Chapter 24
Lioran trailed behind me into the castle. “You…”
“It had to be done.” I didn’t look back at him.
“You gave them a gift none of us could, not even me.” His fingers found mine for a stolen moment before he dropped them. “You gave freely, knowing they could all see the depths of your magic.”
“Anyone could have seen hints of my magic at any time.” My shoulders fell. “I don’t need to hide who I am. The High Court will know, if they don’t already. Othryl needed me. The village is desperate.”
His head hung lower. “I wasn’t trying to hide you. Only to keep you safe from those who would try to use your power for their own gain…or reveal you to my parents.”
“I don’t care the cost. I can help.”
He rubbed his temples. “I can’t get past the irony.”
“How is me helping them ironic?”
He pushed an oak door open, revealing a room full of wooden crates. “That by our laws you can’t be queen, yet I couldn’t think of anyone better to wear the crown.”
I didn’t want to go back to that conversation, to that state. He closed the door behind us. The scent of oregano still clung to my fingertips.
It felt good to use my magic to help Othryl. I could still give my magic to restore everything that plagued them, but once it was gone, a part of who I was would vanish with it. I hadn’t asked Cora any more about the vision, but I didn’t have to. Every day it hovered over me.
“Can we just pretend that none of it matters? We can just exist here together. For now.”
I thought of Fyn’s pain. His words hung over me still.
He was mine, and I would love him until the stars divided us.
“I savor every moment,” he said, tracing the curve of my jaw with his fingers. “My heart will only ever belong to you.”
I pulled him closer, pressing a slow kiss on his lips.
“Aelira,” he whispered my name. The heat of his breath was hot on my neck. “I…”
“Stay here with me,” I whispered
A part of me would still pretend he could give me always.
Visions of him poured into my mind as my eyes shut—sipping drinks by the fire in his chambers.
Strolling through the courtyard together, with my hand in his.
Riding with Gaia and Veylar openly, freely wherever we wished through the Heart.
If fate had determined otherwise—it would have all been ours to keep.
It was the only future I could picture—the only one that gave my heart exactly what it wanted. I didn’t need anything else. Only him.
He pulled his lips free from mine. “If I found a different way…”
My finger pressed to his lips.
“If I left it all behind…” The words trailed off almost as if they were never spoken.
The air grew thicker. My skin became hotter with his touch. I wanted his words. Wanted that truth, but I wouldn’t let him make that choice. He would be the king his people deserved.
“You will make a wonderful king,” I whispered the words I didn’t want to speak.
His dark curls tumbled in his face as he shook his head. “Sometimes I think about leaving…taking you far away from here.” His lips forcefully pressed into mine. “We could have the life we want without the crown. Without any of this.”
A pleading gaze. Hands that slid over my head. Our kiss ached with desperation.
His leather tunic laces caught on my fingertips.
The door creaked. I stumbled out of his grasp.
Fyn didn’t bother hiding the amusement in his eyes as he reaching for a crate. “You could have at least taken her somewhere more romantic.”
I straightened my dress, pressing the emerald fabric down.
Lioran fumbled with the laces on his tunic. “Do you mind, Fyn?”
“No, I don’t really…” He hoisted it off the shelf. “Lord Orion was looking for you. Good thing I found you first.”
“Go,” I said, nodding to him. “I’ll find you later.”
Lioran leaned in and kissed my forehead. My fingers gripped his as he stepped toward the door.
A slow smile spread across his face as he turned around to look back at me.
Desperation consumed me. His words left me aching.
The taste of his lips lingered on mine for a moment more.
I sank deep into the tub in my chambers. Rose petals bobbed at the surface. I traced each one.
If he meant what he said—if there was a way we could be free, I would gladly take it.
I held my breath and plunged under water.
We couldn’t rearrange fate’s design.
I twisted my drenched hair until the water dripped from it, trickling back into the tub. A woolen blanket hung off the edge of the tub. Its scratchy fabric shifted over me.
I watched the clouds drift from a haze of white to a perfectly painted sky as the bed cradled me.
Chirping crickets awoke me with their moonlight song. Their music startled me.
Lioran. I never went to find him.
Moonlight illuminated my reflection in my dressing mirror. I slipped into a robe of golden silk. As I tied it closed, my shoulders fell back—my chin lifted. I knew what I wanted. It had only ever been him.
As I closed my eyes, I felt him lingering nearby. His energy pulsed with mine. Like he was calling to me.
My feet carried me down the hall. Before I could even knock, the door opened. Lioran gripped my waist. He pulled me into his chambers.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” he said.
Candlelight flickered from every shelf and window ledge. He kissed my neck. Heat simmered from deep within me.
His lips danced with mine, slowly, deeply. When he released me, his chrome eyes glimmered with moonlight.
My fingers nestled in the fabric of his robe. They slid over his chest as it rose with every ragged breath. I studied the angles of his jaw, his eyes, the lines in his skin.
This dance between us was dangerous.
It was reckless.
It was his. It was mine.
The smell of him wasn’t enough. The taste of him wasn’t enough.
I needed all of him.
He exhaled sharply. “You’re shaking.” His eyes narrowed on mine. “We should stop.”
“No.” I led his hands down my curves. “Don’t stop.”
My back arched as he traced his fingers along my spine. “I am yours,” I said as I leaned into him.
“I’ll never understand the stars, but just for this moment. I won’t question them. They led me to you.” Lioran gripped my waist, bringing me closer until I felt his body settle against mine.
I lifted his hand in mine, backing toward the bed.
“Aelira…” He waited. I guided his hands to my robe. He gently unwrapped the fabric. It fell to the floor.
I watched him remove his.
His fingers ran through my hair, his lips leaned desperately into mine. Heat engulfed me as he leaned into me. I let myself drown in him—each sensation pulsing through me.
I ached for him.
I watched each measured breath he took. My heart was a shell of what it once was. He would always hold the rest. I nestled my head against his chest—his heartbeat lulled me back to sleep.
When my eyes opened again, he sat in his armchair, watching me. The sunlight highlighted his loose curls. It danced on the silver flecks that shone in his eyes.
He smiled—slow and deliberate.
“You didn’t wake me.”
“You looked so peaceful. I wanted to keep this moment.” He rose from the chair and laid down on the bed beside me. His hand ran down my back, he pressed his lips to mine—a shiver ran through me.
My muscles ached—a quiet reminder of what I freely gave him.
Of everything we risked.
I gripped the covers tightly.
“Lioran.” My jaw clenched.
“What’s wrong?”
“I wasn’t thinking…” I exhaled a rigid breath. “About what we just risked…about what could happen.”
Nothing had prepared me for this moment. In Bailoc no one made this choice. If they did it was never spoken of.
“Aelira,” he whispered, fully understanding my spiral. “You’ll be fine. I have something to prevent life from taking hold. After the Verdant Alignment, I retrieved a vial from Rowena’s supplies. In case you chose this.”
The cabinet creaked as he pried open the door. A vial of glowing violet liquid sat on the shelf. He carefully lifted it and brought it to me.
I pried the stopper from the vial. The purple liquid rolled slowly. One little vial to protect us both.
His gaze rested heavily on me. “I wish you didn’t have to take it.”
“If only you could really leave it all behind.” I tilted my head back and drank every drop.
My eyes only watered.
The sweet liquid sat on my tongue—lavender, rose, chamomile, with hints of something I had never tasted. As I inhaled, I felt it settle within me—warm and calm.
He embraced me as I still clutched the vial. “I meant what I said.”
“I love that you did.” I blinked back the tears. “Council will be waiting for you.”
“I can be late.” He held me tighter.
“Go,” I whispered.
He took the bottle from my hands, and with a loud thud set it on a table in the corner. The sound echoed in the silence between us.
When he left, I slipped from his chambers back into mine.
I would never regret the choice we made.
My hand trailed the window ledge. Sparkling light shifted through my fingertips. It trailed the vines that still clung to my chambers. Blooms sprouted—roses woven into the vines. Brighter and faster than before.
My arrow sailed through the clearing. It lodged itself in the center of the target.
The last month passed in a blur—stolen moments, making love under the moon’s glow. Together we were whole, but the land wasn’t.
The blight crept slowly into the Heart. More trees became infected.
Outer edges of the Heart began to decay.
Lioran and I could not ease the land’s pain.
Even as the shadows crept further inward, I tended to the castle garden.
My favorite flowers filled every open space.
Each one just as I remembered them in Bailoc, until one bloom outshone the rest.
Deep within me something altered—a swift heat that traveled through me, it left me breathless.
My magic simmered with it. With a wave of my glimmering magic, a single dahlia bloomed.
The stem was a midnight hue. The fuchsia petals unfurled in waves of color, fading from pink to a blazing coral.
I had never seen anything like it before.
Lioran marveled at the dahlia, but he didn’t speak a word about it. His tender smile flashed in my memory whenever I gazed at the flower, but his hesitation lingered beneath it. I still didn’t know if he approved, or if it worried him. It held a dangerous kind of beauty. Still, I cherished it.
Dark circles etched further beneath his eyes. The land’s destruction took a toll on him, but it wasn’t long until I discovered something else was weighing on him, too.
An emissary arrived from the High Court, bearing a command from the king and queen: there would be no more time granted. Their patience was withering.
At any moment he could be called to take the throne.
A fae king didn’t need to die for power to shift—the fae lived far too long to always rule.
The crown would pass to Lioran when the stars decided it was his time.
He was the chosen one, marked as the heir to the throne at fate’s command.
When he came of age each tattoo appeared for his three chosen roles—prince, guardian, and future king.
A decision on his marriage would be made with or without him. I heard it all when I went to find Lioran in his study. My heart was breaking, but he didn’t know it. He didn’t tell me at all.
I lived in fading moments.
“The High Court will not wait any longer.” Lioran pulled the bow back from hands, peering into my eyes. “A summons has arrived.”
“When do you leave?” I lowered the bow.
“We leave tomorrow. They’ve requested your presence, too.” He held a rolled-up parchment scroll.
“I’m not going.” The air caught sharp in my lungs. I wasn’t ready to face it.
“It is not in our power to refuse them.”
“What if they make me go with Thalen?” My muscles clenched, trembling beyond my control.
“I will do whatever I can to keep you in Lythira.” He placed the bow at my feet and wrapped his hands around mine. The circles set even darker beneath his eyes.
“Without you…while they prepare you to take the throne?” I didn’t want to have to say it.
He should have been the one to tell me, but it didn’t seem he intended to at all. Lioran looked at the blades of grass beneath his feet.
“Have you already chosen your bride?” The tears wouldn’t stop the moment they started.
“No.” His voice grew unsteady.
“When were you going to tell me?”
“When I exhausted every possible solution. When hope was gone entirely. Until then I thought it was better if only I was breaking…but you knew.”
“I heard it all,” I finally admitted.
He looked back up at me. “I’m so sorry.” His shoulders rounded. “I couldn’t break your heart, especially if I didn’t have to.”
“In what world do you think you don’t have to?” I scolded him.
He cupped his hands around my face. “I need you. Only you.” I slipped back out of his grasp. Too many could stumble upon us and see.
“I’m not yours to keep.” I lifted the bow. It quaked in my grip. Anger boiled within me, but it wasn’t all his to claim.
Fate would destroy me.
It had always intended to.
I had no control of what the future held, but for now, I would keep him just a little longer. “I love you,” I whispered. “I will always love you. The stars gave me something beautiful, and I will never stop thanking them for every single moment.”
“I love you,” he said, but his voice carried as if he didn’t care who heard. “And I will never let you go.”
“Tonight, you don’t have to,” I said.