Chapter 31
Aiden’s POV
I carved my blade through a demon’s throat, shadows snarling around me like a living storm. The rune’s magic surged in my veins, hot, electric, relentless. The whispers were louder now, curling in the back of my mind, but I didn’t care. They fueled me. Made me faster. Stronger.
I felt as if I could fight for days without slowing. Across the chaos, Rynlee moved like liquid flame, deadly, beautiful, but I could see it. The exhaustion. Her footwork lagged by a fraction, her aura dimming under the strain. I sensed it too, faintly, through our bond.
“Aiden!” Brandon’s voice cut through the din. I turned, spotting him pointing toward the far ridge. Demons. Dozens of them, charging over the hill. But worse, shadow knights among them, their armor twisting, features shifting until they wore the faces of Blood Assassins.
“Shit.” The first and second years wouldn’t stand a chance.
They wouldn’t even know who to fight. And then I saw him.
Erebus stood atop a jagged rock, darkness coiling at his feet like smoke from a dying fire.
His true form, ashen skin veined in ebony, shoulder-length dark hair framing a face that belonged in nightmares.
His eyes were silver, so bright they almost glowed, but behind them…
nothing but black. Our gazes locked, and his mouth curved into a knowing smirk.
He knew I was drawing on the rune. Then his attention shifted, slowly, to Rynlee.
Something in me snapped. He vanished into the shadows.
Headed for her. I sprinted, cutting down anyone in my way, until something massive slammed into my ribs.
The crack was sharp, pain blooming white-hot as I hit the snow.
The ram demon loomed over me, its breath steaming in the frigid air before it swung.
I rolled aside, barely dodging. My chest burned as bone knit itself back together, Rynlee’s healing, channeled through the bond. A perk, at least.
I drove low, slashing across the demon’s leg.
Shadows surged from me, binding it to its knees.
My blades crossed its neck in one swift motion, and its head hit the snow with a wet thud.
I barely felt the blood land on my face before I was running again.
But when I should’ve reached Rynlee, everything vanished.
The battlefield, the screams, everything. Gone. I stood alone in a dark, frozen forest. Snow fell soundlessly, the cold gnawing at my skin. My shadows were silent. No whispers. No hunger. Just emptiness.
“What the fuck…?” My voice sounded small here.
“Hello, Aiden.” I spun, dagger ready, but Erebus wasn’t there.
“Where am I?”
“My realm,” his voice came, deep and smooth, from somewhere beyond the trees. “I just want to have a little chat.” He stepped into view, a silhouette at the edge of the darkness.
“A chat?” I scoffed. “What the hell makes you think I want to talk to you?”
“Because you will lose this battle,” he said, as if it were fact, not prophecy.
“The academy is destined to fall. Even with the rune’s power, you’re still not strong enough.
Not yet.” The worst part? I knew he was right.
Deep down, I could feel the truth of it.
But I wasn’t about to give him that satisfaction.
“And let me guess,” I said, “you’re here to offer me a solution?”
His smile deepened. “You could be so much more, Aiden, if you embraced your darkness.”
“I already do.”
“No.” His tone was almost gentle. “You use it. You hide in it. But you haven’t truly bent it to your will.
The shadows whisper to you, yes? They tell you things no one else can hear.
But you don’t listen. Not really.” Listening to the shadows was dangerous.
Something I wasn’t about to do again. “If you did,” he continued, “you’d learn secrets that could reshape you.
Make you unstoppable. All you have to do… is stop fearing them.”
I shook my head. “Not happening. Get the fuck out of my head.”
“Think about it,” he murmured. The forest shattered, the cold dissolving into the roar of the battlefield. But the echo of his words stayed, lodged deep, colder than the snow beneath my feet.
“Aiden, you okay?” Rynlee’s voice cut through the chaos, laced with concern. Her brows pulled tight as her hand found my arm, warm, alive, burning away the chill Erebus had left in my bones.
“Yeah. I’m fine,” I replied, a smile twitching at my lips. “How are you holding up?” My fingers itched to touch her in return, but I kept them at my side. If I did… she might sense the darkness in me, straining to get out.
“You know, I’ve had worse,” she quipped, a ghost of a grin breaking through the dirt and blood smudged across her face. Leave it to Ruin to make light of the moment.
I almost laughed, but the sound died in my throat. “Look, we’re not going to win this. We need to start gathering people. I’ll find whatever professors we have left and have them start moving the first years out.”
“We can win this, Aiden.” Her eyes sparked with stubborn fire.
I shook my head. “No, Ruin. We can’t. The school’s practically gone, and first years are dying left and right. We have to retreat and regroup. You should go, too; there are old tunnels under the school—”
“No way.” Her voice was steel. “I’m not leaving you, Aiden, or any of my friends. I can still fight.” Gods, that fire in her was intoxicating and dangerous.
“Listen to me, Ruin. For once in your life, just please listen to me.” My voice almost cracked with the weight of it. “We’re not winning this. And you can’t die. Understand?”
“You can’t die, either, Aiden. So, I’m staying.” Her blue eyes flashed orange with the sun’s power, and I raked a hand down my face in frustration.
“Gods, even in the middle of a fucking battle you’re infuriating,” I muttered. “Fine. You stay. But the second things start going to shit, you run. Understand?” She nodded. “Good. And for the love of all the gods, don’t do anything stupid.”
Her smile returned, sly. “Well… my nickname is Ruin. It might be hard not to.”
That dragged a reluctant smile out of me. “Yeah, well… I don’t call you Ruin for the reason you think.”
Her brows knit. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“If we both survive this, maybe I’ll tell you.” I gave her a wink, then melted into the shadows before she could press me further. The battlefield swallowed me again, but her warmth lingered, like the last ember before the dark closed in.
I appeared alongside Professor Wicken just as she drove her blade through the chest of a shadow knight, black ichor steaming on the snow.
“Wicken, start gathering the first years. Get them into the tunnels. Spread the word to the other professors; we need to begin getting out alive,” I ordered, my voice sharp enough to cut through the clash of steel.
She gave a curt nod and immediately started shouting, her voice carrying over the chaos as she called for first years to rally to her.
I melted into the shadows and reappeared beside Kerian.
“Kerian!” I barked, right when he conjured a wave of skeletal warriors.
The undead surged forward, tearing into shadow knights with bone claws and rusted metal.
“Sort of busy, Aiden,” he shot back, glancing over his shoulder.
“Yeah, no shit, we all are,” I muttered, intercepting a shadow knight that slipped through his skeletal wall. My blade sank deep, shadows curling around my arm like living things. “Listen, start spreading the word. Get your people out of here.”
“Why? Don’t you want—”
“No. We’re not winning this,” I cut him off, slashing through another knight. “Erebus is too strong, and we’re losing too many.”
Derek emerged from the smoke then, his crystallized blood blade catching the faintest glint of light. His eyes swept between us. “What’s going on?”
“We need to start retreating,” I told him without hesitation.
“Get as many as you can and head for the tunnels under the academy. We will regroup from there.” Derek didn’t argue.
He gave a sharp nod and turned, shouting orders to the nearest Blood Assassins, his voice hard and unshakable.
Kerian followed suit, his skeletal guard closing ranks around a cluster of Blood Assassins as they began to fall back.
The battlefield was still a roar of chaos, but now it had a direction.
My eyes landed on Alaric, struggling against a hulking demon.
Its horned head swung low, a spiked club whistling through the air.
Using the rune, I propelled myself forward, shadows whipping past as I cut down two shadow knights in my path.
I reached him just as the demon reared back for a killing blow.
My blade locked against its strike, the force rattling through my arms.
“Aid!”
“Hey, little brother, need some help?” I asked, shadows slithering from my grip to coil around the demon’s throat, tightening like a vice.
Alaric seized the opening, darting in to slash across its leg before driving his sword deep into its shoulder.
I brought my blade along its neck, severing it clean.
The demon crumpled, black blood pooling at our feet.
I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You, okay?”
“Yeah, thanks,” he said with a tired grin.
“Listen. I need you to watch over Ryn. We’re retreating, but she’s refusing to leave. I want you to make sure she does.” I held his gaze until the grin faded.
“You know she’s stubborn. She won’t leave anyone behind.”
“I don’t care. Ryn can’t die. Promise me, Alaric, you'll get her to the old castle. Erebus can’t reach her there.”
He studied me for a beat, then nodded. “Alright. I’ll take her. But you be careful too, can’t have you dying on me either.”
“I can’t die,” I said with a smirk, though the memory of a much younger Alaric, bawling when I’d fallen from the tree house and broken my ribs, flickered in my mind. He’d been so sure I wouldn’t make it.
“A battle’s a little more dangerous than a tree house, brother,” he replied with a breathless laugh.
“Maybe. But don’t worry about me.” I pulled him into a hug because I didn’t know if I’d get another chance.
For all my distance and coldness, I loved him.
Losing dad was one thing. Losing Alaric?
That wasn’t an option. “If anything, don’t be a hero.
Get Ryn and get out.” We stepped back. Alaric gave the familiar two-finger swirl we’d used as kids, our silent way of saying stay alive.
I returned it, a smile twitching at my lips.
Then we turned and went our separate ways.