Fifteen
CHAPTER
Iheard not just any voice, but hers.
I stopped breathing.
I froze, my entire world spinning, whether from exhaustion or shock, I did not know, but it did not matter.
Nothing mattered anymore. That much I knew.
My heart sank into my stomach, and the feeling of nausea overwhelmed me, climbing up my throat.
I swallowed hard, choking that feeling back down.
I hadn’t eaten in days. I was famished. But after hearing her voice, I could no longer think of anything else.
Without a word, I pushed the door wide open.
The room went dead silent. Tears filled the corners of my eyes, and my breath hitched. The Ladies and Lords of the Court of Clouds audibly gasped. Even Acheron and his guards looked on in shock. Not a single one of them expected me, I presumed.
I stood there, barely able to stand straight, staring at Neil and Gelia.
It was her. I knew it was. The only difference now was that her features were pale and milky. Her hair was white as snow, eyes of this Realm, and a dress adorned with Neil’s colors of white and gold. A crown made of clouds and gold, mimicking his, sat atop her head.
The way he held her was the way he once held me. There was only one logical explanation. My best friend that I thought was dead, and the man I was in love with, were Mates. No. This can’t be happening.
What in the Four Realms was going on?!
Gelia sat perched upon his lap with her arms wrapped lovingly around his neck. His own were snaked around her waist. That should have been me sitting there, not her.
I don’t understand.
My heart shattered, and tears trickled down my cheeks. With my tears, I laughed. I laughed and laughed to the extent that my cheeks hurt, and my hand slid to my stomach. My laughter was soon replaced by hysterical sobs.
Neil gestured for his Court to leave, and they did. Hushed whispers slipped past my ears. The only ones left in the room were Acheron, Aradia, Neil, his guards, me, and her.
I took a few steps closer, crumbling onto the floor before Gelia and Neil. I should have been happy to see her, and I would have been if the circumstances were different.
How long has she been here? How long has he been lying to me? He never loved me, did he? How could I not help but feel the way I did, realizing he never came looking for me. I was tortured and starved while he was here. With her.
He never went looking for me in the first place.
“I don’t understand,” I croaked.
Neither of them said a word. They looked at me in sheer horror, as if they had seen a ghost. Darkness emitted from me like a blanket of loneliness, my emotions fueling the lack of control I had on my newfound magical abilities I had yet to understand, let alone control.
A gaping black void replaced where my heart once was.
It took everything in me not to smite them from where they were. My emotions consumed me, and I let them.
All this time, I was blinded by love. Blinded by shiny things and careless whispers.
Zathrian and Acheron both tried to warn me, and I didn’t listen.
Aradia had silent tears pooling down her cheeks, standing there in the same way she had then they let Casimir take me in the first place.
Her loyalty is to them, not to me. I really was nothing more than a pet.
Everyone I had ever loved, or ever cared about, shattered my heart and took a piece of me with them.
“You promised me. You promised me and you’re a liar. YOU ARE A LIAR!” I screamed at Neil between sobs.
“Aerilyn.” His tone was indifferent and low.
“I thought you loved me,” I choked out. “For the first time in my life I felt seen and—I—you lied,” I continued, physically shaking, crumpled on my knees. “How long have you known?”
Neil hesitated with his movements. Both Gelia and him stood.
“HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN?!” I demanded.
Neil turned to Gelia, then to me. “Since the Summer Solstice celebration.”
I shook my head, unable to handle the aching pain in my chest. My hand reached for the necklace that had been around my throat all this time. The necklace he gave me, my most cherished gift. I gripped it tight enough that I balled my hand into a fist, all the color in my face drained.
“You were never supposed to be there,” Gelia interrupted, her voice soft, timid almost.
“What?” I looked past Neil to Gelia.
“When I said it wasn’t your fault what happened… it wasn’t. You were never supposed to die,” she continued.
“What?” I trembled.
“Our plan from the beginning… I was placed into the Mortal Realm as the Princess, to infiltrate the Kingdom. To expand the Realm of Clouds and take control of the Mortal Realm. I never knew that Zathrian was under the guise of Adrian, I promise you, Lyn…”
A nickname I once loved left me feeling nauseated. She was no longer my best friend, no. Her and Neil were the enemies all along. They were wolves in sheep’s clothing, not Zathrian.
“It was all part of the plan. Samael was in on it, too. He killed me so I would be reborn back home, here, where I belong, and my ‘death’ in the Mortal Realm was meant to be blamed on the Divine to cause a war… one we would win. I have always been the Lady of the Realm of Clouds, and Neil my Mate.” She paused.
It was at that moment that it clicked. Her faraway lover was Neil all along.
“Samael was never supposed to hurt you, and he knew that. I made sure of that, and then… When I was reborn, I wasn’t expecting to see you here.
Especially not with him.” She gestured to Neil. “Not with my Mate.”
“I—” No, no, no. This is wrong, this is all so wrong.
“And when you were taken, I decided it was time the rest of the Realm knew of the return of their Lady. I thought that they would break you in the Realm of Nightmares and everything would go back to as it was. You were my plaything in the Mortal Realm, so breakable. But why didn’t you stay dead?
” she questioned as if I had the answer.
I don’t know. How could she… how could she be so cruel? Both of them were rotten to the core. Neil never said he had a Mate. Not a single person did. Not Aradia, not Acheron, not Zathrian, no one.
Neil stood beside her. “I’m sorry, I—we never intended to hurt you, but when you were reborn, and you were rebor—”
“Different,” I finished for him.
He nodded. “Because you were born different, I wanted to keep you safe because if it is true that you possess the magic that the prophecy speaks of, then—”
“You lied.” My breath hitched. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. In a single yet forceful yank, I ripped the necklace he gave me from my throat, the chain snapping in half, and tossed it at his feet. A message that didn’t need words.
“I’m leaving,” I announced, wiping at my tears, mixed with soot and blood.
I didn’t say another word. I was leaving and that was that.
I was going to go back over the Wall and be done with all of this, once and for all.
I had nothing and no one, and whatever happened to me didn’t matter anymore.
I hope they kill me. A quick death would be preferable.
I would much rather be reunited with my mother.
My heart cannot take this pain. I no longer wanted a life of eternity.
I wanted no part of this. This pain, this sorrow, this—
Nothing mattered.
Neil clenched his jaw, standing tall with Gelia at his arm. “I never meant to hurt you, Aerilyn. Please, we can discuss what to do going forward when you are ready to, but you aren’t leaving this Manor.”
I kept walking.
“I said you are not leaving! That is an order!” Neil shouted, his voice booming within the marble walls. Lightening cracked outside, matching his emotions.
I stopped, my back facing them, then turned my head to the side. “You are not my High Lord, and you are not deserving of such a sacred title. The Gods are fools to give you such blessings,” I hissed. Turning forward, I stomped out of the throne room, and I didn’t dare look back.
“Acheron, fetch her,” he commanded with greater emotion than I’d ever heard escape his lips. There was anger in his tone, probably at the realization that he no longer had control over me.
“As you wish,” Acheron replied.
Despite my condition, I managed to walk with haste.
My balance was uneven with each step, but I didn’t dare stop.
Rounding the corner, I remembered I still had just enough stardust left, thanks to Javaid.
I pulled it from the band of my tattered dress, peering into it, knowing that Acheron was fast approaching.
I turned back the direction I came, only to see how far away he was. There was desperation in his eyes as he attempted to reach for me. I shoved my hand into the pouch and tossed the stardust onto the floor with my eyes closed. I was gone before he could even stop me.
I reopened my eyes, not recognizing where I was at first. I had to turn around before I realized I was at the river.
The one where I saw the Pegasus, the one I saw Acheron and Mateo kissing at, the one Neil allegedly found me at all those months ago.
I wish he hadn’t. I turned toward the path to Neil’s Manor.
Tears still rolled down my cheeks, a silent goodbye to the place I once called home.
I faced forward, knowing it was only a matter of time before Acheron caught up to me.
Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Don’t stop.
I was close to collapsing. My vision blurred as I crossed the freezing knee-deep waters of the river. Each step was one step closer to the Wall. No one had crossed the Wall since the barrier came up from either side, but I refused to let that stop me.
Wisteria wasn’t my home. The Mortal Realm was.
It was where I was born, and where I should have stayed.
Where I was meant to be until I somehow messed everything up.
I would rather die there again than live another moment existing in this place.
This stupid Realm with its stupid High Lords and stupid festivals and stupid parties and stupid Mates.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
I wished that when Samael killed me, I remained dead. I wished I was never reborn. I wished Neil never found me. I wished I was in the Realm of the Passed with my mother and father.
“AERILYN, DON’T!” Acheron shouted from behind me.
I stopped a mere yard or so from the Wall.
His voice held such emotion behind it, that I was half-minded to hear him out.
No. No, he had more than enough time to tell me the truth, and he didn’t.
“PLEASE, AERILYN!” he called, attempting to close the distance between us with haste for the second time today.
He was too far; he wouldn’t make it, and I would make sure of it.
Taking one last step, I tightly gripped the closest vine, and another, and another as I attempted to scale the Wall…
only to be forcefully rejected without any sort of warning.
The barrier pushed me with such force that my back slammed into one of the trees, flying past Acheron in the process.
A loud BOOM echoed and rattled the ground beneath me as I barreled onto the grass.
My vision blurred as Acheron rushed to my side.
The last thing I remembered was the muffled sounds of Acheron’s voice, and seeing dark spots. There was a shadowy figure with pink eyes that stood behind Acheron, looking down at me. Then everything went black.