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Chapter Forty-Eight

R eign

From the upper terrace of the manor, Aidan and I stood shoulder to shoulder, gazes intent on Aelia and Solanthus in the courtyard below. It was difficult only being able to hear one side of the conversation. Every once in a while, Aelia would reply aloud, the burst of emotion giving us a hint of their mental discussion.

Since Aelia managed to tear the truth out of her guardian’s mind, the male had been oddly quiet. I was overcome with the most overwhelming urge to steal into his mind myself and discover the truth which Aelia had yet to share. The only thing I’d gleaned from Aidan all those months ago was that her parents were of Light and Shadow, but clearly there was so much more. So, I attempted to be patient, waiting for her to share the story when she was ready. I couldn’t imagine the hefty weight of the knowledge Aidan had borne all these years. In some respects, he must have been relieved for her to finally know.

“What do you suppose they’re talking about?” I murmured without averting my gaze from Aelia.

“I imagine Solanthus is filling in the blanks my memories couldn’t provide.”

Curiosity piqued my interest, and my head swung toward the male. “Such as?”

A tendon in his jaw strained, a crimson hue blossoming across his cheeks, then a vein across his forehead feathered. He was trying to find a way around the blood vow. I easily recognized the signs, having done the same countless times. Ever since I discovered Aelia was the child of the prophecy.

“Solanthus and Phantom played a role in Aelia’s past,” Aidan finally blurted.

“Her past?” My brow arched as I opened up the mental passageways that connected me to my skyrider.

Aidan nodded. “I believe Noxus guided Phantom to you so that somehow she could lead you to Aelia.”

My mind whirred with the possibilities, of some way of entangling his obscure remark. Phantom fought in the Two Hundred Years’ War, that much I knew, but to whom did she belong?

Phantom, you’ve been withholding essential information all these years?

A long moment of silence pervaded. I barely noticed the shuffle of Aidan’s footfalls as he disappeared back into the manor, presumably to grant me the privacy to speak with my skyrider.

It was not my secret to share . Phantom’s response trickled through gruffly. We are bound by dragon law, Reign, rules set in place by the gods millennia ago. There are ramifications that would ripple across Fae-kind if we shared everything we learned from past reincarnations. As such, we are sworn to keep matters of the past in the past. Now, if that information were to become common knowledge, only then are we free to discuss it .

Gods, it suddenly struck me how little we all knew about dragon kind.

What common past did you share with Aelia?

It was not with your cuoré, but rather her mother, Sable of Inferna .

My breaths came fast and uneven, as if I’d hiked up the entirety of the Alucian Mountain Range. You flew for the Night Court during the war ?

I had no choice. When I became bound to Aelia’s mother, she was a slave of your father’s court. She’d been taken as a prisoner of war. I had no idea she was a Night Court princess until after we’d been bonded. Neither did he …

He who?

Aelia’s father , King Alaric of the Court of Ethereal Light .

Oh, Noxus… it couldn’t be. And yet it made complete sense. The scope of Aelia’s abilities, the powerful rais used to bind the spell. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sable’s Shadow-half was of a royal lineage as well. It explained so much. A twist of fear wrenched my gut, snapping my spine straight. Oh, gods, Aelia and I weren’t related somehow, were we?

A light chuckle sprinkled through my thoughts. I don’t believe so, Reign, though I am not privy to the intricacies of your bloodline. The gods may be cruel at times, but I do believe tethering relatives with a cuorem bond would be beyond even their scope of brutality.

I scoffed. I didn’t think there was much beyond the gods’ capacity for inflicting pain. Returning my thoughts to Aelia, however, I glanced across the courtyard to where she stood in front of her enormous dragon. How had she taken the news so well? Realms, that meant King Elian was her uncle. Did the royal have any idea?

There’s one more thing, Reign. Solanthus recently discovered the truth and is revealing it to Aelia as we speak. I worry he will not be able to temper his rage during their next encounter. It will fall upon you to protect your brother from Solanthus’s wrath.

My brother ?

Her voice lowered, the deep rumble growing more faint. During the battle of Hell’s Peak, the one that arguably began the end of the war, it was Mordrin who dealt Solanthus the final, fatal blow .

I drew in a sharp breath as the pieces of the puzzle finally fit together. The simmering hatred between the three dragons was crystal clear now. Phantom had attacked Solanthus during the heat of battle, then Mordrin had seized the opportunity to kill him…

A wave of pain bowled over me, the intensity stealing all the air from my lungs. I struggled against the weight of it, my hands curling around the stone balustrade for purchase . It was my fault. Phantom’s words were nothing more than a strained whisper . Sable was injured, and I’d called for Solanthus’s help through our bond. Even after I’d attacked him, he came. His wing was badly torn, and King Alaric was in no better shape, but both males were bound to us by fate, by damned mystical bonds created by the gods. While Solanthus was distracted, Mordrin lunged for me. Another surge of pain rushed our bond, and only my steadying grip on the stone balustrade kept me upright . He took the hit meant for me at the last moment, and it cost not only his life, but that of King Alaric only a few weeks later. The bond that had been forged between dragon and rider had been so strong that once broken, I believe it eventually felled the king .

I thought it was an injury during battle that led to Alaric’s demise ? That was how the history books told the tale. Countless stories regaled his brother, Elian, for his valiant attempts at saving the king.

Solanthus believes otherwise. And that’s all that matters .

My thoughts churned, attempting to piece together all this new information. Wait, who was Mordrin’s rider in the war?

Your father, King Tenebris .

Icy tendrils shot up my spine as Phantom’s words echoed through my skull, the clang reverberating like the clash of swords. Of course it was my father. And after Mordrin died in the war, he was reborn to the Shadow heir.

And what of Sable? How did she perish ?

According to the ancient Fae myths, the cuorem bond is even more powerful than that of a dragon and its rider.

So, she died because of Alaric?

That is what the books of legend suggest . According to folklore, the bodies of the ill-fated lovers were ferried to the afterlife by Noxus and Raysa themselves. If you recall, according to official manuscripts, the king never married and had no heirs. No mention was ever made of a child.

Of course not. They had to keep Aelia a secret because of the prophecy…

As I mulled over all that I’d learned, a sudden sharp pang speared my chest, the strands of the cuorem throbbing furiously. Pressing my hand to my heart, my gaze jumped to Aelia across the courtyard.

Had Solanthus finished recounting the heart wrenching tale of her parents?

With her dragon gone, my feet compelled me forward, no longer willing to wait for her summons. Shadows curled around my shoulders and my wings emerged, propelling me up and over the terrace’s stone barrier. I descended swiftly, sweeping across the courtyard and landing at Aelia’s side. That ache that churned just beneath my ribcage was mirrored in her gaze as she stared up at her dragon.

“Are you all right?” I closed my hand around her shoulder, squeezing gently.

Her eyes pivoted to mine, swollen and tear stained. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be all right again.”

I reached for her face, framing her rosy cheeks with my hands. “Of course you will, starlight. Knowledge is power, and now that you wield it in your arsenal, you will truly be unstoppable.”

“I don’t feel unstoppable. I feel adrift in a sea of shadows with no shore in sight.” Her voice wavered, barely more than a whisper, but the anguish in it struck like a blade to my chest.

I brushed my thumbs over her damp cheeks, tilting her face toward mine. “Then let me be your anchor.”

Her breath hitched. “Reign…”

“I mean it, Aelia. No matter how lost you feel, no matter how dark the waters get, I will always find you. I will bring you back.” My forehead rested against hers, my shadows coiling protectively around us both. “You are not alone in this. You never will be.”

She exhaled a shaky breath, and for a fleeting moment, the storm in her silver-blue eyes calmed. But I could still feel the weight pressing down on her, the war waging inside her soul.

“Then don’t let go,” she murmured, clutching my wrists, holding them fast against her face.

“Never.”

The air prickled between us, our gazes locked until everything else faded. I leaned in, barely an inch at a time to give her plenty of time to deny me. She’d initiated the kiss last night in a moment of turmoil, and again we found ourselves in an equally emotionally charged state. I shouldn’t take advantage of her… When her breath skated across my lips and only a heartbeat remained between us, I brushed my mouth over hers, tentatively.

A terrified part of me fully expected her to pull away, but when she didn’t, hope greater than any I’d felt thus far flared brighter than Raysa’s blessed sun. I grew bolder, parting her lips with my tongue and tangling it with hers. The kiss started as a vow, soft, steady, unyielding, a promise of my commitment to her. But with every sweep of my tongue, it grew more demanding, morphing into a smoldering inferno.

The cuorem bond pulsed frantically, desperate to bind, to tether us for life. I was more than willing to give into its demands. But would Aelia? I hadn’t dared bringing it up with all the chaos since her return. Instead, I closed my eyes, allowing myself to revel in her touch, in this moment of pure bliss, entangled with the female I loved. Tomorrow, I’d resolve the rest.