54
Aspen
He stood in reaching distance. Like a beautiful mirage, my knight riveted his gaze on me, his unkempt ashy hair and twilit irises beacons against the darkness.
Only this morning we’d been combat training, making love while bracing our weapons. Already, I had missed his eyes on me, his closeness, his touch.
But then my attention sank to the rope shackling his wrists. I hadn’t noticed them when he slipped off the hood.
My heart splashed to the floor. My head shook, whipping from side to side.
“No,” I pleaded. “Aire, no.”
“I insisted,” he said without remorse. “I would not rest until the clan answered my demand.”
They arrested him. At his request, the clan imprisoned Aire with me. Though, they must have done this unwillingly after listening to his side of the story.
Poet and Briar said Aire had spiraled into rage. From the bedraggled lines of his face and the threadbare sound of his voice, this knight had done more than defend me. He’d bellowed loudly enough to raise the earth.
The fellowship must have argued far out of earshot since I hadn’t heard a thing. Regardless, the aftermath stood before me, his gaze raking across mine, checking to make sure I’d been treated well.
Yearning clotted my throat. “You came,” I whispered. “But I didn’t—”
“You did not have to,” Aire rushed out.
I didn’t have to request him. I didn’t have to call out and hope some elemental force sent this man to me.
Aire knew. He knew what I needed, and even if I had wanted otherwise, this knight would have come anyway. Because he would always come.
My insides tangled like vines. He shouldn’t be here. He should leave. I wouldn’t let him suffer or become estranged from the clan, not when I’d done enough to ruin him.
The knight’s perceptive features narrowed. “Aspen, don’t you dare push me away.” Then his lips curled into a feeble grin. “Or if you insist, fight me on it. Loser gets their wish.”
With a cry, I flew at him. Hissing, Aire stormed my way.
We collided, my body crashing into his. With our hands tied, we fumbled to get nearer, tighter. My arms hooked onto his nape, and he snatched my cheeks, yanking my mouth to his.
The desperate crush of his lips dislodged a whimper from my throat. Prying me open, Aire flexed his tongue, skewering my mouth apart. Like the first time, his kiss tasted of black tea and autumn spices, every hot stroke alleviating the pain.
Pressing against one another, we flung ourselves into it. Aire hauled my mouth to his, slanting his lips and rocking his tongue with my own. Slick, soft, safe.
Breathless, I arched from the kiss. “Aire of Autumn doesn’t break laws.”
“I do for you,” he swore against my lips. “My place is here. My post is wherever I’ll find you.” Swaying his head, Aire rubbed his mouth over mine. “More than to Autumn, I swear myself to this. More than duty, you own my heart.”
His palms clutched my jaw. “You are my exception to every rule on this continent. I will always stand by your side.”
My restraint collapsed. Despite being part of a clan, and despite everything I shared with him, I had insisted on fighting a one-woman battle. But not anymore.
More time passed. We spent the days reclining on the circular divan, with my back nestling into Aire’s chest.
Because Rhys must have learned about the skirmish’s outcome and my longstanding deception against him, I panicked about Mama’s safety back home. With only our woodpecker familiar to guard her, she remained a vulnerable target to the king’s wrath.
But Aire quelled that fear. With the clan’s permission, he dispatched a hawk before joining me in captivity.
The message had instructed trusted soldiers to escort my mother to the castle, where they could look out for her.
Briar had sanctioned the message, closing it with a signature that only Queen Avalea would deem authentic.
The clan rotated delivering blankets, pillows, water, and platters of food. They didn’t say much, and we didn’t press. The time for reckoning hadn’t arrived.
In the interim, we were allowed to bathe and change clothes before returning to our chamber. Anxious to see us, Nicu barreled inside one morning and hugged me for a full ten minutes.
It turned out, Nicu discovered this place halfway through our stint here, with the help of Lyrik’s lanterns. The alchemist hadn’t recovered yet. His wound had gotten infected, which yielded complications that kept our friend in tatters. Helpless, we reassured Nicu that Jeryn was doing his best.
As for the purpose of this enclosure, Aire’s sensory gifts tapped into the room’s history. Long ago, it had been erected as a chapel shrine. A place to honor the Seasons, expose truths, and make pledges before nature, some of which the knight intuited.
A marriage ceremony. A warrior’s rite of passage. A ceremonial test.
As time passed, we huddled and whispered about our earliest memories, then reflected on every clue that had cropped up since Aire’s return.
On this night, we rested on our sides, facing one another atop a mound of bedding. Between us, our fingers threaded, the wrist ropes brushing. The plate of Aire’s chest grazed my breasts, and our steady outtakes mingled.
“Are you thinking of Raven?” I asked.
Aire’s mouth curved. “I’m always thinking of him. Yet in your arms, it doesn’t hurt as it once did. Now I only remember the joys in Raven’s life.” But then his nostalgic grin fell. “Though, I fear my torment has attached itself elsewhere.”
At my confusion, he explained, “I fulfilled the premonition. I failed to protect you.” Aire wove his fingers with my own. “Even so, I accept this fate. Willingly, I bear the consequences with you.”
In the beginning, I told him my thoughts about the premonition. Nevertheless, I ached for this knight. He took his faith seriously, to the point where it plagued him, like his sensory gifts.
But if he couldn’t read me, why would a premonition like that manifest in the first place?
Nature didn’t always make sense. But then, neither did humanity.
Except I recalled when Aire first admitted his feelings on the platform, shortly before I confessed my treachery. And I realized. The premonition supplanted his inability to tap into me. So if nature could establish loopholes like that, we could too.
As starlight filtered through the window grilles, I thought about every interaction since we met, every moment we shared, and every battle we fought. “You didn’t fulfill the premonition.” Scooting closer, I balled our hands into fists. “You defied it.”
Aire blinked. His lips parted in objection, so I rested a digit against them. “You were always a protector, acting in rebellion to the premonition. And now, you revolted by standing by me. That’s not acceptance, it’s resistance. You haven’t failed at all.”
Hope alighted his pupils. “Could that be true?”
“Premonitions are warnings, but fate changes with every second. And if it’s about me, then let me help.” I seized his face. “Release yourself from this premonition, as I release you.”
The knight drew in a deep gust, letting my words seep in. He closed his eyes, feeling the breeze that coasted through the chamber. And when the current vanished, those lashes flapped open in amazement. “It’s gone.”
I beamed. “Damn right it’s gone.”
Uttering a gruff sound, the knight heaved me to his frame and burrowed his face in my neck. Fumbling with the tethers, we held each other as best we could.
As his muscles relaxed, I quipped, “Did you ever think you’d fall in love with a criminal?”
“You are not a criminal. Not to me.” Aire pulled back.
“To me, you are a savior. You kept Rhys at bay for seven years, when he might have struck earlier and slaughtered villages across these lands. I’m honored to be loved by you.
To fight at your side.” With his mouth scorching a path over mine, Aire vowed, “No matter what happens next, I will follow your lead anywhere.”
A dry sob fled my mouth. His oath washed away everything that contaminated my soul for years. In its place, a new strength forged within like steel.
My chin trembled, even as I teased, “A commander following someone else?”
“Ah,” Aire played along. “But you are not just someone else.”
“Maybe so, but you’d have to make me a knight for all that.”
Ambition lit his pupils. Without a word, Aire guided me off the divan. Too baffled to respond, I watched as he stood before me, his expression reverent.
“I’m afraid, this usually requires free hands and my broadswords. Better still, your axe,” Aire intoned. “The truest blade for the truest heart.”
My lips hung ajar. “I was… joking.”
His pupils brimmed hot enough to bend iron. “I am not.”
My heart split open. Our clan had every right to exact punishment. This was not a revolt to undercut that.
No. This was about us alone.
How this knight saw me. How I saw myself.
Liar. Traitor.
But also more.
Warrior. Defender.
Someone who made mistakes. Someone who learned from them.
Someone real. Someone honest.
Private, only between us and without ceremony, Aire set his palm on my pounding heart. “Aspen of Autumn,” he dubbed. “Brazen Creature of this land. Will you be my knight in shining armor?”
Sucking back tears, I bobbed my head. “Fuck yes.”
Pride lifted the corners of his mouth. Warmth banked in those pupils, the same need blazing a path up my thighs.
With a growl, Aire grabbed my face and snared my mouth. At the same time, I threw myself against his body.