Page 48 of What Whispers in the Dark (Promises of the Marked)

She’d read the stories of Elysian’s creation but never believed a Celestial’s love formed the land.

Her beliefs took on a quality of skepticism, suspecting more of what Garrik thought true than anything else.

Love could apparently create incredible things …

but hate and wrath … she understood those moved more than just mountains. Hate could do so much worse.

“The last time we were in a tavern,” she warned and crossed her arms over her chest, “Garrik nearly handed us our asses.”

Aiden grinned, dropping the tankard back on the wood and cursing when the metal handle fell off, clanging on the table. “We’re not going in , love.” He fumbled with the handle, decidedly giving up when it wouldn’t stay on. “Not yet, anyways.” And gestured with his chin upward.

Jade bunched her brows and followed his inclination. With a quick roll of her eyes and a grunt of illusioned disapproval, she uncrossed her arms and followed him beside the building before climbing the crumbling stones.

It hadn’t been raining at the castle.

And sitting there on that tavern roof was going to have her melting into a mess of tears in a matter of seconds if Aiden hadn’t distracted her with a ramble about how overly cooked the boar was at dinner that evening.

How he thought it a crime against faemanity and humanity that the castle chefs couldn’t produce a honey glaze adequately, but she didn’t question it as she closed her eyes and took in every pebble of frigid rain against her face.

She loved rain. Though love didn’t seem like a strong enough word.

Growing up in tunnels, the only rain she had ever witnessed was inside killing arenas above ground.

And that was rare, considering her kingdom was one where it hardly rained.

Otherwise, she’d only felt a droplet of liquid falling on her skin when it dripped from the sharp cone formations on the Underground’s rocky ceiling.

Or when hot droplets of blood splattered her face in the arena.

She much preferred this. The droplets like tiny sighs of relief against her skin. Each one ran down her cheeks and neck and washed away the tightness in her chest.

Her eyes must have been closed for some time because when she noticed only the sound of the rain filling the stormy night did her eyes open to find Aiden’s head slanted toward his chest. His fingers mindlessly picked at a loose thread on his folded, buckled boot.

A muscle flexed in his cheek. “It was him again, wasn’t it?”

There it was. The question she’d dreaded since the garden. She had hoped he’d forgotten about it after all this time.

To whom he referred to, she couldn’t determine. Of the many hims in her lifetime, only a few haunted her nights.

Jade pulled her knees to her chest. Toweling her arms around her legs. She closed her eyes but immediately opened them when that memory—that nightmare—threatened to return.

And instead of striking the weapon that was her rage at the nightmare, Jade unleashed it on him.

“ Why ?” Why did he care? Why did he bring her up here?

Why stick around when she was always … so awful to him?

Awful to everyone . Why did they give her a chance?

Allow her to stay? So, she asked him, with fire and shame and pain and all, “Why do you fucking care?”

Warmth bloomed in his gaze. Aiden tipped her chin upward with his knuckle, bringing her eyes to the shale color of his. “Do I need a reason beyond the fact that I simply do ?”

Her glare could have set Elysian aflame.

Aiden sighed and searched the stars as if they held the words he struggled to form.

With a shake of his head, he turned to her.

“Know there is nothing you could have done or need to do to earn my care for you. But if you need a reason, then I will give you this one.” His knuckle remained steady so she could see the truth lying there.

“To all the realms, I am just some unwanted annoyance. A once black-hearted plunderer who cared not for those I stole from.” His eyes softened. “But when I met you?—”

“Oh, please. I’m going to throw myself off this roof if you tell me you love?—”

“No, listen. ” There was no room for arguing in his tone.

Jade huffed at this most uncomfortable turn of roles, his absurdity and authority all the same, but unwillingly humored him.

“But when I met you, I had such a gaping hole in my heart. I lost a piece of myself with losing Kallias.” Aiden mournfully scrunched his face at the mention of his twin sister, Aleyna’s late husband.

His eyes went glassy. “I’m not saying he resurrected in you, only that you reminded me so much of him…

Like my best mate once again stood and lived and breathed in front of me, and you mended my grief by simply existing in my life.

Of reminding me and Aleyna there was one after his death.

“Hells, Jade. You could have been his twin. All attitude and giving no sailing-shits, allowing me to pester you to all-ends without ever making me feel lesser for the way I was created or the way my mind works… With you, I’m not just some idiot?—”

“You’re still an idiot.”

He smiled at that, seeing it for the lie it was, and went on, “You allow me to be me as he did. I’m not embarrassed to let my thoughts rule me.

To allow my mind to control my mouth. To watch as my hands make crazy gestures and forget what I was saying half the time.

I know when you call me a fool, I’m probably being one.

And for some reason, with you, I like it. ”

“You just enjoy tormenting me wholly.”

“Aye, love. I do. But … I think you need it, too.”

His torment? Why would she need …

She was silent as Aiden brushed his thumb over her lips as if in answer to a question she had never asked him. Silent as his words stirred around them, and she realized her mouth had curved upward. Smiling at him, half-hearted, but smiling nonetheless.

And the simple truth dawned on her as he traced her lips.

Before Aiden … she had never smiled, much less laughed. And she found herself doing both in moments he was around, no matter how much of a moron he was being.

Perhaps he was right … perhaps she did need him. Perhaps … she liked it.

Withdrawing his touch, Aiden was quiet as he changed course, “I knew the moment Deklen found you stowed away on my ship and you threatened to run me through if I didn’t depart with you, that you meant a great deal to me.

But I didn’t know exactly why. I didn’t see you as a helpless female—hells, you scared the shit out of me—but I…

” He shook his head. “You became much more than I ever imagined—to Aleyna, too. Much more than familial blood, like a cousin or whatever-the-hells, you weren’t just one of the crew, you became my family. ”

And Jade knew the depths Aiden would go for his family. Their pursuit of Soulstryker and existence in Elysian was proof.

She swallowed the emotion swelling inside her throat. At the truth in his words he didn’t speak, screaming in the silence of the rain.

Aiden said so plainly she couldn’t deny it, “I chose you.”

A breath escaped her, brutal and swift.

“I chose to carry your burdens and ease the pain from your world. I choose you. Every day.”

“But—”

He shook his head. “No matter how you feel, love. No matter what you throw at me. No matter how hard you try to push me away, I won’t allow you to do it.

” Something lethal lay there. Something like a promise no journey through time could break.

“You can get angry as much as you need—I won’t break.

I might need a healer’s bed from time to time,” he winked, “but I love you, Jade, as much as I love Aleyna. As much as I still love Kas.”

Warmth gripped her chest. Spread through her heart.

“So, tell me, love. Was it him again?”

Her lips quivered as a profound ache stabbed at that warm feeling in her chest. As difficult as it was, Jade finally admitted, “It was … it was all of them.” And looking into Aiden’s eyes, she wasn’t ashamed when the first tear slipped down her cheek.

She was always so resolute, so brave. Never allowing herself to fall into such a vulnerable position.

But with Aiden …

Aiden didn’t ask as he leaned close and pulled her into his arms, melting her into the warmth of his chest before those arms closed around her.

Through her tears, he patiently waited. Never asking her to explain. Never nudging her with questions to discuss the pain that sank its claws into her mind and tugged and tugged and tugged.

No, Aiden only held her. Stroking her shoulder over the meaningless bonded tattoo underneath her jacket and dark tunic. Giving her the space if she needed to fill it with her voice.

Aiden’s chest rumbled with a low tune. One he had led his crew into countless times over the years on his ship. One that calmed their nerves on stormy seas and guided crewmen to rest in the depths of the oceans when one of their brethren’s souls had departed whatever world they had sailed into.

That tune nearly guided her to sleep while his hands continued their gentle stroking. She almost hummed along with him, almost sang the words, but knew she couldn’t hold a tune and didn’t want to scare the rain away.

He entered that lovely, familiar chorus.

Repeated it when she assumed he’d transition into the very last verse, reflecting a melody reciting the end to a cross-ocean heist and a lass with silver hair and mesmerizing eyes who chased his ship across tides.

But instead of continuing into that verse, concluding with the lass tricking him out of his treasure—his heart beating to her name—he repeated the chorus.

Over and over and over, as if captured by the words that he should have never given his heart away.

Maybe not a song whose lyrics calmed most, but the hauntingly beautiful melody was more than enough to steady unsettled tides within a faerie’s soul. And without the words sung aloud, most wouldn’t know it was a song of deep heartache and eternal regret.

She’d never asked, but often wondered if he’d composed it.

“Do you ever miss it?” She paused and watched rain trickle like paths down a mountain, flickering off the corner of the roof to the street below. “The adventure. The thrill of the chase.”

The humming stopped. Aiden was silent—unlike himself.

Jade twisted in his arm, meeting the empty stare of his eyes. “Aiden?”

His sigh was devastating. “I miss…” That too was unlike him.

A male of far too many words reduced to …

whatever this was. She’d rarely , even in such hopeless circumstances, seen him without a smile.

Jade would’ve been worried if not for him continuing.

“Aleyna. And … others.” His lips trembled, chin dropping to his chest.

Though she’d never met him, Jade couldn’t help but think of Kas again .

“She thinks I abandoned her.”

“No,” Jade quickly growled. She wouldn’t let him do that. Wouldn’t let him take the blame for a fucking island sinking his ship and killing his skeleton crew. For stranding them on Elysian. “You always come back. Always. You find a way—every damn way—no matter the cost. She knows that.”

Again, silence. Again, Jade studied his empty, downcast eyes.

“ Not her,” he breathed as he lifted his head, appearing realms away.

She hated that look, but only asked, “What?”

Tiny padding of feet squelched the mud below, drawing their attention to the closed shops across the street. A silver-furred cat leapt onto a pile of rickety wooden crates. Slipped inside one soon after.

Aiden seemed drawn to it as he muttered in the distance between, “It doesn’t matter.”

Nothing but the rain filled the silence. Nothing but her thoughts as Aiden resumed his gentle stroking on her arm. And she couldn’t help wondering … he’d brought her out there but hadn’t realized he needed this too.

After a while, far-off thunder stirred Aiden enough that she expected him to stand and guide her back to the castle. Only when he removed one of his arms from around her did he slip his fingers into his pocket, producing an ivory carving of some sort.

Jade squinted, cocked her head slightly. “The king?” A chess piece from Garrik’s bedchamber, stolen from the checkered game board on his bookshelf.

Not a trace of worry filled her pirate’s features as he opened his palm to her. The piece rolled along the wet underside of his fingers, bumping over each mound until it almost fell off the tips, but he caught it with a curl. He shrugged. “I thought you might want it.”

Had he seen the way she stared at it the day after they invaded Kadamar’s castle? When he was so thoroughly occupied with finding trinkets to fill his tent-ship of stolen treasures, he’d noticed her confused and enticed by it?

Jade lightly touched her fingertip to the crown. Lightly brushed along the rain-slicked curved surface. “I…”

Did she want it? Why had it gripped her so inside that room? Such a trivial little thing. Something of no importance, easily made by whittling wood or buying from a trading shop of forgotten belongings, just to fill a bored mind during an hour of strategy-filled entertainment.

She didn’t even know how to play the game. No one ever taught her. But Jade found herself wrapping her fingers around it, pulling it to her lap, and admitting, “I don’t know why.” Why she wanted it. But she did know there was something about it that indeed made her reach out and take it.

Akin to fatherly delight on Winter Solstice morning, Aiden’s cheeks swelled. It was almost as if he were the one to receive a gift. The exact look she’d glimpsed countless times when he’d secured whatever bounty the Cursed Sails crew had procured on their dangerously thrilling adventures.

Rain seeped down her neck and inside her jacket. Jade scanned the ivory chess piece one last time before she slipped it into the pocket over her heart inside and leaned her head on Aiden’s shoulder. Still, she didn’t know why that game piece felt so vital, but she whispered, “Thank you.”

For bringing her up there.

For letting her feel the rain.

For everything he had ever done, then and now.

Aiden kissed her hair. Tender and warm, as he said between the rain, “Always, love.”