Chapter Seven
Aelia
A frosty breeze licked over the stone wall of the courtyard, lifting from the turbulent sea below.
Glancing up at the star flecked sky, I scanned the never-ending night for the familiar glimmer of Sol’s gilded form.
He and Phantom should have been on their way by now to transport us back to the Conservatory.
The week-long respite at Shadowmere was all we were granted, while our friends returned to their homes to regroup.
It had been a fragile pause before the next storm.
I supposed I should have been grateful we’d been allotted even that.
But now, all I could think about was how much harder it would be to leave.
An immediate return to Luce, which had been the original plan, had been altered once I’d realized the volatile state of Reign’s powers.
Now, he assured me he was fully in control once again.
The unanticipated postponement had, however, granted Reign and me the time we needed to find our way back to each other without the interruptions life back at the academy would bring.
If I was being honest with myself, we’d completed the bond in a bit of a rush, in a hasty attempt to seal our love amidst my lost memories.
Not that I regretted binding my soul to Reign one bit, but we needed this sliver of calm to solidify our tumultuous relationship. To ground ourselves in each other. To understand the full implications of the cuorem.
Not that we’d achieved that just yet, but at least we both felt more secure in the glittering strands of light that connected our hearts and the burgeoning powers coursing between us.
With more than enough to keep our thoughts swirling, I’d decided not to bring up Kaelith’s conjectures about Reign’s bloodline. Yet.
I vowed to discover more myself before sharing the Night Fae’s suspicions with my mate. His erratic emotional state left me fearing what effect news like this would have on him.
As if my thoughts had conjured the enigmatic male, Reign appeared on the balcony overhead, shadow wings curled across his broad shoulders.
He looked every bit the Shadow Fae warrior, power seething from the great expanse of his chest, the dark runes engraved across his arms and every inch of his impressive form.
The cuorem thrummed with happiness, my heart growing its own wings at the sight of him. Sometimes, I couldn’t believe Reign was mine either.
With a mighty thrust, his wings propelled him toward me, and every inch of my being hummed in anticipation at his approach. We’d spent most of the past week lost in each other, and Raysa, it had been glorious. But even in our tangled limbs, shadows of what lay ahead loomed ever nearer.
Still, it seemed I could never get enough of my mate.
You aren’t the only one. Reign’s deep timbre slipped into my mind an instant before he landed only a hairsbreadth away.
His shadows curled around me, cocooning us in a blanket of icy night. A sliver of darkness coiled around my waist then drew me flush against its master.
“You better not start something you aren’t prepared to finish, my love.” I rose to my tiptoes and brushed a quick kiss across his lips.
“I’m fairly certain I could finish well before our dragons arrived.” He sucked my bottom lip into his mouth, nibbling on the soft skin. “When it comes to you, I’m quite insatiable,” he growled.
Oh, for Raysa’s sake, keep that male’s thoughts to yourself. Sol’s gravelly voice immediately doused the building heat. Haven’t you learned how to block me yet?
Sorry, Sol, I shot back, unravelling my limbs from around Reign’s unyielding form.
My mate grumbled a curse before releasing me.
“They’re almost here,” I muttered.
“Of course they are. The one time they choose to be on time.”
A rueful chuckle slid from between my lips as I regarded him. “You’re not looking forward to returning to campus, professor? I thought I was the wary one of the two of us.”
“Things will be different now, Aelia.” His hands curled around mine, drawing me close once again. “We won’t have to hide what we are, but we’ll also no longer have the privacy nor tranquility of the manor. War is nearly upon us.”
I glanced at the small fortress built along the cliffside, and a tiny pang of sadness crept in.
Duskridge Manor had become my home in the past several weeks.
More than that, it had been the place where I’d reconnected with Aidan too.
Now, he would be forced to remain here to guard Kaelith, and it almost felt as if I were losing him again.
We were tasked with gathering the Light and Shadow Fae, in an attempt to unite the fractured kingdoms against Helroth.
It was a daunting endeavor. One that I couldn’t say I relished.
But the Night King wouldn’t remain quiet for long. Honestly, I was surprised he’d stayed hidden this past week. What was he waiting for? Whatever it was, I was certain it wouldn’t be good.
Either way, we couldn’t allow him any more time to prepare. We still had the Ebonshard Compass, and with it, the ability to find him anywhere. Once we’d secured both Elian’s and Tenebris’s forces, we would strike before Helroth knew we were coming.
I only hoped everything would go according to plan.
Ruhl had sent his shadow messenger to summon us today, which meant he’d finally spoken to his father. I prayed to all the gods when we reached the Conservatory he’d have good news for us.
“Estellira, is it safe to approach?” Aidan’s wary voice seeped through the cloak of shadows, and heat burned my cheeks. How had I been so caught up in Reign I hadn’t even heard his advance?
My poor surrogate father had nearly caught us in a variety of compromising positions in the past week. Reign tried to convince me it was perfectly normal for a pair of newly-mated Fae. Still, it was embarrassing that he knew what was happening right under his nose.
Releasing Reign’s hands, I stepped out from within the wall of spiraling shadows. “Yes, of course, Aidan.”
He marched closer, all the formidable Light Fae soldier.
In the past few days, he’d spent hours huddled around the table with Reign and the others in what my mate referred to as the war room.
The grand chamber that overlooked the courtyard of Duskridge Manor had been converted into strategy central, the meeting place in the wee hours of the night when our friends were able to escape the confines of Luce and Arcanum.
I barely saw Rue and Sy unless it was around that gods’ forsaken table, and I missed them dearly. At least, now that we were returning to Luce, we would all be together. Despite all our plotting, there was little we could do until Helroth and his army emerged from hiding.
“I suppose the time has come to wish you farewell once again, estellira.” A weariness, bone-deep, settled across his features as he lifted his hand to cradle my cheek.
“It won’t be long this time, Aidan. We’ll be back for you and Kaelith before you know it. As much as my mate wishes it weren’t true, we need him. And I will always need you.” I squeezed his hand. “Plus, we’ll need your expertise once the battle is upon us.”
He dipped his head, emotion surging across those pale gray eyes. The glint of the moon’s gentle rays across my medallion caught my foster father’s attention, and his thumb and index finger closed around my necklace.
“Ethria sael, dravorn ethrae,” he whispered.
How could I have forgotten the inscription along the back? The one Aidan had sworn he knew nothing about when he gifted it to me all those months ago.
My breath caught. “What does it mean?”
Aidan hesitated, his thumb lingering against the medallion like it might burn him.
The thunderous pounding of wings slicing the air called my attention skyward. Sol’s glittering, golden form pierced the darkness with Phantom at his heels.
It means “Bound by love, awakened by fate” in old Faerish. Sol’s voice slithered across my skull before Aidan could respond. If he could at all, which I wasn’t certain given the vow he’d sworn.
My heart stilled. Bound by love… awakened by fate. The words echoed across my mind, twisting and twirling as I considered them. The mystical spell that had cloaked my powers at birth, bound by my parents’ love and awakened by the prophecy, or maybe even by the fated cuorem.
“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” I shouted out loud as Sol’s talons hit the earth along the cliffs below.
Because it didn’t mean anything before, and now, it means everything, little Kin.
Secretive, cagey, irritating dragon.
I heard that. A hint of amusement laced his tone.
Good.
Once I refocused my attention on Aidan, a wry smile tilted the corners of his mouth. “Now you know, my child.”
It was still only a sliver of the past I still ached to understand. It was clear my parents loved me, but why hadn’t they fought harder to keep me? And how did they die? And how had a Light Fae king end up falling for a Night Fae princess of mixed origins?
“Aidan, I have so many more questions about them…”
His lips pressed into a tight line, and remorse etched into his features. “I know, and I wish I could give them to you, estellira,” he murmured, sorrow threading through every syllable.
I opened my mouth to protest, but Reign’s arm coiled around my waist, his presence ever steady in the sea of turmoil we constantly navigated. “Come, starlight. It’s time we return to the academy. Let’s hope there’s more waiting for us at Luce than just war. There may be answers, too.”