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Chapter Forty-four

Arien

As Titan, Harpina, and the rest of Night’s command returned to our encampment south of the Etheralta Mountains, I knew Asteria had passed into the Otherworld.

The very thought sent a chill down my spine.

In fact, I was sure I knew when she went through. I felt a strange tug in my gut right before it felt like a hole opened inside of me. It was similar to when the spell was first lifted from her. I hadn’t known what it was at the time, only that it felt like something I’d been missing forever had finally slotted into place.

“There’s magic to twins.” My mother had said with a smile. “And you two, perhaps most of all.”

I knew she loved the idea that we were part of some great destiny. That she had been the one to bring it to life. But I wasn’t sure about any of that.

Family was what mattered to me, and knowing my sister had to go meet the gods gave me enough anxiety for the rest of my life, quite frankly.

“I don’t see what good you’ll be.” Zakat snorted as he walked in with the others. “Your father has made it clear he’d support a madman rather than take the dent to his pride. What will your little ragtag team manage?” He rolled his eyes.

“More than you think,” Altan argued, clearly fuming if the look on his face was anything to go by. “I already heard from my sister that she’s managed to get a good number of soldiers on our side. Not everyone is as clueless as my father.”

“What are you two arguing about?” Lilith asked, shaking her head at the two of them. “I swear you’ve done nothing but pick at one another since you got here. Aren’t you tired of it by now?”

“It’s all that sexual tension,” Harpina quipped, smirking as she passed by. She sent me a wink as she looked me up and down. She was beautiful, of course, if a bit brash. But she was also a close friend of Asteria’s, and as far as I was concerned, that meant she was off limits, even for a night. Though, I was sure that night would be quite spectacular.

“With him?!” Altan blustered, a faint flush gracing his cheeks. “Absolutely not! He’s a cocky hot head with no sense of responsibility.”

“ Wow ,” Zakat drew out sarcastically. “Tell me how you really feel.” He leaned closer to Altan, making him lean back. “But we both know those pants are on fire,” he murmured seductively.

The tips of Altan’s pointed ears turned deep red, and his throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. But he turned to me with a sharp shake of his head as he brushed the other prince off. “We need to begin training. Titan sent us here. Apparently, we need to learn how to fight among you.”

I raised a brow, looking over the crowd for Titan. When I spotted him, I called him over, waiting until the General reached us. I straightened as he approached. I hadn’t been General of Day’s forces for very long, but Titan had been Night’s for centuries. I knew I couldn’t compare myself to a Fae as old as Titan, but it was a bit intimidating, nonetheless.

I’d been raised to be my sister’s sword and shield. I had no idea who I was if I proved myself to be useless in that role.

“Prince Arien,” Titan greeted with a nod of his head. The moon phases tattooed on his neck showing his status as a warrior glimmered in dark ink against his golden skin.

“Titan, Prince Altan indicated you wanted a specific training regimen for them?” I questioned, getting a small smirk in return.

“They’re princes; they’re used to giving orders, not taking them. Plus, we’ve never had phoenixes in our aerial battles before. We all need to adjust our tactics going into this war if we hope to win,” he explained, and I nearly kicked myself for not thinking of that.

My eyes closed, and I took a deep breath, running a hand through my long, dark hair. A large hand landed on my shoulder, and I opened my eyes to face startlingly familiar sky-blue eyes.

“You’re doing a great job,” Titan reassured me, and for a moment, but for the shorter hair, squarer face, and tattoos, it was the ghost of my father saying words I’d always secretly hoped to hear.

I swallowed hard, trying to find my equilibrium.

“You’ve taken on a lot of changing circumstances with little time to adjust,” he continued. “You managed to hold the line in Avalon despite overwhelming odds, and that’s the kind of leadership we need right now.”

“So, we get in the air and practice aerial tactics with the phoenixes,” I said, tilting my head in thought. “Their fire is very different from mine. While I can shoot flames out in large bouts, they have a much shorter range.”

“We can still use it as a weapon,” Zakat assured me with a smirk. “We just have to get closer than a dragon would.”

“So you, what?” I asked, my brows furrowing. “Get right up to whatever you want to set on fire?”

“Pretty much. We can also take out someone while we’re on fire ourselves.” Zakat shrugged a shoulder casually. I was beginning to see what Altan meant about his reckless attitude.

“That’s not always a great idea, considering we have to barrel into our target for that method to be effective. But when we want to target our fire, we need to take the time to set ourselves fully aflame before we can, essentially, inhale that fire.” Altan stepped in to explain, narrowing his eyes at Zakat, who just continued to smirk back at him with a raised eyebrow. “Once we have, we can then blow it outwards. But like you said, it’s a much shorter range than a dragon’s fire.

I nodded thoughtfully, noticing Titan was watching me. Evaluating me.

I knew he cared about my sister in addition to Calix, who seemed to be like a son of sorts to him. With their mating, it made sense that he wanted to ensure I was up to the task before us. Day and Night were now inextricably entwined in a way no two kingdoms had ever been before.

“Our fire is more easily targeted,” I began, thinking through the options before us. “So we can keep the dragons on task, and the phoenixes can provide distraction and chaos.” I began to smile as the plan came together in my mind.

Titan nodded firmly with a small smile on his face. “It’s a good plan. Much like we’ve been doing for years, attacking to hide our true motives. We were getting humans out while using darkness, fire, and steel to distract and distort what everyone thought they were seeing.”

“Alright!” I clapped my hands with a nod. “Altan, Zakat, I want you two up in the air with me. We’ll fly out over the ocean and do a few maneuvers to test this out.”

“Tartarus yeah, here we go!” Zakat cheered, already making his way out of the crowd to find a place to shift.

Altan sighed long sufferingly, but I noticed he followed quickly after him. I looked to Titan, who had a thoughtful look on his face.

“While you wrangle those two, I’ll start working on getting our forces here to train together. Merging the two armies into a working force and moving as one is going to take some time.” He rubbed his chin, looking out over the sea of soldiers.

“We can each take a group,” Lilith suggested. She tended to be the quietest one of Calix’s group, but whenever she did speak, she always had something worthwhile to contribute. “Baach, Eryx, Harpina, you, and myself. Along with Arien and any he can recommend from Day’s forces. If we all take a group of combined soldiers from both kingdoms, we can begin getting them used to working together.”

“Good idea.” Titan nodded approvingly. “We should also begin working the humans from Day in.”

“You don’t think getting the two kingdoms to work together is going to be hard enough?” I asked him warily.

He scoffed a laugh, “Of course it will. But war is never easy. We’ll only have more challenging times ahead. Getting them all used to each other now can prevent a catastrophe down the line because they couldn’t work together. Besides, we already have humans in our army. It’s Day’s humans who will be new to the party here, and your soldiers who will struggle the most. So they’ll need your leadership to show them the way.”

I had no argument with that, but I still worried about how the humans would fit into our dynamics. Night’s Fae and humans may be used to working alongside one another, but Day’s population only had that one battle under our belt. And their participation had been spontaneous.

This was something else entirely.

But for now, I made my way to where Altan and Zakat had gone to shift, finding a yellow and teal phoenix and an orange and teal one waiting for me, circling above the clearing they’d found. I shifted, golden scales rippling out and over my body as I flew up into the air.

I loved flying, being able to spread my wings and head out over the ocean, allowing me to clear my head and leave behind all the worries this war brought with it.

I’d spent my life preparing for a battle against my father, and instead found myself preparing for a war where the entire continent was being torn in half.

The balance was tipping precariously, now. Every move made shifted us further toward chaos. And yet there was no way to fix it but to push through.

Chaos bred to fix chaos—it was a paradox, but I knew of no other way to fix it. Calix had clearly spent years trying to figure it out and had come up against the same issue time and again.

Magic was already slowly fading from our lands. Reports we received spoke of Dusk’s flora and fauna beginning to wither, and I feared when the chaos would spread further.

How long until it hits Day? Or Night?

How long did we truly have to fix the balance, before chaos reigned completely?

What would we even do if chaos stole away everything we are?

* * *

A long day of training had left most around the camp lethargic. Some were lying down on the grass, arms spread as they relaxed their weary muscles. Others sat around campfires, talking and drinking.

I had to admit it was surprisingly nice to see Fae and humans all sitting together and getting along.

It was less nice when Soren came and plopped himself down on the log next to me. He grunted a greeting before staring into the fire with a morose glare.

I rolled my eyes discreetly. I didn’t think I’d ever like this kid. And his first words only proved my point.

“Do you really think Calix is good for Asteria?” Soren asked, elbows on his knees as he turned his head to me.

“Yes,” I responded dryly, taking a swig of my drink, wishing I could escape this conversation. I didn’t like thinking of my twin and her relationship, as much as I could acknowledge he was good for her. It was just awkward to think about as a protective brother.

“But he’s a brute!” Soren argued, shaking his head. “Asteria deserves someone who would treat her like a princess.”

I looked at him incredulously. “Didn’t you grow up with her? You should know her better than that.”

“But she doesn’t need to be that way anymore! She’s royalty!” His brows furrowed, like he was genuinely confused.

“Soren.” I turned to look at him seriously. “This is why he’s good for her. Because he understands her. He lets her be whoever she wants to be. And he loves her for it. You want her to fit the image you have of her. That’s not love. That’s Fae allure that’s gotten to you good.” I snorted, shaking my head.

“Fae allure?” he asked, head tilted to the side, even as his mouth set mutinously at my words.

“It happens sometimes. Humans who spend too much time with a Fae find themselves starry-eyed and spellbound. It’s a result of the magic we put off. Even Asteria, whose magic was smothered, would have had that allure. It’s a natural part of being a creature with magic; it radiates off us. You spent a lot of time with Asteria, and the magic probably caught you and reeled you right in.”

“No. No ,” he protested as he shook his head, copper hair flying. “I love her. It’s not magic.”

“If you say so.” I took another swig, hoping he would go away.

“You know, talking about her like she’s a possession you have to win, or like she’s a damsel who needs to be saved, is really not doing you any favors.” A voice from behind said.

I turned to see Harpina, her bright red hair was now down in big waves that shined in the light of the fire, her arms crossed as she glared at Soren. My mouth tipped up into a smile I tried to hide in my drink.

“What?” Soren asked, visibly confused.

She scoffed, moving to sit herself down between us, her arm brushing mine and making goosebumps erupt along my skin. “You think of Asteria like a doll. ‘ Oh, she needs to be saved from Cyrus, she needs to be saved from Calix. ’”

Her mocking tone had me snorting out a laugh against my permission. She sent me a quick wink, smirking before she schooled her expression to face Soren once more.

“She did need to be saved from Cyrus!” Soren threw his hands up in exasperation. I almost felt bad for the kid. He truly just didn’t get it. He seemed so young still. It was hard to believe he was the same age as Asteria and me. Her comprehension was so far beyond his.

I didn’t get what she ever saw in him, honestly—beyond a pretty face, at least. One couldn’t deny he was good-looking for a human, but he wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen a million times before.

“Yeah, but you wanted to be her savior. Calix recognizes that Asteria may need help sometimes, but he’s content to step back and let her handle herself otherwise,” Harpina insisted, raising a brow. “He knows she doesn’t need a savior. This is the girl who risked her life spying on the crown prince of Dusk Kingdom just to try to find even a slim hope of a chance for escape. Asteria is a fucking queen . Maybe try showing her the respect of one.”

With that, she turned her body to face me, dismissing Soren where he sat with a shocked, open-mouthed expression. She crossed her right leg over her left, leaning toward me with her elbow resting on her knee. She raised a brow, amber eyes flashing as she tilted her lips up in a sultry smirk. “Hey there, sunshine.”

I raised a brow back at her, unable to stop myself from matching her smirk. “Hey there, kitty-cat.”

She laughed, tilting her head back slightly in a way that exposed her pale throat. From seeing her shift in training earlier, it was all too easy to see the grace of her cat-like form in her movements now. “How goes the transition from courtly prince to rebel?”

I scoffed a laugh. “I’ve always planned to rebel against my father, so I guess it feels pretty natural.”

“Hmm.” She hummed, looking me over blatantly. “I suppose that’s true. Still, I’m surprised how well you’ve taken to this.”

“And why’s that?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.

“Your mother was also planning to overthrow your father, and she doesn’t seem nearly as pleased with the rest of it.” Harpina countered, and I realized what she was doing.

“Ah.” I nodded my head. “So you think something must be up, and decided to flirt with me to get me to let my defenses down and spill the truth.”

She looked a bit chagrined, wincing slightly, before admitting. “Well, I wanted to flirt with you anyway. Watching you fighting with your sunlight earlier was quite the sight. This just seemed like a good excuse.”

I couldn’t help the smile that slowly tilted my lips upward.