Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
She felt nothing.
Aela lost track of time as she lay in bed, devoid of feeling. The weak spark of hope within her chest had finally been snuffed out. She was the last of her Line. The last Pisces star and its Primary. Though her position and Ascension held no meaning if she had no constellation to protect.
A warm tear slid down Aela’s cheekbone and into her ear as she stared at the gray cavern ceiling.
Eros had been true to his word to be at her disposal, though she hadn’t spoken to him.
He claimed he was there to see the downfall of her House, yet he arrived too late to stop it and said that he was not the cause.
Where anger had once bubbled to the surface at the thought of her family being taken from her, nothing remained.
Even her mind was quiet. At peace from the constant storm blowing thoughts through her head one after the next without rest: last of Pisces, part of the Taureon Line, Fates blessed, and witch.
No self-identifiers fit her any longer. Not her heritage, not her prize from The Games.
Not her unique power, that despite its nature, she had less understanding of.
Her Need magic warmed the inside of her body as it sensed her perpetual despondency and lack of purpose in her limbs. She heard a throat clearing a moment later.
“Can I get you anything?”
“Get out, Eros,” Aela’s voice cracked from disuse. She rolled over and pulled the cream bedding high over her head.
Time passed by unfelt. Each time Aela opened her eyes in between bouts of deep sleep, the interior of the asteroid was rearranged. Morphing over the days she lay in bed as her mortal form skated the edge of lifelessness, while her other magic sought to rouse her or provide what she needed.
She didn’t care.
Her soul had been broken into so many pieces that there was no hope of putting herself back together—not that she could ever be whole again.
The only constant, it seemed, were Eros’ presence, the bed she lay upon, and a steady stream of warm beverages that arrived on her bedside table, though she left them untouched.
Bookshelves that had once contained historic tomes and star charts became lined with particle screen images of her and her parents—moments captured in time with other Piscarian stars.
Aela had gazed at them with an emptiness inside and watched as the shelves shifted back to their original state.
The very air around her charged with energy, then fizzled out.
Wind would sweep through the cavern, followed by a mist of rain as her elemental magic, and Need spiraled out of control.
Eros appeared often, sensing when her power tried and failed to get her to rejoin the realm of the living.
She didn’t want to be in it. Not without them.
The Darkness released Zosma, sending the Leo star careening toward the asteroid’s rough surface.
The cunning sentinel had managed to breach the Senate and get close to traveling rings paired with Neser, Aries’ capital, though no one entered Aries without his permission.
He had intercepted the Leo and brought him to Aela to decide what to do with him.
Eros landed a moment later, wrapping Aela’s former guard in ropes of shadow.
“I will only say this once. Betray her in any aspect—and I will pluck your core out of your body and feed it to my snake.”
Zosma swallowed roughly, his eyes pinned to something above Eros’ head.
Is he terrified enough?
“Very,” Seba answered into his mind.
Good.
“She already knows about me, and I couldn’t care less who else knows at this point, but she and I have a history. So for her sake, you will keep your mouth shut about what you’ve seen. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Primary,” Zosma said. “Call off your beast.”
“Seba likes her. He’ll be around.”
Eros released his Darkness, and Zosma stabilized himself, assessing the landscape of the asteroid Aela had created.
“Where is she?” Zosma finally asked.
“Inside. She is not well.”
Fierce whispering came from the hall leading to her bedchamber. Her brows pulled down. A hushed argument was won out, and a different cadence of steps than those she had come to know lifted her disheveled head.
“Zosma?” Aela blinked while trying to refocus on who stood at the foot of her bed.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“What am I doing?” Aela sat up in bed, a heat grazing the inside of her chest, the first actual emotion she’d had in Fates knew how long.
“How did you find me? What are you doing here? Is Tarek with you?”
“No. Tarek does not know where I am.”
“Well, I’m glad to see you alright. I’m…
” Aela trailed off, unable to meet his gaze or share why she was bed-ridden, why she couldn’t make herself care.
Her former guard said nothing, and her watery eyes found their way to him anyway.
His warm brown eyes held an understanding of one who knew the face of loss.
She could barely stand his sympathy. It only solidified that they were gone.
Aela swallowed her emotions. “I’m sorry I left—I was coming back for you. ”
“Tala released me. More accurately, allowed me to escape and pointed me in your direction.”
Aela stared at him in disbelief.
“I was on route to Aries when I was intercepted.” Zosma looked over his shoulder, and Aela knew Eros lurked in the entryway.
“You might as well come in,” Aela called despondently.
Instead of the confident footfalls of the Aries Primary, a scraping of scales on stone ushered in Sebaserpens. The cosmic snake had taken a miniature form of what she had first beheld in what felt like another life.
A life where they still lived.
Cute wasn’t a word to describe the smaller, still blacker-than-black serpent that coiled around one of her bedposts, not knowing the terror he could become.
Whether it was her apathetic state or delirium from too much rest, she questioned why she had ever been afraid of the inky creature.
Seba lifted his diamond-shaped head, his golden eyes shining with something like concern.
“You look better,” Eros said as he strolled up and stood beside the Leo star.
“Well, I’m not. All of you, get out,” Aela said with a roll of her eyes before sliding back into the pile of bedding.
“I am at your service,” Zosma said with a gravity to his voice that had Aela propping herself up on her elbows.
“I don’t think Tarek would expect you to continue as my guard, seeing as I left his House. Nor is it deserved since I as good as abandoned you.”
“It’s not out of duty to Tarek,” Zosma said as he stepped around to the side of the bed, falling to a knee.
“You freed me, Aela. I should have said this long ago, but you had time to escape during The Games. I saw your power. Instead, you stayed. You prepared to defend me from the Taureons… Tarek may have given me the position of being your guard, but long before he did, I gave you my life. To guard you with my life. And if that weren’t somehow enough, then for all that you’ve done since then. ”
Heat stung her eyes. “I can’t have any more celestials sacrificing themselves for me. Be free. Go. Get far from those who would control you, Zosma.”
Instead of heeding her request, he reverently cradled one of her hands in both of his. “With my life, Aela.”
Eros cleared his throat, and Zosma stood, releasing her hands. “There are hosts of sentinels searching for you,” Zosma said to the Aries Primary.
“They won’t find us here,” Eros replied.
“She is needed in Avarice—the work she left behind is unfinished. There are still many...”
The two males continued conversing and glanced at her every so often as if she were part of the conversation, but the howl of her thoughts, dampened by grief, came rushing back, making up for lost time.
How long had she lain lifeless in a realm strewn with injustice?
While Aela let her grief consume her, other celestials still fought against tyranny and an inevitable fate.
They were nearly powerless against it. Is this how her mother and father would have her spend the rest of her days?
Aela knew the answer to that. She just felt so heavy; she didn’t know how to get up and face the insurmountable weight of her loss and… responsibility.
The word clanged through her.
That’s what her other magic was though, wasn’t it?
For some inexplicable reason, Aela was gifted with an ability no one else had.
No one had been there to save her Line. And here she was, letting her loss strangle the life out of her when the Taureons still needed her, when the realm needed her.
She couldn’t find the Gods or save the realm by lying in bed.
Time wasn’t on their side. There would always be something that kept her lying down.
Aela sat up and kicked her legs free from the bedding.
Eros’ golden eyes seared into her as she made her way past the sunken pool into her bathing room.
She ignored him. It seemed the Fates had yet again left her no choice.
She may not want to be in the realm without her family anymore, but there were things to do: innocents to save and curses to break.