Chapter 15
Night had fully settled by the time Aedric returned to our room.
A servant had come not long after Hamish left. In silence, she'd spread a salve that smelled faintly of herbs and tallow over the burn. It soothed the sting and eased the blistering, but it did nothing to lift the heaviness in my heart.
I couldn't get the face of that little boy out of my head—Dannis. I'd glimpsed the same memory within Rìan. Whatever happened to him, the truth was dangerous enough that Aedric had forced me out of his mind the only way he knew how.
He hadn’t meant to hurt me. The look on his face afterward had made that painfully clear.
I wasn’t blameless. I’d still slipped into his thoughts without permission. Invaded something private, something fiercely guarded. Actions had consequences, and I wore this one plainly—the faint outline of his hand still ghosting across my cheek.
And yet… I couldn’t stop the shaking in my hands.
I needed something to steady myself. A drink. Something to dull the edge of it all.
In Solmire, wine had come at a thought. Effortless. I tried the same here, focusing, willing a bottle into existence.
Nothing.
I even said it aloud, feeling foolish, adding a quiet please as though the castle might be persuaded.
Still nothing.
Noctharis, it seemed, was not inclined to offer comfort to Aedric’s Court—or to me.
So I sat in the room and waited. Time stretched unbearably, each passing moment winding the knot in my chest tighter.
As the last of the daylight faded, I cracked open the window just enough to let the night air slip in.
The chill seeped into the room, its bite grounding me, keeping my thoughts from spiraling too far.
He came just before midnight.
The door opened with barely a sound. I turned from the window seat as Aedric slipped inside, quiet as a shadow.
The room was dark, but I would have known him anywhere—the shape of him, the presence of him.
He closed the door softly and remained there, back turned, head bowed.
His fingertips rested against the wood as though steadying himself.
I said nothing. The shiver that passed through me had nothing to do with the cold.
I latched the window shut. The timid click was loud in the silence. Only then did he turn.
He leaned back against the door, the darkness swallowing most of his expression. I wished, suddenly, that I’d lit a lamp—that I could see him clearly, read every line of his face.
“Hamish has always stood at my side,” he said at last, low and controlled. “He’s fought beside me his entire life. He’s loyal. Unwavering. He always has been.” Something pained slipped into his tone. “Until you.”
I stared at him, pulse pounding in my ears.
“I don’t blame you, El,” he continued, almost gently. “You’re beautiful. So beautiful it’s blinding at times. An Eidra trait, softened by your humanity. Any male would be a fool not to want you.” He dragged a hand through his hair, shaking his head faintly. “But Hamish… What do I do about Hamish?”
The air felt fragile, stretched tight as wire. One wrong word and it would snap.
“Aedric—”
“Do you desire him?”
“No!”
For a long moment, he said nothing. But the heat radiating from him flooded the room, thick and oppressive. The windows began to fog at the edges.
“He’s a good man,” he continued. “But when cracks form—when loyalty falters—the entire foundation is at risk. And with everything as it is now… with Rìan free, with the Firstborn loose, with my Court already fracturing… I need certainty. I need people I can trust without question.”
“Hamish is all of those things.”
“Hamish is in love with you.”
The words fell into the gaping chasm between us. I could barely breathe.
“Aedric,” I said carefully. “We’re friends. That’s all it is. I don’t feel that way about him.”
“No?”
“No.” I rose to my feet, forcing myself to hold his stare despite the tremor running through me.
“He confronted me, you know. About what happened.”
He took a slow step toward me, the moonlight catching the bruise blooming beneath his eye. Gods—had Hamish struck him?
“I didn’t mean to—”
“And I didn’t mean to hit you,” he interrupted softly, almost pleading. “But I had to get you out.”
A heavy silence stretched between us.
“What did you do to Hamish?”
“Nothing.”
I studied him, searching for deceit.
“You don’t believe me.” He scoffed, incredulous. “What do you take me for, Elowen? You think I could harm my own kin so easily?”
I pressed my lips together. Truthfully, I didn’t know anymore.
The naked sorrow on his face made my chest ache. “Things have changed between us.”
The chasm yawned wider. I didn’t know how to cross it.
“We can fix it,” I said, my throat tight. “Whatever this is—we can heal it.”
“You believe that?”
“The bond…” I swallowed. “It’s stronger than it’s ever been. Lately it feels like it’s pulling me toward you—like something is tightening. I feel…”
I hesitated. How could I explain something I barely understood myself? That I thought I'd been losing my mind. That for days I'd been feeling things I couldn't account for, so vivid I'd mistaken them for my own.
“Aedric,” I whispered. “I can… I can feel your emotions.”
He stilled, his attention sharpening.
“I feel them all the time,” I continued desperately. “They bleed into me like they’re my own.”
He crossed to me at once and took my hands in his, his fingers lacing tightly with mine. His eyes were suddenly too bright, shining through the dark.
“You can feel them?” he breathed.
I nodded. His grip tightened.
“You can truly feel them?”
“Yes.”
For a heartbeat he simply stared at me, and then something inside him seemed to come alive.
“Elowen…” The word left him like a prayer. “Do you know what that means?”
I didn’t.
“It means…” Wonder filled his voice. “It means we have a soul bond.” A disbelieving laugh escaped him. “It’s the rarest kind there is—so rare it’s almost a myth. When two souls are perfectly matched, they intertwine... Their emotions can no longer be contained in one heart. They flow between them.”
My breath caught. “That…” I swallowed. “That can happen?”
A smile—a true smile—spread across his face. “Only between the strongest of bonds.”
Hope radiated from him so fiercely it almost overwhelmed me. “Then... can you feel mine?”
His expression softened. “Not yet,” he admitted.
“But you opened the way.” His thumb brushed gently across my knuckles.
“The bond rarely awakens in both souls at the same moment. One reaches first. The other follows.” He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against his chest. “You have no idea how incredible this is.”
I could feel his heart beating against me, his excitement pouring through our bond. Beneath it pulsed another emotion altogether: a dark, electric anticipation laced with something perilously close to hunger, a thrill so fierce my own pulse quickened in answer.
“I feel… drawn to you,” I said, pulling away to look at him. “Like I can’t help myself. When you were in the library, I wanted to leap down the stairs just to get to you.”
The joy vanished from his face.
“The library?” he repeated.
I nodded. “You drew me to you. If the bond is that strong, then we're not broken, Aedric. We can't be.”
He stared at me, his expression draining of color.
“I wasn't in the library.”
I frowned. “What?”
“I said...” His voice turned deadly serious. “I wasn't in the library.”
“But…” I stammered. “But the bond…”
The words died on my tongue.
The strength of that pull. It had practically dragged me toward the dark pit at the center of the library. And that footprint in the dust…
My blood went cold.
A sick certainty slammed through our bond, followed by a crushing swell of dread and desperate urgency.
My hand flew to my mouth.
“He's here.” His words struck like a blade.
Rìan was here. Rìan was here…
How was that possible? How had he breached Levinica’s wards? Unless… A horrifying realization took hold.
She’d betrayed Aedric. Betrayed her own people.
Just like Hyperia—she’d let a monster into her city.
Aedric swept a robe hurriedly around my shoulders and guided my arms through the sleeves, knotting it at my waist. “We’ve got to skeld. Now.”
I shoved my bare feet into my boots.
“Why would she risk it? Why would she risk Dannis?” I demanded, the question tumbling out of me.
The image of Levinica flashed through my mind again—her despair, her sobbing, the broken keening that had filled the burned library. Had she been mourning in advance, bracing herself for what she knew might come? Then it hit, sudden and cold.
“She was in the library,” I said breathlessly.
He understood what I was saying. “She went to see him.” His eyes flashed. “Rìan is down there.”
Terror flooded through me, my heart pounding.
His fingers closed around mine, pulling me toward the door, but just as he reached for the handle—
Someone knocked.
In an instant, his knife was in his hand, sparks dancing along the hilt and down the blade before being swallowed by the dark iron. He wrenched the door open.
Layne barely had time to gasp before he seized her by the collar and hauled her inside, Hamish’s shout echoing from the corridor behind her. Aedric slammed her against the wall, the blade angled at her throat with deadly precision.
“P-please,” she whimpered, her eyes wide with fear.
“Is he here?” Aedric hissed.
“Wh-who?” Layne cried.
The tip of the iron blade grazed her skin, and she gasped in pain.
“Is he here?” he demanded again, his voice tightening with menace.
“I-I don’t know!” she said frantically, tears spilling freely down her cheeks.
Without hesitation, Hamish drew his sword and turned to face the darkened corridor.
“P-please, High Lord.” She let out a choked sob. “J-just as you asked... Lady Levinica…”
“Spit it out!”
“Sh-she can speak to you now,” the girl added, trembling. “Her mind has cleared.”