Chapter Thirty-One
Aelia
An hour later and Tenebris’s war room was teeming with activity. Not only had the general of the Umbral Guard joined us, but also a few of the other Shadow commanders who’d been stationed nearby. But perhaps, my most favorite addition of all was Aidan.
It had taken every ounce of willpower I possessed not to throw my arms around my adoptive father and give into the tears that had threatened the moment he walked in.
Even now, I was barely holding it together.
I couldn’t wait to have a minute alone with the male who’d raised me.
The male who’d given me everything he could, not because he had to, but because he’d chosen to.
But right now, he wasn’t my kind, caring adoptive father, he was the formidable general who’d led the king’s armies into war.
Maps littered the massive obsidian table, weighed down by daggers and rusted pieces of armor, each mark and scribbled rune another reminder of the blood already spilled. The blood I was responsible for when Helroth had skulked into my mind and forced my hand.
A lantern flickered above us, the dim light casting harsh shadows across the faces of the assembled commanders.
The general of the Umbral Guard, a grizzled male with hair like onyx stone and eyes like cold steel, stabbed a finger at the map.
“We hold the Light Fae here.” His voice was clipped, final.
“Now, as for the bigger issue…” His finger ran across the schematic.
“The Night Fae hadn’t expected us to fight together, which was what gave us the edge today, but that surely won’t be the case next time.
Beyond that, we do not know the breadth of their forces.
I suggest we wait, fortify, and strike only when we are certain of victory. ”
Murmurs of agreement rose from the other Umbral commanders, each wearing the exhaustion of the last battle like a second skin.
“We wait?” Shadows licked up Reign’s forearms, restless. “And let Helroth gather strength while we sit in the dark? Let him choose when and where to strike again?”
Ruhl crossed his arms, shadows shifting across his shoulders as he leaned forward. “Reign’s right. If we wait, we risk Helroth regaining control of the Wilds and moving into the vulnerable Kin lands of Feywood. We need to move now before they understand the full breadth of our power.”
“And leave our lands undefended? For Elian to attack again?” another commander barked, slamming his fist against the table. “We’re fighting a war on two fronts. We’ll be slaughtered!”
“Better that than waiting like sheep for the blade to fall,” Reign snapped, eyes flashing. The cuorem zipped to life between us, pounding with his frustration.
Aidan cleared his throat, drawing every eye as his calloused fingers smoothed a crease on the map. His presence alone quieted the room, the bickering stuttering into silence.
“There is merit in caution,” Aidan said, his voice even, but the steel beneath it was clear.
“You are not wrong, Reign. Helroth will not stop unless we make him. But if we march now, exhausted and scattered, with half-trained students at our flanks, we risk a massacre we cannot afford. We need time to regroup and to train together, Light and Shadow as one.”
Reign’s jaw clenched, his shadows twitching and poised to strike, but he said nothing.
Across the table, I stood with my arms crossed, the cold stone seeping into my boots. I watched as Aidan, Reign, Ruhl, and the commanders argued, counter-argued, and circled the same truth they were all too stubborn to admit.
They were terrified.
And so was I.
Every moment they argued, my thoughts wandered.
To Heaton’s pale face, the way his hands twitched in that nightmare sleep he couldn’t wake from.
To the haggard expressions of the students who’d fled with us.
And most of all, to the argument with Reign.
It haunted me. The idea of sacrificing the male I loved for a realm that might never be grateful, that might never be saved, churned like acid in my stomach.
I pressed a hand against my ribs, where the cuorem vibrated softly, anchoring me and reminding me of who I was. Who I had to be.
But not yet.
Not tonight.
“Enough.” Aidan’s voice cut through the tension like a blade. “We are all tired. We will gain nothing by tearing at each other in this state.”
Ruhl exhaled, running a hand through his tangled hair. “Agreed.”
Reign didn’t move, his eyes locked on the map and jaw working.
I stepped closer to him, close enough for my shoulder to brush his. The cuorem thudded in quiet acknowledgment between us.
“We will decide in the morning,” I announced softly, but firmly. “Rest, all of you. We need to be clear-headed if we are to stand a chance against Helroth.”
For a moment, no one moved.
It was Aidan who first nodded, then Ruhl, the final signal needed to send the commanders shuffling out. As they moved, some muttered while others were silent, but at least we’d decided to leave the decision for tomorrow.
When they were gone, only Reign, Ruhl, Aidan and I remained, the war room quieter now, but no less heavy, for the conversations yet to come.
Reign’s hand found mine, our fingers tangling, and the bond snapped tight.
My heart throbbed in response, a reminder that even here, even now, we still had each other.
But as we stood in the silence, listening to the fortress creak around us, I couldn’t shake the cold certainty curling in my chest.
Tomorrow, we would have to choose.
“What is it like, being back here in your old home?” I voiced the question the turmoil of emotions surging through our bond already hinted at the answer to. But I asked it all the same, hoping to help Reign somehow.
Perhaps, if he shared what had him in such turmoil, it would help him begin to heal.
He scoffed, ripping his gaze from the window that overlooked the courtyard.
After the meeting in the war room, we’d all gone our separate ways, and Reign had escorted me to this chamber for the first time since our arrival.
It was dark and sumptuous, with a sprawling bed and shadows that hung in every corner.
I wondered if this had been his childhood bedroom, although somehow, I doubted it.
His gaze flickered through the open window once again and held for a long moment. Beyond the ramparts, the dark waves of the Shadowmere Sea churned. Was he thinking about our time at Duskridge Manor? Or had his thoughts traveled farther back in time?
He finally exhaled, shadows coiling and uncoiling through his fingertips, restless.
“What is it like?” he repeated, voice low.
His gaze roamed across the cold, obsidian walls, the flickering torchlight that couldn’t quite banish the darkness clinging to the corners.
“It’s like walking through a mausoleum.” His jaw tightened.
“Every hallway, every stone in this place remembers the worst parts of me. The boy I was, the monster he made me into. The expectations, the punishments. The blood on the floors that never really washed away.”
Sorrow tore at my insides for that young boy. He never spoke of what his father had done to him, what brutal methods he’d employed to hone him into his own personal weapon.
He glanced at me, swallowing hard. “It’s like coming home to a nightmare I can’t wake up from.” Then softer, barely above a whisper as he let his shadows reach for me, he murmured, “But having you here... makes it bearable.”
I didn’t think, didn’t speak. Only launched myself into his arms.
His breath caught as I collided with him, my arms wrapping around his neck, pulling him down to me.
Shadows coiled around us instinctively, dark and protective, and gods, I reveled in their silky touch.
I pressed closer, needing him to feel how deeply I believed him, how desperately I wanted to chase away the ghosts clinging to his skin.
To show him that he didn’t always have to be strong, that I could help shoulder that weight for him. That I would.
“Reign,” I whispered against his throat, my lips brushing the pulse pounding there. “You’re not that boy anymore.”
His hands fisted in my hair, in the fabric at my back, pulling me against him so hard I could barely breathe. The cuorem thundered, a wild, reckless drum between us. Heat slowly built as our powers tangled, light flickering across the shadows curling around us.
I tipped my head back, meeting the storm roiling in his midnight eyes. “And you’re not alone anymore. You never will be.”
His jaw clenched, a muscle ticking as his gaze roved over my face like he was memorizing every line. “Aelia, I—”
I cut off his words with my mouth, pressing my lips to his with a hunger that tore the breath from us both. He froze for a heartbeat before he began to kiss me back in earnest. His shadows flared, wrapping around us in a cocoon as if even they couldn’t bear to let the world see what was ours alone.
His hands slid down to my waist, lifting me effortlessly until I was pressed against the cold stone wall, warmth sparking wherever we touched. I gasped into his mouth, my legs instinctively wrapping around him, and he swallowed the sound, his tongue sweeping against mine, claiming, desperate, home.
I threaded my fingers through his hair, tugging him closer.
I guided my light to bleed into him, hoping to soothe the darkness that trembled in his shadows.
His hands gripped my thighs, pinning me against him.
The friction of our bodies had the cuorem flaring with desire, our powers sparking and hissing where they met.
“Starlight,” he rasped against my lips, his forehead pressing to mine as we both struggled to catch our breath, our bodies still moving, seeking more, seeking everything from each other. “Tell me to stop.”
I shook my head, breathless, a small, wild laugh slipping free as I cupped his face. “Never.”
His answering growl vibrated through me. Then his mouth was on mine again, slower now, deeper, as if he was trying to pour everything he felt into the kiss. And, maybe, he was, because I felt it all—his fear, his desire, his love—wrapping around me as surely as his shadows.
In that moment, there was no fortress, no tyrant of a father, and no looming war.
There was only us.
As his shadows worked to peel away every shred of clothing between us, I lost myself in the heat of his desperate kisses and in the overwhelming desire raging between us. This was supposed to be for him, but I hadn’t realized how much I needed it, too.
And when not a scrap of clothing lay between us, he swept me into his arms, carrying me across the room where he laid me down and stretched me out across the bed.
As he hovered over me, his eyes locked on mine, wild and yet reverent, he fitted himself between my thighs.
Then, ever so slowly, he thrust inside me, and I saw stars.
A gasp tore from my lips, caught between pleasure and the burn of the cuorem flaring to life in a way it never had before.
The bond thrummed so fiercely it almost hurt.
His name slipped past my lips like a prayer as I clung to him.
Legs wrapping around his hips once again, I grounded myself in the searing heat of him, in the way his shadows caressed my skin while he held me like I was something precious.
As his hands roamed my body, his fingers traced the mark of the cuorem on my chest. Sparks of light glittered beneath his fingertip, stealing the breath from my lungs. “Mine,” he growled.
“Yours,” I replied, finding the matching mark below his collarbone. “Always yours.”
“Gods, Aelia,” he groaned against my neck, his breath hot and ragged as I met each of his fevered thrusts. His shadows trembled as they rippled across my back, dancing with the light pulsing from my skin. “I need—”
“I know,” I whispered, pressing my lips to his jaw, then his cheek, before finding his mouth again. I poured everything I couldn’t say into the kiss. Every fear, every promise, every broken piece we’d been trying to hold together.
He moved inside me with a desperation that matched the thunder of my heart, each thrust pulling a cry from my throat as the pleasure built, sharp and sweet. The world narrowed until there was nothing but him, us, and the storm we created together.
Light and shadow twined around us, a dance of darkness and dawn that mirrored the rhythm of our bodies. I was shaking, the heat coiling tight, so close to breaking apart.
“Look at me,” he growled, pulling back just enough to catch my gaze. Those midnight irises blazed, shadows coiling like smoke around the bright glow of the cuorem between us. “I need you to see how much I love you.”
“I see you,” I gasped. Tears slipped free as I arched into him, feeling the world shatter around us as the wave of pleasure crested.
And then, I fell, the stars exploding behind my eyes as pure ecstasy crashed through me, stealing my breath.
Rais pulsed around me, bright enough to banish every shadow in the room.
Until the dark wraiths returned, curling around me like a lover’s embrace, Reign’s embrace, as he followed me over the edge with a hoarse cry of my name.
For a moment, we didn’t move, our bodies pressed together, trembling. Our hearts pounded in sync as the cuorem pulsed, warm, soft, and alive between us. For once satiated.
“I love you more than anything, Aelia,” he murmured against my parted lips as I still struggled for air.
“I know,” I whispered back.
“And I was wrong before… As much as it would gut me, I do love you enough to let you go.”
My breath hitched, head already whipping back and forth. “No…”
“If only for the public eye, for the sake of unifying Aetheria,” he amended. “But behind closed doors, you will always be mine.”
I framed his face with my trembling hands.
“You, my Prince Reign of Umbra, may be selfless enough to allow such a thing, but I am not. I cannot tie myself to another, even if it is in paper only. I belong to you, wholly and completely. We will find another way to unify the courts without a royal marriage.”
A lopsided smile quirked up the corner of his lips. “Is that your royal decree, my princess?”
“It is. And you, as my humble servant, have no other choice but to comply.”
A deep rumble of laughter vibrated through his chest, reverberating against my own. And it was the most glorious sound I’d ever heard.