Restart Again: Volume 2 by Adam Scott (best adventure books to read .TXT) 📗

pushing my enhancements to that extreme. Especially in combat. Through trial and error, I found a level of constant channeling that reduced the headache to a manageable level, though I hoped the effort wouldn’t be needed for long.

I opened my eyes to find the room aglow with orange light from the setting sun. “I guess it’s time,” I sighed as I stood up and stretched, eliciting a loud crack from my shoulders. I moved towards the door, but Lia held out a hand from her seat on the storage chest to stop me.

“Marin and Val are saying their goodbyes. We should wait a minute,” she explained, slowly unfolding herself from her meditation stance.

“Oh. Sure,” I nodded, taking a seat next to her and stretching my arm out around her shoulders. “You know, this is your last chance to—”

She punched my knee with a force somewhere between playful and aggravated. “Stop saying that. I’ve told you a hundred times by now: I’m not leaving you. Wherever you go, I go.”

I chuckled and rubbed my knee. “I know, I know. I’m just worried that I’m forcing you into all of this danger and not giving you a choice. I promised your parents that I would do everything in my power to keep you safe and happy, and sometimes...it doesn’t feel like I’m doing a very good job.”

Lia huffed. “I don’t care about the promises you made to my parents, I care about the promises you made to me.” She took my face in her hands and turned it towards hers, meeting my eyes with an intense stare. “You told me you love me, and that you want to be with me. That’s what I care about. As long as we’re together, we’ll keep each other safe. And I’ll be the happiest girl in the world.”

My cheeks flushed beneath her hands, and a large smile spread across my face. “I’ll keep those promises, no matter what.” I leaned in and kissed her deeply as my heartbeat went wild in my chest. Love was still a fresh emotion for me after a lifetime without it, and I reveled in the feeling eagerly. My hand ran up her leather chestpiece to her neck, and I traced the line of her jaw with the back of my fingers until they combed through the loose hair behind her ear. I felt my passion echoed back at me as our mana coalesced around us, and for a brief moment I was overwhelmed as our emotions blurred together.

The door opening beside us brought me crashing back down to reality. We disentangled from each other awkwardly and jumped up from the small storage chest, but the door slammed shut before I could see who was behind it. A quick scan forward revealed Val standing on the other side, staring straight ahead with an embarrassed expression as her hand still held the door handle. A soft knock followed shortly after. “May I enter?”

I nearly fell back onto the chest as I burst out laughing. Lia glared at me with a beet red face as she hurried to straighten her hair, then hopped forward and opened the door. “Hi, Val.”

“Hello, Lia,” Val replied quietly. She looked past towards me, but looked away before we made eye contact. “Lux,” she nodded to the floor. “The nobles will be out for their nightly errands any moment. We should leave soon.” For the first time since we had breached the walls of Attetsia, the magic concealing her armor was gone, revealing its true resplendent nature once again.

“We’ll be right down,” I said, mostly composed after my laughing fit. “Thank you, Val.” She stood in the doorway for a few moments before abruptly turning to leave, closing the door as she went. I crossed the room and hugged Lia from behind, leaning down to rest my chin on her shoulder. “Are you ready?”

She took a deep breath, then nodded. “Ready.” We stood together quietly, neither of us willing to leave what was likely the last private moment we would have together before the coming trials. Begrudgingly, I gave her a final squeeze, then moved to the door. We filed out of the room and descended the narrow stairs to find Val and Marin waiting for us at the bottom. Marin’s eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and she had a serious expression on her face.

“Good luck tonight,” she said solemnly. “Thank you for helping our city. I owe you both a huge debt.”

Lia moved forward and hugged Marin tightly, speaking something into her ear that was too soft for me to make out. Marin nodded and returned the embrace, replying to whatever Lia had said with a small smile. They both laughed as they separated, and Lia returned to my side.

“Thank you for housing us here, Marin. It was very brave of you.” I smiled and gave her a small bow. “Stay safe tonight, okay? We’ll come back as soon as we can, once our job is done.” She nodded in response and, after looking up at Val one final time, slid past us to make her way upstairs. We all waited to exit the back room until her bedroom door opened, then closed again. “So,” I started, leaning up against the counter, “let’s talk strategy.”

As expected of the night before a battle, I felt a sudden clearness of mind paired with a terrible twisting in my stomach. I pulled the needle out of my bandolier and began to dispense the small, silver globes from their respective canisters as I began my speech. “Our first objective is straightforward: enter the Council district without being detected. Val, as you’ve been to the city before, you’ll take the lead while Lia and I make sure we never get too close to a patrol.”

Val’s impassive facade broke momentarily as the first globe expanded and began to glow in my hand, casting a shadow of my hand down onto the countertop with dim orange light. Her eyes sat transfixed on the