Crown of Flames and Ash (Courts of Aetheria #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

R eign

Noxus, what had I done?

Pure hatred emanated from Aelia’s gaze, those twin pools of silvery-blue glaring up at me. The wind lashed strands of platinum hair across her face as she balanced upon Solanthus’s jagged spine. Her skyrider hovered only a few yards away from the slate dragon and my gods’ damned brother. Pain like I’d never experienced scorched through my chest, slicing into my heart at that look. She would never forgive me for this betrayal. I could feel it with every shred of my being. Her fury pulsed around her form like a sentient creature, white-hot and frantic. Why the realms hadn’t I admitted the truth when I’d had the chance?

I never meant for her to find out like this. I had hoped to protect her from all of it. Hoped to sort things out with my father before she would ever need to hear about any of it—and then I could have told her everything.

The battle raged around us, a steady drumbeat of flapping wings, along with the clash of nox and rais filling the air with heady power. Screams, cries, weapons clashing, all of it blurred in the distance over the manic timbre of my pulse.

“Aelia, please…” I reached for her, but she recoiled, the reaction another stab to the heart. She staggered farther back along the sharp ridges of Solanthus’s backbone and fear wrenched my gut in a vice. “Be careful?—”

“You lied to me for months ,” she hissed.

“I lied to everyone.”

“I don’t care about everyone, Reign. You lied to me !” She clenched her teeth, swallowing down a sob, and my gut clenched in return, her pain creating a visceral reaction in my body. “I trusted you, I fell?—”

“Please, let me explain.” I crept closer, but her hand flew up, fingertips glistening in golden light.

“Stay. Away. From me.”

A dark chuckle resonated over my shoulder, and the all-consuming desperation, the pain, the fear, the regret, all of it morphed into fury. Fucking, Ruhl. This was all his fault. I spun around, rage blossoming in my chest. I felt it as the silver cuffs reacted, searing my skin as my nox rose, fueling the burgeoning wrath.

He sat astride his dragon, a smug grin across his face. “Did you really think you could keep the truth from her, brother?” Ruhl’s smirk only further fired up my temper.

“Shut your mouth,” I snarled. “You know nothing about her, and worse, nothing about me.”

“I’m truly hurt, Reign.” He lifted his hand to his heart. “Despite our differences, all my life I’ve looked up to you. Dom, too. This forced time apart has been awful for all of us.” His dark gaze lifted over my shoulder to Aelia, and I widened my stance, my shadow wings unfurling, hoping to shield her from his hostile scrutiny. “So, is she the one Father has been searching for? We’ve all heard about the powerless Kin who destroyed the Luminous Maze. Arcanum has been abuzz with rumors. Of course, they don’t know?—”

“No!” I snapped. “She is not the one.”

“But she clearly means something to you.” His dark brow arched.

I lifted my arms and pushed back my sleeves. “She’s my freedom from these damned manacles.”

“Oh, is that it?”

“Yes,” I hissed, even as I prayed Aelia would understand it to be a ruse.

“So I shouldn’t tell Father the good news?—”

“No! She is not the child spoken of in the prophecy, Ruhl.”

I could feel Aelia inching closer, her soft footfalls gliding across Sol’s back. I released a shadow and guided it toward her ear. “I know I don’t deserve it, but please, just trust me one last time, princess. Once this is over, I will tell you everything and you can despise me as I deserve, but I will not let you die today. And if my brother learns the truth, he will kill you.”

A faint grunt reached my sensitive ears before her quiet steps fell away. I heaved out a breath, focusing my attention on my ruthless sibling. “If I wasn’t bound by these damned manacles, I would have full access to my powers. You have no idea the torture I’ve endured with my nox bottled up. I would do anything to get these off.”

“It certainly seems that way. A second ago, I was certain you’d attack your own flesh and blood.”

“It’s the buildup of nox , Ruhl. It’s driving me mad.”

“Hmm.” He rubbed his chin, a mischievous gaze lighting up his pitch orbs. He clearly was not buying my bullshit. Ruhl may have been many things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.

“Now, let’s finish this battle so we can all go home.” I motioned to the ensuing chaos still unfolding around us. My brother wasn’t wrong before. Arcanum had clearly won the battle today. The Light forces were petering out and barely any Conservatory skyriders remained midair.

Draven would have to retreat with his tail between his legs or suffer the loss of the majority of the first-year class.

“Go claim your victory, brother,” I shouted. And leave Aelia the fuck alone .

His eyes darted over my shoulder once again before his gaze settled on me. “Are you at least bedding the girl? You must be getting something out of this…”

I could feel Aelia bristle behind me. “For the love of Noxus, now is not the time, Ruhl,” I snapped.

“You know, bringing the mysterious Kin back to Arcanum would score me maximum points with Malakar.”

“You know very well kidnapping Conservatory students is not permitted in the first-term battle.” As the years continued, anything became fair game, as I recalled.

“And I’m sure you remember, I’m not much of a rule-follower. And besides, Malakar is just unhinged enough to allow it. I’d say he might even reward me for it.”

He likely wasn’t wrong there. “Maybe… But, if you choose to try and take her, just know you’ll have to go through me first.” My shadows whirled into a frenzy, nox brimming to the surface. Darkness slithered over my skin, the respite from the gods’ forsaken sun only strengthening my reserves. I’d always been stronger than my brother, and he knew it just as well as I.

“All that simply to get those pretty little bangles off?” He cocked his head as he regarded me.

“Yes,” I snarled. “The Kin’s life means my freedom.” In more ways than even I could comprehend.

Ruhl loosed a breath and shook his head. “Fine, fine. I’ll simply have to find some other first-year to drag back to the Citadel.”

“No!” Aelia barreled by me, and I barely got a shadow around her waist before she launched herself at my brother, her hands splayed and flames flickering from her palms.

“Behave,” I hissed as my shadows spun tighter around her.

She still clasped the dagger in her fist, the crystal gleaming beneath the faint light. Hopefully, Ruhl didn’t catch the delicate glint. Aelia struggled and groaned as my shadows twisted around her body. She could easily slice at the dark tendrils to free herself, but I prayed to all the gods she wouldn’t.

A sharp horn blared across the smoky mid-air battlefield, and the vicious snarls and pitiful moans and cries fell away. The darkness pervading the campus began to lift as the Shadow skyriders turned toward the Luminoc River. Streaks of brilliant light crisscrossed the Conservatory as light once again attempted to reign supreme.

“I suppose you lucked out this time, Kin.” Ruhl’s narrowed glare lanced over Aelia, and every muscle in my body coiled in response, ready to strike.

A disturbing certainty flickered through my mind: I would kill my own brother for her.

And he would deserve it . Phantom’s voice invaded my consciousness, her familiar timbre a soothing balm to the turmoil.

Don’t you think that’s a bit harsh, old girl ? I scanned the horizon for her sleek, obsidian form. She hovered just above the Alucian Mountains, slowly circling. Bringing her here today was a huge risk, but losing Aelia was a greater one, still.

Phantom huffed. Not at all. It is natural for Fae males to go to any lengths to protect their ?—

Don’t say it .

Just because you forbid me to say it doesn’t make it untrue. You will have to accept it eventually.

Perhaps you missed the last few minutes of the exchange with Ruhl? Aelia will never accept the call now.

Maybe, or maybe not .

The connection between us cut off, and I focused my attention to my brother. He still stared at the furious female glaring up at him. Her aura was a fiery mix of ochre, magenta and crimson, like the radiant dawn itself.

“I look forward to meeting you again, Aelia Ravenwood.” Ruhl dipped his head, a snide smirk tugging at his lips. “My brother is right, though, for, now, I must claim my victory.” He paused and dark shadows coiled around his dragon. “Strength from Darkness, Power through Pain, Arcanum Citadel has won the day.”

The slate dragon’s wings beat the air, propelling them into the smoky blue. The moment he ascended, the tightness in my chest began to dissipate. I heaved in a breath and recalled the shadows keeping Aelia prisoner.

The instant she was freed, she whirled on me. “I hate you.”

“As well you should, princess.”

“Stop calling me that,” she hissed. “We are not friends, you are not my mentor, you are not my anything .”

“I wish that were true,” I murmured under my breath. My life was a thousand times less complicated before this female fell into my orbit. I wished I could simply forget her, but I knew in my soul I never could. She’d already ingrained herself deep into my marrow, and I couldn’t carve her out if I tried. As if I wanted to…

Aelia slipped by me and dropped to sit between her dragon’s wing bones. “Take us down, Sol,” she commanded. “I cannot suffer another moment in his presence.”

Her skyrider angled his wings toward the ground, and his bumpy spine fell away from beneath my boots. My own wings of shadow began to flap, saving me from a painful freefall. I floated in the air for a long minute, watching as Sol’s glittering scales zipped toward the ground.

Aelia never looked back. Not once.