Chapter 38 #2
“You can run, Timora, but we both know that you cannot escape me.”
“We really need to stop doing this whole thing,” Aela breathed.
Eros bit at the air. “Why?”
“Because—”
Eros sprinted toward her, and Aela flickered through the evergreen trees farther up the shore.
How had this turned into her being chased?
He was the one who had been lying to her.
She should be chasing him. Tendrils of night shot through the trees behind her, and Aela flickered again and again, just out of his reach.
Eros darted after her through the trees, the peaceful silence interrupted by their explosive movements.
Aela yelped as Eros’ powerful arms wrapped around her waist, lifting her off the ground. He pressed himself close to her backside and brought his nose to the sensitive area just behind her ear.
“What do I get for catching you?”
Aela couldn’t help her involuntary reaction as everything went fuzzy, and her head fell back against his shoulder. Her body felt loose and taught all at once, and she lifted a hand behind her, spearing her fingers through his hair.
Fates, that’s soft.
Eros groaned against her neck, then placed a soft kiss against her temple.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I thought I was protecting you by keeping my distance and only watching you in your dreams, but I couldn’t bear to see you all alone on Prente.
When all you wanted was a distraction, I told myself it’d be enough. But it’s never been enough, Timora.”
Aela shook her head, dispelling the fog of desire. “What are you saying?”
“I can deny you no longer.”
Aela scarcely breathed.
“You deserve more than I can give you, Aela. I shouldn’t have kept this from you. When you go take your vengeance, allow me to precede you and blot out the stars who would stand against you.”
Everything went quiet, and her senses stopped performing. She didn’t feel his touch, couldn’t see the thick evergreen woods of Neser as she waited for his words.
“Elnath of Taurus led the assault on Pisces.”
Aela flickered.
Reappearing above Avarice in the midnight sky, the starcity had retreated to its native system of Taurus. Red hazed her peripheral vision.
“This is unwise,” Sebaserpens’ voice uttered into her mind. Ignoring how the serpent could speak into her mind, Aela tried to shut him out.
Stay out of this, Seba. This doesn’t concern you.
“On the contrary, if you don’t survive this, the realm doesn’t exist.”
That’s not fair.
“The Fates rarely are, though they try their best to strive for balance.”
He should have told me.
“So you could get yourself killed prior to this? Elnath is an ancient star. She has wells of power you are not prepared for yet. Your time will come. For now, aid Eros. Save the realm from his curse, then extract your revenge if you must.”
Aela spun around, glaring into the eternal night for a pair of golden eyes or a writhing patch of shadow but found nothing.
Gritting her teeth, she hated the idea of Seba being right.
She let out a frustrated scream. Her lightning sliced through the sky, and a spray of water erupted from her—the hair-thin streams cooling in the astral air into needles of ice.
Her storm did little to quell her wrath.
How could she not confront Elnath now that she was within her grasp?
She flickered again.
Aela appeared inside the back workroom of Tabitha’s Crystal Shop.
Clad in her dark iridescent-scaled armor, braid wild, she was a vision of cold fury as she parted the curtain.
She flexed her fingers, and her selenite shard from her rooms in Neser materialized into her awaiting hand, and she sent a message.
She was surprised Tabitha hadn’t clambered down the stairs from the apartment over the shop. Aela contented herself to wait—settled into that strange calm place she had when she first arrived in Avarice and competed in The Games. Only now she’d play a different game.
Inserting herself back into Avarice went against Eros’ plans but expedited hers. She had always intended to go back. The bell above the glass door chimed, announcing Arche’s arrival.
“Aela! What in all the hells are you doing here?”
“Many reasons. Namely, Elnath. But also, you.”
“Me? Elnath? Starling, you’re not making any sense. It’s not safe for you here. I mean, I’m thrilled you’re here, if you’re here to help?” Arche rambled. He paced between the crystal displays, a multitude of emotions sailing across his face.
“Tarek is desperate, Aela. We all have orders to detain you on sight.”
Aela strode and took Arche by his shoulders. “Listen to me. Tarek doesn’t deserve you. He’s never going to change.”
Arche’s shoulders slumped beneath her hands. “I know.”
“Does this mean you won’t return to him?”
“I don’t know anymore, Aela. He used to be different. But when you left… He’s going to enter the Trial of the Gods.”
Aela’s brow furrowed. “By all means, let him. If it’s power he seeks, he can beseech the Gods for it. He doesn’t need me for that.”
Arche stared at her.
“I’m not going back to him, Arche.”
“Of course you’re not.”
“You’re not going back either.”
Arche’s jaw ticked. “I can’t just betray him like that.”
“You can’t be serious! Look at all he’s done! I was there when he condemned common class stars to death, Arche. When your Primary lit up the sky and eradicated an entire race of human beings.”
Arche reared his head back as if she had struck him, but she barreled on.
“An entire planet, gone. And what did Tarek do? He enslaved his own godsforsaken people and harnessed the energy!” Aela cried.
“You’re unbelievable.” She rapped her fist against his chest. “You’re na?ve if you think Tarek truly cares for anyone other than himself.
By the Fates, you were trying to get stars out of Avarice, Arche!
How can you stay with him? How can you be loyal to someone who has no loyalty to you? ”
“I’m afraid if I don’t go back, there really won’t be anything left for him… He’ll go mad. And Tala…” Arche flinched when he said the Adjacent’s name.
“He will atone for his actions.” Aela paused. “As for Tala, she has been cleaning up his messes and turning a blind eye to everything; she doesn’t deserve your loyalty either.”
“Tala was trapped worse than any of us!” Arche snarled.
“Where am I supposed to go then? Hmm? I can’t leave her, and it’s not like I’m innocent in this.
By the Unrested, I’m complicit! I stood by as the crystals were refined, as he enslaved his House, as he had us feed on the bones of constellations… .”
Aela pressed her lips into a tight line.
“Listen, you stood up to him in your own way. You and Tabitha were—are—doing good work in Avarice.”
“That wasn’t enough, and you know it.”
“Arche.”
“Gods, I just don’t know, Aela... What—” Arche began, but in the next breath, Aela wrapped him in thick bands of flickering lightning. The jagged streaks bit into his tactical suit just enough to subdue him but not enough to harm. Arche’s eyes blew wide.
“Aela, what are you doing?”
“I’m doing this for your own good. You might hate me for this—and this isn’t over—but I’m not letting you go back to him.”
Aela slid off his crystal bands and set them on a nearby glass counter. Grim acceptance washed over Arche’s face. Aela tilted her head to the side, firming her intention. Arche disappeared.