Chapter Ten
Reign
“You’re certain we should start with Draven?” Aelia’s voice wavered as we traversed the grand corridors of the Hall of Luminescence the following morning. “I stood against an entire army of Light and Shadow Fae, but the headmaster…” She shivered. “Gods, I despise him.”
I didn’t slow. “We don’t have a choice.” I threaded my fingers through hers, bringing our clasped hands to my lips. “He’s Elian’s puppet, after all.”
The night spent with her in my arms had fortified me and strengthened my resolve.
I dreaded this encounter, but if we wished to unify the courts, the dueling academies were the perfect places to start.
They were our first line of defense, after all.
The soldiers, the ones out there caught in this battle, were once students, Royal Guardians from the Court of Ethereal Light and the Umbral Guard from my side of the Luminoc.
Surely, we could find a way to put aside our differences long enough to subdue the real enemy.
“About my uncle…” A whisper of unease sailed through our bond.
“We will tread carefully, Aelia, I promise. I don’t trust the royal one bit, but we need him.
Right now, he is the lesser of two evils.
” My thoughts retreated to the scene Ruhl had imparted on us with his shadows.
Tenebris wouldn’t move a finger to help us, which only solidified my decision.
As King of the Umbral Court, he was of no use to us any longer.
I would turn him over to Elian at the earliest opportunity and put an end to this looming fear.
Once the threat of my father’s cursed blood vow was eliminated, nothing would stand between Aelia and me again. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself. But fate rarely gave without a cost. And Helroth never played fairly.
She nodded, quickening her pace down the luminescent hall. She was once again back in her training leathers, the familiar sight transporting me to an easier time, to hours spent on the field battling with her reluctant rais. Sometimes, I wished we could go back to those simpler days.
The gilded double doors of the headmaster’s office loomed ever closer, only a few more steps away, at the end of the hallway.
Shaking my head out to loosen the fond memories, I focused on the task at hand.
The time for inaction was over. Now, we must tell Draven the truth and determine where he stood.
I paused at the entrance, my knuckles hovering inches from the gold-laden door.
My shadows surged around me, that influx of nox and zar rising to the surface.
There would be no going back now. Once Draven knew Aelia was alive and the child of twilight, the line would be drawn.
He would either be on our side… or dead.
I wouldn’t risk stealing his memories or replacing them with ones I’d crafted. Not now, when the situation was already so precarious.
Aelia’s hand closed around mine, and she gently brought my knuckles to the plated door. The sharp knock echoed across the suddenly quiet space.
“Who is it?” Draven barked, voice still sharp through the thick doors.
“It’s Professor Darkthorn with an important visitor.”
The door whipped open, the old Fae moving faster than I’d ever seen. He appeared in the doorway, in a similarly disheveled state as the last time I’d seen him, weeks ago. His bushy silver brows nearly reached his hairline as he took in Aelia, a gasp dying at the back of his throat.
“You were supposed to be dead,” he finally muttered.
My shadows coiled around me, wraiths of darkness prepared to strike should the old Fae attempt to make a move against my cuoré.
Aelia stood beside me, spine snapped straight, shoulders thrown back and chin held high. “Well, I’m not dead as you can see, Headmaster Draven. Nice to see you again.”
I wasn’t sure if she even realized it, but a storm of rais, nox and zar seeped from her pores, blanketing her in an ethereal orb of light and shadow.
“Raysa, save us,” he mumbled under his breath as he took her in.
“I’m afraid it was the goddess herself who started it all,” Aelia replied succinctly.
“I simply cannot believe it.” He leaned against the threshold, jaw hanging open so that his trailing white beard brushed the folds of his tattered robe.
“You truly are the one, the child spoken of in the prophecy, aren’t you?
” His words carried a tangle of fear and dread but laced beneath was a hint of awe.
“Can we continue this discussion inside your office, perhaps?” I offered.
His head dipped, eyes never deviating from my cuoré as he motioned for us to enter. It took all my restraint to keep from shoving her behind my back, to keep her away from that intrusive gaze.
Draven shuffled around his massive desk, sinking into the high-backed chair and nearly disappearing behind the tower of tomes sprawled across the lightwood. Once again, I was taken aback by the state of disarray.
What was the headmaster researching that had him in such a frenzy?
I scanned the ancient texts across the desk: The Codex of Aetheria, Lumen et Umbra: The Sacred Binaries, Vitae Nocturna: The Lineage of Night.
I was fairly certain the last one was a forbidden genealogical record of the Night Court’s royal bloodline, a text that had long been banned in the Light Court.
Did he remember anything about my previous visit? Or had King Elian shared news of the true heir’s return?
“Please, sit down.” He motioned to the chairs in front of the desk, both cluttered with scrolls and more timeworn textbooks. Loosing a pair of shadows, I cleared both seats, gently depositing all the reading material on the floor.
Aelia folded into the chair, and I followed her lead, perching on the edge of the leather cushion. I would never be truly at ease in the presence of this Light Fae, not after everything he’d put me through during my tenure at the Conservatory.
He dipped his head at Aelia before his wide eyes pivoted to mine. “Now, is someone going to explain to me how this is possible? How is she still alive after all this time?”
So, Elian had not briefed the headmaster about her return. Or, he was a talented liar. I supposed either could be true.
“I was captured by the King of Infernal Night,” Aelia answered, her reply deceptively calm despite the turmoil raging through our bond. “He kept me prisoner within Helspire Keep, and during that time, he unbound my powers.”
“Remarkable…” he muttered. “I can almost see them, as clear as Raysa’s blessed day.” He squinted as he regarded her, as if he could pinpoint the glittering swirl of rais, the dark tendrils of nox and the inky void of zar.
I sat forward, placing a palm on the headmaster’s desk. “The Night King is planning to strike against both courts, Draven. It is imperative we prepare now before we are plunged into yet another war.”
His Adam’s apple jogged along the wrinkled column of his throat.
“We must unify the Courts of Light and Shadow, and that begins with the academies, with Luce and Arcanum. We have foolishly fought each other for too long. Now we must join together against the Night Court before they destroy everything.”
His eyes narrowed, an unexpected surge of fury livening the pale gray of his eyes.
“Don’t you think we’ve tried, Darkthorn?
” he growled. “Why do you think we continue these inane trials every term? Malakar knows what lies beyond the Wilds, just as well as I do. Those beasts of lore are nothing compared to the true monsters out there—the Night Court.”
I drew in a sharp breath. Noxus, Malakar knew as well. All of them have been keeping the truth from their people for years now.
“It’s that damned King Tenebris,” he continued. “He refuses to raise a finger. Sure, he sends his Umbral Guard to keep the Demon fiends at bay, but to organize a coordinated attack? Nothing.”
“Why not?” Aelia interjected.
“Only Noxus knows.” His rounded shoulders lifted slowly. “King Elian believes Helroth and Tenebris have struck a deal behind his back. The Night and Shadow Courts were once allies, and he believes they’re gathering against him.”
Aelia’s gaze swung at me, fear blossoming. Gods, Tenebris and Helroth united against Light could prove too daunting to overcome. I could never allow that alliance to solidify. Which meant, I had to move against Father immediately.
Once I confirmed Elian’s loyalty to my mate.
“The King has sworn to protect Aelia, and I am here now asking you to swear the same.”
Draven’s light brows knitted, his expression souring. “Why would he ever do that when the very existence of the child of twilight risks the destruction of all Aetheria? More importantly, do you expect me to trust a weapon forged by the Night?”
“I do. Because I can deliver something Elian wants more.”
“More than the safety of our courts?” He lifted a skeptical brow.
“Yes,” I hissed.
He steepled his hands, leaning on the desk. “And what is that?”
“My father, King Tenebris.”
All the years of abuse under his hand were nearly worth it for that look of utter shock and disbelief.
“Yes, that’s right, Draven. All this time, you’ve been harboring the king’s bastard.” I shot him a feral grin, a wave of shadows darkening the room. “Do you have any idea how easily I could have destroyed you and your precious Conservatory?”
Aelia’s hand closed over mine, squeezing gently. Now is not the time, my love. We need his help, remember? Her voice slid through my mind, calming the building rage, and my buzzing shadows reluctantly retreated.
Noxus, I hate it when you’re the levelheaded one.
She smirked, hand releasing mine, but Draven’s curious gaze caught the exchange.
“I always knew there was something between you.” Those pale, lifeless eyes darted toward Aelia before turning to lock on my own. “The way you protected her, coddled her. I’d never seen you like that with any of your acquisitions.”
Aelia and I had debated telling him the truth of our connection, and in the end, we’d decided for it.
He, along with everyone else, would figure it out eventually anyway.
The fact that we were cuoré wouldn’t change anything.
The fact that Aelia was King Alaric’s daughter, though, that was a different story.
We’d decided not to divulge that essential piece of information to anyone.
It was critical to diminish Aelia’s threat to Elian’s claim to the throne as best we could.
The fewer people that knew the truth, the safer she’d be.
“Reign is my cuoré,” Aelia breathed. “We completed the sacred bond and are bound to each other for life.”
Again, those brows arched. “Realms, you truly were blessed by the gods, weren’t you, Kin?”
Blessed, cursed, who knew? It was still too soon to say.
Aelia rose slowly. The scent of rais thickened, electric and bright, moments before her luminescent wings erupted like twin blades of dawn. Even I had to blink against the brilliance.
Draven gasped, the satisfying sound causing a smile to stretch across my cuoré’s face.
“As you can see, Headmaster, I am no longer just a lowly Kin. I am Light Fae, but more than that, I was born of Shadow and Night as well. I am King Helroth’s granddaughter, Princess of the Court of Infernal Night.”
“Good gods,” he spluttered.
“I may carry Night in my veins, but my heart belongs to the Light. I choose to heal and nurture, to become a beacon of hope and bring forth a new dawn. I will never be the harbinger of doom or what my grandsire hoped to make me.”
“And what is that?”
“His weapon.”
Please, Aelia, do not tell him of the hold Helroth has on you. There is no need to exacerbate his fears. I shot the thought through our bond. The last thing we needed was for Draven to make a foolish decision out of panic.
I won’t. I only need him to understand that I’m on his side.
Narrowing my eyes at the old Fae, I steeled my tone. “So, what do you choose, Draven? Will you fight with us for the students on this campus and for all the residents of Aetheria?”
Draven’s mouth opened, then closed. And in the stillness that followed, the fate of an entire realm hung in the balance.