19. Aldrin #2
I cover myself with a heavy cloak as we step out into the street, but the deep hood is hardly necessary with the area almost completely abandoned.
We are in one of the poorest sectors—close to the base of the palace and, from what Keira tells me, under heavy Truth Templar surveillance.
The evidence is clear even under the dual moonlight and glow of the sparse lady of the night blooms.
Hastily boarded-up shops.
Shattered doors and broken windows.
Buildings burned to the ground.
As we pass a makeshift gallows, my blood boils. No one, and I mean no one , should be executed in the street with no dignity.
It is like there is a tether connected to my heart and my soul, dragging me upward, toward the palace. I keep our mate bond suppressed. I want to surprise Keira. She doesn’t know that I have entered the city yet.
A crazed urgency fills me as I use my magic’s royal signature to open one of the gates leading into the secret tunnels.
I take the steps two at a time, not waiting for Cyprien.
The entire masonry of the passage’s roof and walls lights up with a dazzling glow as the hundreds of roots snaking through the mortar recognize me.
Maybe I have gone insane. I need her in my arms like I need air in my lungs.
I long for her lips against mine, for our tongues to clash.
Every part of me burns for our bodies to become one with such an intensity I cannot think straight.
But most of all, I need to touch her and know she is real.
To look into her eyes and know she is okay.
That despite the harm Titania’s games have done to Keira, she is not broken.
Cyprien grabs my wrist and tugs hard, stopping my climb. “Slow down,” he snaps, pushing past me and taking the lead. “We are getting close to the meeting chambers and we don’t know for certain that we are the only ones with access to these ancient tunnels.”
We keep climbing until we reach a doorway with a thick ward of swirling mist.
Cyprien pauses and glances over his shoulder at me. “Ready?”
I pull back my hood, grinning like a fool. “Beyond ready.”
The heavy resistance of the ward pushes back at us with each step we take, until all at once we are through.
The atmosphere of the room turns completely as tense discussions cut off. Silence falls upon us as my closest friends gape at me. None dare to move, except Hawthrone, who rubs at his eyes like I am a mirage.
“Well, it’s about fucking time you arrived!” Drake bellows, breaking the spell and striding over to me. “Where have you been? Hiding under a rock somewhere?”
“You know damned well where I have been,” I say. “I brought the reinforcements we need to the city, with more to arrive in the coming days.”
Drake closes the distance between us, throwing out his arms for a hug. “Come here. Bring it in.”
I put a hand to his chest, holding him back a step as I wrinkle my nose at his appearance.
Fucking Florian’s red eyes look at me with such affection.
His face, framed by chin-length brown hair and a short-cropped beard, smiles warmly at me, when the real man only knew how to sneer.
While my brain knows it is Drake under that facade, my eyes tell me a different thing.
“Drop your glamour, Drake. I’m too tempted to punch you with that face on.”
He does so immediately, then locks me in an embrace, rocking us from side to side. “Don’t leave us again. Especially not under these circumstances, where we don’t know if you are dead or alive from moment to moment.” His voice breaks, and guilt floods me.
“I had no choice, Drake,” I whisper. “You’d do the same for Klara.”
“I know, but just don’t do it again.”
I sense another person approaching, and then Klara is pulling him off me.
“Stop being selfish. We all want a piece of Aldrin.” She gives me a quick squeeze, never one for big gestures of affection.
“Keira will be here soon. She has done well and triumphed over every insult they have thrown her way.”
All I can do is dip my head in reply as words rise up and choke within my throat.
Hawthorne slams into me next, tears sliding down his face despite his struggles to keep it together. I say soothing words and pat him on the back, then pass him off to Drake.
Silvan slaps me on the shoulder multiple times, as though testing my sturdiness. “You didn’t do too badly for being locked up with those gods-forsaken Nightmares.”
Kai stalks around, riled up with frustrated energy that he cannot expend in his humanoid form.
When I hold my arms out to him, he tosses his head like he would as an equine, flicking long navy-and-green hair, then points a finger at me.
“Win that throne, Aldrin. Stop this persecution of the low fae. We should be able to walk the streets as equals to any high fae, not be treated as a hated and shamed minority.”
“Kai.” I place both my hands on his shoulders and peer into his eyes. “Why do you think I am here? The Spring Court will return to the way it was under my rule years ago.”
The beast within him calms long enough for him to place a slightly scaled hand to my heart.
“This is why you will always have my allegiance. Not just the way you respect kelpies alone, but this , your heart, is the reason I will follow you into any battle, no questions asked.” He turns and abruptly stalks away.
Zinnia gives me a broad smile that is somehow viperlike, drained of warmth. “Kai is going to lose his gods-damned mind if we don’t start fighting soon.”
“And you?” I ask.
“I’m about the same,” she says with nonchalance.
I sense Keira’s approach before she enters the room.
A telltale warmth blossoms within my chest.
The misty ward covering the doorway churns and billows out white tendrils as two murky bodies push through, and then she is before me with Basil at her side.
My heart skips a beat at the sight of her beauty. Rosebud lips. Immaculate porcelain skin scattered with radiant freckles. Huge, hazel doe eyes that widen as they fall upon me. That halo of tightly curling fiery hair that has a life of its own.
I cannot help the huge grin that grows across my face as I stalk toward her like a predator homed in on its prey. Then Keira is running at me. I grab her around the waist and lift her into the air, spinning in a circle as I press her soft body to mine. I take her lips and find paradise within them.
Aldrin! Oh gods, Aldrin! It really is you, she moans into my mind.
Her hands run through my hair and across my face again and again, as though she cannot believe it. I part her lips and dip my tongue inside her mouth, needing to taste her. She meets me stroke for stroke. This is pure bliss. It is everything I have longed for since I lost her.
For the first time, that dark cloud weighing on me lifts.
“Please tell me we’re not going to have a repeat of this ,” Drake groans somewhere behind us. “It was bad enough when their mate bond snapped into place.”
Keira continues to devour me like a wild animal, clinging to my clothes and not caring who sees. I slowly pull away in increments, until she is on her feet again, peering up at me with eyes that blaze with passion.
I trail my fingers across the curve of her cheek. “By the Soul Ripper, I have longed to touch you. To feel that you are truly okay and unbroken.” My voice breaks a little.
Keira’s hands slide down my chest possessively. “It is no more than I can handle. Truly, Aldrin, the worst has been witnessing your trials and being utterly helpless to aid you.”
“You saved my neck multiple times.” I lean forward and rumble in her ear, “It doesn’t mean I’m not absolutely livid at you for selling yourself to Titania.
Never, ever sacrifice yourself like that again.
I have the perfect punishment in mind for you for being such a bad girl.
” I bite her earlobe before I pull away.
A deep satisfaction runs through me, right to the pit of my belly, at the shiver that tears through her.
We finally drag our gazes away from each other and return to the council standing around in the center of the room.
“I want a full debrief on what has been happening in the city while I have been gone,” I demand.
“Our next move is to find ways to weaken Titania’s authority and sow discord in her inner circle, to distract her, while we search for the Spring Court army she has hidden away.
Our soldiers and their allegiances must be accounted for before we attack. I want to win them over.”
Cyprien grunts beside me, cracking his neck from side to side.
Drake lets out a low whistle. “That is no small task.”
We pull apart every vicious incident and tyrannical tactic Titania has utilized, analyzing them from every angle until my head hurts.
Both Keira and Drake speak of her inner circle, and how the people close to her are constantly changing.
The fact that she trusts no one with her deepest confidences, not even Torin.
When the discussions are over, Rainier approaches me with caution.
He stops a span away and hovers with a pinched expression of uncertainty across his tanned features.
“Aldrin, I want to apologize for not seeing the truth of Titania when it truly mattered. For supporting her instead of you the first time you fought for your throne.” He gulps in a large breath of air.
“It took me far too long to see through her lies, and I am ashamed of the fact. It was Sasha who opened my eyes, as she has done with many others, and brought myself and Juniper into this inner circle to help the people I have harmed.”
I place a hand on his shoulder. “The important thing is that you have seen the truth and choose to fight against it now, Rainier. Many in your position cower in fear or sit on their hands, doing nothing.”