Page 46

Chapter Forty-Six

A elia

Oh, Aidan, my dear, sweet, kind-hearted Aidan, was really here. I could scarcely take my eyes off him for fear he would disappear. Squeezing his calloused hand across the table, my heart felt so full I was certain it would burst.

“How I’ve missed you, estellira .” His light pale eyes latched onto mine, a hint of something unnamable swirling across the surface. “I thought about you every day. Prayed to the goddess that she would protect you and return you to me.”

“Well, it seems as if it worked.” I offered a watery smile, squeezing his rough palm.

A grunt echoed across the cavernous sitting room, bouncing off the steel rafters and drawing my attention to Reign. He paced the length of the chamber, eyeing the windows and the turbulent waves of the Shadowmere Sea crashing beyond. Every muscle in his body was tense, coiled to strike, but I refused to allow his unease to ruin this reunion with my adoptive father.

He was merely being paranoid and overprotective. For some reason, I had a feeling this was frequently the case with my cuoré. Helroth had released me over a week ago, and the Night forces had yet to attempt to drag me back to their nightmarish realm. Everything would be fine. Well, until my grandsire discovered I had no intention of following through with my vow to marry Prince Ruhl… Drawing in a breath, I resolved to deal with that matter at a later time. This was a happy occasion, one I deserved to enjoy.

Mera’s soft footsteps lifted my gaze to the housemaid who strode toward us with a tray of tea and biscuits. Depositing the sweets on the table, she dipped her head before scurrying back to the kitchens. I was deeply grateful for her quick retreat. I had not yet been able to look her in the eye since realizing I’d hijacked her body for my own enjoyment all those nights ago. I’d been convinced it had only been a dream until Reign confirmed the embarrassing truth. Luckily, it seemed she had no recollection of the occurrence.

Aidan reached for a biscuit with his free hand, returning my thoughts to the present. Everything about him was so familiar, the crinkle at the corners of his eyes, the hitch of his lip when he smiled, his scent… His presence stirred memories of the past, of my days in Feywood. My fingers instinctively found the medallion tucked under my tunic.

His eyes caught mine as I fingered the necklace he’d gifted me on the day of my twentieth birthday. “I’m so pleased that you still have it.”

“Of course I do.” I revealed it from its hiding spot beneath the light frock. A lick of pain coursed through my insides as potent memories surged to the surface: the searing agony as my powers were unbound; the dark Spellbinder; the torture under Helroth’s hand… “Did you know that the necklace was used as the anchor for the incantation that bound my powers?”

Aidan’s head slowly dipped, something unreadable once again flashing across his weary expression.

“Why did you wait so long to give it to me if you had it all along?”

“Because I feared the appearance of Raysa’s mark on your twentieth birthday would somehow untether your power. I hoped the necklace would keep you safe, but I truly had no idea what would happen.”

Reign must have noticed his reaction, or perhaps it had been Aidan’s reply that had caught his attention, but either way, it put an end to his pacing. He slid into the seat beside me, his gaze intent on my guardian’s.

My breath hitched, and I snatched my hand away from his. “So you were there when my powers were bound?” As the full magnitude of his admission rolled over me, a sickening sensation twisted in my gut. “But Helroth was the one who had the dark Spellbinder cast the spell… and you knew? You knew all along that the Night King was my grandfather?”

Reign stiffened beside me at the obvious pain in my voice, his entire body coiled like a predator sensing an unseen threat. Shadows bled from his fingertips, rippling with restrained fury as his gaze locked onto Aidan’s. “And he knows who your parents are; though he never recounted the truth to me.” His voice held a deadly calm that prickled the hair on the back of my neck.

My body trembled as a surge of raw power clawed its way to the surface, a maelstrom of forces threatening to consume me whole. Rais ignited first, blazing through my veins like molten gold, a searing heat that cracked against my skin in shimmering waves of divine fire. Then came the nox —a creeping tide of shadow slithering beneath my skin, cool and pervasive, coiling around my limbs like sentient ink. And finally, the zar —wild and untamed—tore through me like a storm unchained.

“Aelia…” My name on Reign’s lips tore me from the wild sensations. His hand settled on my thigh, almost immediately quieting the tempest. “Give it to me, princess, anything that you cannot handle. Send it through our bond like I taught you.”

“Raysa, are you all right, Aelia?” Aidan’s shout only exacerbated the building tension.

Fury uncoiled within the raging storm, irritation at all the males in my life who sought to control my fate. “I can handle it,” I gritted out, my thumb circling the smooth medallion of the necklace. The anchor grounded me through the wild tempest of powers. I imagined my home in Feywood, the tiny cottage filled with memories of the past. Opening the worn wooden door, I summoned the trio of energies battering my insides and focused on depositing them each into my old home. Bottling up the rais , then the nox , and finally the zar , I slammed the door behind the mass of swirling, glittering powers.

And just like that, the storm subsided.

I heaved in a breath and met a pair of turbulent obsidian irises.

“Are you okay?” Reign’s hold on my leg tightened, his thumb stroking gently across my inner thigh.

“Yes, I’m fine,” I hissed, then turned that flare of irritation toward my adoptive father. “Or at least, I will be once you’ve told me the truth, Aidan. Once and for all. After everything I’ve been through, I deserve to know. I’ve suffered at the hands of the Night King, my powers have been unbound, and it’s only a matter of time until the other royals discover that I am the child of the prophecy. The time for hiding is over.”

“Oh, Aelia, I agree with you wholeheartedly, but I physically cannot tell you the truth of your past.”

“You took a vow,” Reign interjected.

Aidan nodded, lips pressed into a tight line.

“But you told me Aelia was born of Light and Shadow all those months ago.”

“It is all about the wording of the vow. The devil is in the details as they say. You should know that, professor.”

“Mmm.” His expression darkened as he rubbed at the scruff on his jaw. “Luckily, I have a solution.” A wicked smirk kicked up the corners of his mouth.

I swung my wary gaze in his direction. “What are you going to do?”

“If my shadows seek out the memories from his mind, then he is not breaking his vow. I’m simply stealing the answers we require.”

My pulse quickened, anticipation taking wings and battering my rib cage. Finally, I would know the truth. Only, I couldn’t let Reign be the one to do it. “I need to do this myself.”

Reign’s brows twisted as he regarded me. “Are you certain? Memory retrieval is no easy task, and it doesn’t come without risks.”

I glanced between Aidan and Reign, determination settling across the hard line of my jaw. “If Aidan approves, I would like to be the one to try.”

“Of course, estellira .” He leaned across the table, offering his hand. “My trust in you is unequivocal.”

“Good.” Steeling my nerves, I closed my fingers around his palm.

“Have you ever done this before?” Reign whispered.

“Yes, Helroth had me practice a few times on Kae.” I lowered my voice. “He said it worked best when I used both nox and zar to procure the memories.”

His dark brows furrowed for an instant, a hint of dread rushing our bond before the deep lines across his forehead receded once more.

“What?” I blurted.

“Nothing, just something you said, but it’s not important right now.” He shook his head. “We’ll deal with it later.”

Along with all the other things…

Closing my eyes to center my thoughts, I summoned the tendrils of power I’d tucked away in the tiny cottage. As always, the rais bloomed first, golden light sweeping to my fingertips. “I don’t understand why that always happens,” I blurted, my eyes snapping open.

“What’s that?” Reign asked.

“If I have no Light blood, why is it that my rais is always the quickest to respond?”

“No Light blood?” Aidan scoffed. “What would ever give you that idea?”

My head whipped in my adoptive father’s direction. “Not what, but whom . King Helroth said my parents were Night and Shadow Fae, and that I’d merely been marked by Raysa and imbued with her powers.”

“Well, I’m afraid he lied.”

A gasp escaped through my pinched lips, a whirlwind of emotions assaulting me all at once. I shouldn’t have been surprised—but still, I reeled from the confession. My grandsire had done nothing but weave falsehoods and twist my memories since the day he captured me.

The zar and nox flickered to the surface, eager beasts anxious to wreak havoc, a havoc that had taken permanent residence in my gut. I needed answers, and finally, I was strong enough to steal them for myself. Smoky tendrils of shadows extinguished the glittering rais , then inky streams of zar charged the air, slithering over my flesh. I guided the thick, oily vines of pure night toward Aidan, and a prickle of fear tightened my belly. Shoving the dread back, I reminded myself who I was, and more importantly, who I was destined to become.

My fingers trembled as the darkness of zar coiled around them like ravenous wraiths. The air between us thickened, charged with the weight of what I was about to do. My stomach churned, but I forced the doubt away. There was no turning back now.

“Hold still,” I murmured, though he had no choice. The shadows had already taken root, winding through his limbs, pinning him to the chair. His pale gray eyes locked onto mine, a reluctant trust flickering in their depths. “This might hurt a little.”

Aidan clenched his jaw, but he didn't fight me, simply gave me a nod.

I exhaled and let the nox unravel fully, sinking into his mind like ink spilled into water. A sharp breath caught in my throat as my consciousness slipped beneath the surface of his thoughts, plunging into the abyss of his memories.

For a moment, all was silent. Still.

Then… chaos.

A deluge of images assaulted me at once, jagged pieces of time tumbling into my grasp like shards of broken glass. Faces flickered in and out of view, voices echoing in distorted whispers. My head pounded with the force of it, but I pushed deeper, twisting the nox around each memory, pulling at the ones I needed.

Show me. Show me the truth .

Zar burned through my veins, raw and volatile, fusing with the nox to tear open the barriers no one was meant to cross. Aidan let out a strangled gasp, his body jerking against the invisible grip of my power.

A vision ripped through the murk. A younger Aidan, cradling a wailing infant wrapped in threadbare cloth. A male bathed in radiant splendor with a gilded crown perched atop his head peering down at the babe, anguish layered over the hard mask of stoicism. A dark-haired female at his side, wisps of shadow coiling around her form. Her lips were pursed, tears trailing down her cheeks as she regarded the child.

Me.

Another image. A meeting in the shadows, a whispered exchange of secrets, a warning spoken through gritted teeth.

Then—flashes of pain. Blood. Chains. The smoky scent of dark magic.

I lurched back, my body shaking, my breathing ragged. The bond of my power snapped, and Aidan slumped forward, gasping. My mind reeled, heart hammering against my ribs.

It couldn’t be… And yet, it was all there, a truth I could never unsee.

Aidan lifted his head, sweat glistening at his brow as he regarded me with a sliver of fear. “Gods,” he rasped, his voice hoarse, “protect us all.”

I swallowed hard, my hands still trembling. “I saw everything.”

His expression darkened. “Then you finally know the truth.”

I nodded, but the weight of it was suffocating. Because knowing the truth was one thing. Accepting it? That was something else entirely.