Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Augustine was entirely alone at home. Alderian hadn’t returned all day, and his prolonged absence thoroughly unnerved her. On top of all her immediate human struggles, she was now agonizing over events unfolding in another dimension. It was absurd—yet, it was her inescapable reality now.
Every so often, her fingers would instinctively reopen Isaac’s text message. No matter how many times she read the harsh words on the screen, she couldn’t wrap her head around it.
Why would Amanda do something like this to her?
Of all the potential haters she had desperately tried to imagine, Amanda hadn’t even crossed her mind.
Her very first reaction had been an impulse to track her down and aggressively confront her.
But every single time she pictured the scene, she instantly remembered their shared laughter, the late-night study sessions, and the secrets they had deeply entrusted to one another, causing a painful knot to form in her stomach.
“You should hydrate,” a familiar voice murmured.
Augustine jumped slightly. It was Elarión, standing tall and gallant near the living room entrance. As if he had seamlessly read her thoughts, he offered a quiet, pragmatic comfort. Augustine managed a weak, appreciative smile.
Pulling her water bottle out of her backpack, she took a few slow sips and closed her eyes. Elarión observed every detail of her movements from the doorway with a quiet, underlying greed.
“What are you doing here?” Augustine asked, sighing as she sank into the plush sofa. With a few soft pats on the cushion beside her, she invited him to sit.
“I simply came to see how you were doing,” he replied smoothly, crossing the room. There didn’t seem to be a single hidden motive behind his straightforward explanation.
“Did you hear what happened yesterday?” Augustine asked quietly.
Elarión shook his head, and within moments, Augustine poured out her raw worries and sorrows. The A’aruin listened intently, never once interrupting, carefully receiving everything Augustine’s heavy heart entrusted to him.
When she finally finished speaking, Elarión quieted for a moment before offering his thoughts. “It seems to me that Amanda is in love with David. It certainly doesn’t justify what she did to you, but it perfectly explains her erratic behavior.”
Augustine weighed his words carefully. She had never once seen a sign that it was so, but remembering how fiercely Amanda had stuck to David’s side over these past few days, the theory didn’t seem impossible.
“What are you doing here?”
Alderian’s voice cut through the air, sounding absolutely fearsome.
Augustine looked up abruptly, and there he stood. He was tall, magnificent, and dressed in an ornate attire she had never seen him wear before. Her heart raced the exact moment her eyes locked onto him. Instantly on the defensive, Elarión stood up from the sofa.
“Were you at the High Council?” Elarión asked, completely bypassing Alderian's question. “Have they officially discovered Augustine’s anomaly?”
Alderian shook his head coldly. He looked past him, focusing entirely on Augustine as he reached out a hand toward her. “Come to my side, Augustine. It is not appropriate for you to be sitting so close to Elarión.”
“There’s absolutely no need to be angry, Alderian,” Elarión interrupted, stepping between them. “Augustine was simply telling me what happened today with Amanda.”
“What about Amanda?” Alderian demanded, his brow furrowing even deeper as his protective instincts flared.
“Please leave us to speak in private, Elarión,” Augustine said softly, sensing the volatile tension in the room.
Elarión gave her a respectful nod and vanished silently into thin air.
Turning to him, Augustine sighed. “What is wrong with you, Alderian? Why are you in such a terrible mood? Did something awful happen at your council meeting?”
“Because when I finally come back to you, I find you alone with Elarión, telling him deep things that even I don’t know yet,” Alderian admitted, his voice tight. “How could I not be upset by that?”
“And why do you care if I tell him or someone else?” Augustine countered, her own brow furrowing as irritation sparked. “I’m allowed to have friends, Alderian.”
“Of course you can have friends, but I should be your ultimate confidant,” he insisted, stepping closer as his breath hitched.
“Your other half. Only me.” He exhaled a ragged wheeze, desperately trying to calm his racing pulse.
“I don’t know how to be around you right now, Augustine.
I don’t know whether to act as your A’aruin or your lover.
They are not the same thing, and I am utterly overwhelmed by feelings I can no longer control. ”
“I already told you,” Augustine said, her voice completely unwavering as she stood her ground. “I don’t want your self-control.”
Alderian stepped forward decisively, closing the distance between them, and gently placed his hand over her eyes.
A second later, the waking world dissolved, and Augustine knew instantly that they were standing within her dreams. Alderian was right in front of her, so close that the slightest movement would cause her skin to brush against his.
“Augustine, I’m not nearly as kind as you think I am,” he warned, his voice dropping to a dark, possessive whisper.
“I want you entirely mine, and I refuse to share you with anyone else. At least in this human life of yours, I am going to be incredibly selfish. Hate me if you want, but there is no turning back now.”
Before she could speak, Alderian claimed her lips in a demanding, almost violent kiss.
He forced his tongue into her mouth, stealing the air from her lungs and leaving her completely breathless.
Augustine didn’t resist him for a single second; she returned the kiss with the exact same fierce intensity, her own tongue stroking his.
The sudden, blossoming heat between her legs and the agonizing desire to have him inside her felt almost painful.
Breaking the kiss briefly, she leaned up to lick one of his earlobes, whispering sensually against his skin, “Be as selfish as you want to be, my love. Do everything you need to do to be satisfied, and convince yourself that you, too, can only ever belong to me.”
Alderian let out a low moan of pure satisfaction and pulled her into another deep kiss.
His firm fingers caressed the bare skin of her back, sending a delicious, electric chill straight down her spine.
When his hand slid forward beneath her clothes to cup her breasts, roughly tugging at her nipples, Augustine couldn’t hold back a loud groan of pleasure.
Alderian’s other hand moved possessively down her belly, swiftly unbuttoning her pants.
But right before his fingers could reach inside her underwear, he abruptly froze. Trembling, he slowly withdrew his hand and broke the heavy kiss.
“I’m going to possess you one day, Augustine, but it won’t be now,” he whispered raggedly against her lips. “When I finally do, I want you to be fully aware of what we’re doing together, and I want you to choose me over and over again.”
Even though Alderian said those words, he couldn’t resist leaning in to kiss her once more. But this time, the frantic heat melted into a deep, agonizing tenderness. It was a long, wet, intimately slow kiss.
If this was nothing more than an illusion, it felt achingly, beautifully real—the solid warmth of Alderian’s skin, the softness of his white hair, the desperate firmness of his lips. She no longer cared what dimension they had to occupy to possess one another. She just wanted to be with him.
Though she deeply resented having to wake up, opening her eyes to see Alderian sitting faithfully beside her in the physical world felt like a sweet balm to her soul.
Alderian contemplated her in absolute silence, gently tracing the air a fraction of an inch above her face, her lips, and her hair, mimicking a caress.
“I wish you were really here,” Augustine murmured longingly. “If you were, absolutely nothing you said could have dissuaded me from finishing what we began a moment ago.”
Alderian let out a genuine laugh, thoroughly amused by her boldness. “Believe me, you’ll be the one begging for a truce the day that finally happens. I won’t let you sleep for days.”
“Promise it,” Augustine laughed, a flush warming her cheeks.
After a quiet moment of comfortable silence, Alderian’s expression turned serious, and he asked her to tell him everything that had happened with Amanda. As she spoke, his face mirrored her own shock.
“I didn’t see that coming at all,” he admitted honestly after hearing the full story. “What will you do now?”
“I’ve considered a dozen different scenarios, but I always reach the exact same conclusion,” Augustine replied, her jaw tightening with grim determination.
“I’m going to confront her face-to-face and listen to whatever she has to say: excuses, lies, whatever.
But I absolutely have to hear it directly from her mouth. ”
“She may not wish to speak with you at all. Based on what you’ve told me, it seems she’s been actively avoiding you,” Alderian pointed out logically.
“She won’t be able to avoid me for long. She has no idea how persistent I am.”
“You’re right about that,” Alderian said, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “You’re a headstrong one.”
They laughed once more, and Augustine felt a strange, comforting relief wash over her.
Alderian possessed a rare ability to put her in a good mood even under the most bizarre and stressful conditions.
And he kisses excellently, she thought, blushing furiously at the vivid memory of their shared dream.
She stole a fleeting glance at him, her eyes fixing heavily on his lips.
“What exactly are you looking at?” Alderian asked, a mischievous, knowing smile spreading across his face. “Do you want to go back to sleep so soon?”
Augustine turned bright red, instantly grabbing a pillow and covering her face to hide her embarrassment as the sound of Alderian’s rich laughter echoed through the bedroom. If only every single day could be just like this perfect moment.
* * *
That night, Augustine had a strange dream. It was a lucid dream, but not like the ones Alderian had shown her before; this one was darker and more unsettling.
It was a starless night, and she was in the middle of a lake, floating on the surface. The lake was surrounded by a dense forest, where hundreds—thousands—of Shadows watched her from a distance.
In the dream, Augustine was not afraid. She was aware of every creature surrounding her and felt in them an unknown longing. A yearning.
She knew that a single word from her would be enough to command that army of Shadows to do whatever she willed.
She was their Queen. Their Sovereign.
She felt herself being dragged by a stormy river of Shadows and saw Alderian, with his black wings, forcing his way toward her. He wrapped her in his wings and pulled her out of there in a second.
“What just happened?” she asked, sitting up in bed.
Alderian was looking at her, breathless and translucent.
Augustine recognized that state from the time he had transported her…
where had she been for it to affect Alderian like this?
She watched him disappear into the darkness of the night and felt a primitive fear.
She turned on the light and couldn’t go back to sleep.
* * *
Alderian felt a burning pain inside him. Augustine’s spirit had been dragged to the edge of the human world and the dimension where the Shadows dwell.
The Thread had alerted him to their presence, but he hadn’t arrived quite in time. Not enough to prevent Augustine from being immersed in the deformed immensity of those creatures. They wanted to devour her completely. He had never sensed such a massive greed in beings that were normally harmless.
He wondered if he should alert the High Council to these events. It seemed like something more transcendent than an anomaly that only concerned the two of them. He immediately dismissed the idea. The Guardian of Order looked like a hunter waiting for his prey every time Augustine was mentioned.
He wouldn’t be the one to serve her to him on a silver platter.
“I must become stronger,” he concluded with determination, though—paradoxically—he still could not get up from the floor.