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

Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

A elia

“Rise and shine, sleepy Fae.”

The sweet tune pulled me from the haze of Noxus’s cold embrace. My lids fluttered and slowly opened, taking in the gold ringlets cascading around Rue’s familiar face.

“Is it morning already?” I grumbled.

She bounced up from the corner of my bed and fluttered around happily. Sometimes I could have sworn my lively roommate was already sun-blessed with ethereal wings. “Not only is it morning, but it’s also the first day of the new term.”

Internally, I winced.

I’d barely survived the first term, and that was with considerable help from my former professor. The same professor who I now had to keep my distance from at all costs. I simply couldn’t trust myself around him. It was as if all logic vanished in his presence, only my na?ve, foolish heart controlling my actions.

On a positive note, after I’d fled the field yesterday, sobbing like a fool, once I’d returned to my dormitory, I had found my missing dagger back in its hiding spot in the nightstand. Reign must have sent one of his shadow minions to return it. Seeing it again had nearly brought me to tears once more.

“Did you see our new classes?” Rue bounded closer with my scroll tucked beneath her arm, diverting my attention. She unrolled it across the bed as I forced myself to sit up. A glittering penmanship flickered across the parchment.

Aelia Ravenwood

Designation: First-year, Second Term

Squad: Flare

Squad Leader: Heaton Liteschild

Classes:

Luminous Enchantments

Aurora Weaving

Lightweaver’s Craft

Offensive Flight

Combat

Shadow Arts

Daily Instructions:

Report to the Hall of Luminescence for the first day gathering at nine hundred hours.

My stomach pitched at the sight of the final two classes. Combat and Shadow Arts. There was only one professor on campus who taught those courses. It appeared that the male I was determined to erase from my life was to once again become a daily fixture. Sometimes the goddess seemed so unfair. “Why must we take Combat and Shadow Arts again this term?”

“I hate to break it to you, A, but we take those classes every term, every year.”

A dramatic groan dribbled out and I dropped back onto the mattress, burying my face in the pillow.

"Oh, no, you don’t. You’re not doing this again.” Rue dragged the blanket down, then pulled the fluffy cushion out from under me.

“Hey!” I squealed and curled into a ball on the bare mattress.

“I will not allow you to spend another minute pining over that good-for-nothing Shadow Fae professor.”

Speaking of that liar, Reign had forced me to become one, too. In an effort to keep his secret—which I still couldn’t comprehend why I continued to do so—I’d spun a white lie while in Feywood explaining the strained relationship between the good professor and me.

I had told my friends I’d admitted the truth of my feelings, and Reign had rebuffed me. I was embarrassed and hurt, and now had no desire to be in the presence of the insufferable male. The lie had been inspired by the truth, only now I knew none of it had ever happened. Would that make me a double-liar? Rue drew me from my thoughts as she continued her pep talk.

“Come on, Aelia. Nothing has changed, really.” She waved a nonchalant hand. “Do you have any idea how many males I’ve been forced to see after having my heart broken?”

I raised a skeptical brow. If anyone was breaking hearts around here, it was my naughty vixen of a roommate.

“What?” She shrugged as she plopped down beside me. “I too have been scorned by an unwilling Fae or two.”

“I find that impossible to believe.”

She curled her arm around my shoulder and squeezed. “I swear it upon the goddess herself, and anyway, the point is, the best way to move past the hurt is to forget it existed in the first place. And the best way to do that is by finding someone else.”

My roommate’s cavalier attitude toward Fae of the opposite sex suddenly rang with more meaning. Had Rue been so hurt at some time that she chose to mask her feelings by filling her bed with males she didn’t care about?

“I don’t know if I can do that…”

Her light eyes twinkled with mischief. “And I know just the Fae. Someone who is already crazy about you.”

I shook my head, whipping it from side to side. “Oh no, I couldn’t, Rue. I would never use Heaton like that.” Just the fact that she was offering him as a consolation prize had my gut churning.

Her brows knitted as she regarded me. “I didn’t say anything about using my brother, Aelia. He genuinely cares for you, and I thought maybe you could learn to feel the same for him.” Her arm fell loose from my shoulders.

“Oh, goddess, I’m sorry, Rue, that came out wrong. Any female would be beyond lucky to have Heaton.”

“Then why aren’t you interested?”

Because Reign has my heart in a vice, his strangling hold the most wicked of tortures. Every breath, every heartbeat belonged to him and him alone. The confession, even within the dark recesses of my mind, was disquieting.

“It’s too soon,” I finally murmured, my voice barely a whisper. “No matter how much I want to forget Reign, how much I want to move on and give someone else a chance, he’s always there, haunting my thoughts, pulling me back.”

Rue sighed, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Love can be complicated and painful, but you deserve someone who treats you right, who makes you happy. I know Heaton could be that man for you.”

I nodded, feeling the weight of her words. “I just need time to sort through everything. My feelings for Reign... they’re not something I can easily ignore.” They seemed impossible, if I was being honest with myself.

“I understand,” Rue said softly. “Just promise me you’ll take care of yourself and keep an open mind. Maybe one day, you’ll find someone who can love you the way you deserve.”

I smiled faintly. “Thank you, Rue. I promise.”

“Now, get up out of that bed and let’s get ready. It’s nearly time for the gathering.”

One thing I had not missed in the slightest during my time away was the curious stares and hateful glares from my classmates. As I settled into the seat in the second row of the grand hall, I wished I could disappear into it. The loss against Arcanum Citadel had been a brutal blow, and though I had little to do with it, I again found myself the object of everyone’s hatred.

A few had witnessed the mid-air spectacle of our Shadow Fae professor and his dragon. Though his shadows had concealed most of the exchange, they could not have missed his enormous skyrider coming to what appeared to be my rescue. Unless Reign had somehow managed to erase all their memories?

The whole disastrous event had only kindled more rumors of the lowly Kin who not only seemed to have Professor Darkthorn’s favor but who had also consorted with the enemy. After the battle, everyone on campus had recognized Ruhl, the heir to the Court of Umbral Shadows when his mighty dragon descended and he claimed the win for Arcanum. I could practically hear their thoughts as inquisitive, distrustful gazes lanced over me.

Why did the prince of shadows let her live?

Why does the professor dote on her so?

Why was she chosen by a dragon ?

They were questions that often plagued my thoughts as well.

“Welcome back, Aelia.” Heaton offered a kind smile as he scooted into the seat beside me. His presence was oddly comforting, the broad expanse of his shoulders shielding me from some of the worst glares.

“Cheers, Heaton.” I countered with a smile of my own.

“I hope you enjoyed the break and had some time to rest up.”

“I did.”

Rue leaned across my lap and waggled her brows at her brother. “She sure did. After our big night out in Feywood and the tankards of berl she consumed, she slept nearly the entire following day away.” Her head fell back as she released a cackle.

Heat blanketed my cheeks at the hazy memories of that night. “I wasn’t the only one.”

Sy poked his head between us, leaning forward from the row behind. “Aelia certainly was not. We were all two sheets to the moon from that oddly potent Kin draught.”

“Well, I’m sorry to have missed it.” A rueful smile peeled back the corners of Heaton’s lips. “If someone had invited me,” he said, looking pointedly at his sister, “I would have gladly jumped aboard Nigel to join you in the south.”

I regarded him for a long moment, picturing him mounted upon his ligel flying beside the rest of us, as Sy recounted the stories of our drunken escapades in Feywood. Heaton was remarkably handsome with high cheekbones, full lips, and that silky, flaxen hair that fell to his shoulders. As I took in the familiar features, my thoughts turned to our encounter with Lawson and the other Royal Guardian. Had Rue shared their cryptic responses with her brother? When I’d mentioned it to Aidan, he’d taken it lightly, dismissing my worry. What truly lay beyond the border in the Wilds?

Dismissing the dark thoughts, I focused my attention to Heaton once again. He watched Symon, amusement in the tilt of his lips. Rue’s brother was kind, honorable and— not Reign . That was the male’s only discernable flaw.

As if my thoughts had summoned the dark Fae, a familiar prickle danced its way up my spine. Despite my most valiant attempts to keep my gaze focused on Symon’s lively tale, my traitorous eyes twisted over my shoulder.

A cloud of umbral shadows pierced the blanket of luminescent light that flooded the hall. My breath hitched at the sight of him. The prince of shadows, as he would now forever be referred to—serving as a constant reminder of his true origins—stalked through the grand chamber. The twinkling flames of the chandelier shriveled and then all but extinguished at his menacing sight.

My pulse escalated with each step closer, my heartbeat pounding in time with each footfall. Reign appeared as the epitome of the dark royal today in a double-breasted midnight coat that trailed the length of his long legs. His shadow minions twisted around his form, coating him in a layer of impenetrable darkness.

As if he’d sensed my stare, those starlit eyes chased to mine. They blazed with the intensity of Raysa’s blessed sun, radiant and infinite as they settled over me. Then traveled to the male at my side. A flurry of nox pummeled into me, Reign’s overwhelming power pushing against me, as if it were attempting to physically create space between Heaton and me. Those eyes seared to mine, but before I was helplessly trapped in that hypnotic gaze, I forced my head to pivot, to once again focus on my friends. As I tuned into the conversation, Symon was recounting his epic success wooing my friend, Gertrude. Zephyr and Silvan, two of the males from Flare Squad, listened intently. Apparently, a round-eared conquest, even of only the kissing variety, was of the utmost importance in this circle.

A throat cleared, the harsh, gravelly sound turning my attention, along with the rest of my groups’, to the dais, only a few rows in front of us. Draven stood at the pulpit, the shards of radiant beams streaming in from the skylight bathing the headmaster in a heavenly glow. “Initiates, silence, please. It is time to face the punishment for your disastrous failure.”