Chapter Twenty-Four
Reign
I took one step back, then another. The bond between us pulled tight, a thread of light and shadow straining between our chests, quivering with every unspoken word, every fear.
“Reign,” Aelia whispered, her hand still outstretched.
And gods, it nearly broke me. The look on her face, the pain in her voice.
I lifted my eyes to meet hers, wading through a cloud of nothing but darkness and perpetual torment, before tearing my gaze away. Shadows swirled around my fingertips as I took another step back.
And the bond snapped.
The pain was so sharp, it lanced across my chest, scorching my insides. The cuorem pulsed, vengeful and furious. As if even the mere mention of another forced separation had it eager for blood.
Aelia’s hand was clasped across her chest as if she’d felt it too. “No,” she growled, launching herself at me.
Her warmth seared through the cold that had been clawing at me since I’d left her side. Her fists curled into my tunic, bunching the blood-speckled fabric, pulling me down so our foreheads touched.
“You don’t get to leave me,” she hissed, breathless and trembling. “Not like this. Not ever.”
“Aelia,” I rasped, forcing down the ache in my throat.
The cuorem screamed for me to stay, to hold her.
“You don’t understand. If he finishes the command, if he slips even a whisper of the vow through the shadows, I won’t be able to stop myself.
I will become the blade he made me, and I will—” My voice broke. “I will kill you.”
She shook her head fiercely, tears glittering in her eyes like shattered stars. “I don’t believe that. You would never hurt me.”
“I’d have no choice!” I roared, frustration gnawing at my last shreds of restraint.
“There has to be another way. We will find it. We will fight it.”
“I can’t take that risk.” My voice was raw, torn from somewhere deep and bleeding. “I would rather leave you and live with the agony of this bond tearing me apart than ever risk hurting you.”
Her grip tightened, her power flaring beneath her skin. Light and shadow danced around us as the cuorem pulsed, thrumming in the space between our bodies. “You think I’ll let you walk away? That I will stand here and watch you rip this bond apart, piece by piece, just to protect me?”
“Aelia—”
“No!” Her voice cracked, but her eyes were wildfire, the vivid blue I loved blazing. “I would rather die by your hand than live in a world without you.”
The words punched the air from my lungs. The cuorem flared, her words echoing in my mind.
She pressed closer, the glittering strands that stretched between us pulling tight, already mending what had snapped. The warmth flooded back into the hollow places inside me. Her hand cupped my jaw, forcing me to meet her gaze and to see the unyielding promise there.
“We will find a way to break the vow,” she whispered, softer now. “You and me. Together. There is always another way, Reign.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, shadows shaking around me, trembling with the effort to pull away even as every part of me begged to stay.
She pressed her forehead to mine again, and I felt her tears mingle with my own. I could feel her light seep into the cracks the darkness had left behind.
“I can’t lose you,” I choked.
“Then don’t,” she whispered.
The cuorem pulsed once more, a single, defiant thrum between us. And for a moment, I let myself believe her. Because the alternative was simply too terrible to bear.
I hadn’t told her yet, but I’d already sent word to Gideon. I needed him to double his efforts researching the scope of a blood vow and its effect on a cuorem. I prayed to Noxus he’d discover something before it was too late.
“Gideon?” Her eyes met mine, the flash of hope like a gut punch.
“He’s cross-referencing any instances of a blood vow when a cuorem was at play.” My shoulders lifted, then sagged at the weight of it all. “I’d had him researching the topic months ago before Helroth captured you, then once you were gone, we shifted focus.”
“Did he find anything?”
I shook my head slowly. “Aelia, if—”
“No.” She pressed her finger to my lips silencing me. “Don’t you dare say it. You will not, under any circumstances, leave me for my own good.”
My mouth curved into a reluctant smile beneath her touch. I knew she would never accept my leaving as an option, and it was exactly that stubbornness and endless optimism that made me love her so. But I’d had to try.
“Now, come with me.” She weaved her arm through mine and tugged me forward. “You look and smell awful. It’s time for a bath.”
The scent of burnt bread and charred wood clung to the newly mended banquet hall, refusing to leave even as the morning breeze drifted through the cracked windows. Plates clattered softly, spoons scraping against bowls in the quiet, but the usual chatter was gone.
I sat beside Aelia, close enough to feel the warmth of her thigh against mine. The steady hum of the cuorem was a muted pulse under my skin. It should have soothed me, but at this point, nothing could. Not after what I’d done. Not after what I’d nearly done.
His face flickered in my mind: Tenebris’s cold, merciless eyes glinting in the dark as he leaned forward, the chains rattling around his wrists and a cruel smile twisting his mouth.
“Reign of Umbra, by the blood that binds you—” The words had crawled across my skin like ice.
They’d sunken into my veins, wrapping around my lungs until I couldn’t breathe.
I squeezed my eyes closed to banish the memories. When I reopened them, Aelia’s face replaced his. Her eyes were wide and shimmering, pulling me back, grounding me. But the echo of my father’s words clung to me, still, a phantom pain in my chest that wouldn’t let me forget.
My plate was still mostly full. Steam from the porridge curled into the air before fading.
I couldn’t find the strength to lift my spoon.
Across the table, Rue was picking at her eggs with a scowl, stabbing them with more force than necessary.
Symon sat beside her, rolling a small piece of bread between his fingers.
His gaze darted around the hall, to anywhere but me.
“This place smells like smoke and defeat,” Rue muttered, twisting her fork.
“At least it’s quiet,” Symon replied.
I kept my eyes on the dark wood of the table, tracing the grain with my gaze as Aelia’s hand inched closer to mine. Her pinky brushed against my knuckles. I should have taken her hand. I should have pulled her into my arms and told her that I would fix all of this somehow.
But all I could think about was how close I had come to killing her. How close I still was.
The whispers started quietly, a few seats down. Low voices carried over the hush of the hall.
“They say King Elian captured the Shadow King…”
My jaw tightened, shadows flickering across my shoulders before I forced them to still.
“…locked him away in the dungeons of the Castle of Ethereal Light…”
Rue froze, her fork halfway to her mouth as she turned to look at me, eyes sharp. “Reign?”
Symon’s gaze followed hers, wide and uncertain. “Is it true?”
My temples throbbed, hot and furious, reminding me of everything I had done. Everything I had failed to do. I kept my eyes on the table, my hand curling into a fist so tight my knuckles burned.
“We might as well tell them.” Aelia’s voice was soft, but it cut deeper than any blade. Her hand slid over mine, her fingers warm and steady.
I looked up, meeting her eyes first. Gods, the way she looked at me, as if I wasn’t the monster I felt like. As if she still saw me. My gaze shifted to Rue, then Symon, both of them waiting, bracing for whatever truth I was about to unleash.
“It’s true.” My voice was low and rough, scraping against the silence. “Elian has Tenebris. I delivered him to the Light King.”
The air shifted, the murmurs in the hall turning from quiet to heavy, pressing down on us.
“You what?” Rue whisper-hissed, her fork clattering onto her plate.
“I brought him there,” I continued, voice barely above a whisper, each word a confession I hadn’t meant to give. “I fought him. I subdued him. I took him to the Light Court. I thought Elian would end him, end the vow and free me from him.”
Symon swallowed hard, glancing at Aelia before looking back at me. “And… did he?”
I shook my head once, shadows flickering around my wrist before I smothered them. My throat tightened, but I still managed the word. “No.”
Rue’s chair scraped back as she stood, leaning over the table, eyes blazing. “Reign, gods, why didn’t you tell us the plan?”
“What would you have done?” I snapped, before I could stop myself, shadows flaring. “It was my choice. My burden. He’s my gods’ damned father.”
Rue’s lips parted, her anger faltering as her gaze softened, then hurt flashed across her face. “Aelia is our family, Reign. And now you’ve bound yourself to her for all eternity, which means you are too. You don’t have to carry it alone.”
Silence streamed in again between us, thick and suffocating. Before I forced myself to look up and meet each of their eyes, I drew in a breath. “But I do,” I finally replied, my voice quiet and hollow. “I am Aelia’s cuoré, and it is my duty to protect her.”
“And she’s our best friend, so we’re more than happy to share some of that burden.”
“Right, what she said.” Symon pointed his fork at me.
Aelia’s hand squeezed mine, the cuorem thrumming between us, even as everything else felt like it was falling apart.
“You did what you thought you had to,” she whispered, her eyes shining. “But they’re right, you’re not alone in this. You’re never going to be alone again.”
I looked at her, allowing her light to burn into me. I let it chase the shadows back, even if just for a breath.
“Now what?” Symon asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
I closed my eyes, exhaling, the weight of everything pressing down on my shoulders. When I opened them, I let them see the promise there, the raging resolve I had left. “Now, we find a way to break the blood vow, or I go back and finish this with my father myself.”
“You can’t…” Aelia murmured. “Elian would never allow it—”
“Then I’ll kill him too.”