Chapter 27 #2
The finite control Tarek had over himself snapped.
He threw Aela away from him and spun on Eros, who, to her shock, caught her before she collided with the ground.
The gold in Eros’ gaze was incandescent as he looked down at her.
There was no pity or anger to be seen. Only quiet confidence.
Assurance. He slowly brought her up to stand, and only after her nod did he release his gentle hold.
He twitched the sleeves of his black jacket at the wrists, taking his time before he turned to address Tarek once more.
Before Eros could open his mouth and knock Tarek down a peg for her benefit, a scream tore through the gathering Houses. Billowing blackness deepened the eternal night sky.
The Darkness had come to play.
Aela was motionless as stars in their finery scrambled over one another to escape their impending doom.
Kaus, ever the steadfast leader of his House, strode to the center of the dance floor, barking orders at his sentinels whose ornate clothing shimmered into tactical gear at the soonest sign of trouble.
The Sagittarian Primary continued to direct celestials as The Darkness thickened around the courtyard.
“She is mine!” Tarek snarled.
“Are you mad?” Aela yelled. “Now is not the time!”
Positioned between them, Eros glanced between Tarek and Aela before widening his stance, facing Tarek fully. Aela stifled a gasp.
What in all the hells is he doing?
The courtyard was suddenly overcome by a terrible heat, preventing Tarek or Eros from acting.
Aela cried out and fell to the ground, huddling in on herself.
The wild vines she had admired earlier that drooped from the upper terrace surrounding the open courtyard were ablaze as the Sagittarians wielded their fire to combat The Darkness.
Flames. Such terrible flames…
A blast to the wall at her left side threw Aela backward, pain flared from her spine as she was flung across the hall.
Warmth shuddered through her body, and her eyes snapped open as she looked into a face that she had known since the day she was born in the Nebulae.
A face that always instilled such determination in her, though now it was cracked in fear.
His deep blue eyes were laced with uncertainty but still held a boldness that Aela clung to. Her father.
“You’ll be alright,” he said reassuringly. Though Aela knew he wouldn’t tell her what she was fully up against.
“I can do this,” she said as she tried to emulate his confidence.
He nodded, and a female stepped into her vision.
A beauty with honey-brown hair that fell to her waist and twisted in a series of braids at her temples.
She was as much a warrior as any under her command as Primary.
Her mother never let a day pass where she wasn’t training with her sentinels.
She never let her duty as Primary be a barrier between her and the stars in her constellation.
Aela admired her so much. Twin turquoise eyes to Aela’s were frantic as she scoured Aela’s body for any signs of injury.
“Cancerra?” Alrescha asked disbelievingly.
Epsilon smirked over his shoulder. “Couldn’t leave all the heroics to you, now could I?”
Aela’s mother tossed her head back and laughed. The chime-like sound was startlingly out of place, given the onslaught outside—the impending destruction of their home and sense of despair that dampened the air like a too-strong perfume. She moved beside Epsilon, lifting Aela into her arms.
“I love you, my light. Never stop fighting. You have to be brave now. You can break later. Right now, we all need you to be strong.” Alrescha’s voice trembled despite her exhortation.
“Yes, mama,” Aela mumbled, choking on a sob that broke through her resolve.
“Come now, everything is almost ready,” Epsilon said.
Transferring Aela into her father’s arms, Alrescha kissed her daughter on her forehead, their tears mixing on Aela’s face. Alrescha placed a hand on her bonded’s cheek as a sad smile tilted her lips.
“Until we meet again in the After,” she breathed.
With willpower that rattled the heavens, Alrescha turned her back on her soulmate, on her ten-year-old daughter—her Heir—and rallied her power.
Violet lightning raced through the torn opening in the wall, and Alrescha, the Primary of a falling House, screamed in defiant fury as she leapt into the fray.
Epsilon nearly crushed Aela into his chest, his grip on her unwavering. With one last glance toward his bonded and the torrential rain that poured from a cloudless sky, Epsilon ran in the opposite direction, carrying Aela in his arms.
“You are the last of us.”
Sweat ran down Aela’s face, and her limbs weakened as the memory throttled her from the inside out. The same scorching, life-devouring flames of her nightmares crawled up the courtyard walls and blasted into the night air, which wrought tremor after tremor from her body.
Not again, not again, not again! Aela screamed into her mind.
She couldn’t do this. First her home, then the village, now Theora.
She didn’t remember pushing the crystal bands off her wrists when her power cleaved out of her soul. The constant strain she felt with her power being trapped beneath Tarek’s crystal bands barreled out of her, and she lost herself in the waves of power.
Violent wind lashed at the stars in the courtyard. Surprised shouts and screams echoed across the dance floor as Aela’s skin erupted in shockwaves of light, wrapping her arms and legs.
A barrage of lightning forked out of her chest and struck celestials, the courtyard, and The Darkness with ruthless accuracy.
Aela couldn’t have controlled it if she had tried.
Not nearly spent, her power only built within her, as if delighted at being set free.
A thought skittered outside the torrent.
It wants freedom just like me.
Any sense of regulation or control evaporated from her grasp as her power raged, fueled by her last memory of her parents, which played on a vicious loop inside her mind.
Complete chaos churned through the Sagittarius courtyard.
Kaus and his sentinels lost control of the flames despite it being their native element.
The Taureon’s brought forth waves of earth to douse the blaze, yet not even the host of Primary Stars could combat The Darkness and her lightning at once.
Aela faintly heard Kaus trying to rally his stars and take control of the pandemonium she contributed to.
“Tarek!” Kaus bellowed. “You need to get her under control!”
Clad in a sleek black tactical suit, his helmet was retracted partway, revealing his thunderous expression.
Tala materialized in a swirl of sand and shot her hands forward, crystalizing the lightning bolts before they struck more stars.
“We need to get her away from the city,” said Tala.
“No!” came Tarek’s voice.
Kaus and Tarek looked at each other menacingly.
“Last time I checked, Prime Apparent,” Kaus sneered, “this was my city. You claimed her, so deal with it. And get her away from Theora. We will hold the full force of our counterattack, but make no mistake, Tarek… if you do not contain her, I will not hold back.”
With that, the Sagittarians abandoned their plan to defend the courtyard, which only moments before had been filled with dancing. The wild vines and once lush plants no longer clung to the upper walkway but were charred to nothing from Aela’s nightmare and answering storm.
Aela didn’t track the rest of what was said around her as her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and her feet lifted from the ground.
The thrumming energy within her was a song that swept her into its haunting melody as she surrendered to the wild rush of power.
Her pale lavender dress darkened under the rain that soaked the air.
Aela levitated into the sky past the columns supporting the terrace, and floated through The Darkness.
Just like in her dreams, The Darkness brushed against her skin, coolness nipping at her flesh. It did not hurt, though an innate sense of self-preservation in the face of the ultimate demise for her kind released a pressure valve on her power reserves.
The Darkness had not come to consume her.
Energy thrashed and destroyed with another blast of lightning spreading from her eyes and outstretched fingers.
Rain pelted the courtyard with such intensity that it left rivulets of blood along the celestials’ exposed skin.
Columns and sentinels alike were struck down, and cracks formed in the ground beneath them.
Militant order overtook the chaos as the Primary Stars, Adjacents, and sentinels got into their positions.
Suspended in a blinding white light, Aela couldn’t hear the screaming. She couldn’t hear Tarek bellowing her name. She couldn’t see the destruction her lightning caused as it took on a life of its own, spearing down without precision or conscience.
All she did was feel.
She felt too much. She felt every repressed emotion she had buried deep, deep down for most of her life: the heartache of being alone, the paralyzing fear of being discovered, and the gut-wrenching horror of the devastation she caused.
Memory after memory surged until it dragged her along a deep tunnel in her mind that she had worked so hard to block out.