Page 63 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

ARA

I stood in the mirror image of the cave I had just come from. With walls of crystal and stone, it looked nearly identical, but dimmer, colder, and—and Vaelor stood before me.

His grip tightened around my hand like he was afraid I might vanish before he pulled me forward. I hit his chest, and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, the other cradling my head.

I didn’t move for a few unsteady breaths, stunned. His heart hammered beneath my ear, loud and frantic— real. My breath hitched as I wound my arms around his torso, and he tightened his hold, laying his cheek on top of my head, the embrace so warm and genuine, it hurt.

“Not to be selfish, but I fear we don’t have much time,” a male said. A hand planted on my shoulder and tried to pull me from Vaelor, but I held on, shaking my head.

“Give us a minute, Father,” Vaelor muttered, his voice strained. “Let me hold my daughter.”

Father? My heart stopped, my eyes popping open. “Alden?”

A hand slapped the back of Vaelor’s head, and he burst into laughter. “You two are the most selfish, impatient?—”

Two? I swiveled and found a younger version of Alden, strikingly similar to Vaelor.

His hair was still long, but it deepened into the same brown as his son’s.

His eyes were bright silver, his skin nearly smooth, and he appeared to be the same age as the woman at his side.

With blonde hair and mismatched eyes—one blue, one green—I knew exactly who she must be.

Before I could say anything, Alden threw his arms around my shoulders, hugging me tight enough to cut off my air. I laughed—half laughed, half cried—but something deep in my soul calmed.

“You found her,” I whispered, my voice cracking.

“I found her,” he whispered back with a quick nod, then he held me at arm’s length, his hands on my shoulders. Seeing me fully, his smile faltered. “What…what did he do to you?” he whispered more to himself than anything, too low for the others to hear.

My cheeks burned, and I averted my gaze to Ara, who grinned and swatted Alden away. Taking my hands in hers, she brought them to her mouth and kissed the backs of them. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, love.”

I smiled, despite the ache of nostalgia. I longed for the family I never had, but Goddess above, I could imagine it. Vaelor, Mother, Alden, Ara… Would I have called them Grandfather and Grandmother? Grandpa and Grandma?

But this was all we would ever have: quick words across realms, fleeting memories, and what ifs.

“How did I get here? Why am I here?” My eyes widened, my throat dry. “How do I go back?”

“The pools,” Vaelor said. “You’re here because you need something, and you can leave as soon as you have it. We’re here because your soul called us here. So tell us, what is it you need, love?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t mean to come here. I was floating in the pool, and then I was being dragged under.”

My fingers encircled my wrist. There were no scars, but I’d seen my reflection. I knew what I looked like: a person in need of help. Three months underground in that freezing hell, every family member killed off one at a time like some sick game—would I be last? Was that my punishment?

I wiggled my toes. Cold.

My eyes dropped to my feet. Bare.

I backed away from the others, needing air, space, something, anything—socks. I needed socks. So many pairs of socks, and boots made of thick leather, and Rogue. Goddess, I needed Rogue more than anything. Where was he?

The realization hit me like a ton of bricks, knocking the breath from my lungs.

He wasn’t in this world.

No wonder it was cold and dark and wrong.

The cave walls closed in, my family members…my dead family members watching.

“Hey,” Vaelor whispered, “It’s all right.” He guided me to a large stone and motioned for me to sit. “You don’t have to say everything all at once. Just share what you can, as you can. Let us help lighten the load.”

Why would I come here? What did I need?

A dry, humorless laugh crawled up my throat, and I dropped my face to my hands. I needed so many things, none of which could be provided by…

I froze.

Dropping my hands, my wide eyes snapped to Vaelor, another storm bringer.

“I can pull Adonis’s magic from the minds of others, but not my own.

He took my memories. He took Rogue, and I don’t understand why.

Why not just kill us both?” He winced, as if physically struck.

“I need my memories back. Can you pull his magic from my head?”

“Oh, Ara,” Alden said, the pity in his voice making my heart sink to painful lows.

Vaelor’s expression deflated what little hope remained, his gaze heavy with an almost painful sympathy, his elbows resting on his knees and hands clasped.

“We have no magic here. I wish I could. You have no idea how badly I wish I could do at least that much for you, but I can’t. I’m… so sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.” I smiled weakly. “It’s not your fault.”

If not even the Vaelor Wrynwood could pull the magic from my head, then who could? Was I destined to spend the rest of my days chasing the ghosts of my past?

One ghost, to be exact.

Crushing disappointment sank in my chest like a stone dropped into a still pond, sending ripples through the rest of my body. My shoulders slumped, the air in my lungs heavier, my face falling to the floor.

“It’s not my fault, necessarily,” Vaelor said, “but I’m still sorry. I’m sorry for what he’s become.”

“He wasn’t like this before, was he?”

“Not at all. No, he was vastly different. He was just a kid. ” His eyes went distant. “I don’t understand what happened, what made him snap in this way.”

My blood ran cold, lips parting. Did he not know? Surely… Surely he knew.

“We can’t see everything from over here. It’s like when you’re alive. You can watch, but we can’t be everywhere all at once, and I didn’t see what happened or when…” He shook his head, staring straight through the opposite wall. “I didn’t see the moment he turned.”

I pulled my lips between my teeth, sinking back on the rock to pull my knees up and wrap my arms around them.

“Adonis is afraid of blood,” I whispered, my fingers probing my wrist again.

Condensation dripped from the ceiling, and I tensed when it hit my cheek.

Looking up, I found the culprit pointing straight down at my face.

The same stalactite hung, water trailing down one facet.

Swallowing hard, I wiped it from my cheek.

“He’s afraid of blood, because he bathed in your blood. ”

Vaelor went still as stone.

“What?” Alden and Ara asked simultaneously.

Alden crouched in front of me. “Say that again.”

“He was there,” I said. “I don’t know the details exactly…

but he helped Adrastus. I think he led him to Draig Hearth, to Vaelor.

I know he erased Mother’s memories, and I didn’t…

I haven’t pulled the magic from her head yet.

I don’t know if I should. I’m scared it’ll make the memories of that night fresh again, and I don’t want to hurt her. ”

“Leave it,” Vaelor said, his voice strained. “If it’ll grant her even the faintest hint of peace, leave it.”

If he still possessed magic, his irises would crackle with the fiercest storm. His expression, while tightly leashed, was one deep breath away from snapping, his lips pressed in a thin line, every muscle drawn taut.

“Fuck, that was what Drak tried to tell me all those years ago. ‘The betrayal came from within.’ ” Vaelor scoffed with a shake of his head.

“Not much good I could’ve done, even if I’d had the wits to decipher what he meant.

I arrived at the Sanctuary too late and found his…

his wings nailed to the walls of the house, scorched beyond recognition.

I thought it was Adrastus… It was Adrastus, but not just him, I suppose. ”

“The Sanctuary?” Alden asked. His eyes widened, then narrowed. “You… knew Adonis.”

“I refuse to believe Adon would help him. He wouldn’t. There’s no feasible way,” Vaelor continued, ignoring Alden. “We rescued the boy from the streets. Drak raised him, for Goddess’s sake. No, he was loyal as they came. I don’t?—”

“Adrastus was his father, no?” Ara placed her hand on Vaelor’s shoulder, her words gentle, her pale brows drawing together.

“In blood alone,” Vaelor said.

Ara sat beside Vaelor, taking his hand in hers. “Some ties are harder to break than you would think, love. The ties between parent and child can be the hardest of them all, and children… Well, their resilience manifests in many ways, their hope being one.”

“No, he knew what Adrastus had done, what he was capable of. Adon was a good kid.”

Ara patted his hand. “You don’t just suddenly stop loving someone because they’ve been cruel.

I have no doubt Adrastus took great pleasure in preying upon his abandoned son, because deep down, that child still lived in Adon, longing for the love that was never given, holding onto the hope that if he changed who he was, tried a little harder, waited a little longer, Adrustus would change too.

He’d be better. He’d love him. It doesn’t matter how many times some people are hurt; that hope remains like a slow-acting poison. ”

“No,” I cut in, surprising even myself. “It’s not an excuse.

Rogue lived with Adrastus—suffered him for decades, and he doesn’t ruin lives out of spite.

He doesn’t conquer kingdoms and tear apart families.

Adonis chose to do what he did. He still chooses.

He chose to torture me. He chose to cut Rogue’s wings off.

He chose to help Adrastus instead of the family who cared for him.

Everybody gets hurt. Not everybody hurts others in retaliation. ”