Chapter Thirty-Seven
Aelia
Another week of training and unnatural silence. Both from the Light King and my grandsire. Every day, our troops of Light and Shadow patrolled the border along the Luminoc, waiting for either one of our enemies to strike, and every damned day, there was nothing.
I almost wished they would come already.
Almost.
The full moon hung high in the sky, bathing the interminable darkness in its celestial glow.
If it weren’t for the unease skittering beneath my breastbone, I would have enjoyed the peaceful sight from where I perched, high on the balcony overlooking the Court of Umbral Shadows.
An icy breeze lifted off the sea, threading through my dark locks and raising the hair on my arms. I couldn’t stand it anymore, the waiting, the not knowing.
I convinced myself we were doing the right thing, doing what Aidan and the Shadow generals recommended: we were training our forces, preparing for war.
Still, I felt useless, trapped in this obsidian fortress.
I’d even ventured to Elisa’s chamber once, considering a second attempt at honing my Night powers of necromancy.
But I simply couldn’t force my fist up to knock.
The Night Fae possessed a whole slew of grisly abilities, but this was one I was certain I wanted no part of.
Which was why I had yet to mention it to Reign.
My mate had grown ever more broody and sullen since Tenebris’s disappearance and Ruhl’s great reveal. Try as I might, nothing seemed to help his constant state of agitation. Worse, I could feel the overpowering zar stealing into his veins, only stoking his burgeoning wrath.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Sol and Phantom were still at odds over cementing their mate bond.
Despite my constant coaxing, my stubborn dragon continued to waffle.
I simply couldn’t understand it. He loved Phantom, I could feel it through the mystical strands that connected us.
There had to be something else holding him back, but what?
A sharp knock from my chambers snapped me from my spiraling thoughts.
I stiffened, hand drifting toward the dagger sheathed at my thigh out of habit, but as I marched into the room, I already knew who it was.
Ruhl.
His shadows crept beneath the doorway, their familiarity striking. A heavy pulse of dread coiled in my gut as I paused midway. The Shadow Regent had been remarkably absent all week, leaving his generals and Reign to lead the training exercises.
I’d assumed he’d been avoiding me. Apparently, the respite was over.
“Come in,” I finally called out, wrapping my arms around myself as the weighty door heaved open.
Ruhl stood in the doorway, his face half-shadowed by moonlight, dark hair tousled from the wind, and eyes sharper than usual. He looked like a male who hadn’t slept in days.
“I found something,” he said without preamble, his voice rough, like it had been scraped raw from the inside. “A way to make this right.”
My stomach dropped. “Ruhl…”
“Just hear me out.”
I swallowed hard and nodded, motioning for him to enter.
Shutting the door behind him, he stepped closer, shadows licking at his heels, but his expression was stripped bare.
There was no royal mask tonight. Just my friend, my ally, and the male who apparently had once been promised to me in marriage.
“I’ve been working with Gideon,” he started, his tone clipped but careful. “We’ve been searching through the oldest texts, and we discovered new information. That a blood vow isn’t unbreakable.”
My pulse quickened. “What did you find?”
“There’s a way to sever it.” His jaw tightened, muscles twitching beneath his skin. “A sacrificial substitution.”
Cold crept down my spine. “What does that even mean?”
Ruhl’s eyes met mine, steady and unflinching. “It means someone else takes on the burden of the vow. They absorb the magic binding Reign to Tenebris’s control. They become the blade instead.”
“Raysa, that’s incredible. But who—” My words fell away as realization set in. “No.” My voice sliced through the air before he could reply.
“Aelia—”
“No, Ruhl.” I pressed a hand to my chest, where the cuorem suddenly throbbed. “You can’t.”
“I can.” His voice softened, but the weight, the determination behind it pressed on my lungs. “It’s the least I can do. I should’ve told you about the pact with Helroth as soon as I suspected. I could’ve—should’ve—stopped this before it began.”
“That wasn’t your fault.”
“Wasn’t it?” His eyes gleamed, shadows flickering in the corners of the room. “My father intended to use me to bind the courts together. And I stood by, pretending I had no part in it. But now, I can do something that matters.”
“How?”
“I’ll assume the vow and disappear, princess.” A wicked smirk curled his lips.
My throat tightened. “You’re the regent, Ruhl. You’re the future king. You can’t just vanish like that.”
“I don’t care about the crown.” His words came fast, ragged. “I care about protecting you. About protecting Aetheria.”
My lips parted, but no sound came out.
“I’m willing to leave it all behind,” he whispered. “Disappear if I have to. You and Reign can lead together without this hanging over your heads.”
“No,” I rasped again, stepping toward him, anger and grief tightening in my chest. Ruhl had lied, kept the truth from us, but he didn’t deserve this self-imposed banishment. “There has to be another way.”
His gaze dropped, a shadow of something flickering there. But I saw it.
I waited for a long moment, allowing him time to muddle out what he wanted to say. “What?” I finally breathed when he made no sign of continuing. “You’re still keeping something from me. Aren’t you?”
He huffed out a breath.
“Just say it already,” I hissed.
“There may be another possibility…”
My heart skipped. “What? What is it?”
He reached into his cloak and pulled out a parchment, unrolling it carefully on the table by the hearth. “The Moirai Shard.”
The words glittered across the ancient text, the faded script humming with powerful energy.
“You couldn’t have started with this option?” I threw him a playful grin, my relief at there being another possibility lightening the heaviness of just a moment ago.
“Maybe a part of me wanted to make sure you didn’t want me gone.”
I slowly shook my head. “We need you, Ruhl, all of us.”
He barked out a rueful laugh. “Heavy is the crown, as they say.”
“Now, tell me about this Moirai Shard.”
“It’s a relic said to be found in Lunaris,” he explained, his voice low. “It’s fabled to be one of the last remnants of the Threads of Fate, a shard of woven destiny itself. If the stories are true, it can sever any magical binding, curse, vow, or otherwise.”
I drew in a hopeful breath.
“But no one knows if it truly exists, or if it even has the power claimed,” he added.
Realms, this was the answer to our prayers. Not only could we use it to break the blood vow between Reign and his father, but also the one Helroth had imposed on me.
By blood and night, you are bound. Swear now, child of twilight, to bring down the Courts of Light and Shadow, until none but Night remains to rule the realm. By the will of the Night King, this vow shall hold.
Shaking my head to banish Helroth’s gravelly voice as it scraped across my mind, I focused back on the parchment.
Tracing my finger along the text, I scanned the ancient scroll, breath held.
“Lunaris is Wolvryn territory,” I finally rasped as I processed the words.
A chill skirted up my spine at the mere mention of the savage Fae shifters that had been cursed by the primordial moon gods.
“No one has seen the Shard in centuries, but if it exists, I’ll find it,” Ruhl said, eyes locking on mine. “I’ll go myself.”
“It’s too dangerous. I’ll go with you,” I shot back, despite the blossoming dread spreading through my body.
According to legend, the Wolvryn were bound by cycles of mystical transformation that completely stripped away their civility, awakening something primal within. Few dared tread on the island realm of Lunaris for fear of falling prey to the brutal, beastly Fae.
His jaw tightened. “Aelia, you know Reign will never allow that.”
“Reign doesn’t own me.”
“I didn’t say he did.” His voice gentled, but the steel beneath it remained. “But you’re the princess of two courts, and war is at our doorstep. We can’t risk losing you.”
“And we can’t risk losing you either, Ruhl.
You are the king, the future of the Court of Umbral Shadows.
” My throat burned. “We’ve already lost too many.
” My thoughts flickered to Heaton and the nightmarish torment in which he was trapped.
I couldn’t lose Ruhl to one of those bloodthirsty beasts in Lunaris.
Gods, there was no good option, was there?
Allowing Ruhl to assume the vow would mean never seeing him again and relinquishing his chance at the Shadow throne.
What would that mean for Reign? No, I could never ask that of his brother.
He would be sacrificing too much. At least in seeking out the Moirai Shard, he stood a chance.
But what cost would come with wielding such a powerful artifact?
I doubted it would give us its magic without a price.
He reached out, brushing a stray lock of hair from my face.
The touch was surprisingly gentle and entirely unlike the cocky Shadow Prince I’d met all those months ago.
“Then we have to decide: Do I go alone, or do we risk sending more soldiers with me? Either way, I will do this for you, Aelia. I need to. I owe you, for everything.”
A question clawed at my insides. One I’d been pushing down ever since the return of my memories after Helspire.
If I didn’t ask it now, I may never have the opportunity again.
“Why are you really doing this, Ruhl? Are you so willing to sacrifice yourself because of duty, or is it because some part of you still wants me?”
A deep shade of crimson flushed his cheeks as a wry grin stretched across his face. “I see some of my brother’s bluntness has rubbed off on you, duskling.” His smile grew more brazen. “I like it.”
I rolled my eyes, then whispered, “Well?”
He heaved out a sigh before answering. “Of course I want you, Aelia. There’s not a single thing about you that I don’t find incredibly desirable.
Besides being absolutely stunning, you are one of the most formidable females I know.
” He shrugged as if he hadn’t just stolen my breath with that declaration.
“But I’m also not so delusional as to think you’d ever want me in return.
I understand that you are mated to my brother, and that I have no place interfering in the games of love and fate that the gods play.
But I can do this for you. For Reign. So, please, let me do the right thing for once. ”
The weight of it all settled between us. The Moirai Shard, Tenebris, Elian, the vow, and the war still looming like a blade at our necks.
And for the first time in days, I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to believe there was still a right choice. But all I could see were different shades of sacrifice.