Chapter 47 Aiden
Aiden
I lost the ensuing fight as quickly as I could.
The supervisors knocked my bloody sword out of my hands and hauled me to the place I hated most in the world. One I swore I’d never dwell in again—a frigid cell in the deepest part of the mine.
The darkness was so complete I’d often felt that I was going mad when they locked me up here years ago. There was no beginning or end to it. No sound. No way to anchor myself other than the clutch of cold metal.
I rattled my chains to a steady rhythm, humming deep in my throat. Anything to keep the terror at bay.
And I thought of Kiera. Of the horror on her face when I’d told her to leave me behind. But she didn’t know. She didn’t know the agony I felt when I arrived back in the cavern to find her gone.
I’d gone to check the beach, to hold up my promise to Maz. I’d been bitterly disappointed to see no other ships than the warships—one at anchor, one being built on the shore. After waiting a few minutes, I started drawing suspicious stares.
I’d hurried back to find Ruru frantically gesturing at me, then to a tunnel off to the side. I didn’t see Kiera . . . or the supervisor scum who’d harassed her. I’d pelted into the tunnel, someone shouting at me as I drew my sword. But I didn’t stop until I reached her.
My beautiful Kiera was alive and still fighting, covered in death and gore.
She was going to set those prisoners free. I’d promised her a distraction, and this was it. The supervisors had already suspected me, but claiming to be here to assassinate Dracles was more than enough for them to throw me down here.
Perhaps I’d bought her and Ruru enough time. Perhaps Ruru would whistle, and Maz and Nikella would alert the soldiers. They’d set off their bombs, unaware that I was chained up in this pit.
Perhaps . . . perhaps . . .
I kept rattling and humming until a faint blob of light swayed toward me, closer and closer. Was my mind playing tricks on me? It had before.
But then I heard the creak of the lantern and the steady stomp of boots. I saw the arm holding the lantern and the face that accompanied it.
“Ah, just the man I wanted to see,” I drawled, as if we were meeting in a tavern over a cold, foamy pint.
Dracles squinted at me, holding his lantern closer to the bars of my cell. He looked older than what I expected after spying on him as a Wolf. The lines in his jowly face looked almost as deep as Nikella’s scars.
But his fierce gaze was the same. “I laughed when they told me some lunatic was here to kill me. But then they told me the name you gave them. Aiden Falcryn.”
“And you just had to come verify for yourself,” I said, stepping as far into the light as my chains allowed. “Was I lying?”
He studied my face, his jaw hardening. “You look like him. The eyes. I suppose I should’ve guessed that his stupidity was hereditary.”
My fists tightened. He’d known my father. But I also knew my father was anything but stupid—from stories Nikella and other older folk told.
“We’ve met before,” I said, fighting to keep my voice as even as his. “Do you remember?”
It took him a moment, then recognition lit in his eyes. “Ah, yes, the young rebel from Pravara. I didn’t recognize you as Tristan’s spawn then, half-dead as you were. How the hell did you survive here for seven years?”
I smirked. “Oh, I wasn’t here all that time. I escaped five years ago.”
“That’s impossible,” he snapped, his back straightening into his soldier’s posture. “No one has ever escaped Calimber.”
“Not that they told you, anyway. I suppose the men here aren’t as loyal as you think.”
He growled and paced in front of my cell. I smiled, thoroughly enjoying getting under his skin. If I died down here, at least I had gotten this small revenge.
“Renwell and his bloody secrets. He must’ve known,” Dracles grumbled under his breath.
“Trouble with your new master?” I taunted.
He stopped pacing and glared at me. “I am High General, boy. I’ve held that title since before you could walk.” He clasped his hands behind his back. “So you came back here to kill me, is that it? Just you?”
I leaned forward, so he could see every bit of hatred in my eyes. “I wanted to be the one to watch the light leave your eyes. I would never let anyone else share that victory with me.”
“Victory.” Dracles released a short, hard chuckle. “I’ll show you what victory looks like, young Falcryn. Guard!”
They released me from the cell and dragged me back through the tunnels, my hands and feet still shackled.
My heart pounded heavily, as if realizing these might be its last beats.
All I asked for was one more glimpse of Kiera. If I could look into those fiery amber eyes one last time, I could die with peace and hope in my heart.
As they hauled me back into the main cavern and up onto the supervisors’ platform that had served as the location for many beatings, my mind flickered through everything that could’ve been.
Storming Aquinon. Defeating Renwell. Wearing my father’s crown.
Getting to know the palace he and my mother had fled.
But those hopes were overshadowed by my brightest dream—having Kiera by my side through a coronation, a wedding, a life. Falling asleep beside her. Waking up next to her. Playing Death and Four in our rooms. Eating biscuits on a roof somewhere. Touching, kissing, never letting go.
Fucking Four, was this how Brielle had felt before she died? Plagued by the dreams of a life she desperately wanted but would never get to live?
An ache blossomed in my chest as they forced me to my knees on the wooden platform.
I frantically searched the crowd of prisoners and supervisors for Kiera’s familiar figure. One more glimpse wasn’t enough. I needed her to know. Even if I couldn’t speak the words aloud.
I didn’t hear what Dracles shouted. I didn’t care about the soldiers encircling me. I didn’t fear the sword poised at the back of my neck.
I feared not telling her. I feared losing her before she knew.
At last, I spotted her—one more dirty, scarred face among the many that surrounded my hasty execution. But her eyes burned into me like the sun I would never see again.
I locked gazes with her.
I love you, Kiera. I would give anything to have a life beyond this moment with you. My soul will never stop trying to find yours.
I love you, my little thief.
Her face crumpled for a moment, as if she’d understood some part of what my eyes were trying to tell her.
But then it hardened when Dracles shouted again. “Behold the last rebel of the Pravaran rebellion! He thought he could escape his fate, escape his punishment—the same one that you all bear now. He dies today to remind you that you cannot escape.”
He bent down to whisper in my ear. “This is what victory looks like—the better, stronger man standing over the weaker one as he dies at his feet. Just as your father did. Just as your other rebels perished. Weak.”
I ignored him, my gaze fixed on Kiera’s murderous one. She’d pushed her way to the front row of prisoners. Something glinted in her hand.
She wouldn’t—
“Kill him,” Dracles ordered.
The sword lifted. Kiera cocked her arm back.
“We’re under attack!” someone shouted. “Enemies on the beach! We’re under attack!”
Everyone froze, except the soldier panting and waving his arms.
Then chaos unleashed.
“Sound the alarm!” Dracles bellowed.
Supervisors blew their horns. Prisoners scattered.
I started to rise, but Dracles knocked me back down.
“Finish him,” he snarled at the soldier behind me.
The soldier lifted his sword again, then jerked backward, a knife sticking out of his throat. He collapsed.
Dracles drew his sword and slashed at me. I rolled to the side, tumbling off the platform. A pair of gentle hands caught me.
Kiera.
She sawed through my chains with her sunstone blade like they were mere rope. She thrust a sunstone club into my hands. “Fight, Aiden,” she growled.
A shadow shifted over us. Kiera looked up and blanched, shoving me to the side. Dracles’s sword screeched against the rock between us.
“Go!” I shouted, rolling to my feet. “Get them out!”
The general’s eyes widened when he realized this was about much more than an assassination.
He roared, spittle flying from his mouth as he attacked me. We fought furiously. I had no blades, but the club protected me from his steel blows.
People shouted and fled around us. More soldiers poured down the main tunnel.
It was time.
I ducked and whirled away from Dracles’s blows. His face was nearly purple with rage. He swung wide, and I bashed my club into his sword hand. He released it with a howl. I snatched it up and drove it through his armor into his chest.
“For Pravara,” I whispered.
I withdrew the sword before his last breath. I didn’t care to watch him die. I cared only for my people.
“Aiden!”
I glanced over to see Nikella and Maz racing toward me in a throng of soldiers.
Then an explosion rocked the whole cavern.