Chapter Fifty
Reign
Now.
The second Aelia’s voice echoed through the bond my shadows erupted like a tidal wave. “Attack!” I bellowed, my voice carrying over the ridge. My wings flared, propelling me into the sky and onto Phantom’s back. The moment I was seated, she shrieked overhead and dove like a spear of living night.
Solanthus and Mordrin answered with a unified roar, flames streaming from their gaping maws in searing arcs that scorched the front line of Night warriors.
Pegasi screamed, gryphons dove, and Light and Shadow warriors armed with spears of light and blades laced in nox met the enemy midair with brutal force.
All around me, the clash began.
Night Fae surrounded the king, and Aelia was swept into the cloud of darkness. Terror cut through me, sharper than any blade as I watched her disappear.
“Aelia!” I shouted futilely, my voice lost in the uproar.
I’m fine, Reign. Her answer breezed through my mind, as casually as if we were conversing over a cup of tea.
Then I saw her in the midst of the fray, ethereal wings blazing as her luminescent daggers carved a path through the Night Fae hellions on the ground.
A lavender-haired female tried to corner her, and my shadows whirled in a frenzy, desperate to reach their mate.
But within seconds, Aelia had the Night Fae on her back and had moved onto the next.
With my cuoré safe, I turned my attention to the rest of our forces. Aidan cut a swath through the front lines with terrifying precision, his light-forged blade gleaming like a star in the smoke. He fought like a general possessed, his every strike a vow for a better realm.
Ruhl kept to the skies aboard Mordrin, my half-brother and his dragon battling the Demons mounted atop creatures of smoke and night. Zar and nox clashed midair, beastly screams ricocheting through the anarchy. I was relieved to have Ruhl on our side. My brother would make a formidable king.
Kaelith moved through the chaos like death incarnate, his zar pulsing with ancient power, tendrils of night coiling around enemies before they even had time to scream.
His goal was simple: infiltrate Helspire Fortress and find Vaelora.
I watched the male, my great-uncle, for an endless moment, imagining what my grandfather must have been like.
Symon launched himself from Griff’s back, drawing my attention back to the sky, slicing through three Demon warriors before his boots even hit the ground. “For the record,” he shouted over the din, “I so did not sign up for this!”
Rue streaked by overhead, her golden armor ablaze with rais as she slashed with twin sabers, Windy bucking through the storm like a thunderbolt. “Stay alive and I’ll buy you a drink!” she called back.
“Fair enough.”
I barely restrained the urge to growl at my students. Now was not the time for banter. They needed to focus. Everywhere, chaos ensued, blood raining down from the heavens.
I scanned the battlefield for Liora, but she was nowhere to be seen. She was simply… gone. Just like I feared. The traitor Rue had suspected for months.
My fury simmered beneath the surface as I moved my search of the battlefield onto Helroth, the monster responsible for all of this. He stood still amidst the blood and fire, untouched, calm, like a god watching ants destroy themselves.
Then his eyes locked on Aelia overhead, cutting a path through his Night Fae.
No. No.
I felt it the moment he reached for her again.
Zar lanced through our cuorem, thick and potent.
Gods damn it, I was certain she’d managed to block him out before, but the bastard wouldn’t give up.
The blood vow ignited, a crimson tether sparking between Helroth and Aelia like a brand forged in hellfire.
I could feel its pull, the zar infiltrating deep into my marrow.
She faltered midair, clutching her chest, and the bond between us screamed.
Aelia.
She dropped low, barely catching herself on Solanthus’s back, her form writhing like something inside her had broken loose. Her wings sputtered, her mouth open in a silent cry, and the shadows that surrounded her began to twist.
“No!” I roared.
Phantom wheeled toward her before I even spoke the command, but I could already feel it, the war raging inside her once again. The blood vow pushing. Forcing. Compelling.
Strike down the Light, it demanded. Turn against the Shadow. Become his.
My heart shattered. My shadows surged without control. I knew that feeling too well. The helplessness. The rage. The bitter shame of being nothing but a weapon to someone else’s will.
Aelia! I sought her out through our bond, but the shimmering strands were dulled, a thick haze impeding our connection.
Then I reached for the Moirai Shard hidden within the folds of my cloak.
I could use it to sever the vow, once and for all.
But what of the cost? Phantom’s mighty wings flapped, propelling us closer.
Launching herself off Solanthus’s back, she lashed out at a passing Light Fae, arcing her luminous blade and just barely missing his head.
“Aelia, no!” I shouted, my voice raw and desperate.
Gods, if she hurt someone, she would never forgive herself.
Again, I focused on our bond, on the tendrils of love and light that connected our souls. Aelia, please, don’t do this. You can fight him, I know you’re strong enough. You are the strongest female I’ve ever laid eyes upon.
Her eyes snapped up to mine and the murky fog blocking our connection began to lift. Reign?
I’m right here, starlight.
Her luminescent blade sputtered, eyes fully locked on mine. I could still feel the battle raging within her, Helroth’s hold clawing at her insides. Her body convulsed, and a burst of energy exploded outward, not just rais or zar or nox, but all of it. Light. Shadow. Night.
A triune storm. The tether between her and Helroth snapped with a sound like a bell tolling for the damned.
She screamed, the defiant shriek echoing through the pandemonium. A shockwave of pure rais burst from her core, flattening warriors on both sides, and scattering Helroth’s elite like leaves before a storm.
And in that moment, I truly saw her. The future queen of not just one Court, but all three. Light in her soul, Shadow in her blood, and Night in her bones. The beacon of balance. The child of twilight. My mate.
And gods help me, she was stronger than I was.
Because I’d failed. I hadn’t been able to fight Tenebris’ blood vow. But she’d just broken free from her grandsire’s binding oath, all on her own. I hadn’t needed the Shard at all…
A single tear slipped down my cheek, carved of awe and fury and love.
Helroth staggered backward, his crimson eyes wide with disbelief. “Impossible,” he hissed. “You are bound to me!”
“I was,” Aelia shouted, her voice ringing across the battlefield like a declaration. “But not anymore.”
At that, I dove. Phantom roared as we hurtled toward the Night King, my umbral sword burning with a knot of nox and zar, the cuorem a battle drum in my chest.
“For everything you’ve taken,” I whispered. “For Aelia and for my grandfather, Karnax.”
Helroth’s eyes of coal darkened, understanding flashing through the crimson abyss. He hesitated, only for a moment. But it was all I needed.
“This ends now,” I roared, then struck with all the fury carved from bloodshed and ruin.
Shadows exploded around me as Phantom launched me from her back.
My sword, ablaze with nox and laced with zar, met Helroth’s just before it could strike.
The force of our blades colliding cracked the air like thunder.
He grinned, holding a blade of pure void in his one remaining hand. “You dare challenge me, Bastard Prince?”
“I’m not just a bastard anymore,” I growled, forcing him back, step by step. “I’m the legitimate heir to the Night Throne, and today, I am your reckoning.”
He twisted, a flare of zar crackling in his palm, and the very air around us screamed. My shoulder seared as his blood magic scraped past my armor, tearing skin from bone, but I didn’t falter. I wouldn’t. Not now, not ever.
“You're weaker than your grandfather,” Helroth sneered. “Although, he begged too.”
The words hit harder than his blade ever could. My vision went red, shadows flaring around me like a tempest. I lunged, roaring, our swords clashing in a whirl of steel and shadow.
Helroth was fast, faster than I’d expected, given his disadvantage of fighting one-handed. His movements were calculated, brutal, ancient. He fought like a god who had conquered death and decided to dance with it again.
But I didn’t care.
This wasn’t just war anymore.
It was vengeance.
My shadows struck out, bleeding from my fingertips like deadly wraiths.
They curled around Helroth’s neck, lifting him off the ground.
Inky tendrils of night cut through the shadows, blades of pure black strangling the nox.
My zar rose to the surface, but it wasn’t strong enough. Not compared to his.
He knocked me back, blade slicing across my ribs. He stood over me as I gasped and staggered. No. I would not let him win. I strained, summoning my dwindling nox but before he could deliver the killing blow, a flare of light slammed between us.
Aelia.
She dropped from the sky like a comet, her wings spread wide, twin daggers spinning with pure fury as she struck between us.
“Enough!” she screamed, eyes burning silver-blue, cuorem thrumming so hard it rattled the air. “You’ll have to kill me to get to him.”
Helroth froze.
His blade hovered midair, inches from Aelia now. I leapt to my feet, trying to push her behind me, but she was an unmovable force.
“Aelia,” he said, voice oddly hollow. “Move.”
“I won’t,” she said, chest heaving. “If you wish to strike him, you’ll have to kill me too. Regardless, the cuorem will likely break us both.”
For a moment, everything stilled. Even the battlefield around us dimmed in my mind. All I could see was Aelia between us, the female I loved shielding me with her life.
An endless moment dragged on.
Then, Helroth began to lower his blade.
But before he sheathed his weapon, a golden sword arced between us.
I moved at the same time, shadows surging in a desperate wave. But it was too late.
Aidan. He’d been closing the gap behind us, his luminescent sword raised, light pulsing with purpose.
Helroth struck first.
A dagger of pure zar pierced Aidan’s chest, right through his armor, right through the sun-forged plate I thought nothing could penetrate.
“Aidan!” Aelia screamed.
The male who had raised her, who was a father to her in every way but blood, fell to his knees.
“No!” Her cry echoed through my insides, her pain palpable.
Aidan crumpled to the ground, the golden glow in his eyes flickering, once, then twice. Aelia screamed again as she fell to her knees beside him, and I felt it, in the marrow of my bones, a grief too ancient for sound.
Light and shadow burst from Aelia in a violent wave, spiraling together into a blinding orb that detonated across the battlefield.
The ground quaked beneath us. Fae from all sides were thrown back, weapons clattering from stunned hands.
Even Helroth staggered, his crimson eyes narrowing as the surge of raw, unbridled power forced him to step away.
The cacophony of battle fell silent. Time itself seemed to hold its breath. Within the golden-black sphere of energy, only the three of us remained untouched—Aelia, Aidan, and me—suspended in a fragile sanctuary carved from her grief.
The protective orb thickened, shimmering threads of light stitched with shadow, pulsing in rhythm with her sobs.
“No! No, Aidan, please, stay with me.” Aelia’s voice was hoarse, broken, as she cradled his body in her arms. I dropped down beside them, winding my arm around her shoulders.
Blood soaked the ground beneath us, hot, bitter and final.
He looked up at me, blinking slowly. “Promise me… you’ll take care of her.”
“You’re going to be fine,” I murmured.
Aidan coughed, then managed a crooked grin. “Don’t lie to me, professor. Now… swear it. Vow you will protect Aelia… with your life.”
“Always and forever.”
“Aidan, please, don’t leave me.” Her broken voice nearly undid me.
And then, his body went still. The light in his eyes vanished, faded like the final spark of a dying star.
Aelia knelt beside me, her hands trembling as she squeezed his hand, lips parted in a silent scream. Around us, the battlefield seemed to pause, as if even the air held its breath. Aelia pressed a kiss to his forehead, whispering softly, then dropped her head to his chest.
Rue sobbed from somewhere beyond the glittering orb, and Symon let out a strangled curse.
Helroth said nothing as he marched closer once again, on the other side of the impenetrable shield, blade dripping with blood and crimson eyes cold as winter.
And in that moment, something inside me snapped.
I rose, slow and shaking, Aidan’s blood on my hands. “No more mercy,” I whispered. The cuorem flared—rage, grief, power flooding through me—and this time, even the gods wouldn’t be able to stop me.
Then, just as suddenly, Aelia’s power dimmed, leaving a hushed, trembling silence in its wake.
“No.” Her voice was nothing more than a strangled whisper.
Then her hand wrapped around mine, tear-filled eyes lifting to my own from where she still knelt on the ground, holding onto the male who’d loved her as his own.
Shadows coiled around us. “This is over. We take Aidan home. Now.”
“But—” I pointed toward the troops, where the dazed soldiers were beginning to rise.
“I need to take him home,” she repeated, stronger now.
My head dipped, the swell of emotions coursing through our bond enough to silence my rebuttals, almost bringing me to my knees. Her shadows darkened, drawing us into the familiar, icy void.
Helroth’s burning crimson glare was the last thing I saw before we were hauled into the murky abyss.