Chapter Fifty-Nine
Aelia
Sol! Even in my mind, his name erupted like a prayer, tears filling my eyes. You’re all right?
Yes, little Kin. We’re both fine. A bit exhausted, but we survived the sacred ritual.
Thank the gods. I could feel Reign hovering, his shadows sliding over my flesh, but I was too focused on the internal conversation to reassure him. Realms, I’d missed Sol so much. Have you completed the mate bond?
Not quite. We need you and your cuoré for that. A hint of irritation flared in the reawakened connection between us.
“What’s going on?” Reign shouted, drawing me from the conversation.
“Wait,” I hissed, smushing my finger against his lips. “That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
I pressed a palm to my chest, grounding myself as Sol’s voice rippled through me once more, ancient and resonant.
We need you here. Now. You and your mate. The bond must be sealed in full with all four of us.
Where are you?
In Aekorith, the hidden isle of the dragons. Follow the mystical strands that connect us. Shadowtravel to me, Aelia. I’ll guide you. Then his voice deepened, tinged with reverence. But be warned… this is no place mortals were meant to tread.
Yes, of course. I barely had time to grab Reign’s hand. “We’re going. Now.”
“What?” he blinked. “Where?”
“No time to explain. Just trust me. Sol and Phantom need us.”
He didn’t hesitate. His fingers simply tightened around mine. “Always.”
I closed my eyes, then focused on the flickering tether of energy sparking to life through both the cuorem and skyrider bonds. Shadows curled around us, buzzing and whirling in a desperate fury. It was as if they too could sense the importance of this moment.
Darkness swallowed us whole for endless minutes, then burst into brilliant, blinding color. We emerged into a realm that stole the breath straight from my lungs.
The air shimmered with auroral light, like the sky itself was woven from stardust and flame. Towering obsidian peaks jutted toward the heavens, crowned in violet mist, while crystalline waterfalls spilled from their cliffs, glowing faintly with ethereal fire.
Below, the land pulsed with life. Lush emerald fields were carpeted in soft, glowing moss and enormous blossoms that opened and closed like they were breathing. Rivers of molten gold wound like veins across the earth.
My jaw dropped, my head swiveling to take in every incredible detail. “It’s beautiful,” I murmured.
Reign’s hand squeezed, fingers tightening as he took it all in.
Dragons. Dozens of them. Maybe more.
This must have been where they’d all fled to after the Two Hundred Years’ War.
They sat coiled atop the cliffs, gliding on wings of moonlight and fire.
Their scales refracted light like living jewels of onyx and gold, sapphire and silver, and iridescent hues I didn’t even have names for.
None of them looked our way, but I could feel their awareness, their silent judgment.
They were all asking the same thing: Why are you here?
Reign staggered beside me. “Where in the gods’ damned realms are we?”
“Dragonkind’s secret isle,” I whispered, voice trembling. “The place Sol called Aekorith, remember? This is where the ancient dragons completed their bonds.”
Solanthus stood ahead of us, poised and waiting, gleaming like a god carved of celestial fire. Phantom loomed beside him, shadows rippling like smoke across her massive form.
“Welcome to the hidden cradle of our kind, little Kin.” Sol’s voice echoed through the valley like thunder.
I blinked once, then twice, my jaw nearly unhinging for the second time in as many minutes. “Sol… he spoke.”
Reign nodded, lips parted. “I… I heard. Gods, I felt it.” His voice was as strained as my own.
“And now, it’s time,” Sol announced.
I took a cautious step forward, heart pounding as I stared up at Sol and Phantom, side by side, glowing with power that made my bones ache. A warm wind swept over the isle, carrying the scent of smoke and starlight. It kissed my cheeks like a blessing. Or a warning.
Reign moved beside me, silent for once. I could feel his awe rippling through the cuorem, his shadows held tight and reverent against his skin like they, too, were bowing before this sacred place.
Come. Sol’s voice rumbled inside me. We must begin. The final ritual cannot wait.
“What do we do?” I whispered aloud.
Solanthus dipped his massive head toward a stone ring etched into the glowing moss. The symbols were ancient. I squinted to make them all out—sprawling dragons, woven knots of magic, two mirrored suns along with two mirrored moons. One pair for rider. One pair for dragon.
“Step into the ring,” Phantom instructed. “Together.”
Reign and I exchanged a glance, his eyes as wide as mine likely were.
After only communicating mentally for so long, hearing their voices aloud was incredibly jarring, even if they sounded exactly the same.
We only paused for a moment before obeying.
The moment our feet touched the stone, it pulsed with golden light.
My skin prickled, every nerve a live wire. Power coiled through my spine, golden and searing. My legs nearly buckled as the ancient sigils began to pulse beneath my feet.
“The Rite of Syneris is older than time,” Phantom continued, her obsidian eyes locking to mine, then Reign’s. “It requires not just power, but trust. Surrender. Unity.”
Sol’s wings stretched wide, golden light bleeding from every scale. “When mated riders and mated dragons are bonded as one, they form what the Ancients called the Tetrum Cordis, the Heart of Four. It is an incredibly rare phenomenon.”
I couldn’t help but wonder if Sol and Phantom had undertaken this very ritual with my parents all those years ago.
No, we didn’t. Sol’s voice sailed through my mind once again. Phantom and I were already mated when she bonded with your mother. This is the first time for us all.
“Each of us will offer a part of ourselves,” Phantom explained, drawing me back to the present. “Our powers. Our pain. Our truth. It will weave us into a single current.”
“And when it’s done,” Sol added, “no force in this realm, or the next, will be able to sever it.”
Reign’s hand found mine, fingers threading tightly. “What happens if we fail?”
Phantom’s tail flicked like a blade. “Then the bond breaks, and all four of us will be destroyed.”
A shiver danced down my spine, but I held firm. “Well, then, I guess failing isn’t an option.”
Sol nodded, then breathed a plume of gold fire into the sky. “Then let it begin.”
With all of dragonkind watching us, the four of us were positioned at cardinal points around the circle.
Sol to the north, Phantom to the south, Reign and I across from one another, east and west. The sigils beneath our feet blazed brighter, spinning slowly, like a great wheel being turned by unseen hands.
I felt it first, the call of the bond, deep and primal.
“Speak your truth,” Solanthus said.
My voice quivered but didn’t falter as words dribbled from my lips, seemingly of their own accord. “I am Aelia of Ether and Inferna, princess of light and darkness, child of twilight. I give my heart, my power, and my soul to this bond.”
Reign followed, voice rough with emotion. “I am Reign of Umbra, lost heir of the Court of Infernal Night and bastard prince of Shadows. I offer my power, my blood, and my oath.”
Phantom’s growl resonated across the isle. “I am Phantom, the Death of Dawn, forged of shadow and storm. I surrender my fire, my fury, and my name.”
Sol’s voice was a song of triumph. “I am Solanthus, the Sun Chaser, of sunlight and flame, last of the Drakari line. I give my wisdom, my strength, and my truth.”
The air thickened, then hummed, as if the isle itself was listening.
“Now,” Phantom said, “you must give pain.”
I didn’t hesitate. I let it rise: Aidan’s face; my parents’ deaths; the loneliness of growing up without ever knowing them; Elian’s betrayal; Helroth’s refusal to stand down.
It poured from me like light cracking from glass. And when I looked across the circle, I saw Reign’s shadows bleeding too, his pain made visible as dark as spilled ink.
Our dragons roared in tandem, wings unfurled, rais, nox and zar spinning around the ring in a cyclone of gold and black.
A memory rose to the surface, one of the first conversations I’d ever had with my skyrider when he was nothing more than a tiny dragonette. Our souls reincarnate by the powers of the gods, the perfect balance of light and dark, and now Raysa has delivered me to you.
All four of us, we were the perfect balance of light and dark.
“Now,” Sol said, interrupting my mental musings, “you must leap and face the will of the gods.”
The stone circle cracked open beneath us, revealing a pit of pure light and void, a swirling nexus of all our energies fused.
I eyed the yawning chasm, a whisper of fear kindling beneath my breastbone. What if we didn’t survive this? I hesitated at the edge, heart hammering, glancing between the void and Reign. What if this was the gods’ final test? A leap not into unity but oblivion. What if I lost him?
Not physical death, little Kin. But surrender. Sol’s voice echoed through my mind, a soothing balm amidst the uncertainty. I have no doubt in my mind that the gods will find us worthy.
Reign’s gaze lifted to meet mine. “We go together.”
Drawing in a steadying breath, I nodded.
And we jumped.
The world disappeared.
Light consumed me. Shadow kissed my bones. Fire and smoke wrapped around my soul, branding me with something ancient and eternal.
I felt Reign, inside and around me, his power fusing with mine anew until I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began. I felt Sol’s warmth, fierce and vast as a sun reborn. Phantom’s storm surged through me like a tidal wave of midnight and fury.
Our hearts. Our pain. Our power.
Their voices swirled through my mind in a flurry, words I couldn’t quite understand but felt deep in my marrow.
A scream tore from my lips as the bond pierced deeper. Not just through flesh and mind. But soul. My essence fractured, shattering like a star imploding. Light and dark warred within me, pulling me apart, unraveling every thread that made me who I was.
Memories broke. Names blurred. Pain bloomed.
For one agonizing heartbeat, I was nothing. There was no Aelia. No light. No body. Just pieces.
And then, the threads reknit.
Stronger. Brighter. Whole.
But not as the girl I was before. I was something else now. Something almost divine, terrifying, and… complete.
We were one.
After what felt like an endless moment, we exploded from the nexus and were lifted into the sky by a mighty force older than the gods themselves. I landed atop Sol with Reign appearing beside us aboard Phantom.
Another scream erupted, but this time, it was a cry of joy. Power. Completion.
Our dragons soared, glowing like twin stars reborn. And between us and them, the bond flared like a golden bridge, braided with light, shadow, fire and storm.
We had done it.
We were bound. All four of us.
Aelia and Reign. Solanthus and Phantom. The Tetrum Cordis.