Chapter 20 #2
The leonthor froze, tail swishing like an angry cat’s, and time seemed to stop as Aiden counted his heartbeats—potentially his last ones.
“Our savior Elory the Flame will be. Promised to us she has been by the prophecy made by the traitor’s father.”
Traitor? If only Falcrest were there to school him about historical details no one else seemed to know… But in all his years, he’d never heard about a prophecy. Perhaps the right question to ask was… “Traitor to who?”
“The Flames, of course. The people who once bonded with our people in a promise of mutual protection. For so many centuries, the Flames and the leonthors side by side had fought, their fortunes tied together, until severed by the power of Ulder’s ancestors that bond was.”
The leonthor yawned widely, exposing that set of razor-sharp teeth Aiden was far from eager to get close to.
“What exactly do you mean by promised?” Even if he hadn’t heard about that particular prophecy, he’d seen enough in his young life to know that word never meant anything good.
With a grumble, the leonthor got to his paws once more, pacing the length of the cave. “Not know of the prophecy he does. Not know of the supposed extinction of our people he does. Not know of his own blood he does. What does he know?”
Aiden coughed at the sharp pain in his chest, induced by a shocked breath.
“What do you mean my own blood?” That hellcat apparently had a thing for riling people up by speaking in riddles, and in his current state, Aiden couldn’t help but rise to the bait.
“I know what magic I have, thank you very much.”
“Yes, yes, know his magic he does, but know his bloodline? Does he know that?” The leonthor stopped to throw Aiden a measuring look. Guardians help him, Aiden shrank under the scrutiny because…
“I grew up on the streets. My parents died when my sister and I were little.” Speaking the words aloud hurt more than Aiden would have liked to admit, but the leonthor didn’t seem to care the least bit.
“Pity he seeks for his fate? Not getting it from us he is. If for our Flame it wasn’t, and the fact that helped he has her, his head would be sitting detached from his neck in a corner.”
Everything in Aiden stilled at the flash of hatred in the creature’s lilac eyes. “Only one power strong enough to extinguish fire, and that our Flame’s friend possesses.”
“Ice? You mean my ice magic?” Aiden’s panic bubbled up in a laugh. He hadn’t shared with the leonthor why his parents had died. If anyone suspected about that other magic, he wouldn’t live to find out what it meant. “How does that say anything about my heritage?”
“Not matter it does that the ice wielders are few. The other power the one is that matters.”
Fuck—how did the leonthor know?
“The power we feel in his blood. The power to unmake.”
“I don’t have that power.” A blatant lie, and Aiden knew very well the leonthor would see right through him. No one knew about that power, not even Falcrest.
“Lies he is telling.” Like an annoyed housecat, the leonthor stalked closer, eyeing him as if it was measuring the distance and if it would easily reach him with its claws or if it would need to make an effort to wipe him out.
“A hidden power it is, forgotten by the ancient and kept by Ulder’s bloodline alone.
The power to unmake.” A roar ripped from the leonthor’s maw, sending Aiden cringing against the wall.
“The only thing that extinguishes the fire our wings are made of.”
Holy fuck! He’d known his power was somehow connected to the ancient stories he’d dug up and patched together from history books and old wives’ tales, but King Ulder?
“As in the King of Brestolya, whose ancestors of long past our wings have unmade and banished us into the shadows of the mountain caves.”
What? Ulder didn’t have magic. The King of Brestolya hated magic wielders, only tolerated them as weapons to keep his kingdom under control.
Perhaps the fact that the creature had just read his mind again should have concerned him more, but right at that moment, all Aiden was hoping for was to not be torn apart by the predator in front of him.
“That can’t possibly be true. I have nothing to do with Ulder’s blood—except for wanting it running from his neck in a bucket, perhaps.”
“Oh very much aware we are of the hatred for the Brestolyan king—and of his love for our Flame. Not alive he would be had we not witnessed him giving his life for her.”
Aiden was so screwed—if the leonthor was right and Ulder’s blood did run in his veins.
“Ulder’s bloodline the last of unmakers in Brestolya is, their magic originally from the Northern Continent hails—from fairies.”
A bruise would probably form where Aiden’s back was still pressed against the wall.
“How can you be sure I’m from Ulder’s bloodline?
My parents didn’t have any magic that I was aware of, neither did my sister.
” His chest seized at the thought of the one person he’d called a friend and a confidante all his life.
His life before Ashthorn, when he’d met Falcrest and Anees and Hadrian and Lory.
His new family. One he’d left behind to become a shadow to this world.
“Not matter it does whose blood is running in his veins,” the leonthor purred, its ire evaporated and its eyes large and curious as it stalked closer.
“An ally of ours he is now because of his loyalty to our Flame. Never stray from this path he will, because his freedom we will gift him and his wounds we will fully heal—if he agrees upon one condition.”
Aiden’s heart beat so fast he wondered if it could take off and fly out of his chest. Never before had he been confronted about his other power, the one that killed his parents when he was little.
The one that he’d been hiding, lying to the world that the building had collapsed on its own when, in truth, it had been him.
Ice coated Aiden’s fingertips as he slid his hands over the black rock beneath them, leaving a trail of frost. “What’s the condition?”
Anything to get out of there so he could gather his thoughts and forge a plan. Anything to get away from the creature that knew his secret.
He’d return to the collection point for the Ebon Division as soon as he’d cleared his head. If the bright night sky outside was anything to go by, he still had a few more days until time was up.
A wolfish expression entered the leonthor’s noble lion features. “A bargain: your secret keep we will, and your freedom we will grant you, in exchange for your vow to bring our Flame back to us.”
A lump formed in Aiden’s throat as he mulled over the consequences of agreeing to such a bargain.
Yes, he needed to get out of there, and he’d be a lot faster if he were in full health and didn’t need to sneak out of the caves.
Perhaps the leonthor would even give him directions. But there was a condition of his own.
The leonthor already had put up its secrecy in the bargain, but there was something else Aiden wanted to know because the fact that there was a living, breathing leonthor prowling the mountains was more than he could have imagined possible.
They were the last creatures to challenge Ulder’s line alongside the Flames before the Great Purge, and something was definitely going on here, or there wouldn’t be human artifacts sitting around in the cave.
“I will agree to your bargain if you tell me what this place is and who else lives here.” A glance at the fireplace and the blankets and bowls scattered around the dying flames.
For three long breaths, the leonthor said nothing; then it bowed its head. “Very well, Son of Ice, it eventually purred. “The last Flames of Brestolya refuge have found in these mountains, and this cave—my cave—still a few hosts. The ones who survived the attack of the traitor have.”
What traitor? Aiden wanted to ask, but his condition had been fulfilled, and a sensation of heat wrapped around his wrists like shackles of fire, burning into his skin. With a gasp, Aiden checked for flames, but found nothing but two thin, white lines on his wrists, the pain already fading.
“So not forget he will what he has promised,” the leonthor purred smugly, and Aiden wondered if he’d made a fool’s bargain rather than one that saved his life.
“Leave he will tomorrow after meeting the Flames, and the rest of the story he will hear. Go he will, and back to us he will bring our Flame.”
The leonthor was already prowling away when Aiden found his voice. “Wait—”