9. Aldrin
Chapter 9
Aldrin
K eira descends the staircase and makes a beeline straight for me. It has my heart leaping with joy, though my stomach tumbles nervously at the frown pinching her features and the set line of her lips.
I already know I am in trouble, and the gods know what I have done this time.
Every time I try to steal a moment with her, her father manages to break us up. How can I clear the air between us if I cannot talk to her? How do I win her back, or wade through the bitter anger and betrayal welling within, threatening to consume my very soul, if I cannot ask her where she was while I suffered? Or whether she truly hunted and needlessly killed nymphs that wandered into these lands?
“You just forced your will on Silvan!” She walks right up to me and pokes a finger in the center of my chest. “That is terribly rude, Aldrin!”
I almost smile like a fool at the touch, but she turns away and places an arm around Silvan’s shoulders.
“You’re still bleeding!” Keira pulls a handkerchief from her pocket and dabs at the blood. “He is a brute for roughing you up needlessly to prove a point. I don’t like to see you in pain. Will you be okay, or should I call for a healer?”
“I’m not sure if I will make a full recovery.” Silvan shoots me a snickering look that Keira misses. “I think he broke something inside my head.”
I roll my eyes. “I assure you, your head was already broken long before I entered it.” Keira’s eyes widen as they fly to me, and I raise my hands in the air. “He is joking. Silvan, tell her you are joking.”
Silvan glances between us with a growing smirk on his lips. “I’m not getting involved in this lovers’ tiff.” He is getting me back for slamming him into that wall. Perhaps it was a touch too far.
“How did you do it?” Keira takes a step closer to me. “I could see the tether between the two of you.”
“You witnessed the wield?” I say, a little impressed. “The ability runs in the same vein as my healing magic, which connects to a person’s life force. Through it, a healer can access their body to knit wounds back together. My power allows me to use it to take control of a person’s muscles. It’s not particularly useful on a large scale, like a battle. It takes far too much concentration and energy. Hand-to-hand combat is a different story.” I shrug, trying to make light of it.
Keira’s eyes widen. “Have you ever used it on me?” There is such horror in her expression. It is like she has stabbed me in the heart, thinking I would be capable of such a thing.
“You’d bloody know about it if he did it to you,” Silvan grumbles. “Could you not see me fighting it?”
Her eyes slide to Silvan and all the tension flows out of her body.
I hold her by the arms, so damned afraid she will slip through my grasp again. “I’m not a monster, Keira. You know me better than that. At least, you did before they filled your head with lies.” All the passion that has been eating away at my insides boils to the surface, making my voice harsher than I intended.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I thought maybe—I don’t know, that you could have used it to contain me during the battle when we first met, or just after.” She shakes her head. “Sometimes I feel like I don’t know you at all, Aldrin.”
“You do. Nothing has changed.”
Silvan looks between us, grumbles about fools in love, and stalks off like a riled-up puka.
A tear falls down Keira’s face, but she doesn’t pull away from me. She peers up at me with huge hazel eyes that are leached of anger, replaced with a bottomless sadness. I don’t know which is worse.
“Everything has changed, Aldrin. I deserved to know that you battled my father. That you asked for my hand in marriage decades ago. How can I trust that there aren’t other secrets you haven’t told me?”
“I tried to tell you! Right before I was taken,” I snap. “Don’t you dare forget that detail.”
“It was too late. Far too late.”
She pounds my chest with a fist and tries to pull away. I tighten my clutch on her, holding her in place. I won’t let her run away from this. Not when I finally have her. She means too fucking much to me.
“By the Soul Ripper, Keira, you haven’t exactly been forthcoming yourself! Why don’t we talk about your secrets?”
She extends onto the tips of her toes to get into my space. It is so hard not to be distracted by her closeness and kiss her instead. “What secrets? What did they tell you?” she growls, and I don’t know if the fury that suddenly morphs her features is for me and my accusation, or for her family.
“They told me about the great fae hunts, Keira,” I say in a low voice, and she rears away from me. It tells me everything. “All those tears you shed while witnessing a Living Memory Scroll about the black-market trade of fae flesh, only for me to come to this realm and discover that not only is it very much still alive, but you are one of its most skilled hunters! Was any of that real? They said you killed nymphs , Keira. Nymphs!”
My arms shake from my contained rage. The gods damn it. I didn’t want to have this conversation like this. We cannot sift through all our hurts and begin to heal the wounds if our tempers get in the way. They will only rip them wider.
The color drains from her face and tears spill down her cheeks. I regret being the one who put them there. Everything in me wants to wipe them away, but I know she doesn’t want my touch anymore. Not in a gesture that intimate.
Keira’s huge eyes pin mine. “Never nymphs, Aldrin. It was always fae beasts who would kill villages if we didn’t deal with them. Why waste the meat after that? Once, I had to kill a sprite who tried to drown us, and sometimes goblins would attack us first. Gods, it broke my heart when they would beg for mercy, but those were always the same creatures that tried to kill us the moment our guards were down when we tried to find a way home for them. But never peaceful fae like nymphs. The fae with intelligence or good intentions don’t get lost. They find their way back to the rift they entered through.”
I stare at her. A heavy fatigue blankets my thoughts. They are twisted in so many knots, I can’t work out the truth from the deception.
She barks out a laugh that has no humor in it. “My father and grandmother have done a good job at sowing discord between us, Aldrin.” She takes wobbly step toward me, and I hold my arms out.
Something broken within me mends when she thrusts herself into my embrace and presses her cheek to my chest. Not my heart. That is still in a thousand pieces, but perhaps a small part of my soul. The part that still carries hope for us.
I wrap her tightly in my arms and press a light kiss to her hair. “I will make a blood oath of truth to you, Keira, I promise you that. We just need a few hours to talk. Then we can clear up everything.”
“We have both failed each other.” Her words are muffled against my chest. “I couldn’t even protect you from my own family.”
My heart sinks at the sound of approaching footsteps.
“KEIRA!” Edmund calls from the top of the balcony, shattering our moment. She stiffens and backs away from me like she was burned. “You’re needed in the war room,”her father growls.
Her entire face changes, eyes darkening and narrowing to slits, lips curling. Her fists clench and unclench multiple times. “The gods help me not to murder my own father.” She turns from me and stalks up the stairs, every muscle in her body rigid and ready to pounce.
I hold a hand at the back of my head as I watch her go. If I thought she was angry with me, it pales in comparison to her resentment toward her father.
They bicker at the top of the staircase, Keira snapping and snarling. Edmund turns accusing eyes down at me, as though I purposely poisoned his relationship with his daughter, and not the other way around. The display would be satisfying if I didn’t know how important that relationship is to her, and the pain she feels at his betrayal.
I force a smirk onto my face. “Edmund, you should be training with us.” I tsk. “Of all your people, you have the most untapped potential.”
He leans over the railing, his thick eyebrows crashing down in a deep scowl. “I will not make myself vulnerable to the likes of you. To be humiliated in front of my people, as you do to them.”
“With your power, you could turn the tide of a battle.” I throw the words at him as though they are an insult. “Or is securing your daughter’s freedom and preventing the chaos of a civil war within your protectorate not enough to risk your pride?”
“How can I trust you?” he says between gritted teeth.
“After what you have done to me and my people, you shouldn’t be able to, but you know my dedication to Keira. That should be enough for you. She will never forgive you for the way you have harmed me, and I will not make that same mistake by harming you.”
Edmund blinks at me, but he doesn’t say a thing, just continues that withering, feral stare. It makes me wonder if he is imagining every way he would like to kill me. Too late. He should have done it while I was his prisoner.
“I don’t want to further empower the man who was my captor and torturer. It would suit me if you remained ignorant, but Keira needs you, so here we are.”
I shrug, but immediately regret my words as the color drains from Keira’s face instead of her father’s. Right there is yet another issue between us that we still need to address: where was she while I was being tortured?
“The guards will not take their training with Aldrin seriously if you don’t do the same,” Keira hisses at her father.
A long breath huffs out of Edmund’s flared nostrils. He takes the stairs down to the courtyard, never removing those unnerving eyes from me. “I have people waiting in a meeting for me.”
“You are the Lord Protector, are you not? Let them wait,” I toss back, taking up a defensive stance.
Edmund steps onto the pavers of the courtyard and positions himself opposite me. “You have my attention.”
I circle around him, forcing him to turn so his back is never to me.
“See that tree?” I point to the mess that became of the pretty pot plant Drake used for demonstrations. Limp roots spill across the ground and long, thick branches tumble through the space like a thicket of brambles.
“I see it.”
“Destroy it,” I order. “Funnel your power into it. Turn the wood to ash. Break it into splinters.”
Edmund raises an eyebrow at me. “And how am I supposed to do that?”
I take a step closer to him. “Do you have any idea of the blocks you have put on your magic? This glamour and instinct to fit in comes at a cost.” I grab his hand and force it onto the tree. “Feed your awareness into the tree until you can feel its life force, then grab it with your power and obliterate it. Wield your earth magic into the branches. You are born of Autumn. Death and destruction for the renewal of life is your power.”
A heartbeat passes, followed by another. A flush creeps up Edmund’s neck and engulfs his face.
I sense the moment he takes hold of the tree’s essence and I throw up thick air shields around each of us. The branch under his grip is whole one moment, then it bursts into fine dust particles that hold their shape for a heartbeat before dissipating on the wind.
“Good,” I say. “But you can do better. Put all of your power into it. Create splinters. Your daughter did it within minutes of meeting me.”
“That is because she is a smart girl. Did she impale you with those splinters?” He shoots me a sinister look that turns into a wolfish grin as I rub one of the places on my chest where her stakes pierced me.
“Yeah. Turned me into a pincushion.”
“Like I said. She is a smart girl.” Edmund wraps his fingers around the tree’s trunk as though he is strangling a man. The dark looks he sends my way tells me enough about who he envisions. I take a few steps back, glancing up at the balcony to throw a protective shield around Keira, but she is gone.
A low, guttural sound leaves Edmund’s lips and tendons stand out along his forearms. The tree bursts into thousands of wooden daggers that shoot out in every direction, many embedding into the grout of the brickwork enclosing the courtyard. I lazily weave my shield into a wedge, directing the barbs away from me.
If I hadn’t anticipated this, I could have been gravely injured.
“Do you see how this could be useful in a battle?” I say, and Edmund grunts in reply, doubled over and heaving as he recoups himself. “Not just as a weapon. How many human fortifications are made of wood?”
Those brutal emerald eyes flick up at me. “I can do that to wood that is not alive?”
I shrug. “It is much, much harder, and many do not have enough power or skill for it, but you could. If you break that block.”
“And how do I break this block?” Edmund extends to his full height, taking a quick step closer to me.
“Honestly? I have no fucking clue.”
“You are an infuriating man. Do you know that?”
I smirk at him. “I aim to please.”
The murmuring of voices and thumping of boots on stone draws my attention. I glance up to a small crowd of guards that has gathered above us. Edmund only has eyes for me, a fire raging in them. This man will never see me as an ally. Not willingly. I am the fae who almost stole his daughter. I will always be his enemy, unless I force his hand.
Edmund holds his arms out to either side, and a sword of fire materializes in each hand. They burn red hot, the flames flickering, their centers made of cooled, rock-hard magma. He twirls the swords in his hands as he stalks to me. “Now we play on my terms.”
I smile, drawing my own sword from my back. It may not be infused with my spring magic, but it is the most powerful relic from my court.
With incredible speed, Edmund is upon me, each sword cracking in rapid succession as he strikes high. My blade repels both assaults, then he swings each sword low. I have just enough time to fend him off, then he darts back. Sweat already drips down my face from the heat of those twin fires.
“What is your endgame here, Aldrin?” Edmund growls. “To seduce my daughter and convince her to return to the Otherworld with you?”
I stalk around him, looking for my opening to attack. “Don’t think you know me or my intentions. I told Keira I would give up my crown for her. I would live in this realm if it meant we could be together—in the remotest parts of this world, or constantly on the move.”
Edmund laughs, and the sound is bitter. “That is not much of a life that you offer my daughter. Keira has always been the practical one.”
I leap toward him, taking advantage of his distraction. Our swords meet again. We bare our teeth in each other’s faces as the attack brings us close.
“We could make it a good life together,” I spit at him. “If you would take my earlier proposition seriously. Open trade and migration between realms. Open the eyes of your people, so it is at least acceptable for fae to exist in this land.”
Edmund’s blade slides off mine, and I use the momentum to force him back. He staggers a step, then catches himself.A lifetime of training and fighting is clear in his every move.
“Sure,” he says. “We will change our entire culture and remove all safeguards just to suit you.”
I am so sick of the games and circular arguments with this man. “Look past your hate, Edmund. My lands are dying. Your people are losing their magic and way of life. The only way we can save ourselves is by coming together.”
He runs at me, screaming, blades flying in a series of maneuvers I struggle to block, each more powerful than the last—but it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t know that my sword absorbs the energy from each blow. That it sucks the raw power from his, and I am saving it up.
“Hate, is it? Or a long history of fae men abusing human women?” Edmund snarls. “You cannot have my daughter, not back then and not now. I will not allow it. Some prophecy spewed up by your sister doesn’t mean you own her.”
“Neither. Do. You.”
He forces me on the defensive, and I am losing ground. I could throw so many tricks at him, but I don’t want to humiliate Edmund. I don’t care to defeat him. We need to have his conversation. To get it all out.
“And what if Keira decides she doesn’t want you? What if all your ploys to manipulate her to be your consort fail?” Edmund swings his blades again, eyes narrowed on me. “Will you abandon her to her fate and walk away from this war?”
And there it is: this man’s biggest fear, and the reason he cannot accept me or my band of warriors. He is too afraid to trust us. Rely on us.
“I want a wife. A queen. Not a consort.” I say those words slowly, so they can finally sink in. “I will fight for Keira’s freedom, regardless of whether she wants to be with me. Understand one thing: I will always protect her from any monster and not expect a damned thing in return. Even if she won’t speak to me or look at me ever again. I will not abandon you on the eve of some battle if things are not going my way.”
Edmund flies into an attack again, but I can tell he is weakening. We both are.
“Have you forgotten our bargain already?” I ask him.
“Fae are notorious for finding loopholes in bargains.” He swings his fiery sword dangerously close to my face, forcing me to duck. I swear I can smell the tang of burnt hair.
“Are you trying to give me a haircut, Edmund?”
“For fuck’s sake, Aldrin, do you ever stop mouthing off?”
“I would hate to bore you to death. Besides, I’ve had over a week to sit on my ass and come up with a backlog of quips.”
I use his distraction to pull the thin layer of air out from beneath his feet—a cheeky trick Keira taught me. Edmund stumbles, then shoots me a hard look, like a father scolding a child.
“Ask yourself a question,” I push. “If I were not fae, but some highborn human suitor, would you have such an issue with my relationship with your daughter?”
Edmund doesn’t answer. He runs at me instead. A feral cast takes over his features, turning him from man to animal. From fae to god. His lips curl in a snarl, his nostrils flare and his eyes are wide with hatred, showing so much of the whites. “You had no right to make my baby girl your lover!”
Edmund practically combusts as both of his swords crash down on mine. I draw all the built-up raw energy from my blade into myself as wave after wave of flames flows from Edmund, as though we are in the middle of a firestorm.
I take all that stored power and throw it into thick shields around the balconies of the courtyard, protecting the humans there from the inferno. I encase myself in barriers of air and ice, but the former heats too quickly and the latter melts.
There is too much magic rippling off him for me to protect myself from it all. The skin of my arms blisters and cracks as searing pain shoots through them. The same agony erupts across my cheeks.
Edmund’s eruption rages on for an eternity, and then the fires die all at once. He collapses at the center of a black, scorched ring, and I catch him. His eyes bore into mine.
“I want to be your ally in this, Edmund, as much as we cannot stand each other. Is that not clear?” I glance down at my arms to see the crackled skin slowly knitting together, then flick my gaze up at his unharmed people.
Awareness dawns in Edmund’s eyes at the implication.I protected them, instead of myself, because I could weather this storm and recover in a few days. They would have all died at his slip-up.
Gasps and cries ring out from the guards. Edmund’s hand flies up to his ears, which have become peaked, just like mine. His face has transformed to the sharp, angular planes of a fae, and bits of his hair are still on fire. He pushes himself away from me, then, with a shake of his head, snaps his glamour firmly back into place.
At least he has been practicing some of his magic.
The murmuring of the crowd grows louder.
Edmund holds up a hand and everyone falls silent. “We all have fae blood in us—that is not a secret,” he snaps. “The greater a human’s magic, the more fae blood they have. Now, you all have places to be. Return to your stations immediately.”
The space clears out in a blink. The authority the man has over his people is impressive.
Edmund stalks toward the stairs that lead to the main balcony, then throws a withering glare over his shoulder at me. “To the war room. Now. We have a war to plan.”
I don’t miss a beat, limping after him and grinning foolishly behind his back, despite the way my entire body feels like it has an inferno dancing across it.
All it took was a brief battle of wills, some pretty serious burns on my part, and exposing Edmund’s greatest secret for me to be taken seriously by Keira’s father.