18. Raea
Raea
My mother’s gardens are similar to a maze, only less complicated. There are still twists and turns, hedges you can’t see over, bridges you can cross, but I know them by heart. Kellan and I have spent our whole lives playing in here.
As we walk, I can almost hear our laughter from years past echoing throughout the rows of shrubs and flowers. We loved playing tag or hide-and-seek.
Kellan is silent beside me as we pass the frost lilies and the hawkthorne trees that are in full bloom.
There’s a little bench beside it, but we take a U-turn around the tree, heading straight for the center.
I close my eyes and let the thick mist seep into my skin.
We take our final turn, and the gilded fountain comes into view.
It’s as tall as the hedges with layers of pools that spill into each other.
The edge of the fountain is thick enough to act as a bench.
I take a seat there while Kellan stands.
“I feel like I’ve lost you,” he starts, breaking the silence that has fallen between us. “And you’re going to be married to him soon.”
I nod, hugging myself, knowing it’s time to have the conversation.
I’ve been hoping he’d back off. He had promised, but he’s still clinging.
It’s always been Ryker, always will be. There’s no force in the universe that could change that.
“You will always be my best friend, Kellan.
And you will make a great husband for someone.
And yes, that thought makes me nauseous, but it's true. She will be the luckiest.”
He groans, shoving his hands into his hair as he creates some distance between us.
“So you’re giving up on us?” he scoffs. “I mean, do you think there’s even a chance the prophecy is wrong or that you’re wrong about him?
Gods, Raea, I’m in love with you, and it hurts.
I can’t breathe seeing you two together, like you’ve already just given up on anyone else being a possibility. ”
“There’s no Bond between us, Kellan. There hasn’t been in a long time. I’ve tried telling you. I’ve made it obvious. Over and over, the truth is brought forth, and still you deny it. It’s not me who is giving up. You can’t give up on something that was never even possible.”
“I don’t care,” he snaps, throwing out his arms. “I won’t give up.
Not now, not ever. Screw the damn prophecy.
You’re it for me, Rae, only you. I don’t need fate to bind us.
My choice has always been you. I won’t give up hope that maybe it will be me.
” His voice breaks, and there’s desperation in his eyes.
“I’ve loved you every way a man can love a woman—quietly, fiercely, and even when it broke me.
But you’re asking me to just walk away, and I can’t.
” His chest heaves from his desperate attempts to breathe.
“I can’t walk away. I love you so much, Raea. ”
My eyes burn. How did we end up here? It felt like not long ago, we were inseparable, and now, I’m on the verge of losing him. If he can’t let me go, he’s going to be the one with a broken heart.
“I don’t want you to give up on me. Maybe that’s selfish, but I want you in my life, Kel.
I want you there for everything. And I’m sorry you’re hurting, but do you think that this is easy on me?
Knowing that because my soul belongs to another, you’ll leave me over a choice I was never allowed to make. I was born to be his, never yours.”
In a blink, his mouth is on mine. There’s no lightning. No world tilt. There is nothing but the dry, dusty scent of cinnamon and a hollow ache in my chest from the betrayal of it all. It isn't a collision of souls—it's a burial of our past.
“Please,” he cries. “Kiss me. Don’t fight this. This is what we will miss out on.”
We’re both crying. I feel absolutely empty.
My skin revolts before my mind can. The Aethermark doesn't just hum—it roars.
A nuclear heat surges from my core, a physical 'No' echoing from the stars themselves.
Kellan doesn't pull away. He's thrown back by the sheer force of a Bond he was never meant to touch.
“Gods,” he screams. His eyes are red and cheeks tearstained. Frustration gets the best of him as he kicks over a pot of flowers. He glances at his burned palms to my eyes, which I know are flickering with golden fire.
“You promised,” I cry, the heat fading with every breath.
“You promised you’d always be my friend, and you're breaking that promise.” I fall to the ground and stare at the moss carpet.
Guess that answers that. After more than a few minutes, I see Kellan’s hand reaching out for me.
I’m scared to touch him. I’m scared to hurt him.
Moments later, the air around us shatters.
Iridescent waves of violet and sapphire and pinks cut through the misty breeze.
The mist doesn't just part for Ryker, it flees.
He steps into the clearing, the iridescent waves protectively wrapping around me.
He doesn't look like a Prince—he looks like an apex predator here to reclaim his mate. Before I can say anything, his fist connects with Kellan’s jaw with a sickening thud, sending Kellan to the ground again.
He doesn’t even stop moving for me. He reaches down, his hand steady as he pulls me from the ground and tucks me firmly—possessively—against his side.
He tucks his other hand, the one he used to punch Kellan, into his pocket.
He’s the picture of nonchalance unless you know what to look for.
His stormy eyes have gone nearly white with silver streaks as if looking at a hurricane from above.
"I've warned you," Ryker grits out, his voice dropping to that lethal, quiet timbre that makes even the Regils hesitate.
"She's not a prize for you to steal because you're lonely. She’s mine.
Her heart, her soul, her very breath." He turns his gaze to me, his eyes swirling with silver storms, before they snap back to Kellan.
"And if you ever corner her again and force her into a situation she didn’t ask for, I won't just hit you.
I'll make sure the gods themselves can't find the pieces of you that are left. "
A single glance at Kellan reveals everything crossing his face—anger, sorrow, then apology.
Ryker leads me back into the palace for the meeting with my father. “Are you okay?”
I nod and fight back another round of tears. I don’t know why I am crying. It might have something to do with the guilt consuming me.
He opens my door, both of us slipping inside. Zhel is inside getting my dinner gown laid out. When she sees Ryker, she curtsies and leaves. The door shuts behind me.
“I’m sorry,” I say on an exhale, my voice still shaky.
Ryker exhales slowly, his forehead resting against mine.
The storm in his eyes softens, but it doesn’t fade.
“Raea, you don’t need to apologize. Not for his choices.
He crossed a line, and that’s on him—not you.
” His hand slips around the back of my neck, grounding me.
“I know he’s hurting. I know what it feels like to love someone so deeply it twists you inside out.
But none of that excuses making you feel cornered.
You never have to apologize for someone else’s actions and lack of boundaries. He should have known better.”
My breath catches as his thumb brushes a tear from my cheek.
“And as for me being here…” He gives a small, rueful smile. “I’m sure it makes it harder for him. But I’m not going anywhere. I’d rather be the one standing between you and anything—or anyone—who tries to take what isn’t freely given.”
“Ryker…” My voice breaks on his name.
He leans closer, his breath brushing my lips.
“You aren’t fully mine yet,” he whispers, the words carrying a promise instead of a claim.
“But one day soon, you will make the choice. In front of everyone…” His thumb traces my bottom lip, sending a spark through me.
“These lips will meet mine because you want them to—and no one will ever take that choice from you again.”
I close my eyes, trembling at the weight of it.
Before our mouths meet, he pulls back with a wicked grin, his mood changing in a blink. “Time to go, Princess. We have a meeting with your father.” He winks and turns on his heel, leaving me breathless and burning in his wake.
I’ll have to ask him later how he knew Kellan had kissed me.
My father’s private office is on the third level and intimate enough to only seat the four of us.
Behind him is our kingdom crest, a golden and majestic bird spanning its wings in the shape of a ‘T’.
Its body is an emerald, and above its head are sun rays shooting out in the shape of a crown.
Twenty-two stars fill in the space around it.
It’s the same crest that has been tattooed on my wrist since I was five years old.
The first king of Treon discovered the emerald in the forest below.
The bird represents the rare golden starbird that nests on three of our planets.
The circular room is filled with political books, scrolls, and different trinkets our family has collected over the centuries.
His desk sits at the center atop a rug. Light filters in from windows above, and the ceiling arches up into a dome with a candle-lit chandelier.
There’s hardly any new tech in here, aside from his holographic communication pad and his monitor.
When Ryker and I walk in, I notice my mother is also seated.
My father stands and makes his way over, pulling me first into a long hug and making sure I’m okay since I missed dinner last night.
He’s inspecting me like I might have a crack in me somewhere.
When he’s satisfied with his appraisal, he pulls Ryker into a hug.
Ryker turns to me with a lifted brow and shrugs. “We hug,” he says, probably responding to my mouth still hanging open.
“Please, sit,” my father says.