The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy
Chapter 0598

the woman I saw by the trees. How the darkness in me rejoiced to be there.

The telling takes a while, but luckily the bowl of ice cream is big. I finish summarizing what happened to Jackson - what it felt like to fall out of this world, how I landed flat on my back in the other, what it looked like - that desolate space with the three looming moons - and When there's a single bite of ice cream left, I sigh and hold out the bowl to Jackson, who takes it and scoops the last sweet spoonful into his mouth, clearly thinking over everything I said. I wait patiently, folded up in my towel, sitting primly on the closed toilet. "And you think you...really went there?" he asks, looking at me seriously as he lets the bowl and the spoon hang at his side in his hand. "Not that you just went like... in your mind?"

"I think I was really there," I say, nodding to him. "Not only did it knock the wind out of me when I... landed, or whatever. But they searched the whole plateau for me - they had my binoculars and the map, and those were right next to me before I fell through. They would have found me had I physically been there."

"But you kept the gun?" he asks, his face scrunching as he puts the facts together.

I nod. "I was holding that tight. But the earpiece went with me, and it broke."

Jackson exhales, looking to the side, puzzling it out even as he holds a hand out towards me, wanting me close. I take it and he pulls me to my feet and closer to him, pressing me warm against his bare chest. I rest my cheek against him with a sigh, loving him quite desperately in this little moment.

"What do you think it is?" I whisper.

"Do you want to know what I think now?" he asks. "Or...after the party, when we have more time to talk?"

"Now, please," I murmur, letting my eyes drift shut. "And then more talking, after the party."

"I think it's your gift, Ari," Jackson says, quite plainly. I look up at him, surprised. "The one the God of Darkness gave to you. Isn't that what he said that day, in the room?"

My eyes go wide then as I remember it. "Come and find me when you are of need," I whisper, shaking my head, wondering how I didn't put this all together.

"And you wanted to go somewhere else, right?" Jackson whispers. "Needed to get out of there - asked for a path. And the gift...worked. He pulled you into his world." "His world?" I ask, looking up at him with wide eyes.

"The World of Darkness, territory of the God of Darkness?" Jackson waits for me to catch up with him. "Where there's... three moons and it's always night?"

My mouth falls open just a little bit. "What are you talking about?"

Jackson's face bursts into a grin. "Ari, your grandmother is the Goddess - how do you know so little about religion?"

"I know stuff!" I growl, giving his chest a smack. "About like...Goddess stuff!"

He laughs, tugging me tight again, still shaking his head at me.

"Well how do you know so much?" I growl.

"Because we've been studying

Atalaxia," he says, smiling softly at me, "and they're pretty serious about worshipping him. And..." he hesitates for a second and then shrugs. "The Community was....not a super religious place, but what I learned about religion was definitely about the God of Darkness - not the Goddess."

"Plus one of his kids did give you a gift," I say, twisting my mouth as I look up at my mate. "What are you, some sort of dark acolyte?"

"Not as much as you, with your little pilgrimage to the Dark Territory," he says, giving me a smirk. But even though that comment would have sent me into a panic half an hour ago, I grin now, laughing up at him.

"The good news, if I'm right about all of this," he murmurs, petting my cheek with the back of his hand, "is that it's your gift. You control it, I think. Can...go there and come back at will."

Jackson - he always makes it better. Makes me feel so safe.

I shudder a little. "I never want to go there again."

"Don't have to," he says, smiling down at me. "Because you're in control."

I let out a long woosh of breath, letting my head fall for a second, thinking it through and checking in on that whirt of darkness at the center of me now. And as I

remember what happened – wishing to go somewhere else, wishing to return I realize that

-

Jackson's...right. At least about this

part. That I'm not going to get sucked back there at random - that I'd have to call for it.

"Thanks," I whisper, resting my forehead against him. "That does help."

"Good," he says, his arms loose around me, standing strong for my sake. We stay that way for awhile, just relaxing. “So, do you want to go to the party?" he asks, turning towards the door where we start to hear more voices.