Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Awave of grief washed over her, and her knees gave out from under her. Aela struggled to breathe under the immense weight crushing her chest, pressing on her back, squeezing her skull. The unrelenting force was coming from all sides. She screamed.
“Aela? Aela!”
Strong arms wrapped around her and hauled her to her feet. She tossed her head from side to side, punching back with her elbows, thrashing and bucking against Eros like a wild animal.
“Calm down!”
She heard the panic in his voice, which she refused to believe was genuine.
He didn’t care for her. He only wanted to use her as a weapon.
He was just the same as Tarek, who only thought of himself as morally superior.
They all wanted to use her. Aela screamed again, and Eros cursed as she landed a blow to his nose with the back of her head.
She stumbled forward as he released her and whirled around to face him.
Energy crackled between her fingers as violet-tinged white light began to flare in her open palms. Eros tipped his head back, baring the long, thick column of his neck. When he lowered his head, blood dribbled out of his nose and across his teeth as he grinned at her.
“You made me bleed,” he said.
“I told you to get out!” Aela yelled at him.
“Timora—”
“Don’t call me that!”
He took a step forward, quirking his head to the side as he studied her.
“You don’t need to face this alone. I promise to deliver the vengeance you seek.
Aid me first, and I will give you what you desire most.” He took another step toward her, and she darted backward two steps, maintaining the distance. He narrowed his golden eyes.
Suppressed memories came to light as Aela finally allowed herself to truly remember what happened.
The wall of heat shimmered away as images of Linteum crumbing around her and flashes of starlight burst forth in vivid clarity.
Something in the air changed with her words, as if the realm had been waiting for her to face her past.
“It was you,” she whispered.
She brought one hand to her chest where her promise to get home lingered and placed the other over her mouth as her power winked out, drenched in horror.
“Come now, use your words,” Eros purred.
Silver lined her eyes, blurring her vision. “You were there,” she said, accusation heavy in her tone.
Eros tsked. “Words, Timora.”
“You were at the Fall of Pisces! I saw The Darkness that day. It came as my Line, as my stars, as my family sacrificed themselves to keep you at bay! How could it not have been you?”
Aela’s hands fell away from her throat. Her emotions were shifting quickly from one to the next. She clenched her fists at her sides.
“I was there,” Eros admitted solemnly. Calmly. Too calm for her liking.
“They never would have fallen if it weren’t for you! It had to be you!” she screamed. Tears of isolation and rage stained her cheeks.
Eros’ face was void of emotion as she stared daggers at him, letting him see the whirlwind, the storm that swirled behind her eyes. She let him see her hope die. The Darkness might have spared her in her dreams, though only to prolong her death and ensure his destruction.
If my family is gone, there is nothing left for me to live for.
She snarled as she punched her hands forward, lightning blazing from her palms. As quick as she was, Eros was quicker. He vanished into the air before her lightning could strike him. Without a target to absorb her blast, the jagged light streaked around the chamber, scorching the gray rock walls.
After her power dissipated, she slowly turned in a circle, listening as she waited for him to reappear. A dark chuckle sounded from the surrounding air, caressing her skin.
“Run if you can,” he taunted.
Seething with fury, Aela spun around, but he wasn’t there.
She listened. Readying another cord of lightning, her power sizzled and sparked around her fingers as she curled it into a whip around her fist. Appearing to her right, she saw him out of the corner of her eye and threw lightning like an extension of herself, whipping it around his arm and tugging. She willed it to sear into his flesh.
Eros lifted his forearm and braced it in front of himself.
With his other hand, he grasped the glowing cord and began pulling her toward him, hand over hand.
Aela roared as she fed more energy into the strike trying to dislodge him, only to be dragged closer on her feet.
As she reached him, he spun her around and used her own lightning to coil them together.
She wrenched her arm forward before he could tighten the cord in order to slam it back into him, but her blow never landed. Eros vanished from the chest down in a puff of black smoke, grinning viciously.
“You already tried that, Timora,” he said as his tongue flicked out to taste the blood lingering on his upper lip.
Aela gritted her teeth.
“Run if you must. Rage all you want. I will always come for you.”
Aela’s grief was a deadweight that she couldn’t carry as she exploded in a storm of lightning and rain.
Eros threw himself over her body as chunks of the asteroid rained down upon them, tackling her into the water.
Air bubbles swirled around them, obscuring her vision despite the luminescent glow from the crystals beneath the surface.
Weakly, her mind tried latching onto the raw selenite lying at the bottom of the pool.
Her magic sputtered, having exerted too much power too quickly.
She was unpracticed. Eros’ arms slackened around her, bringing his hands to cup her face.
Unconcerned about his lack of air, his golden gaze seared into her turquoise eyes.
Bubbles trailed from his lips as he mouthed her name.
The fight leaked from her limbs as she saw her pain reflected in his eyes. Blackness crept in from the outside of her vision, and Aela’s body and mind yielded to the exertion. Dully, she registered being lifted from the pool and settled into her bed.
Eros sat beside Aela, his eyes pinned on her sleeping form.
He was pushing her too hard, but they were running out of time.
The Darkness would steadily tug the strands of the realm until nothing was left.
She had to face her past to master her magic, yet he felt like the hateful, villainous scourge his essence was known for by making her confront it. Eros carved a hand through his hair.
Seba lifted off his forearm beneath his tunic, condensing out of the air to hover before him.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
Seba blinked his golden eyes.
Eros cast his gaze once more over Aela. “Even if she blames me, I’ll take all her hate if that means she’ll save the realm.”
“You need to tell her the truth.”
Eros scoffed. Which one?
“All of them. You gamble her life and that of the realm without telling her.”
Her dreams should protect her from them.
“Not even Aela knows how her power works, Eros. Without her knowing everything, you put her at risk.”
You think I don’t know that? I’d do anything to keep her safe, to keep her away from them. This is the only way.
Though Seba didn’t communicate it, his silent displeasure rang clear in his mind.
What I need from her right now is for her to find them. I can take care of the rest.
“Need. Both of you need—”
Seba.
Seba misted into the air, his parting words echoing in his mind.
“She is the key.”
Aela stirred in smooth cream bedding. Rolling over, her eyes slitted open to see Eros sitting at her bedside in the asteroid.
He brushed hair away from her forehead, and Aela tried to scowl, tried to push herself away from him, but her body was spent.
Eros’ lips twitched in an almost-there sad smile.
“Believe what you want, Timora. While I am indeed a monster and have done unspeakable things, I swear to you I left Pisces untouched. The War Before ravaged the realm and many celestials and Houses perished, Pisces’ fall being the catalyst. The ones responsible for that may have survived the War, but make no mistake, they will not survive me.
I couldn’t get there in time, Timora. I failed you. ”
Eros continued gently stroking her hair near her temple, and Aela’s eyes fluttered from the tender contact.
“I was still imprisoned when I felt your House prepare for Ascension. The confines had weakened considerably by that time, enough to spear myself out as The Darkness, but not enough for my true form. A small band of celestials had infiltrated Linteum, and it was a slaughter. With the Piscarians prone for your Ascension, there was no one to protect them except your mother… The link hadn’t completed yet. ”
“Stop,” Aela whispered through her ruined throat. Eros kept on.
“I don’t know why Pisces was targeted, but your House preserved their power in time. I arrived moments after you were Set, Aela. It was over.”
“Get out.”
“Aela…”
“I can’t.”
Eros dipped his chin. “I will remain to see you recovered. Take as long as you need. I am at your disposal.” With that, Eros left her bedchamber, and Aela closed her eyes, tumbling back into a dreamless sleep.