Court of Aether and Shadows (Crowned Monster Trilogy #1)

32. I’m Trusting You With My Starlight

I’m Trusting You With My Starlight

~ A ETHERON~

Our powers clashed like opposing storms as we descended into the private corridors beneath the academy.

Helios's celestial energy kept trying to overpower my shadows, while my darkness seemed determined to swallow his light.

Just like old times.

"Your interest in my wife's education is touching," I said dryly as we navigated the ancient tunnels. "Though one might question the necessity of your constant supervision in every single class."

Helios's perfect features tightened slightly, his iridescent robes rippling with irritation.

"She's not just your wife, Aetheron.” Unlike the Elders and Professors, Helios wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t see or feel what was obvious to many of us. That Sparrow is most definitely the reincarnation of Liarel. My wife…and Queen. “Or have you forgotten the prophecies that speak of her importance to all courts?"

"Interesting how those prophecies suddenly matter now that she's returned," I countered, my shadows coiling defensively. "The Council certainly didn't seem concerned with them when they tried to deny her admission."

The air between us crackled with centuries of complicated history. Our footsteps echoed through the underground passage, marking time like heartbeats in the tense silence.

"I know what you're doing," Helios finally said, his voice carrying harmonics of accusation. "Watching from the shadows, pulling strings from a distance. Always the puppet master, aren't you?"

I had to suppress a laugh at his assessment.

"Actually, I'm trying to give her space."

The admission seemed to surprise him.

"She needs to find her own way here. Discover her strength without me hovering over her like some possessive shadow."

"How... unexpectedly mature of you," Helios muttered, though I caught the slight approval in his tone.

The tunnel widened into a chamber filled with ancient magic, our powers creating aurora-like displays as they continued their eternal dance of opposition. I leaned against a wall, watching the light show with thoughtful eyes.

"She's not just Liarel reborn," I said quietly. "Sparrow has her own fire, her own destiny. Suffocating her with protection and expectations would only drive her away...something you might want to consider before scheduling yourself as her constant companion."

Helios's perfect features showed a flicker of something — understanding, perhaps, or memory.

"You think I don't know that? That I can't see how different she is? How much stronger she is at such an early stage of adaptation?"

Our elements swirled between us, creating patterns that spoke of shared history and complicated futures.

“I could protect her from afar, watch over her progress through subtle means. Let her bloom in her own time, in her own way, but there’s too much at risk. Far more at stack this time around.”

"She already has four wolves circling her," I continued, watching how Helios's celestial energy flickered at the mention. "Not to mention whatever...connection you're developing."

"Jealous?" Helios asked though the usual bite was missing from his tone.

Instead, he sounded almost...thoughtful.

"Concerned," I corrected, my shadows dancing thoughtfully around us. "The Council may have given us a month, but we both know they're hoping she'll fail. That all these powerful women will fail. And now with the wolves' bond growing stronger..."

"You're worried about her Omega cycles," Helios finished, surprising me with his insight. "That's part of why you're keeping your distance. You know what happens when an Omega of her power level enters her first phase."

Her first heat…

The air grew thick with shared understanding. We'd both seen what could happen when powerful Omegas came into their full nature. Add in multiple court wolves and ancient magic...

"The academy could quite literally explode," I acknowledged. "Which is why I'm trusting you, despite our...history, to help guide her through this. To teach her control before her power overwhelms her."

Helios studied me for a long moment, his iridescent eyes unreadable.

"You've changed, Lord of Twilight and Shadows,” he taunted, but there’s no bite to it. “The Aetheron I knew would never have admitted to trusting me with anything, let alone his mate's safety."

"Perhaps we've both changed," I replied, watching our powers create impossible patterns in the air between us. "Time has a way of shifting perspectives."

"Your role in this," I said carefully, measuring each word, "goes beyond just teaching her magical control. She needs to understand her Omega nature before it overwhelms her. And since I can't be constantly present without stifling her growth..."

"You want me to guide her through that aspect as well," Helios finished, his celestial energy pulsing with understanding. "Though I notice you're entrusting this to me rather than the wolves."

"The wolves are part of her journey, yes, but they're also affected by her cycles. They'll be more of a hindrance than help when her first phase hits." My shadows curled thoughtfully. "Besides, you have...experience with Omega training."

Helios's perfect features softened slightly with old memories.

"Yes, well, that was a different time. A different Omega."

"But the principles remain the same," I pressed. "She needs time to process everything that's happened. To accept this world on her terms, not just because I'm pushing her toward it. She needs to choose this realm, this life, for herself."

"Like Liarel did," Helios murmured, then caught himself. "Though as you said, Sparrow is her own person. With her unique way of handling things."

"She's spent years surviving in a world that forced her to hide her strength. Now she needs space to discover what that strength truly means." I watched our powers continue their eternal dance. "Without me hovering in every shadow, without the weight of my expectations coloring her choices."

"So instead you're asking me to hover?" Helios's lips curved in slight amusement, repeating it yet again as if he still couldn’t believe I was allowing this.

The old possessive me wouldn’t dare let him go near her for a long time. I guess I have to further elaborate and accentuate what I’m allowing him to do without me necessarily interfering.

"I'm asking you to teach her. To help her understand and control what she's becoming." I met his iridescent gaze steadily. "And yes, to watch over her when I cannot. Though perhaps with slightly less... intensity than you're currently planning, with romantic interest in mind.”

"Romantic interest? Please," Helios scoffed, though something in his harmonious voice wavered slightly. "Your paranoia is showing, Twilight Lord."

I moved deliberately, each step closing the distance between us until we stood face to face in the narrow stairwell. Our powers sparked and clashed where they met, yet beneath the opposition, there was an undeniable pull — a yearning for unity that centuries apart hadn't managed to erase.

"Paranoia?" I murmured, watching how his perfect features tightened as our energies intertwined. "Or observation? ”

He doesn’t reply, encouraging our intense gaze to further build dangerously.

“I've seen how you look at her, Helios. The same way you used to look at..."

The air grew thick with unspoken history, making it difficult to breathe in the confined space. Our elements betrayed us, shadows and celestial light dancing together in patterns that spoke of ancient intimacy, of power shared and passion remembered.

"Don't," Helios warned, though he made no move to step back. His iridescent robes brushed against my shadows, creating sparks of energy that made both of us tense. "That was a different time. A different..."

"A different us?" I finished, noting how his pupils dilated as our powers continued their intimate dance. The stairwell felt smaller by the second, charged with tension that had nothing to do with rivalry and everything to do with suppressed desire.

We stood there, balanced on the knife's edge of propriety, both acknowledging the electricity between us while fighting against its pull. History and heat tangled in the air around us, making it impossible to tell where shadow ended and light began.

I leaned in until our lips were a breath apart, feeling how Helios's celestial energy pulsed in response.

"You haven't forgotten," I murmured, my shadows caressing his light. "The way we were before the world decided to dictate what love should look like."

Memories flooded between us, as potent as our mingling powers.

Centuries ago, when boundaries between courts were less rigid Helios and I had found something profound in our supposed opposition. Dawn meetings in secret gardens, where shadow and light created something beautiful rather than battling for dominance.

"Those moments between night and day," I continued, watching his perfect composure waver. "When the world slept and we could simply...be. No courts, no traditions, no expectations. Just us."

The stairwell crackled with ancient desire as I remembered how alive those days had made me feel. Helios had been the golden son of the Aether Court, with all proper manners and perfect control.

And I...well, I had always enjoyed corrupting perfection.

"I was already developing quite the reputation," I mused, our powers dancing together like eager lovers. "The shadow prince who delighted in breaking rules. And you..." My voice dropped lower, heavy with memory. "You pretended to resist, but we both know how much you craved the darkness."

Helios's breath hitched slightly, his iridescent robes shimmering with barely contained emotion.

"It was different then. We were different."

"Were we? Or were we just brave enough to defy their precious traditions?" The space between us felt charged with possibilities, with roads not taken. "Even after Liarel chose me, even after they forced us apart...that connection never truly faded, did it?"

Our elements seemed determined to prove my point; shadow and aether weaving together in patterns that spoke of passion barely contained. We had been magnificent together, the three of us, before the Council's threats had forced us to choose convention over conviction.

"The forbidden prince of shadows," Helios breathed, his voice carrying harmonics of remembered desire. "Always pushing boundaries, always testing limits. You made me question everything I'd been taught to believe."

"And you," I replied, "made me want to be worthy of questioning."

Those iridescent eyes held me captive, just as they always had.

Like captured auroras swirling with celestial fire, they shifted through impossible colors — gold to silver, azure to amethyst, each shade carrying centuries of complicated history between us.

I remembered how those same eyes had once looked at me with such warmth, such desperate wanting, in those stolen moments between shadow and light.

The hatred that had replaced that warmth after Liarel's choice still haunted me.

The way Helios's perfect features would freeze, his eyes turning cold as winter stars whenever our paths crossed. That dismissive glare had cut deeper than any blade because I knew – we both knew – it was masking pain rather than true hatred.

"I don't regret choosing her," I said softly, watching emotions flicker through those mesmerizing eyes. "But I regret that we weren't brave enough to fight for something more. That we let their fears dictate our happiness."

My shadows curled around his celestial energy, recreating ancient dances.

"We could have found another way. Could have created something new, something that didn't fit their narrow view of what love should look like. Instead..."

"Instead we chose safety over possibility," Helios finished, his voice carrying harmonics of old pain. "Tried to please a world that was determined to reject us regardless of our choices."

The irony wasn't lost on me — how we'd ended up conforming to exactly what the Council wanted, despite our reputations for defiance. The shadow prince and the light lord, forced into separate corners of existence when we could have blazed a trail for others to follow.

Our elements had become almost desperate in their dance, shadows and celestial light weaving together with an intensity that made the very air vibrate. Where our powers touched, they created patterns of such beauty it almost hurt to look at them — like watching galaxies birth and die in endless cycles.

The narrow stairwell could barely contain the energy between us, ancient magic responding to even older desires.

I'd always been the one in control, the dominant force in any relationship.

My reputation as the shadow prince who bent others to his will was well-earned. But Liarel... she had been different. Her fire, her strength had made me want to yield, to let her take the lead.

I had found freedom in that submission, in letting her wild spirit guide us both.

Now, watching Helios's perfect features painted in the light of our mingling powers, I recognized the choice before us. The same choice we'd faced centuries ago, but perhaps with wisdom earned through pain and time.

With deliberate slowness, I pulled back, letting my shadows reluctantly disentangle from his light. The separation felt almost physical, like tearing apart something that was meant to be whole.

But this wasn't my decision to make – not this time.

"The position has always been open," I said softly, watching how his iridescent robes still reached for my shadows despite our increased distance. "Even after everything, even after all these years. Liarel knew it. Just as Sparrow will come to understand it."

His eyes, those impossible pools of shifting color, widened slightly at the implication. The possibility of 'us' hung in the air between us, made more complex by the idea of Sparrow's presence, by the way, both our powers seemed to recognize something within her that echoed our past.

"It's your choice now," I continued, taking another step back. "The Council's threats hold less power in this age. The old prejudices are weakening. The question is whether you're finally ready to defy their precious traditions."

The stairwell seemed to pulse with the weight of unspoken possibilities.

My shadows curled around me, though they still reached tentatively toward his light, unwilling to completely break the connection.

"I'll be seeing you around, old friend," I said with humming power, allowing a small smile to curve my lips. "After all, we both have a vested interest in watching over our Starlight."

The possessive pronoun was deliberate — 'our' rather than 'my' — and I saw the impact of it register in those celestial eyes.

Without waiting for a response, I turned and descended the stairs, my shadows trailing behind me like memories of what could have been — and what might still be.

The choice was his now.

Just as it had always been his, beneath all the Council's threats and societal pressures. I had laid my cards on the table and opened the door to possibilities we'd once thought forever closed.

The real question was whether the perfect Lord of Aether was finally ready to embrace imperfection, to choose happiness over tradition.

Only time will tell.