried her face in his chest. He still smelled like chocolates, nothing has changed.

"You're alive," she blubbered. She felt tears sting her eyes which she dried on Ales' kubah.

Oh, wait, if everything was just a dream, he wouldn't know her.

"What have you done, little mite?"

"I-" Cadence stared at her mentor. He remembered?

"What is dead, should stay dead." Ales placed a hand on Cadence's shoulder. "I learned that the hard way. There was no reviving Danika and Aria without severe consequences. An Aspect for a borrowed life, is it worth it?"

"You almost sold me to the Walker Hunters, you do not deserve to lecture me on what I did."

"Almost," Ales said. "But I didn't."