Chapter Thirty-Six
Reign
“What is the meaning of this?” Ruhl stormed into our chambers, shadows whipping across his agitated form as if he were king of the gods’ damned castle.
Which, technically he was, but that was beside the point.
“Where have you been, brother?” he snarled in my direction, then glanced at Aelia, expression softening a tad.
As if it hadn’t been bad enough to tell Aelia I’d lost our father, now, I had to admit it to Ruhl. Only a few days as Shadow Regent and the power had gone straight to his oversized head.
“We’ve been waiting for hours to convene in the war room.” His heavy footfalls reverberated across the space. “Everyone’s antsy, the soldiers are stumbling around with no purpose, the students are frightened—”
“I’m fully aware,” I gritted out.
“Well, then, explain.”
“Tenebris is gone.” I hissed the words, anger and shame lacing my tone.
“What do you mean gone?”
“He’s no longer being held prisoner in Elian’s castle. That’s where I went today… to attempt to clean up my damned mess.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Reign.” He dragged his hand through his short, dark locks, gaze flickering to Aelia once again.
“It doesn’t mean he’s escaped,” Aelia interjected, seemingly reading my brother’s dark glare. “Elian could have simply moved him somewhere for safekeeping now that our sham of an alliance has been severed.”
Ruhl grunted. “Either way, it means that Reign is vulnerable to the blood vow, which in turn, puts you at risk.”
“Which means it’s simply another typical day for me.” Aelia crossed her arms over her chest, scowling. “Elian wouldn’t have just released him—”
“So, what if he’s escaped?” my half-brother barked, the words carrying more venom than I’d expected.
“Don’t you think he would have come by now?” Aelia replied.
“Who knows with Father…” I paced the length of the chamber, shadows trailing my frenzied steps. “He claimed to have known about you all along. If that was the case, then why wouldn’t he have acted sooner? You’ve been at the Conservatory for a year!”
Ruhl hummed, a flash of something unreadable rushing across his face.
“What?” I snapped.
He took a step back, hitting the roughhewn wall. “Nothing…”
My brows furrowed as I took him in, then the sudden nervous flutter of his shadows. He was lying about something.
“Ruhl, so help me, now is not the time to hold anything back.” My shadows surged toward him, my building frustration sending them scattering like wraiths. “If you know something, tell us.”
“Please,” Aelia added, inching closer as if to shield my brother from my billowing power.
Gods, one look from my cuoré, and my brother all but melted. The tight set of his jaw softened, something near to a smile quirking his lips. Could he still be harboring feelings for her?
Shadows pulsed beneath my skin, hot and volatile as I stared at my brother across the chamber. “You’re hiding something,” I growled, my voice a blade honed with suspicion.
Ruhl’s gaze flicked to Aelia, then back to me, shoulders tightening once more, jaw locked. Shadows curled at his feet like restless snakes.
“Tell me,” I snapped, stepping closer. “Now.”
His lips parted, then shut again. Gods, if he didn’t speak soon, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hold back the building zar. I could simply force it out of him and be done with this.
Aelia’s hand brushed my arm, a gentle tether to my roiling emotions. “Please, Ruhl,” she whispered again, her voice softer, but somehow sharper. “No more lies.”
Ruhl’s shoulders sagged, as if the air had finally been crushed from his lungs. “I didn’t think it mattered anymore,” he whispered, his eyes fixed to the floor. “But maybe it always did.”
“What are you talking about?” My voice sliced through the space between us, jagged and ice cold.
He looked up, and there was something there, something I hadn’t seen in him before. Regret. Bone-deep, potent regret.
“Before I was born, before any of us were born—” Ruhl started, his voice hoarse, “Father made a pact.”
My stomach dropped, shadows curling tighter.
“A pact?” Aelia’s voice wavered, but she held firm beside me.
Ruhl nodded once, lips pressed into a thin line. “With the Night King.”
The air thinned.
“Tenebris promised his heir,” Ruhl whispered, “to a Night Fae princess.”
The words hit like a punch to the ribs. I staggered back a step, but Aelia’s hold only tightened, my jaw tight enough to crack. “You’re lying.” My voice was barely human.
“I’m not.” His eyes met mine, full of guilt, and something worse.
Truth. “I didn’t know it was her back then.
Father never realized he’d unknowingly tethered me to the child of twilight, or that he set you on a path to murder my future wife when he made the pact.
I doubt Helroth did. Then, Aelia appeared at the Conservatory last year.
Father never said it in so many words, but he hinted that she may have been ‘the one’.
He told me my marriage would unify the courts, strengthen his hold on power. ”
Aelia’s breath caught beside me, her hand slipping from my arm as realization dawned. “At the ball…” she murmured. “That’s why you asked me not to complete the cuorem bond with Reign. You knew then…”
“I suspected.”
“Gods,” she hissed.
And it was why he’d suggested the marriage back at Shadowmere all those weeks ago. He’d always wanted her and the power that came with binding himself to the child of twilight.
Ruhl’s gaze darted to her, then back to me.
“You have to understand that at the time, the Night Fae were extinct for all I knew. But now, I realize Father knew exactly who she was from the moment she set foot on campus. And if that’s the case, maybe he’s known for years that Helroth and his demons were still alive. ”
My fists clenched, shadows ripping from my skin like claws. “And you didn’t think to mention this before?”
“I didn’t know for sure until now,” he shot back, but his tone was brittle. Weak. “Even after the truth came out about Aelia’s bloodline, I told myself it was just a coincidence. She couldn’t be the Night Fae princess I’d been bound to.”
“But Father didn’t forget,” I snarled, the darkness twisting tighter, sharper. “That’s why he never called in the vow. He wanted you to marry her. To tie her to you.”
“I didn’t want that,” Ruhl snapped, shadows flaring behind him. “Don’t you dare think for a second that I—”
“Didn’t you?” The words cut from me, cold and merciless. “Don’t lie to me, Ruhl. I see the way you look at her. Still.”
His mouth clamped shut, his eyes darting toward Aelia for a breath, guilt bleeding through.
I stepped between them, shadows writhing at my back.
“She’s mine. She will always be mine.” The words scraped raw from my throat, the zar lashing against my veins, all but begging to be released.
“Father may have attempted to bind you to her, but the gods chose her for me.” The cuorem burned in my chest, a wild, desperate ache.
“Reign…” Aelia’s voice was soft, but it was enough to ground me before I snapped completely. “Let him speak.”
I forced my breaths to steady, though every part of me screamed to drag Ruhl through my shadows and leave him broken and bleeding.
“I didn’t want this,” Ruhl repeated, but his words rang hollow now, and we all knew it. “I didn’t ask for this.”
“No, but you knew,” I hissed. “And you kept it to yourself. All this time.”
“Gods, it all makes so much sense now,” Aelia murmured. “Why Helroth had wanted to remove Reign from my memories, why he wanted me to believe I loved Ruhl…”
Ruhl’s shoulders slumped against the wall, shadows coiling at his feet like smoke. “I didn’t know how to tell you. Either of you.”
“You should have told us the moment you suspected,” I spat, every word a blade. “We’re not children playing court games anymore.”
“You forget what our relationship was like before Helroth took her, Reign. You despised me. If I’d told you the truth about your precious mate, you would have destroyed me before I even had a chance to explain.”
“Damn right,” I growled.
Ruhl let out a rueful chuckle, that regret carved into his twisted lips once again. “You see? I had no choice but to keep it to myself until I knew for certain. Now that you’ve confirmed Father knew who Aelia was all along, it makes perfect sense.”
“Fucking Tenebris.” The words were a curse, a condemnation to the male who’d brought me nothing but pain my entire life.
Aelia’s hand found mine as she moved to my side, her fingers threading through my own, but there was a tremor in her touch now. Her silence cut deeper than any dagger.
I turned to her, my heart twisting. “Starlight…”
She swallowed hard, her gaze locked on the floor, even as her grip tightened. “So all this time… all these months… we’ve been maneuvered like pieces on a gods’ damned chessboard.”
“Aelia, I swear—” Ruhl started.
“No.” Her voice sharpened, rais flickering across her fingertips, eyes lifting to meet mine then settling on Ruhl’s. “Whatever vow your father made to the Night King, it dies with him. I won’t be anyone’s pawn anymore.” Her words echoed in the room, a final decree.
But my shadows still raged.
“We ensure the Light and Shadow Fae forces are prepared to fight, then we go after Helroth,” she whispered, her voice steel wrapped in silk. “And after that, we burn the rest of his gods’ forsaken court to ash. Then, and only then, we find Tenebris and put an end to this once and for all.”
I held her hand tighter, but the pain didn’t ease. Because deep down, I knew this wasn’t over.
Not the war. Not the prophecy. And not the silent battle between the three of us.