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

Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

A elia

The campus was quiet, an eerie stillness descending upon the sun-soaked land. It was early still and most of the students had yet to return from the term break. Once I’d landed upon Light Fae soil, it took me only moments to track down my former Shadow Fae professor. His distinctive aura called to me, that whirling darkness like a magnet yanking me into his all-consuming orbit.

Standing across the training field, I halted my rushed footsteps as I took him in at a safe distance for the first time in over a week. The withering sun kissed his bare shoulders, illuminating the beads of sweat across his torso as he arced his sword high above his head. Every dip and valley of his perfectly carved form glinted in the sunlight. Wild tumbles of dark hair fell across his brow, each strand exactly as I remembered it. I could practically feel it’s silky touch between my fingers. His full lips were pursed, scruffy jaw clenched into a hard line as he battled his own shadows, swinging the broadsword in mighty arcs.

Each nerve in my body lit up at the sight of him, happily humming at his mere presence. I gritted my teeth, forcing down the unwanted sensations . I am Aelia, carved of stone . I had hoped the time apart would dampen this strange connection between us, but it seemed to have the opposite effect.

Raysa, it was unfair how much I missed him.

As I stood there on the edge of the field, every muscle urged me forward. I could barely keep my feet from launching myself at him. Curling my twitchy fingers into fists, I reminded myself that not only had Reign lied to me about who he was, he’d also stolen one of my beloved daggers and altered my memories. Who knew what else he’d done?

A swirl of anger blossomed in my chest, and I clutched on to it for dear life as I marched toward him. He must have heard me as I stomped along the crisp grass, but he never spared me a glance. Instead, his shadows grew more furious, churning around his body like a tornado of pure night.

“Reign,” I growled as I stood just beyond the whipping strands of darkness.

He spun around, sword held high over his head. His mouth curved ever so slightly, and he drew in a breath, as if he were drinking me in. That dark gaze raked over me, those eyes more lethal than the wild shadows encircling his form.

Reign swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple jogging along the column of his throat. His eyes found mine and held me there, captive. “Aelia…”

It was unfair how a single word uttered from those lips could pierce my very soul; his voice wrapping around my name with the power to shatter me in one breath. It took everything I had not to falter, to suppress the overwhelming urge to spring into his arms. I knew it was what he wanted, I could feel it in his burning gaze.

At some point, I’d learned to read this enigmatic male. He may have lied to me for months, but this was real. Just as real as the fact that he was a prince, son of the King of the Umbral Court, and a masterful liar.

My hand skimmed the dagger at my thigh, and I clenched my fingers around the hilt. “Where is my other dagger?” I hissed.

The storm of shadows subsided, and the intensity of Reign’s gaze faltered. His lips parted, but not a sound came out.

I held onto the anger, the betrayal, focusing on it with all my might. “Where is it, Reign?”

His shoulders sagged, and a rush of air surged past his lips. “It’s safe,” he murmured.

“How could you?” I snarled. “You had no right to take it from me, to squirm your way into my thoughts and steal my memories!”

“I know…” His eyes dropped to the verdant grass between us. He paused as if counting every single blade. “Do you remember when it happened?” Those blazing pitch orbs lifted tentatively.

“No,” I snapped. “Aidan reminded me I was missing one when we went to practice this morning. If I hadn’t returned home, I never would have known. You had no intention of returning it to me, did you?”

Reign crept closer, and I took a step back. “I only did it to protect you?—”

“Stop!” I threw my hand up, and rais zipped through my veins, illuminating my fingertips. “I’m tired of the lies, Reign. I can’t .”

“They weren’t all lies, princess,” he whispered, the haunted look in his eyes tearing at my insides.

“It doesn’t matter. One enormous lie is enough to obliterate all the tiny truths.”

He held out his hand, and a shadow slithered from his fingertips and raced across my shoulders. The icy touch sent goosebumps cascading down my arms. “Then, please, allow me to tell you the truth.”

I shook my head and attempted to wriggle free of the dark tendril. “It’s too late.”

“It’s never too late.” He closed the distance between us in one long stride, and his familiar heady scent infiltrated my nostrils, blanketing my body. His hand caressed my cheek before I had the sense to stop him. “Please, princess, do you want me to beg?”

The possibility was thrilling. To have the great Shadow Fae prince on his knees for me?

“All I ask is that you allow me the opportunity to explain. Once I have told you everything, I will accept whatever choice you make.”

“Why should I gift you the choice you never gave me?” My voice trembled, revealing the depth of the impact he had on me.

“Because you are an infinitely better person than I.” A lopsided smile tipped up one side of his mouth.

His shadows danced around us, cocooning us in a web of darkness. I barely felt my chin dip, so little was my control around this intoxicating male. Those wicked minions curled around my head, whispering as they weaved around me.

A faint pressure penetrated my skull, and my thoughts became hazy. The sprawling sunlit field vanished for an instant before another familiar scene coalesced around us. We were still on the training field, but in a new location, dead center instead of on the outskirts. Reign stood in front of me, but he was no longer shirtless and soaked in sweat.

I glanced down at the two daggers strapped to my waist, then to my tunic and fighting leathers. Reign also wore his typical training uniform, in all black from head to toe. He paced in front of me, shouting about something.

Wait… I recognized this scene, this very discussion.

Reign stalked closer, pinning me against a wall of shadows. “I don’t give a sun’s ray about Draven. But you ? —”

I stood staring at him as the familiar scene from months ago unfolded again before me.

“Me, what?” I repeated the words I’d said to him all those weeks ago, moments after he’d erased Rue’s memories of my daggers.

“Fuck it.” Reign’s hand snaked around my neck and yanked my lips to his. A gasp escaped as he claimed my mouth, swallowed up in the tangle of rage and desire.

By the gods… I watched the scene, jaw gaping. Present Aelia knew I should pull away, but past Aelia was too consumed in the moment. I should let this play out… I needed to find out the truth.

Reign’s mouth moved over mine as his fingers delved into the hair at my nape. Gods, he tasted just as I’d remembered, like the most glorious starlit night. He laced his free hand around my waist and brought me flush against the hard planes of his body. His arousal pressed into my belly, inciting a wave of heat in my lower half.

Goddess, how had he managed to erase this from my memory ?

“Reign…” I whispered against his mouth.

“Mmm, princess. You have no idea what you do to me.”

He tilted my head to deepen the kiss, and all restraint was lost as I gave into his heated touch. The kiss stretched on, the fiery sensations lighting up every corner of my being. It simply wasn’t fair that one person could yield that much power over my body. Much too soon, Reign sucked in a desperate breath and ripped his mouth free of mine.

I stared up at him, confusion clouding the lusty haze, my chest heaving. “Reign?”

“I—I’m sorry.” He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead, and his shadows slithered across my form, twisting and churning. “I never should have ? —”

“What are you doing?” My eyes widened in panic.

“It won’t hurt, I promise.”

His shadows slithered through my mind, and I could feel them weaving the new memories, the ones that annihilated the heated kiss and erased my memories of the second dagger. He planted a new scene, a terribly embarrassing one in which I blurted my feelings for him, and he brutally rebuffed me.

None of it had been real.

I’d never admitted the truth of my feelings, and Reign had never denied me.

He’d kissed me months before I thought he had. All that time believing my feelings were unrequited…

But why take away my dagger? I reminded myself to focus on the purpose of this entire exercise, the missing dagger, not that fiery kiss or our twisted relationship.

Blinking quickly, the scene from the past dissipated and the training field of the present appeared once again. Reign still stood in front of me, an expectant look on his unfairly handsome face.

“You kissed me,” I blurted.

The dagger. The dagger. Focus, damn it.

“And you stole my dagger from my memories!”

“Only to ensure that if anything happened to yours, I could keep the other safe. I’d hoped if Gideon had more time with it, he could discover something more useful.” He clenched his jaw, a tendon flaring across his dark stubbled cheek. “And I kissed you because you were all I could think about. Every waking moment, every breath, you consumed my thoughts. And yes, I’m a selfish bastard who takes what he wants, consequences be damned. I couldn't fight the pull any longer, and in that moment, nothing else mattered but having you.”

My resolve crumbled at the declaration, at the fire in his eyes as he admitted the truth. And it was the truth, I could feel it in the marrow of my bones.

“You’ve done something to me, Aelia… anything that mattered before means nothing now. All I want is to keep you safe, and for me to do that, I need you to trust me again.”

Tears burned my eyes, threatening to spill over. Gods, I wanted to trust him. There was nothing I wanted more than to fall into his embrace, to sink into his familiar feel and forget everything.

But even if I could forgive him for the lies, we could still never be together. He was a prince of the Shadow Fae, and I was no one. Kin? Light Fae? The child of twilight? I had yet to discover the truth about anything. What future could we possibly have?

“Aelia, please.” He reached for me, but I staggered back, my knees already wobbling.

“I can’t.” I spun around, forcing my feet into motion. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I raced across the field, running from the male who meant everything to me, and the only person who had the power to utterly ruin me.