Chapter 45
Chapter
Forty-Five
The High Council Chamber was lit with the flicker of rune-lanterns, casting soft gold and blue firelight against the ring of marble columns.
Thick banners of crimson velvet hung along the walls, stitched with the Asgar Training Academy’s sigil.
The room, built in a perfect circle, exuded a tense atmosphere of authority.
This morning, the weight in the air was suffocating.
General Ravaryn Solas stood at the head of the room, her arms crossed over her black-and-silver uniform, silver pauldrons catching the light. Her sharp eyes scanned the gathering of council members. Her facial expression was as hard as carved granite.
Senior General Terrance Morlen was seated near the eastern window with his hands clasped behind his back. The orange stitching of his dragon’s sigil gleamed on his shoulder plate, and the tight line of his mouth said more than words ever could.
Vaelen Solen, Keeper of Forbidden Histories, leaned against the farthest pillar. His hood was drawn low over silver hair. There was the faint glint of an Aether crystal at his hip, pulsing like a heartbeat. He said nothing yet, but his presence crackled with quiet knowing.
The door opened with a thud. Commander Dareth entered, flight cape still dusted with ash; his jaw was tight, and his eyes were storm-shadowed.
Behind him strode Thorne. His face was unreadable.
His black uniform was scorched at the edges, and shadows still clinging to his boots like smoke that wouldn’t fade. The council fell quiet.
Thorne’s gaze scanned them all, pausing only on General Solas.
Her nod was slight, but permission enough.
He stepped forward. "She is with the healers," he said somberly.
"Dark magic scouts took Thaelyn, along with necromancers and mages cloaked in Rift-ward enchantments.
They were hunting for her Aether power."
Vaelen straightened. "Did they confirm her identity? Do they know what she is?"
"They didn’t need to," Thorne replied. "They knew exactly who they were after."
"And Kaen?" General Morlen asked. "He was present on the grounds when the attack occurred."
Commander Dareth stiffened. "He was in the council room when the skies lit up. I don’t believe he was directly involved as of right now.
But the timing of his arrival was too convenient.
We were busy with his arrival when the cadets were sent up into the sky.
We are investigating the matter. His arrival could have been the planned decoy, or maybe it was a coincidence. "
A ripple of unease passed through the council.
Thorne’s fingers clenched. "When we found Thaelyn, she was in shackles and chained to the wall by her arms and feet.
She was beaten to the brink of death. Who knows what toxins they made her ingest. She had no heartbeat when I found her, and she was lifeless the whole way home.
Her dragon bond was severed from her. Do you understand what that does to a bonded pair, let alone an ancient one like Nyxariel? "
"And what does it do to you, Thorne?" Vaelen’s voice was low, unreadable. "To be bonded to her while the world begins to turn for her power?"
Thorne didn’t blink. "It was the worst physical pain I have ever experienced.
Our bond runs deep, and it was magnified by the response that the dragons felt, too.
We are all connected. So, it makes me more dangerously protective of her and more loyal.
We have to protect her. Her magic has only begun to reach its potential and has changed the world.
She could become the most powerful source this world has ever known.
She is the only Aether wielder known. The magic was lost and dead until now.
The dragons have their own ways of dealing with matters, but we do have to consider how valuable these two ancient dragons are to the realm and to this academy. "
Commander Dareth stepped forward now. "We’ve identified several old strongholds where Rift-born wards still linger. One of them matched the pattern Garric and Vornokh tracked. We’ll be scanning the rest. But we need better eyes in the field, and political cover."
"Meaning?" asked General Solas.
"Meaning the King will begin asking questions now that Kaen is circling these events. And we all know Kaen rarely moves without ambition."
The room quieted again. Then Solas nodded. "Then we prepare. We do not make public announcements. We act quietly. Since Aether has returned, and the royal house begins to divide, this Academy must remain a sanctuary, for now."
She turned to Thorne. "You are designated as her personal protection.
We are aware of your romantic relationship, and normally, you would not be allowed to be assigned to her, but under the circumstances, we grant a special assignment due to the severity of the matter and the shared bond you two have with the dragons.
The council enforces this duty, effective immediately.
You are her shield now. You are ordered to remain loyal to your family, the crown, the Academy, and the realm.
If and when she recovers, where she goes, you go.
We will station additional guards outside of all doors when she is present. "
Thorne bowed his head once. "Understood."
As the council began to murmur and argue behind her, Solas turned toward the window, watching the dragons whirl in the skies above. Her voice was a whisper only Vaelen heard.
"The storm is only just beginning. I sense and fear there is much more to come."
Below, in the shadowed halls of the infirmary, Thaelyn slept, unaware that the realm had begun to shift around her name.
Apale hush lay over the Asgar Training Academy healers’ infirmary, broken only by the soft rustle of curtains and the distant caw of a rook perched high on the spire beyond the window.
The scent of poultices and burned sage clung to the air, mingling with the faintest hum of wards laced into the stone.
Sunlight slanted through the high, arched panes, catching the motes of dust that danced lazily in golden shafts.
Thaelyn stirred, not all at once. Her body was heavy, leaden with exhaustion, and stitched with aches that sang a dull pain in her limbs.
Her thoughts were slow to return, sliding into place like shards of shattered glass.
She remembered darkness. Chains. The cold.
Then a storm, a roar, a rush of wind and flame, and the pounding of wings.
Her eyes fluttered open. The ceiling above was smooth grey stone, faintly etched with sigils that pulsed dimly with wards of healing and protection.
Someone had tucked her beneath fine linen sheets; thick quilts were bundled at her sides.
Her skin itched where the healing salve had been applied, and she could feel a fine tracing of bandages around her ribs and left thigh.
"You're awake." The voice was soft and warm with relief. Thaelyn blinked slowly and turned her head. Nyxariel sat curled just beyond the open arch that led to the dragon’s alcove, her massive blue-and-silver-scaled form folded neatly into the space.
"I felt you stirring," the dragon murmured. "You slept for three days."
"Three?" Thaelyn rasped, her throat dry. "That long?"
"Your body needed it. What they did to you, the wards and methods they used... the drain on your Aether. Your heart stopped."
Pain flickered through Thaelyn’s chest, but not from her wounds. Memories swelled behind her eyes. She recalled flashes of the chamber, of shadows pressing in, and of the helplessness that clung like ice.
Thorne. She felt it before she saw him. A warmth at the edge of her awareness, steady as the drumbeat of her own heart.
She turned, and there he was, curled awkwardly in the high-backed chair beside her bed.
A book resting half-open sat in his lap, and his head was lolled back against the stone wall.
His hair had fallen over his brow. A line of several days of stubble shadowed his jaw.
One of his hands, strong, calloused, and familiar, was still clasped loosely around hers.
Thaelyn stared at him for a long time, her chest rising slowly beneath the quilt.
This man was so many things. He is brooding and arrogant, dangerous and lethal, a trained assassin, and so drop gorgeous he takes my breath away.
He also has a side to him that is rarely seen by others.
He is protective and sweet, takes the time to draw me a bath, washes my hair, brings me flowers when I don’t expect them, and here he is by my side, asleep with a book in his lap as if he had lain awake all night.
He’s vulnerable in the quiet moments when I see how broken he is because his father has hurt him and abused him as a child to toughen him up.
He never felt important, valued, or loved by his father.
He is so many things, and my heart feels like a fist is around it, squeezing tight.
"He hasn’t left," Nyxariel said gently. "Not once."
As if sensing her gaze, Thorne stirred. His hand tightened slowly around hers. Then he blinked awake, confusion flickering briefly across his features before his eyes landed on her. His breath hitched. "You’re awake," he whispered.
She tried to smile, but it faltered. "You came for me."
"Always," he said hoarsely. “There is no place you could go where I wouldn’t try to find you. I would burn down the world for you.” He leaned forward, brushing the hair gently from her temple. "You’re safe now. No one’s ever going to touch you like that again."
A tear slid from the corner of her eye. Thorne caught it with his thumb, his touch reverent and protective.
"You fought, Thaelyn. Gods, you fought like hell.
We saw the aftermath when we broke into the cell where they had been holding you.
" He paused, his voice tightening. "Nyxariel nearly tore the sky in two. "
Thaelyn looked at him. Her heart ached, not from fear or pain, but from something deeper, something heavy and precious.
"Did you catch them? Are they gone?" she asked.
Thorne shook his head slowly. "Only ash and ruins are left behind.
When we got there, you were alone. We took care of the ones that were present, and the dragons burned the rest to the ground.
We tracked what we could. Commander Dareth thinks he knows who orchestrated it.
But nothing's confirmed. He wants to talk to you to get confirmation when you are ready. "
She frowned faintly. "Is it Kaen? I sensed him, at least I think I did. There was so much darkness. I don’t know what was real or not."
Thorne didn’t answer directly, but the look in his eyes was answer enough.
She sank back into the pillows, her hand still curled in his. "I need to speak to the council."
"You will. But not yet. Rest first. The General wants to see you once you're strong enough."
Thaelyn didn’t argue. For now, she was safe, held between warmth and shadow. Safe with all that she cared about. Her dragon. Her bondmate. Her Thorne. For the first time since the sky stole her away, she let herself feel safe.