“You’re out of bed!” she exclaimed.
“I’m too worried about Jade to rest. Where have you been?”
“At the library. Look at these!” she dropped the books in his lap. “They’re called books! You’ve got to try them.”
“Sounds great,” he said, waving her off. “Now, go see Jade!”
She laughed at his gruffness and hurried to Jade’s room. Alina froze as she stepped into the open doorway.
Jade was sitting up in bed, sipping juice through a straw. The needles were gone from her wrists, and her lips and cheeks flushed with color. She held the small cup and drank her juice with ease. Alina let out a cry and dashed to the side of her bed.
She kissed Jade’s prickly, shaved head, then grasped her hand and knelt down. Jade wiped a tear from Alina’s cheek and laughed. “You cry so beautifully now,” she teased.
“It’s because they’re happy tears,” Alina replied.
They beamed at each other for a moment. Alina felt shy. She and Jade hadn’t been free to grow close before. Could the wall between them break down simply because of an operation?
Jade’s eyes twinkled. “Tell me what’s happened since I passed out. Last I remember, I was on your back in the forest and Rex was complaining about food for about the thousandth time.”
Alina burst into laughter, then went into an animated account of Rex’s back-and-forth complaints and raves about mortality. Jade squeezed her eyes shut as she laughed and clutched her sides.
Her heart and tongue loosened, Alina unloaded into Jade’s willing ears everything about Stormport: Eleanor and Baylor and the news of Stan, the mundane tasks of earning their keep, and how worried she and Rex had been about her. She confessed her crush on Zaiden and the joys and annoyances of being immortal. When she demonstrated how the boys on the street gawked at her, Jade burst into such hearty laughter that the nurse dashed in and scolded Alina, then sent her off so Jade could rest.
As Alina leaned in to hug her, Jade whispered in her ear. “We have a lot of years to catch up on. Someday I’ll make it up to you.”
The tears came back to Alina’s eyes. “It’s been only an hour, and you already have.”
As she walked out of the hospital wing, Jade’s laughter ringing in her ears, Alina realized she had talked the entire time and still knew little of her caretaker. But Jade seemed delighted, as if Alina had given her the time of her life.
She wouldn’t let that happen next time. Alina wanted to soak in every detail of this woman who was as dear to her as a sister, or mother—or whatever they were called.
Family, she remembered. Jade was family to her.
Jade left the hospital wing the following day and moved into Alina’s room. They talked into the night until Jade could no longer keep her eyes open. Alina wished their conversation didn’t have to end, but Jade needed her rest.
Alina considered their reversed places and how often Jade must have been lonely in Pria as Alina slept. Jade endured so many solitary nights; Alina could endure them too.
She sat in the armchair and picked up The Connection between Carthem and Pria but didn’t open the book. Instead she reflected on her discussion with Jade, who had been forthright and honest—answering Alina’s questions without the hesitation of her earlier years. Alina respected her father’s wishes and didn’t ask about her birth but wanted to know how Jade felt about him.
Jade smiled. “I knew you would ask that. I hope I’m ready to talk about him. It’s been so long.”
“You don’t have to tell me if you’re not ready,” Alina rushed.
“No. I’ve always wished I could tell you. There was so much I wanted to tell you. It tortured me to raise you so distantly. Horrible years I’m glad are over.”
She looked thoughtful for a moment before she began. “I met J’koby by accident. He was living—or hiding, I should say—with Camden.”
“He lived with Camden?”
“Yes. He’s his son.”
“His what?”
“His child. Born to him and his wife.”
Alina’s mouth dropped. “Rex never told me that!”
Jade raised her eyebrows and nodded. “I’m not surprised. He’s not a big fan of J’koby.”
Alina suspected she knew why but asked anyway. “How come?”
“Imagine being the number one person in your caretaker’s life, and then his long-lost son appears out of nowhere and moves into your home. J’koby is Camden’s own flesh and blood. Rex couldn’t compete with that.”
“Oh—that is sad,” Alina murmured. And J’koby took Jade, too. No wonder Rex wasn’t a fan. “So how did you meet?”
“Well, one day I went over—” She paused and her cheeks turned red.
“What?” Alina asked.
“I’m ashamed of my friends at the time. I had one who was interested in Camden. He was top of the ‘desirable list’ because he was so impossible to get. Only Sampson ranked higher than him.”
“They wanted him because he was hard to get?”
“Of course.” Jade cleared her throat. “So, this friend of mine—which I shouldn’t call a friend, because she wasn’t nice, and I shouldn’t have put up with her—”
“It’s okay, Jade,” Alina cut in. “We’ve all done things we’re not proud of.”
Jade smiled. “Well, she was desperate to get Camden’s attention. He was one of the few real gentlemen in Pria, you see—so honest and respectful of women. He had a lot of female friends but never dated. He didn’t even flirt, and it drove them crazy. One day my friend told me she wanted to try something different. She reasoned so many women failed with him because they tried to be polite and courteous, like he was. Gentility never got them anywhere. She decided to be aggressive.”
Alina broke in. “But there are plenty of aggressive women in Pria. Surely one had tried that before?”
“Not like this,” Jade said. “She was planning to force herself on him. Make him—well, you know.”
Alina’s jaw dropped. “But how?”
“Let’s just say blackmail, in a twisted kind of way. She thought it would
