The Chains of Fate (The Aelfyn Archives #2)

Chapter 1

JASSYN

Stars, am I seriously doing this?

Jassyn stalled in front of Vesryn’s apartment. Resolve slowly leached out of his raised arm. He couldn’t bring himself to knock on the looming oak doors.

Three harrowing days had elapsed since the wraith attack.

In the wake of the destruction, a somber heaviness hovered above Centarya like a gathering storm.

Based on gossip scavenged from other magus, Jassyn had gleaned that the prince had finally returned to campus that morning—presumably after spending days hunting the wraith that had fled.

After arguing with himself for the past hour, Jassyn had abandoned the safety of his chambers.

He’d spent the entire ascent of the Spire—all five hundred stairs—fabricating countless excuses to turn around.

Somewhere in the mire of his thoughts, he knew it was a futile attempt to convince himself that he didn’t require his cousin’s aid.

It would be better to go to the prince directly, he reluctantly reasoned, and accept the consequences. He didn’t have anyone else.

Like the spiral stairs leading up the tower, Jassyn’s thoughts circled back to the root of his problems—and the reason he desperately needed help sobering up. He’d nearly lost his ability to control Essence due to Stardust. If the wraith returned and he was useless during another assault…

Surely he could manage resisting the craving until his dependency no longer held his will hostage. But his determination to abstain from the drug eroded, like water weathering stone.

If someone like Vesryn can sober up, then so can I. Before Jassyn’s birth, the prince’s wild behavior had bordered on legendary debauchery in the courts. His cousin had somehow freed himself, overcoming his own addiction to Stardust decades prior.

Jassyn shook his head, wrestling with a festering madness. Tempted to return to his quarters, he warred with the urge to consume his remaining dust.

Initiates faced expulsion for possessing the drug on campus.

On more than one occasion, the prince had ordered General Elashor to escort recruits off the island to stars knew where—most likely the human’s war training camps.

He could only imagine a magus like himself would face a harsher punishment. They were expected to set the example.

A zephyr of crisp air flowed through the sparse corridor, whirling Jassyn’s awareness back to Vesryn’s chambers.

The furious breeze did nothing to alleviate his body’s determination to scorch him with another wave of heat.

He wiped a trickle of perspiration from his brow.

Undoubtedly, his entire being would continue to revolt, wearing him down until he yielded and provided it with more of that condemning drug.

I still have some dust in my chambers. Just a pinch for relief—

A pulse of Essence scattered Jassyn’s thoughts.

Servants scurried past him, rushing to close the arched windows with pulls of force before the thunderheads unleashed their fury above the floating island.

Turning his attention back to Vesryn’s doors, Jassyn’s stomach churned alongside the brewing storm.

Why am I seeking Vesryn out as the person to help me?

It would be more effective to receive aid from a child.

Jassyn pivoted on the purple runner. Dodging the prince’s staff, who were now igniting globes of illumination in the empty ivory sconces, he sped back down the corridor.

I can handle this on my own. I’ve already made it three days.

Before descending the stairs, something Jassyn couldn’t quite discern caught his attention outdoors. He halted by a window, focusing on the swaying willows below. Like the scattered leaves ripped away by the wind, he knew his actions were spiraling out of control.

Disappointment settled onto his shoulders, a bleak grief encompassing him like a cloak. The only person to blame was himself. His justifications for turning to the drug as an escape buried him under a mountain of guilt.

Farine Vallende purchasing one of the slots on his contracts had nearly broken him.

Recalling his helplessness against the realm’s laws, binding him to couple with Elashor’s mother, bile surged in Jassyn’s throat.

He miserably failed at warding off the sporadic memories.

All those faceless people Farine had imposed upon him for her entertainment.

I can’t pretend what she forced me to do was about preserving the elven race.

Overwhelmed, he’d started obliterating his mind when summoned to her estate.

Vesryn had unexpectedly swooped in and intervened, exploiting a loophole by using his position on the council to claim exclusivity to Jassyn’s bloodline, granting him freedom from the realm instead.

Despite his liberation from contractually siring children, Farine’s gluttonous hands still haunted Jassyn’s dreams. All of that is over, so why don’t I have the strength to stop indulging?

Remorse twisted Jassyn’s gut. In his stupor after Vesryn had telepathically woken him the night of the assault, the only person he’d manage to save was one of their enemies.

Jassyn still tried denying that he’d summoned a foreign power, manipulating roots to halt that warrior’s fall.

He’d dared to hope that it was a hallucination, an effect of the drug.

But he’d walked past the ruptured ground’s glaring reminder at the base of the Spire.

Touching his throat, Jassyn traced the scabs left behind from that soldier’s gauntlet, providing more blatant evidence of the events.

Accompanying another bead of sweat, a residual fear slid down Jassyn’s spine from the hazy memory.

He wasn’t entirely sure how that midnight-haired male with crimson eyes and flashing fangs looked more elf than wraith.

More importantly, he wondered why that soldier was compelled and how he had Essence.

Tangling his fingers into his curls, Jassyn yanked his hair in frustration.

If he’d had a clear head that night, he might’ve gotten answers.

The king must be involved with the compulsion, but that doesn’t make any sense.

Nothing about that encounter made sense and the only answer Jassyn had received from that warrior was a snarl when he’d asked.

If the wraith return, I need to be ready. Determined, Jassyn whirled around and marched himself back down the hallway to Vesryn’s rooms. He couldn’t fix this predicament on his own. I’ll pay the price.

Before changing his mind again, Jassyn knocked on the prince’s door.

Too late, he realized that the withdrawal suspended him over a precipice of stupidity.

Jassyn blanched at his error. His symptoms were simply confusing him.

He could wean himself off the drug. How hard could it be?

Just a pinch would work… Seized by the idea, Jassyn promptly spun on his heel, fleeing down the hallway.

Vesryn’s voice boomed down the corridor, echoing a roll of thunder. “Jassyn!”

Jassyn skidded to a halt as a pounding agony lanced through his skull. He considered how far he could dash down the stairs before the prince could catch up to him.

Shoulders slumping at the inevitable, Jassyn blew out a defeated sigh before turning. Hairs lifting as if in warning, a crack of lightning flashed while rain began pinging against the windows.

Seeing double, two copies of his cousin prowled toward him.

Jassyn rapidly blinked Vesryn back into focus.

Gaze sweeping over the prince, he surveyed Vesryn’s sweaty bare chest and bootless feet.

Jassyn pursed his lips. The prince’s rumpled shorts were in danger of slipping indecently low—well past his excessively toned abdominals.

Vesryn’s emerald eyes glittered with curiosity. “This is the first time you’ve ever come to my quarters, and you’re going to leave after knocking?”

“I was here when you were bleeding out,” Jassyn protested, clasping his hands behind his back to hide his quivering fingers. That might’ve been the only time, come to think of it.

As if reminded by Jassyn’s prior visit, the prince idly traced the cluster of scars embedded in the center of his chest. An unexpected encounter with a band of organized wraith had resulted in the injury. Serenna had stitched Vesryn together to the best of her abilities, saving his life.

Jassyn started to angle back toward the stairs. “I’ll…return later.”

“Did you need something?” Vesryn arched a brow. “Or do you want to come in?” He slanted his head at his quarters. “Since you came all this way?”

Nose wrinkling at Vesryn’s half-clad appearance, Jassyn studied his cousin’s disarrayed topknot, barely restraining his silvery hair.

“I—I didn’t need anything.” My mind must still be affected if I thought coming to Vesryn was the solution.

I’ll simply consume the rest of my Stardust to erase the evidence of having it and sleep off any further urges.

I can start fresh in the morning. “I’d rather not interrupt…

” Having no interest in the prince’s current activities, Jassyn flapped a hand at what little disheveled garb Vesryn was wearing. “Whatever you were in the middle of.”

Obviously humored, an irritating smirk tugged at Vesryn’s mouth. “Trust me, I wouldn’t answer the door—even for you—if you were interrupting anything carnal.”

“And I’m already regretting knocking.” Jassyn rubbed his temples, hoping that if the prince noticed the blown vessels webbed through his eyes, he’d assume it was from exhaustion.

Turning to his rooms, Vesryn beckoned over his shoulder. “Stars, I’ll put on a fucking tunic if that’ll make you stop twitching.”

Jassyn scowled at his cousin’s sculpted back. It’s not too late, I don’t have to do this.

But he knew his thoughts only disguised themselves as excuses.

Guilt wrestled his reluctance into submission.

Mustering his self-control, Jassyn resisted the impulse to sprint back to his quarters, his attention dancing around the box of Stardust waiting for his return.

I should’ve tossed the container off the island.

Deep down, he admitted that wouldn’t have helped. He knew where to retrieve more.

With a stabilizing breath, Jassyn followed Vesryn into his chambers, unable to predict how the prince would react. Apprehension nipped at his heels as he imagined the likelihood of Vesryn banishing him from campus—or worse.

I’m going to regret this.