Chapter Fifty-One
Aelia
The world collapsed beneath my feet.
One moment, I held Aidan’s broken body in my arms, bloodied, lifeless, and still warm. The next, a torrent of rais and nox blossomed, wrapping us in shadow and light, and I was dragged into the void.
It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t controlled. I didn’t even know if I had the strength to pull us through, but the cuorem answered the call, and so did the shadows that loved Reign as fiercely as I did. They bent to my will, obeying the scream in my soul.
When we landed, it was with a jolt and a gasp of cold air, the scent of pine and earth rushing into my lungs. I blinked, the sudden sunlight shocking after the interminable black.
The cottage.
Our tiny haven in Feywood, half-wild and blooming in flowers, surrounded by the chorus of crickets and the babble of the creek just beyond the tree line.
Where Aidan had raised me, where he’d first trained me to use my daggers.
Where Reign had appeared at my doorstep and saved me from the hands of that dark Fae lord.
Where it had all begun.
I fell to my knees, again pulling Aidan’s body into my lap, cradling him the way I had once imagined I would comfort a baby brother. If I’d had one.
His blood soaked my hands. My leathers. My soul.
His face… gods, his face was peaceful. Just like he looked when he’d sleep under the trees after sparring. One hand curled faintly near his chest, as if even in death, he was still trying to fight, to protect me.
“No,” I whispered, rocking him, brushing a strand of silver hair from his brow. “No, you promised. You were supposed to take care of me. You said you’d never leave.”
Reign was silent beside me, his shadows shivering with restrained grief. I felt it through the bond, though, his guilt, his fury, his helplessness.
But mine eclipsed it all.
Because Aidan had died trying to protect me.
Just like he had my entire life.
The warmth left his body gradually. As slowly as the sun setting into the horizon. I didn’t even realize how long I sat there, holding him, until his skin turned cold beneath my touch and the weight of him settled into permanence.
“I can’t…” I struggled to breathe, to get the words out. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”
Reign knelt beside me. His voice was hoarse as he whispered, “Neither can I.”
I held Aidan tighter still, refusing to let go of the only parent I’d ever known. The only one I would ever know. Mine were both long dead. Another round of grief enveloped me, and my entire body trembled with the force of the sob.
Reign’s arm curled around my shoulders, drawing me into his warmth. “Let’s take him inside, starlight. It’s time for us all to rest.”
I hadn’t even realized full night had descended. The crescent moon loomed overhead, the stars cast in shadows tonight, as if even they mourned. For my Aidan was gone.
Reign attempted to scoop me into his arms, but I held onto Aidan’s hand, refusing to let go. So my mate, the male whose presence urged my heart to keep beating and my lungs to continue inflating, hauled us both off the dark earth and into our tiny cottage.
Once he’d gently laid Aidan on the threadbare couch, he carried me into the washroom where he took on the painstaking task of removing my blood-stained clothes.
Here, in our modest home, there was no hot shower, no fine gilded basin.
Instead, my cuoré filled buckets with water from the well, warmed them on the stove, then patiently spilled them over my trembling form.
Time and again, just when I thought it wasn’t possible to love him any more, he would prove me wrong.
Once we were both clean, he swept me into his arms once again and carried me to Aidan’s old bed. It was barely big enough for two, but tonight, I needed to be as close to Reign as physically possible. I needed the healing power of his touch, his gentle caresses, the brush of his lips on mine.
Because without Aidan, I was drowning, and only Reign could anchor me back to the surface before I disappeared beneath the grief.
We buried Aidan at dawn.
There was no fanfare, no funeral procession of nobles, no courtly rites or royal headstones.
Nothing befitting the burial of the king’s most trusted general.
Nothing for the male who’d given up everything to raise me in hiding.
It was only us, the sky tinged in pale gold, and the field where we’d trained until our arms ached and our stomachs hurt from laughing.
The earth was soft beside the chicken coop.
The baby chicks clucked at our approach, lifting my spirits for a moment as I recalled how Aidan had once threatened to turn one of the roosters into soup if it kept biting his ankles.
I remembered how he used to grumble about chores, and how his eyes would crinkle when he smiled.
The happiest moments of my childhood were filled with images of Aidan.
And now, with his death, my last connection to that normal upbringing was gone.
My fingers lifted to the medallion that hung at my chest. The one he’d gifted me right before all of this began.
My parents had fought so hard to deny fate her due, but all the terrible things had come to pass all the same.
Reign found a shovel and dug the grave himself.
I tried to help, but my hands trembled too much to hold the massive trowel. So I gathered stones for the marker instead, my fingers bleeding as I stacked each one with utmost care.
When it was done, I knelt at the foot of the grave and placed Aidan’s sword on top, the golden hilt catching the light. I ran my fingers over it one last time. The leather grip was worn smooth, callused by a lifetime of war. Like him. Strong, stubborn... and now gone.
“I’ll keep fighting,” I whispered. “For the realm you believed in. For the peace you wanted us to have. I promise, Aidan, I won’t let your sacrifice be in vain. I love you, Father.”
Reign stood behind me, his hand resting on my shoulder, still grounding me—always grounding me.
“We’ll finish what he started,” he murmured. “Together.”
Tears slid down my cheeks, unchecked. The wind stirred the tall grass, whispering through the trees like a lullaby. And in that sacred silence, in the heart of the woods that had once been our sanctuary, we let him go.
Not from memory.
Not from love.
But into the earth, where he would be part of Aetheria forever.
We spent the remainder of the day with a weighty silence hovering between us. I alternated between sitting at Aidan's grave, reminiscing while polishing my daggers, and cooing at the chicks as they ate.
All the while, I could feel Reign’s steadying presence, both through the bond and in person. He always hovered nearby but still gave me my distance. Neither of us spoke much, but my spiraling thoughts were more than enough company.
Hours passed, then days.
Reign and I fell into an easy routine at the cottage, and for a few peaceful days, I allowed myself to believe there was no war beyond the quiet fields of Feywood, that our friends weren’t waiting for us at the Fortress of Umbral Shadows, and that King Helroth would have to die.
I’d been foolish to hope for peace.
Perhaps, it was my fault that Aidan was dead.
If I’d only listened to Reign—
“No,” my mate’s voice broke through my dark musings.
I glanced up, releasing the blades of grass I’d woven into a braid, and met Reign’s turbulent midnight orbs. He stood only a few yards away from the grave, watching me intently.
He walked toward me, a wreath of wildflowers in his hands, then knelt on the earth by my side. Placing the beautiful arrangement atop the loose dirt, he took my hand, squeezing. “Aidan’s death is not your fault, starlight.”
“We never should have gone… I’d been so foolish to believe my grandsire would ever consider peace.”
“No, Aelia, I was the one who insisted we go. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine.”
My bloodshot, swollen eyes snapped open. “Oh, goddess, Vaelora. How could I have forgotten?”
Reign slowly shook his head, a faint smile tugging on his lips. “You were in shock, love. You lost the male who was more a father to you than many royals ever are.” There was something about his words that resonated in my darkest depths.
“Did Kaelith find her?” I finally managed. “Did they make it out?”
He nodded slowly. “Vaelora is safe and back at my father’s castle. They all are, Rue and Symon too. That flux of power left most of the soldiers stunned for long enough that our forces were able to escape.”
“Oh, thank Raysa.” Gods, I hadn’t even thought about my closest friends, my other family. What kind of a friend was I? I’d left them all there to deal with Helroth.
Before I could allow the guilt to consume me, Reign tugged me up to my feet and brushed his lips against the top of my head. “I don’t want to rush you. You deserve all the time you need to grieve the male who raised you, who loved you like his own. But—”
“But Helroth is still out there, and we can’t just hide out here forever while everyone is waiting on us.”
His head dipped grimly.
A heavy silence settled between us, thick with mourning and the weight of everything still undone.
The breeze stirred the wildflowers near Aidan’s grave, rustling the tall grass like whispered farewells.
I dropped to my knees once more and pressed a trembling hand to the fresh mound of earth, unwilling to leave him. Not yet.
“I know we have to go,” I whispered, my voice raw. “But I don’t know how to lead without him. He was always there, Reign. He was the one who made me believe I could do this. Be this.”
“You don’t have to be him,” Reign said gently, crouching beside me. His shadows wrapped around my shoulders like a blanket, a quiet comfort in the cool morning air. “You only have to be you. That’s more than enough. He knew it. And so do I. When you feel doubt, remember that.”
Tears pricked my eyes again, but this time I didn’t let them fall. I let his words settle deep in my soul, where Aidan’s had once lived. Where they always would.
“I just don’t want to fail him,” I said, staring at the stone we’d etched with a simple carving of a sun and a sword. His two guiding principles.
“You won’t.” Reign rose and offered his hand. “But you will fail the realm if we don’t finish this.”
My fingers curled into his, steadying myself in his strength, on the unbreakable bond of the cuorem pulsing steadily between us. I turned for one last glance at the grave, then nodded.
“Let’s end this,” I said, my voice stronger now. “For Aidan.”
Reign’s shadows surged around us, and a moment later, we were gone. Back to the Fortress of Umbral Shadows. Back to the war.
Back to the fight for Aetheria’s soul.