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

Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

A elia

Bile crawled its way up my throat as the headmaster’s words echoed across the now silent hall. My gaze unwittingly darted to meet Reign’s. He sat at the edge of his high-backed chair, a tendon feathering across his scruffy cheek. Look at me . I willed the bastard to meet my questioning glare, but he didn’t move a muscle. I was not even certain he was breathing.

It was as if the entire chamber held its breath.

“Due to your resounding failure in the end of term battle with Arcanum Citadel, I have conjured a most fitting punishment.” His menacing ivy gaze lanced across the quiet room, ensuring he had the full attention of every Fae in attendance before continuing. “Clearly, the majority of you are weak. At this Conservatory, we do not allow the feeble to survive. So starting tomorrow, for the next five days, I am abolishing the code of conduct.”

A wave of gasps rippled across the hall.

“I don’t care if you kill each other until only one stands. You first-years are an embarrassment to this sacred institution,” he growled.

“He cannot be serious,” Rue whispered.

Fear’s claws dug into my heart, piercing my already faltering organ. I would be the number one target. Everyone here assumed I was weak.

“Oh, but he is,” Heaton gritted out. “It’s not the first time he’s doled out such punishments for the students’ failures.” Our team leader’s eyes dimmed, his expression haunted.

What had Draven put Heaton through when he was an initiate?

“Perhaps after the fragile have been weeded out, you will have a chance to win this term’s Umbral Trials.”

Umbral Trials? I thought the trials were over…

A sneer curled the headmaster’s lips, his willowy mustache twisting with his mouth. “For those of you unfamiliar with the next set of trials, these will be conducted in a slightly different manner. This term, you won’t simply be competing against your fellow classmates, but also with your adversaries across the river.”

All the remaining air squeezed from my lungs as I processed his words. We’d be fighting against Arcanum, and more specifically, Ruhl, the heir to the Shadow throne. And after our encounter last time, I had a feeling this upcoming battle would be a personal one.

Curses…

How would I ever survive this?

A hand shot up a few seats away, drawing my attention to the long, golden-haired male. Belmore’s expression morphed into something truly wicked as his eyes flitted to mine before swiveling to face the headmaster.

“Yes, Mr. Dawnbrook?” Draven drawled.

“Just so that we’re clear, with no code of conduct in place, we are free to strengthen our teams in any manner possible?”

“Yes, that is exactly what I said, Belmore. Separate the wheat from the chaff and each squad will become the stronger for it.”

Having grown up tending the fields of the powerful Fae, I was quite familiar with the old agrarian saying. And judging by Belmore’s eager grin, I was the first he’d set his eyes on for elimination. Little did he know, I was no frail shaft of wheat, and I had no intention of returning to Feywood in an urn.

So flashing Belmore a feral grin, I mouthed, “May the strongest survive.”

As we marched across campus, my faithful friends flanked my sides. A part of me was embarrassed that my friends had such little trust in my survival, but the other part, the logical one, was thankful for their dedication.

“You two realize the forfeiture of the code of conduct does not begin until tomorrow, right?”

Rue only inched closer, weaving her arm through mine as she often did in a show of support. “Of course we do, A, but there’s still Lucian and Kian to take into consideration. Wherever Belmore is, those two cannot be far.”

I grimaced at mention of the two males from Scorch Squad who enjoyed torturing me as a pastime. And with the forced distance I’d instituted with Reign, I was fairly certain they would no longer keep their distance.

“Aelia…” That deep voice sent my entire body into upheaval.

“Keep walking,” I muttered to my friends.

“But Reign?—”

I whipped my head at Symon throwing him a scathing glare.

“Oh, right, sorry. I forgot we weren’t speaking The Dark One’s name.” He flung his arm around my shoulder and picked up the pace toward the banquet hall.

“Aelia Ravenwood,” he barked, harsher this time. Goosebumps cascaded down my spine at the ferocious edge to his tone.

A coil of darkness inched across the back of my neck before wrapping around my throat, briefly halting my forward motion. “I am still your professor, princess, and you will obey me.” His whispered snarl froze the blood in my veins.

The momentary pause was enough for Reign to gain on us. He coalesced from the shadows, wings of night towering over his head. “Both of you, leave.” He eyed Rue then Sy and lifted his chin.

“You can’t speak to them like that,” I hissed.

“I can, and I just did.” Those bottomless spheres of pure, icy onyx fixed on my friends. “Miss Liteschild and Mr. Lightspire, unless you’d like to spend the evening with me as life-sized targets for my umbral blades, I suggest you leave us, now.”

Sy’s panicked gaze lifted to mine, but to her credit, the mask of calm on Rue’s face never faltered. Perhaps it was because she’d seen the softer side of our professor when he insisted on sleeping in our dorm to keep me “safe”, or maybe she was simply that much of a badass.

Exhaling a sharp breath, I wriggled free of my friends’ hold. “Go ahead, I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Rue gripped my hand, her hold surprisingly strong given its petite size.

“Yes.” I hoped it sounded more convincing to her than it had across my own ears.

“We’ll wait for you in the banquet hall.” After squeezing my hand, Rue’s reassuring smile flipped into a frown as she turned to face our professor. “I’ll be watching you.”

Reign’s lips twitched, and the hard set of his jaw faltered for an instant before that icy mask slid back into place. “I’ll see you on the training field, Miss Liteschild.”

With a grunt, my best friend spun on her heel and tugged Symon along with her. Just when I didn’t think I could possibly appreciate my best friend any more, she did something like that. I’d truly been Raysa-blessed to have found her.

The moment Rue and Sy disappeared within the crowd of students headed for the banquet hall, a wall of shadows rose up, enclosing Reign and me in a murky haze. Those familiar wisps slid over my skin, inciting a prickle of goosebumps. Steeling my spine, I searched for a strength I did not seem to possess around this male. Still, I slapped my hands on my hips and glared up at the looming Shadow Fae with false bravado. “What was so urgent you had to interrupt my supper?”

His eyes narrowed as they regarded me. “As I recall, you never ate much at dinnertime.”

“Because of you.” I rose to my tiptoes and speared my finger into his unyielding chest. “Because you forced me to train every night, and if I’d eaten like I wanted, I would have ended up spewing the contents of my stomach all over your shiny boots.”

“It wouldn’t have been the first time.” A crooked grin tipped up the corner of one side of the perfect bow. My heart skipped and stuttered at the twinkle it brought to his fathomless irises.

“No.” I shook my head and dropped back down to my heels as memories of the time he carried me to my chamber after I’d been poisoned ransacked my mind. We had been so close to giving into temptation that night… “You are not allowed to do this. You cannot simply shoot me a flirty grin and assume I’ll forget everything that’s happened.”

The smile was instantly smothered beneath a positively tortured scowl, and I couldn’t help the satisfaction that crept in. I wanted him to be miserable, just as distraught as I was because of his damned betrayal.

“That’s not what I’m trying to do.” He paced a quick circle within the orb of increasingly frenzied shadows and dragged his hand through his unruly head of hair. “Noxus, I cannot seem to do anything right when it comes to you.”

“Then just leave me alone, Reign.”

He shook his head, a torrent of emotions flashing across the endless night of his eyes. “I cannot.” He gritted his teeth and muttered a curse. “Trust me, princess, if I possessed the willpower, I would have stayed away from you long ago.”

Despite the soft, tortured tone, the words stung.

“Because you believe I’m this child of twilight,” I spat.

His eyes widened and a sliver of night burst from his palm, wrapping around my mouth. “You cannot speak those words aloud,” he growled. “You have no idea how dangerous they are.”

“No, I suppose I don’t,” I mumbled around the mystical gag.

“I told you I would explain everything, and I still wish to, but I cannot here. There is still so much you don’t understand, so much I can’t figure out. There’s the matter of your daggers, and your elusive rais ?—”

I raised my hand cutting him off. It took every ounce of willpower I had to force the next words from my mouth, because really, there was nothing I wished for more than to understand all of it. But I knew spending more time alone with Reign would only lead to my doom. As it was, my fragile heart could barely stand to be near him. “I don’t want to know anymore.”

His shadow slid from my lips and returned to its master, burrowing in his dark cloak. “But Aelia?—"

“No,” I hissed. “This is what I want. Can you at least respect my wishes?”

“No!” The response erupted through his clenched teeth, as if he hadn’t expected the outburst. He obliterated the little distance remaining between us, his hands closing over my shoulders, fingers digging into my skin. “Because respecting your wishes means risking your safety, and I’m sorry Aelia, but to me, there is nothing more important than your life.”

Overwhelming emotion tightened my throat, and hot tears threatened to spill over. Instead of giving in to the ache, I latched on to the pain until it blossomed and twisted into something darker. I attempted to wriggle free of his hold, but his fingers only tightened the more I squirmed.

“Please, Aelia, the next five days will be brutal. It’s imperative you understand what is at stake.”

“Let go of me.” The anger grew more powerful, bloating my chest. A flicker of rais flared in my gut, and energy rushed my veins, exploding through my fingertips. The brilliant light cut through Reign’s shadows and pummeled into the infuriating male, sending him flying beyond the circle of darkness.

By the time I blinked, the shadows had fallen away and Reign was splayed out across the field beside the Hall of Luminescence. He lifted his head, confusion curving his mouth into a capital O. Shaking it off, he slowly pushed himself up, and a slow smile crept across his face. “Nicely done, princess.”

Knotting my arms across my chest, I spun toward the banquet hall, eager to leave him far behind. But one of those damned shadows flitted beside me, whispering its master’s words.

“You may not be ready to hear the truth yet, and I will respect that. But I refuse to let you suffer for my failings. Whether you like it or not, I will stand by your side and protect you for as long as I draw breath. I have made countless mistakes in my life, Aelia, but none weigh heavier on my soul than hiding the truth from you.”

Reign’s shadow messenger slithered away, but his words echoed in my mind long after.