Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
He could watch her do anything.
Aela prepared tea in the kitchen beside the dining room that her magic had grown.
Eros was the shadow cast from the opposing light leaking in from the crudely formed window.
Everything about the asteroid was just slightly off.
Unfinished in a way that spoke of the uncertainty she felt within herself.
She didn’t understand yet. She was perfect.
They were leaving for Neser soon, where there would be far too many Arieans bustling about her for his liking.
He tolerated Zosma, as she was fond of him, but he didn’t want the male or anyone else near her.
Not that he had control over that. Eros nearly growled. All he could do was watch from afar.
The thought prompted his shadows into action, and they slowly slunk toward her.
He let her see them, so as not to startle her.
When he had finally caught her in her dreams and she acknowledged him, she hadn’t run from his Darkness since.
Aside from their little game of chase in the astral air with Seba.
He speared a patch of shadow for his gaze to linger over her shoulder, and tendrils of his Darkness threaded into her hair. He hadn’t seen her make tea before. Didn’t know how she liked it.
“May I?” he rasped, sending his voice to mingle in the shadows lingering upon her shoulder.
Pinpricks erupted across Aela’s neck as she nodded.
Eros sculpted his shadows to hover just beneath her palms, allowing her to guide his movements as he took over preparing the tea for her.
Together they reached for a small glass vial and measured four drops of a sweet oil into her misshapen cup.
Next came the tea—the myriad of flowers, herbs, and leaves already mixed for her taste.
They pinched the dried blend into a slotted metal sphere and draped the fine attached chain over the rim of her cup.
Water came next, and Eros summoned flames to heat the kettle for her.
“Not too hot,” she whispered. “You want to let it cool slightly after bringing it to a boil so you don’t burn the leaves. Makes the tea bitter.”
Eros nodded, though she couldn’t see, and snuffed out his flames. They reached for the kettle, his shadow hand gripping the handle while hers rested on the back of his as they poured the hot water over the tea ball.
“How long does it take?” Eros asked.
“It depends on how strong you like it,” she breathed.
He couldn’t help himself. He formed another shadow hand and drew it up her forearm and shoulder, brushing her long, ashy hair to the side, exposing the elegant column of her neck.
“And how do you like it?” he murmured against her skin.
“Strong.”
Aela prepared him a cup of tea as well, then he regrettably left her to ensure his House was in order for her arrival. His curse bled her loss as he tore across the cosmic sky. Eros gritted his teeth as he restrained his magic from spearing back to her.
Blurring across the realm, he raced first to his prison. The flaming river had become sludge—unmoving. Eros blew out from The Darkness, bewildered. Floating before the center of the realm, pale light flickered briefly within the river before disappearing beneath the magmatic ripples.
Sebaserpens materialized beside him in his smaller, less intimidating form, repeating his earlier words. “She is the key.”
Eros wrenched his gaze away from the celestial demise, the epicenter of what should give them life yet pulled them to death.
“How long have you known?” he demanded.
The snake replied, “How long have you known?”
Eros swiped a hand down his face. “Since the beginning. After all, it was her Ascension that strengthened me to get out. Gods, her terror. And while I need her to sever their connection, the last thing I want is for her to get anywhere near them.”
He turned his back on his stagnant prison, shooting away in a shroud of black to Neser.
The river had once moved at a constant pace, a steady pull on the realm’s energy that disrupted constellation placements and swallowed anything that fell into its molten maw.
It had never been idle. What had changed?
He couldn’t accept the reason that came to his mind.
He didn’t deserve anything so holy. He hoped that denying what he refused to face would somehow keep her safe.
Eros prepared his court in short order then returned for Aela.
Bharani and Mes had been raised to joint-Adjacent shortly after the Primary meeting concluded, and the Houses dispersed back to their own systems. True to their word, the Heirs found a binding stone in the Temple of Aries, and they conducted a brief ceremony to secure their allegiance to him.
The priestess had shaken so violently at his presence that it was a marvel Mes and Bharani were able to grasp the binding stone.
“Timora, they are expecting us,” Eros said. Zosma, himself and Aela stood in the main chamber of the asteroid.
“I’ve never been there before, how am I supposed to will us someplace I’ve never been? Why don’t you take us?” Aela retorted.
Eros stepped closer to her, whispering into her ear partly to earn a rise out of her and partly because he was helpless against her pull.
“They don’t know about me. Appearing in a black cloud would raise questions, but that matters little to me.
Think of this as a test for your magic. Trust yourself. ”
Aela peeled back from him and stared into his golden gaze. She took a steadying breath and reached for Zosma’s hand, then Eros’.
“This might take me a moment. I’ve never successfully done this with others before.” Something akin to grief flashed in her vibrant eyes for a moment.
Zosma opened his mouth, but Eros silenced him with a glare Aela missed as her long lashes floated down to dust the tops of her cheekbones.
Flicker.
Aela’s eyes snapped open, a wild gleam shining in their turquoise depths.
Zosma placed a hand on Aela’s shoulder as he surveyed where she had brought them.
As he knew they would be, Aries sentinels and his Adjacents were waiting on the other side of the dormant traveling rings.
No one got into Neser without his explicit permission.
All the Houses had accepted their in-access, only Taurus had any gripes about it.
Eros conceded he wouldn’t stop trying to get Aela back if she were taken from him, only there was nothing in the realm that could stop him.
The Heirs of Aries and his joint-Adjacents, Mes and Bharani, stepped forward and addressed Aela, welcoming her and Zosma to their capital and castle.
As the greeting party dissipated, leading Aela and Zosma to their guest quarters, Eros’ eyes floated above the heads of the celestials vying for his attention; there was only one who ever had it.
“As you know, crystal supplies are at an all-time low. I have presented the Senate with terms I think they are amenable to…” Menkar droned on.
While crystal supplies to recharge his constellation’s magic reserves were important, Eros’ mind kept homing in on the stunning creature seated at his right.
The meeting room boasted a slate table carved from the cliffside the castle perched upon.
He invited Aela to his meeting with his advisors and Asterism the day after they arrived in Neser.
He hoped to show her he was more than the scourge that plagued the realm.
He just cared for the House of Aries enough to prune it when needed.
A seasoned gardener tended healthy plants and removed noxious and rotting flora, nipping buds to redirect nourishment and contain disease.
Asters delivered their reports, yet all the while his entire being felt pulled to her by an invisible weight.
An inevitability. Her turquoise eyes darted up from the book she was reading from time to time, narrowing at things his advisors said.
Like the predator he was, he studied her reactions and movements.
What parts of the meeting sparked her interest? Was she angry? Was she curious?
“Primary?” Menkar asked. He likely needed his opinion on some matter, but Eros was caught in Aela’s snare.
“We’re done,” Eros said simply, ending the meeting.
His advisors immediately put their dull selenite shards back into invisible pockets lining their tactical suits and left without question. Menkar on the other hand, hesitated.
“Was there something you needed?” Eros bit out without lifting his gaze from where it was pinned on Aela. She was studiously reading, determined to avoid his stare.
“No, Primary. I live to serve,” Menkar said before leaving.
Eros pushed his chair back and settled in to wait her out. He propped his booted feet atop the slate table and steepled his fingers across his chest. Aela snapped her book shut.
That didn’t take long.
“What were you reading?” Eros asked.
“Probably nothing important. I could try to help with Neser’s crystal shortage.”
“I doubt that. Tell me about it.”
“About me helping?”
“No, about the book you were reading.”
Aela set her book bound in brown leather on top of the table, then slid it farther away from his boots. “It’s a love story.”
He quirked a black brow at her to go on.
“I’ve been researching what we know of the Gods, and this account is different from the liturgical tomes I’ve read.
” She placed a tan hand on the book, tracing the faded edges.
“Scorpan is the God of House Scorpio, and while his sigil and epoc is a scorpion, all the illustrations are of a winged creature.”
“That is interesting.”
“I know.” Aela scooted forward to the edge of her chair, her spine straightening. “Below every depiction of Scorpan’s epoc is this line: ‘a way back to her.’ Any idea what that means?”
Eros had been locked away in his prison soon after the Gods arrived to Khemaida, and he hadn’t even been fully conscious. “I do not. Though I know someone who might. Care for a flight?”
Aela practiced flickering from Neser. When they arrived floating in the blackness of the realm air, he wasn’t surprised to see the asteroid hovering in the distance.
“There are other places to go, you know.”
Aela rolled her eyes. “Don’t start. As you once said, ‘be excited’ I’m doing this at all.”
“Fair enough.”
Seba. Eros called from his mind into the void. His guardian answered a moment later. Before Sebaserpens joined them, Eros shifted to face her.
“I need to thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being willing to help Neser. Aries.”
“We’re allies, right?” Aela said with a coy grin.
Eros snorted. “Is that what you think we are?”
Aela’s smile softened as her eyes landed on his lips. As the realm tended to do whenever they leaned into Fate’s weaving, the air charged between them. Seba materialized from the night sky, and Aela’s gaze darted away.
Eros cleared his throat, addressing the cosmic serpent. “Tell me what you know of Scorpan and his epoc.”
“Scorpan is with the others. His epoc… I do not know,” Seba replied into his mind.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“What is he saying?” Aela asked, floating closer to him. He didn’t think she was conscious of the movement.
“There are many trails. Many essences to track. It is no simple task,” Seba said.
“I’m aware, but was Scorpan’s epoc a scorpion or a winged creature?”
“Tell him about the inscription,” Aela urged.
Seba regarded her with unblinking, golden eyes.
“He can hear you. Ask him yourself.”
“Sorry, I didn’t know. I read an account of Scorpan that was more of a tale about his character than of his godhood. It read like a love story. There were renderings of a winged creature, and beneath them all it said: ‘a way back to her.’ Did the Gods ever have bonds? Or soulmates?”
Darkness billowed off his shoulders as Seba answered into his mind.
“Well… what did he say?” Aela asked.
“He isn’t sure if the Gods can have bonds or how that might lead us to them.”
Aela dragged a thumbnail against her lower lip, and Eros could see her mind closing doors and opening others, trying to puzzle it all out.
“You’ll find them; I know you can,” Eros said in what he hoped was an encouraging tone, but knowing his propensities, he likely failed.