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

Chapter 64

A elia

Sol's mighty wings sliced through the chilly air, soaring high over the Feywood Forest. Just beyond my home, the rolling hills of the Wilds threatened ever closer. The sky darkened, Raysa’s blessed light finding its boundary, and a deadly silence descended over the lot of us.

From below, I could just make out Rue’s glittering celestial glyph before her voice rose over the roaring winds. “We’ll land at the edge of the forest and go the rest of the way by foot, so we don’t attract too much attention.”

“Okay,” I shouted back. Again, hiding a dragon would prove much more difficult than the other skyriders, which would force Sol to remain in the cloud-covered skies nearby.

Sol tilted his wings toward the earth and we began the slow descent. The dark hills of the Wilds tumbled across the border between our lands, and my thoughts skittered back to the last time I was here. To that loud rumbling beneath the earth and the odd sensation that had accompanied it as I sat on the knoll with Reign discussing our dismal future. Summoning my rais , I traced the glittering lines of a celestial glyph to amplify my sight. Where are you, Heaton?

I searched the horizon, my vision augmented by the rais skimming over my skin. Nothing but endless night stretched out toward the hills and beyond. Still nothing from Phantom ? I focused on our bond, nervous for the answer.

I’m afraid not .

Keep trying while you circle. I’ll let you know as soon as we find Heaton .

Very well, Aelia .

The minute Sol’s talons hit the ground, I slid off his leg, eager to join the others.

Be careful, little Kin . Sol’s gruff voice echoed in my mind, the hint of some deeper emotion I couldn’t quite decipher flooding our link.

I whirled around to find him watching me, the typically smooth line between his reptilian orbs furrowed. “Always,” I replied aloud.

With one last, meaningful glance, his majestic wings unfolded and his enormous body catapulted into the night sky.

“Come on, Aelia!” Rue called out, turning my thoughts away from my dragon and back to the matter at hand.

I quickened my steps into a jog and raced after Rue, Devin, Symon and Liora who had already reached the edge of the clearing where the terrain began to slope upward.

“Where exactly are we going?” I asked Rue, fingering the crystal encrusted into the hilt of my blade, its familiar presence comforting after so much time apart.

“How about over there?” Liora interjected as she signaled over the ridge to a cluster of darkwoods. “Judging by the thick foliage covering the terrain, it seems like a good place to start.”

She wasn’t wrong. Their oversized leaves and sprawling branches would provide good natural shelter and a decent place to hide.

Rue narrowed her eyes, scanning the darkness. A long minute later, her shoulders lifted before falling back reluctantly. “Sure, we can start there.”

“I’ll lead the way.” Liora stepped forward with an eager Symon by her side.

“I suppose it’s a good thing we brought her, after all,” said Devin as he moved into place on the other side of Rue.

“I’m sure we could have figured it out without her,” I grumbled. The moment the words were out, I wished I could take them back. I had to stop being so unfair to the female who, through no fault of her own, was merely unfortunate enough to be Reign's acquisition.

The five of us marched up the steady incline, a heavy silence filling the space between our ragged breaths. The darkwoods loomed ever closer, a strange energy pulsing in the air. The foreign sensation prickled the hair on my arms and a chill raced down my spine. The unearthly power pressed into me, an icy blast sending my rais surging to the tips of my fingers.

“Do you feel that?” I whispered to Rue.

“What, exactly?”

“That power…”

Instinctively, I reached for my necklace, needing the comfort of its touch. I thumbed the medallion and nearly squealed as the metal burned my fingertips. Muttering a curse, I dropped it, and the medal slid down the chain and fell back onto my chest. I waited for the sharp burn, only it never came. What in the realms?

“Look, over there!” Liora motioned through the thick trees to a figure huddled on the ground in the shadows.

“Heaton!” Rue darted ahead, and I pushed my legs to keep up with her sudden sprint.

“Wait, Rue! Wait for us!” I shouted, but it seemed as if my friend had suddenly grown wings.

A booming tremor shook the earth beneath my feet as I raced after Rue. My arms shout out to steady myself, but my boot caught on a gnarled root and I sailed forward, my chest hitting the ground with a thud. All the air siphoned from my lungs at the impact, and I was left gaping, struggling to draw in a blessed mouthful of air.

The sky darkened suddenly, as if a blanket of pure obsidian had decided to fall atop the typical night. Except… no, it was the opposite. A veil had been lifted, the mystical curtain covering the horrors that hid just beyond the border had only now been revealed. My heart leapt into my throat when I saw them. An army clad in armor as black as a raven’s wing, riding creatures that resembled enormous, smoke-like serpents. The beasts moved toward us with terrifying speed and coordination, more akin to Reign’s shadows than flesh and blood.

I simply lay there, frozen and unmoving, gaping at the truth behind the Wilds.

“No!” The cry of a familiar voice tore my gaze from the army of darkness. Heaton appeared on the ridge, bloodied and bruised, waving his arms frantically. “What are you doing here? Run! Get away from there!”

As if his words shattered the spell I was under, I pushed myself off the ground just in time to see Rue’s form crumple a few yards ahead. Her knees gave way at the sight of her brother, a devastated cry tearing from her lips. “Heaton! We came for you!”

“Go, now!” he shouted again. “You have to get out of here!”

But it was too late.

The serpent-like beasts were upon us, shrieking and spitting a caustic black liquid that scorched everything in its path. But it was their riders from which I could not force my gaze away.

Torn straight from the history of the Courts of Aetheria, I stared in awe and terror at the Demon Fae. Even astride those terrifying beasts, I could make out their tall, sinewy forms that moved with an unnatural, eerie grace. Their skin ranged from dusky crimson to a glossy obsidian, shimmering with a faint luminescence that seemed to pulse with darkness. Their eyes were the most striking thing about them, though: a deep ruby, vibrant lavender, or glowing citrine, they lacked any whites at all, giving them a haunting, predatory look.

Raysa, help us, how was this possible?

The Court of Infernal Night had been decimated decades ago in the Two Hundred Years’ War.

“Rue!” I cried out. She and Devin huddled on the ground, encased in a glittering orb.

Beasts and riders with sinewy, bat-like wings zipped by, hissing and shouting in a rough, guttural tongue I could not comprehend. They repeated the same phrase over and over, their chant growing to a fevered pitch.

Infantum od twilit. Infantum od twilit. Infantum od twilit.

I tried to run toward my friends but that odd surge of power crept over me once again, a tidal wave of dark energy with a hint of sulfur coating the air. Zar . The word formed in my mind then spilled from my tongue. “It’s zar ,” I breathed. The mystical energy I couldn’t decipher wasn’t nox, rais or even lys , it was zar , and gods’ damn it, I should have recognized it.

My medallion pulsed as if echoing my sentiments.

Aelia, what is happening down there? I felt a burst of energy … Sol’s frazzled voice filled my subconscious.

It’s the Night Court, Sol. They’re alive, and they’re angry .

I’m coming, little Kin. Run !

Gods, why did everyone keep saying that?

I glanced between the edge of the forest a few dozen yards away and my friends, who were caught in a tornado of shadowy serpents and fierce Demon Fae. All of my friends, except for Liora—where was she? Streaks of brilliant rais streamed through the wave of darkness as they attempted to fight off their attackers, but for every one they took down, another appeared in its place. I couldn’t simply abandon Rue. Or Sy, or Heaton, or even Devin, for that matter. I wouldn’t . Digging deep into my core, I searched the deep well of energy where my rais resided. Instead of the radiant light, though, I found nothing. A vast chasm of emptiness.

No. No. No . This wasn’t happening.

The crack of mighty wings flapping sent a surge of hope rushing through the void in my chest. Tipping my head to the infinite darkness, a spark of gold lit up the night across the horizon. Sol . And just behind him, a sleek obsidian dragon; Phantom’s eyes were glowing like twin stars, bathing the fathomless night. Reign? They were still too far to tell.

We’re coming for you, little Kin .

The ground trembled beneath me once again, shooting my heart up my throat. A fissure raced across the earth, spilling the pungent scent of sulfur, and from the dark depths, a figure coalesced. A torrent of ancient power pressed into me, drawing the remaining air from my lungs.

A towering male appeared, his hair a striking silver with skin the color of midnight, shimmering with a subtle, menacing glow. His eyes, deep set and fiery, burned with the intense red of smoldering coals. The Demon Fae was dressed in armor that seemed forged from the night sky itself, decorated with intricate runes that writhed and shifted in the low light. A distinctive cloak hung from his neck, the shadows of forgotten souls—if my memory served correct—moving as if still alive.

Oh, gods. The legendary King Helroth of Infernum. My fingers tightened around the hilt of my dagger.

A wicked grin curled the corner of his lip as those burning, crimson orbs raked over me. “There she is, the promised one— infantum od twilit. Oh, how I’ve waited for your arrival.”

In a heartbeat, he erased the distance between us, and his hand jutted out, thick fingers wrapping around my throat. I gasped as his unyielding grip crushed my windpipe. No. This was not how I died. After everything I had survived, I would not die at the hand of an extinct Demon King.

His free hand found my medallion, fingers grazing the engraving. “I knew it was you,” he hissed.

Twisting my wrist, I jabbed my blade beneath the scales of his armor, hitting the soft part of his belly between the flaps of his gambeson, the padded jacket. A grunt pursed his lips as his eyes widened into terrifying pools of blood.

Then that sinister smile returned, bolder than before. Releasing my necklace, but still holding me by the throat, he wrenched my dagger free from my knotted fingers, twisting my wrist until the pop of bones breaking crackled through the air. I bit back a scream, refusing the monster the pleasure of my pain.

Muddled shouts resounded around me, the familiar cries of my friends drowned out by the frantic drumbeats of my heart. Oh, gods, please let them survive this.

The Demon King lifted my dagger, eyeing the blade, then ran his tongue over the blood-spattered metal. “Infernium vein. Just as I suspected.” The droplets of deep crimson that coated the weapon floated into the air, then amalgamated into a figure eight. I watched, dumbstruck, as the circlets of blood closed around my wrists, and pure agony streaked through my veins. “And now, it’s time to take you home, princess.”

The king bent down, his arms curling beneath my thighs. I struggled and kicked, but the mystical manacles tightened and a raging fire seared my veins, blocking everything else out. Oh gods, it hurt. Blinding pain surged through my bones, reaching into my marrow. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see. There was only pain. I searched the bonds that tethered me to the ones I loved, but the agony was too much.

Sol ?

Reign …

The king’s arms tightened around my shattering form, and my stomach catapulted up my ribs as he leapt into the bottomless fracture in the earth. A flicker of movement over his head of silvery hair caught my eye, and a heart-wrenching howl echoed over the chaos.

Reign’s panicked eyes met mine for an instant, his shadows a fury of dark power as he soared toward me, still too far.

“Reign...”

His name was the final word on my lips before I plunged into the infinite pit of darkness.

To Be Continued…