Chapter 37 #3
I couldn’t hold back. The water in the mountain fountain, in the well, underground. It all called to me. My ears filled with a rushing sound. I forced it down with everything I had. One more word. Just one more word and I would drown everything.
Aiden didn’t react. His power remained steady, unchanging. He stood straight, head slightly tilted. The Lord of the Mountains.
“Silent now?” Magnus laughed. “You always had so much to say. Always so eloquent. Maybe you don’t actually have these powers everyone whispers about. Maybe your mother lied to scrape together enough votes for you. But still, a failure of a son.”
Aidenar smiled, just at the corner of his mouth. I knew.
I felt it building. Felt him gathering it. The storm.
First came the sound, like the world itself splitting open. A roar that threatened to shatter eardrums. Several windows exploded outward.
The wind launched Dorthal and his knights through the open gate like stones from a catapult. The entire battalion beyond was swept aside.
Horses flew like scattered sticks. Men were crushed, pinned, but you couldn’t hear their screams. Only deaf despair.
The wind didn’t stop. Magnus sprawled on the ground before the gate. The gale kept coming, relentless. His men trampled each other, fell, struggled to rise. Magnus drove his sword into the earth to anchor himself.
Aidenar walked toward him. Very, very slowly. Untouched by the wind.
As he approached, Magnus tried to push himself up to his knees. The emeralds on his armor began to glow. The earth around them started to shift. Dorthal was reaching for whatever power he possessed.
Aiden didn’t move a muscle. He simply called more of the element and pressed Magnus flat against the ground.
“Down,” as he would command a dog.
Magnus’s face smashed into the mud. His beautiful armor, pale skin, chestnut hair, all smeared with dirt. Aidenar stood over him.
“You don’t know what I am. You have no understanding of what you’re dealing with. Touch what’s mine again and I’ll take both of your hands.”
He turned and walked back to the castle, leaving behind a battlefield of bodies, horses, broken armor and bones.
When he reached the courtyard, his eyes found mine.
He passed through the terrace where I stood with the others. Everyone watched him with a mixture of awe and terror. Minerva observed it all with her cold gaze, unreadable as ever.
Aidenar’s eyes still gleamed with light. He didn’t extinguish his power fully, he let it simmer beneath the surface.
He approached me and extended his hand. People flinched instinctively, as if afraid he might sweep them away too.
I wasn’t afraid. I knew what lived inside him.
I stepped forward and took his hand.
He raised it to his lips and kissed the back of my palm, then smiled at me.
He was my storm.
I woke up in the night. But not in my bed. I was running through dark meadows somewhere in the forest. I wore a black dress and no shoes, and my feet bled upon sharp stones and roots. Branches lashed at my face, carving burning lines into my skin.
I heard shouting behind me. A voice I knew. Malric’s voice.
“Nerissssa… Where are you, my love. I miss you.”
“Nerissa, do not hide. I shall find you in the end.”
His voice drew nearer. Nearer.
“Do you think he will save you? I will kill him. I will gut him like a pig and I will keep you as my mistress. My lovely prize. Do not run.”
But I did. I ran as if my life depended on it, my lungs aflame, my heart pounding like thunder.
I saw him standing in my path. From the shadows, he shaped a whip.
I darted to the side, but I heard the crack before I felt it.
Heat seared across my cheek. I nearly fell, catching myself on my hands, and forced my legs to carry me onward.
Suddenly the trees fell away and I burst into the clearing with the waterfall. The same one where Aidenar had taken me today. I didn’t slow down. With all the force of my sprint I flung myself into the icy water.
My body sank at once.
Silence fell.
I woke up in my bed and instinctively reached for my cheek, where the lash still burned.
When I drew my hand away, there was blood upon my fingers.
How is that possible?! With trembling hands, I clutched the diamond necklace at my throat and forced myself to breathe.
One breath, then another, cold air filled my lungs.
I rose and went to the door, knowing I couldn’t be alone right now.
When I opened the door he was already there.
Aidenar. In linen pants, bare-chested, his hair tousled as if he had just risen from his bed. His feet were bare upon the cold stone of the corridor. When he saw me, his eyes widened. My tears spilled before I could stop them.
“It was him.”
Without a word he swept me into his arms, and I pressed myself against his bare chest. He carried me to his chambers, passing his guards in silence.
Once inside, he closed the door behind us with a gust of air.
He laid me gently in his great bed, which smelled of him.
Then he lay down behind me and drew me close, his arm firm around my waist. I sank into his embrace.
“From this night on, you sleep here,” he said quietly but firmly. “No discussion.”
I didn’t protest.
I fell asleep, safe.