Chapter Update - WHHT

[feckyeslife]

Title: Where Hoofbeats and Hearts Thunder - Ch 5
Rating: T
Fandom: Shadow and Bone (TV)
Pairing/Characters: Aleksander/Alina Starkov
Critical Tags: Horses, Gift-Giving, ~Drama~
Chapter Summary: Finally, Alina receives word from the front. She finds it isn't what she wanted after all.
Excerpt:

“I’m sure that if Alina needed an amplifier, it would be something that she would know about.”

“And I don’t,” Alina grumbled. That seemed enough to button up the conversation, and thankfully neither young woman asked her to elaborate on which part of Marie’s assertion she was referring to. Alina excused herself from the fire to head back to the Little Palace. Marie and Nadia begged her to stay for a little while longer. She blamed it on the cold getting to her, but she barely felt the nighttime chill through her cloak. In reality Alina just wanted to get away from the sinking feeling that the amplifier conversation had brought on.

Just as she started up the path from the lake shore Alina had to pause. Marie was waving her back. Alina nearly rolled her eyes until she noticed the folded square of paper in her hand which was bright in the firelight. “I completely forgot. This was stuck on the mail that I got earlier this week. Right on the seal. You would think that the mail sorters would be used to that kind of mistake,” Marie said, laughing all the while. She didn’t notice Alina’s sharp inhale or the way that she turned over the letter to find her name scrawled on the outside.

It wasn’t neat and precise. The paper was heavily crumpled despite having been pressed flat in the mail carrier bags. The letter was decidedly not Grisha fine stationery. When she lifted it to her nose, she swore she could almost smell the familiar scent of kerosene and iron ink.