27. Ella

Chapter 27

Ella

Ella walked to Kellen’s classroom in a daze. Bryara’s words echoed in her ears, through her skull, reverberating down into her bloodstream. They rippled across her bones, making a home for themselves in every corner of her being.

The verse felt both vastly important and wildly irrelevant. Both a warning and a misdirection.

A prophecy and a falsehood.

The more she thought about it, the less sense it made, and the more enraged she felt to have been left with this strange foretelling and be the only person in all of Cavale without the background information to understand it.

So the first place she went after Bryara abandoned her in the Canterna Thicket was to Kellen’s classroom—not just because he was the History of the Gods professor and he might supply her with some answers, not just because Jarion asked her to tell his brother about releasing his wings, but because Kellen was the only place she ever wanted to be anymore. That was a feeling she needed to stop fighting.

Ella cracked the door of the classroom open and poked one eye into the room. Kellen was just finishing up a lesson with a class of second graders. When she saw the bright blue background behind his head that read on it the five senses exercise, Ella covered her hand over her mouth to keep a sob from leaking out.

“Autumn, tell me four things you can feel and touch,” Kellen requested of the girl sitting to his right. They’d pushed the desks against the wall so the whole class was sitting in a circle on the floor.

“The floor,” the redhead answered, spaying her fingers out on the ground. “My skin. My hair. My clothes.”

“Good. Maurin,” he went to the female sitting beside Autumn, “what are three things you can hear?”

“You,” the young Primordial quipped, the whole class fragmenting into laughter. “Everyone laughing,” she added, “and the sound of the wind.” Kellen swung his finger to the next student.

“Shanell, name two things you can smell.”

“Chocolate!” she squealed, cupping her face. “And…uh…grass?” Her voice blended into a squeak of uncertainty.

“You can definitely smell grass,” Kellen confirmed. He lowered his focus on the last student seated on his left. “Jarius. What’s one thing you can taste?” The young boy rocked back and forth.

“Coffee?” When Kellen nodded, Jarius’s demeanor illuminated with a sweet simper.

“Great job, guys. Who can remember why we did this exercise?” Six tiny hands shot up in the air.

He called on Madelaine, who answered, “So we can use our senses to help stay focused in class.”

Kellen reached into his red sack and tossed a piece of candy to every student.

Tears streamed down Ella’s face. He used her presentation. He used her lesson with his class.

Kellen’s eyes raised to the door and snagged over Ella.

“Alright, guys,” he announced with his eyes gliding across Ella’s tear-stained cheeks, “Class dismissed. Fix the desks back into place before you leave.” He rose off the floor and strode back to his desk.

Ella held the door open for all the students as they exited. Once the classroom had emptied of children, she slipped past the door and shut it behind her, lingering by the entrance for a moment to just gaze at Kellen, admiring his irrefutable beauty and questioning if it was possible for this man to have been created for her.

“Was that really the end of your class time,” she asked, “or did you just kick all of those kids out of here early?”

“I’m not sure and don’t even care,” he answered with a husky laugh. “I saw you at the door, and my mind emptied of all thought beside the need to get everyone out of here so we could be alone.”

Ella’s cheeks warmed. She hugged her arms around herself because she suddenly felt very conscious of the fact that her sweater’s neckline was V shaped and he could probably see how flushed her chest was.

Kellen cocked his head at her timid fidgeting. “You okay, sweetheart? Did Bryara do something to you?”

“No. I’m fine.” She dared her feet to take a step closer to him. Once she’d gained that tiny victory, she goaded her feet to complete the whole distance until she was standing right in front of him. “I have two things to tell you,” she said, clasping her wrists behind her back and squaring her shoulders.

“I can’t wait to hear both of them.” Ella presented him with a euphoric grin.

“Jarion released his wings today.” Kellen’s arms fell to his sides. His gaze grew big and animated.

“He did?” Ella nodded, framing her flaming cheeks with her hands.

Kellen blinked once before his hands dove forward, grabbed her waist, and lifted her off her feet, spinning her in exultant circles as her arms naturally tied around his neck and she yelped a surprised squeal.

“You beautiful, magical creature!” he sung as he twirled her.

He stopped whirling them eventually and pressed his face into her chest—not sexually, but adoringly, clutching at her back and heaving a sob into her sweater. Ella’s fingers found their way into his hair before she dropped her face into his curls. She inhaled the citrus scent of his shampoo and felt more at home here, with her feet off the ground, than she’d ever felt with her feet touching the earth.

Thanking you isn’t enough, he gushed into her mind. She began kneading his scalp with her fingernails, an impulse that felt as intrinsic to her as breathing. No words will ever be enough to express my gratitude, Noella Rose, but I’ll spend my life trying to find the perfect ones to give to you.

Kellen began lowering her back to the ground, not separating from her though. The second Ella’s feet were cradled by the floor once more, his face nuzzled her throat, sliding up the pillar of her neck so his lips could descend upon her cheek. It was a gentle press of his mouth to her burning skin, such an innocent gesture, but she felt the kiss everywhere, in her lips, her teeth, her hair, her bones, surging through her like a flaring tidal wave, igniting everything inside her that had previously been numb.

She felt alive with raw energy in a way she never had before, as though she’d never been truly alive until his lips graced her skin. She unconsciously tugged at his hair, and he ripped his face back to look at her.

“I’m sorry,” he stammered, stroking his thumb down her cheek, over where his lips had just been. “I got swept up in the moment. I should’ve asked.” He’d mistaken her pulling at his hair as a bad thing.

“I would’ve said yes if you’d asked,” she told him, eyeing his lips, craving a taste of them for herself.

The sound of students outside brought them both back to reality. Kellen’s arms fell off her, and Ella took a small step back, shyly twisting her hair because she didn’t know what to do with her hands.

“What was the second thing you wanted to tell me?” Her head had been drained of coherent thought when he’d kissed her cheek, so it took her a second to reach into her subconscious and pull forward the necessary information, hauling it through a thick, iridescent fog of ecstasy.

“Bryara said something strange to me.” At the worried crease in his forehead and the flicker of a flame in his eyes, she rushed, “She didn’t hurt me, but she left me with a weird prophecy that I don’t understand and was wondering if you could shed some light on, being the History professor and all.”

The fire extinguished in his gaze, replaced with warm affection.

“I’m honored you thought of me first.” There was no sarcasm. Only candor. “What did she tell you?”

Ella took a deep breath in, then recited, “Only when the child of the crown binds to the child of the flame can the chains of solitude be released.”

“Huh.” Kellen spread his index finger and thumb to stroke them along his jaw.

Ella took a seat in one of the chairs beside his desk, then asked, “Have you heard that prophecy before?”

“No. Never.” Her shoulders sank. “When I hear child of the crown, I immediately think of Aros.”

“Does Aros have a child?”

“Not one that’s been accounted for in history, but it’s not impossible that he and Tala had a child before she was kidnapped. They’d be over a thousand years old now, but with Godly blood in their system, they would age much slower and eventually stop aging like all Gods do.” Kellen dragged his index finger across his bottom lip in thought. Ella tried to control her body’s reaction to the unintentionally sensual act, disciplining her features to hide the change in her blood’s temperature. “The part that’s tripping me up is the child of the flame. I’ve never heard of anything in history like that.”

“Flame could mean Meteoro,” Ella guessed. “Or dragon.”

“True, but it says child of the flame, not child with the flame. There’s Neeyar Cavalian who’s the God of Fire, but he’s never had any children, so I don’t think the flame is referring to him.”

“You’ve never heard of Aros having a child,” Ella pointed out. “Maybe Neeyar had one secretly too?”

“No. It’s impossible. Neeyar doesn’t have a humanoid form like most of the Gods do. He is completely made of flames. He doesn’t have a face, let alone a penis. It would be impossible for him to procreate with anyone, Primordial or God.” Ella watched in awe the wheels turn inside Kellen’s head, his mind greedily latching onto the prophecy and evaluating every singular word inside the statement with extreme care. “Only when the child of the crown binds to the child of the flame… binds . Bind means to tie or fasten to something. Or two things cohering together to create something else. I’m thinking that line refers to power being shared in some way, if both these two entities need to come together to release something. The chains of solitude…that’s stumping me. I’ve never heard of that.” Kellen seemed displeased at his inability to figure this out fast enough.

“Maybe the chains of solitude are referring to the Varminian curse,” Ella speculated.

“Oh. That’s good, Rose.” His voice squeaked from excitement. “Maybe Bryara gave you a prophecy on how to break the Varminian curse!”

I hate to spoil your fun, Coz piped up in both their heads, sounding faintly amused, but no, that’s not what the chains of solitude mean.

Would you like to tell us, then, what it means, since you clearly seem to know? Kellen grumbled.

You will find out eventually, Coz guaranteed. When it’s time, and when—

If you say, ‘When you’re ready,’ I’m going to scream, Ella exclaimed. Kellen smirked at her.

Coz went silent after that.

“I have another question.” Ella lifted her hand over her head like she was one of his students.

“Rose, you don’t need to raise your hand to speak,” Kellen laughed.

“I didn’t want to interrupt your flow.” He tipped over to wrap his fingers around one of the legs of her chair and tow it forward so she was sitting closer to him, the act so indisputably sensual that the air was cleaved from her lungs. “It’s not really a question,” she stammered, Kellen grinning at the aroused shake in her voice, “so much as a request. I want to know more about Aros Cavalian. Everyone keeps telling me I need to stop judging him and there’s so much I don’t know about him. What can you tell me about what he’s sacrificed for the kingdom of Cavale?”

“I’m not sure I can give you a satisfying answer, aside from what I know about the myth of Tala—at least what’s taught to the kids here.” Kellen’s knee brushed against hers when he leaned forward. “Aros used to be the kind of king who was never not interacting with his people. He was deeply involved in the innerworkings of the kingdom. Edar and Aros are not just brothers. They’re twins, actually, the closest bond you can have apart from a Cavalisha. When Edar left with Tala, leaving Aros without his twin and his mate, Aros stopping leaving Avatia to visit the heart of Cavale. He stopped personally aiding the villagers and deferred to sending envoys in his place. He grew disconnected from the land and the people. In my lifetime, Aros has never been seen outside of Avatia. The Primordials who still venerate him, they feel pity for him and all he’s lost. They fight for him against Edar with the hope of stealing their king’s joy back, hoping to bring back the days when Aros didn’t entomb himself in Avatia. Those who rebel and become Dissidents are typically the Primordials whose ancestors remember a time when Aros was more involved with Cavale and have built up resentment for his abandonment of his people. Those stories are passed down through the family to create a new generation of Dissidents to back Edar.”

Ella took a moment to consider Kellen’s response.

Was it possible that Aros didn’t send aid that day to Kellen and the twins not because he didn’t want to, but because he couldn’t? Was that why everyone kept telling her not to judge him for his lack of assistance and refusal to give her a direct message? Because he was so consumed by grief that he couldn’t pull himself away from the place where he’d intombed himself as a protective measure?

Ella found herself in the camp of people who felt sorrow for the God. Not pity, but sorrow. She’d seen what grief had done to her mother after her father abandoned them. Not that Annalise was particularly affectionate with her before Alec left, but grief had taken a woman who had the potential to be loving—which Ella saw in the way Annalise doted on Alec—and bent her into so many painful shapes that she no longer possessed the capacity to feel anything apart from that loss. Ella had come to a place, thanks to several rounds of intense therapy, where she recognized that maybe Annalise wasn’t truly evil. Maybe her grief was so strong that it overpowered the person who lay beneath it. Maybe the same had befallen Aros, had taken someone once benevolent and turned them into someone intolerant, incapable of empathizing with anyone outside of himself.

Even a God wasn’t immune to that kind of intense reaction to loss. Perhaps grief, when left unchecked, was a killer who murders the person you used to be so you can join the person you lost.

None of it excused what Annalise did to Ella. None of that excused Aros’s lack of support for Kellen and the twins that day, or the way he refused to tolerate anyone holding a different opinion from his own. Thinking about it this way, giving her mother and the king the tiniest benefit of compassion, only created space for Ella to move on and not be weighed down by her own anger and grief.

“What about the rumors that he was abusive to Tala and she left willingly with Edar?” Ella asked, remembering what Markus Loewe’s father had said during their meeting.

“Never been proven. Then again, none of these stories have been proven. Aros won’t confirm or deny them, apart from tossing anyone into Terminus who makes their dissidence known.”

“What do you think?” she pushed, curious to know Kellen’s true feelings.

“I think people are immensely complicated,” he answered, not a real answer, just to placate her with something.

Into her head, in the privacy of their bond, he said, I wouldn’t be surprised if those rumors were true, or if they aren’t. Everything I know about Aros is from reading the myths designed to put him in a positive light and paint him as the victim. Who’s to say any of that is true, but who’s to say it’s not? What someone considers to be their truth, even if it differs from someone else’s truth, is still a valid truth. People can live the same experience and see it in completely different ways. That’s what I love about studying history. There is never one way of looking at something.

Ella didn’t know if she’d ever felt this attracted to him.

You’re very smart, Kellen, she told him, appreciating the way he blushed at the compliment.

You’re very beautiful, Noella. Ella was about to leap out of her chair and pounce on him when his phone began ringing.

“Shit, it’s my lawyer.” From Kellen’s tone of voice and the way his fingers plunged for the phone, she sensed he was experiencing a dreadful premonition of what was waiting for him on the other end of that call. “Brunner,” he choked out when he answered. “What’s wrong?” Ella rose from her chair to approach him.

She stretched her hand out to touch his shoulder when Kellen suddenly flung backwards and erupted.

“WHAT?” he screamed, stormy eyes of dismay raising to Ella. “When did you receive this?”

Kellen pulled his phone away from his ear and pressed the speakerphone button to give Ella an opening into the discussion.

“I just saw it in my inbox and called you immediately,” a muffled, gruff male voice resounded on the other end.

“How is this even possible?” Kellen demanded.

“The parenting order has been decreed on the basis that a risk to Jarion and Laya’s best interests has been identified,” Brunner explained, his voice focused in a way that suggested he was reading this off a screen or paper. “The Court deemed it salutary for the children to begin supervised visits with their mother, spanning once every week for a two hour timeframe, starting tomorrow evening.”

“Supervised visits?!” Ella exclaimed, interjecting to yell, “She tried to kill them all three weeks ago!”

“Who is that?” Brunner asked Kellen.

“Noella Rose,” Kellen responded, then tacked on at the end, “My girlfriend.” Ella tried not to descend into a puddle when he called her that, her breath cluttering her throat. Kellen continued, “Anything you say to me, you can say in front of her. And she’s right. Miya tried to kill all of us, including the twins.”

“There’s no way to prove that if there weren’t witnesses,” Brunner replied.

“You’ve got a witness right here!” Ella hollered, pointing to herself, not that Brunner could see her.

Witnesses they’d want to hear from, sweetheart, Kellen whispered with an apology spiked through the statement.

“What about the twins?” Ella pushed. “They were there too.”

“The Court isn’t looking to ask the twins what they want,” Brunner said, not meanly, but honestly. “They only care about determining for themselves what’s best for them. If the twins say anything now, when none of you went to law enforcement immediately when it happened, it will just look like Kellen convinced them to fabricate a story to turn on their mother. The Court will rule in Miya’s favor.”

“Of course I didn’t go to law enforcement when it happened,” Kellen snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Because what the fuck were they going to do? They’re in Miya’s back pocket too!”

“What about Aros Cavalian?” Ella chimed in again. “Aros is aware of what Miya did to us because he got angry with his envoy for not being there to protect me. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

“No,” Brunner pronounced, “because Aros Cavalian was the God who signed off on the order.”

Every bit of sympathy she held for the King of the Gods moments ago vanished, replaced with incendiary hatred. In that moment, she’d never reviled anyone more, even including her own mother.

“How does this impact the custody agreement?” Kellen asked Brunner.

“It doesn’t, not fully anyway. You still have full custody. That’s not changing, but the twins now have to spend time with their mother, and you need to let them, Kellen. No taking them and running away. If you don’t comply with this order, then your guardianship will be subject to change.”

“ Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Kellen buried his face in his hands. “ Fuck. This can’t be happening.”

Ella wrapped her arm around Kellen’s shoulders. He dropped his forehead onto her chest with a pained groan and twined his arms around her waist, drawing her out of her chair and into his lap.

“You said supervised visits,” Ella said, taking over the line of questioning for Kellen. “Supervised by who?”

“It could be a person known to the twins, or an independent supervisor provided through a service.”

“It’ll be me,” Kellen asserted, lifting his head out of Ella’s chest. “Tell whoever the fuck sent you the order that I will be the one supervising the visit. There’s no fucking way I will let the twins be anywhere near her and not be present.”

“You can be there too, Kellen, but the court won’t agree to just you supervising.”

“What about Aros Cavalian’s envoy?” Ella suggested, taking the phone out of Kellen’s hand.

“That would work,” Brunner agreed. Kellen squeezed Ella’s hip. “You think you can get Aros’s envoy to agree to go?”

“He won’t have a choice when I’m done with him,” Ella swore.

“Alright. I’ll let the representative know what you’ve decided.” Brunner paused, then threw in, “I’m sorry, Kellen,” before he hung up the phone. Kellen chucked the device across the desk without a care for where it landed or the final state of the technology after it clattered to the floor.

“This is my worst fucking nightmare.” He squashed his fingers into his eyes to keep the tears from spilling over. He finally looked at her when he cried, “How am I supposed to tell Jarion and Laya about this? How am I supposed to tell them that they need to spend time with the woman who abused them, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it?” Ella had nothing in her to give him.

No encouraging words. No perfect sentiment for him to latch onto. Nothing. All she could think about was if it was her in place of the twins, being forced to spend time with her mother after everything she’d done. She was thrust back into a time of terror and pain and isolation, a time when love was such a foreign concept to her that she didn’t believe it to be true, darkness invading her lungs.

“This is all my fault,” Ella stammered, tears escaping down her cheeks. Once she started, she couldn’t stop drowning in her guilt, panting unruly sobs that kept torrenting out of her like a broken faucet, missing a handle to mitigate them. “You told me this would happen if I kept speaking to the twins, and I did it anyway. I’m so sorry, Kellen. I should’ve listened to you. I should’ve stayed away.”

“No, you absolutely should not have.” Kellen gripped her chin and forced her eyes to slide back over his, to meet his green insistence, his emerald voracity. “I was wrong to ask you to stay away from them. If you had stayed away, Jarion wouldn’t be here right now. Laya wouldn’t have found her voice. Do not think for a second that this is your fault, Noella. Miya’s been looking for something to pin me with for the last two years. You were just an easy target. I don’t blame you for any of this. In every universe, even if we always landed at this same result, I would be forever grateful for you being so stubborn that you refused to listen to me.” Kellen’s lips brushed against her cheeks, kissing away the tears, which only made the tears strengthen, taking on a life of their own separate from her despondence, becoming a deluge of adoration. “You fucking saved their lives, Noella,” he said, then swallowed his own emotion and added, “and you saved mine.”

Ella leaned forward so her nose rested against his. Neither moved for several minutes. Neither spoke. Neither did anything but breathe each other in, gaining strength from the evidence that the other was alive beneath them.

“Will you come with us tomorrow?” Ella yanked her head back.

“To your mother’s house?” she squeaked. Kellen nodded. “Kellen…I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Her whole argument is that I’m a terrible parent for letting them near a human. She’ll have no leg to stand on if she lets that human in her space too. Aros’s envoy can vouch for us by being there. Maybe Eyal can get Aros to change the order.”

“Kellen. That’s a huge gamble. You’re risking all of us getting arrested on sight if I’m with you guys!”

“Not with Eyal there,” Kellen argued. “He wouldn’t let anything like that happen to you.” Kellen’s fingers burrowed into Ella’s thigh before he vowed, “Neither will I. Anyone who dares to lay a hand on you will risk that being the last thing they ever touch.” Ella gasped. His hand glided higher up her leg, inching precariously close to the aching juncture of her thighs. “Please, Noella? Please, come. I can’t do this without you.”

Ella knew in this moment that no matter how hard she tried, she would never be able to resist Kellen Kilic. She could thrash and scream and feign indifference, she could tell herself how wrong it was to feel this way about the parent of the kids she counseled, but at the end of the day, her heart would always call his name.

Her heart would always crush her mind to give him whatever he asked for, because her heart no longer belonged to her.

It was all his. This was her destiny.

“I’ll be there,” Ella whispered, falling deeper into his embrace when his hands splayed across her back and tugged her closer. Her heart refused to settle in her chest. That older female voice returned to her ears.

This is where you’re supposed to be, Noella, the voice insisted.

I know, Ella said back, then nuzzled her face in Kellen’s neck and let herself drift into his tranquility.

When Kellen and Ella approached the faculty housing building where Laya and Jarion waited outside, it suddenly dawned on her that she was supposed to be having dinner with Kellen tonight. Their plan for a first date had slipped her mind between Bryara’s visit, Jarion releasing his wings, and that phone call with Kellen’s lawyer. Ella’s heart sagged in her chest, mourning the loss of what could’ve been as they advanced towards the twins and the fantasy of their evening shattered.

“Ms. Rose!” Laya greeted in a squeal. “I breathed fire today!”

“You did?” Ella exclaimed with a large grin. She squeezed Laya’s shoulder. “That’s amazing!”

“Um, excuse me, miss,” Kellen drawled. Laya smirked at him. “Why wasn’t I the first person you told?”

“Jarion was the first person I told. Don’t start thinking you’re special now.” Ella laughed at Kellen’s frown.

“What did it feel like?” she asked Laya.

“I thought I was dying for a second, but it was so cool! It wasn’t a huge amount. Mr. Park called them baby sparks, but he said they’ll start getting stronger the more I let them out. I felt like a badass.”

“That’s my girl,” Kellen esteemed as Laya slammed her palm first into Ella’s hand, then Kellen’s, which he used to pull her into him and kiss the top of her head. “So proud of you, Laylie.”

“Thanks, Kellings.” She stretched up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to the edge of his jaw, as that was all she could reach.

“Why’d you call us down here?” Jarion asked, tilting his body half into Kellen to accept his brother’s hug.

“Let’s…let’s talk inside.” Kellen stumbled on his words before he opened the door and gestured Laya and Jarion to head inside the building, firing an anxious look at Ella that she met with a small smile of encouragement.

“Why are there candles everywhere?” Jarion shouted the moment they stepped into Kellen’s apartment.

Ella froze at the door. Every surface of the living room was illuminated in gilded flames, each of the tapers holding the fire shaded purple. Her eyes flew to Kellen, watching his brown skin turn red, and felt her heart preparing to leap out of her chest and melt into liquid love on the floor.

“Um…I was just going to have a quiet night alone,” Kellen stammered weakly, itching the back of his neck.

“With candles?” Jarion doubted.

“And roses?” Laya lifted the bouquet of red roses resting on the coffee table. Ella tried to swallow her own lips to keep from laughing at the intensification of Kellen’s flush, threatening to erode his skin.

“Can’t a guy spoil himself every now and then?” he snapped, snatching the flowers from his sister.

“Hey, no one’s judging,” Jarion laughed while raising his hands over his head. Laya was peeking over at Ella from the corner of her eye, not buying Kellen’s obvious lie that he’d set this up for himself.

This is incredible, Ella cooed to Kellen when the twins were busying themselves with getting comfortable on the couch. She hoped he could see her admiration and hear it clear in her voice. I’m sorry we won’t get to enjoy it tonight.

I plan to have many more nights like this with you, sweetheart. This isn’t our last chance. Ella turned her head away so Kellen couldn’t see the tears arising in her eyes. She claimed a spot on the couch next to Jarion and mentally armed herself for this difficult discussion while Kellen cleaned up all the candles, dropping them in a cardboard box.

“What’s going on, Kell?” Laya asked, reading the anxiety in every micromovement of her brother.

“I have…some not great news,” he started, situating in the wingchair beside the couch and resting his elbows on his knees, leaning forward. He slumped his chin inside his palm and opened his mouth to speak. “I found out—” An unexpected sob bled out from between his lips. “I can’t,” he wept, his gaze collapsing into Ella’s. Her posture adjusted with concern as she watched the man she’d come to adore begin trembling uncontrollably. “I can’t do it. I can’t say it. Please, help me.”

Jarion and Laya turned to Ella in vain, expecting an answer Kellen was no longer capable of giving.

It was on Ella now to tell them.

“I’m sorry, guys,” she began, squeezing Jarion’s hand. As calmly as she could muster, as it was on her now to be the voice of reason for all three siblings, she told them, “Your brother found out today that the court has ordered for the two of you to begin having supervised visits with your mother.”

“WHAT?!” Laya screamed. Jarion ripped his hand out of Ella’s to spring to his feet.

“How?! How is this even possible?” Jarion demanded, adhering to his anger while Laya immediately clamped her hands over her eyes and burst into tears. Ella tried to shove away the nausea of guilt, but it surrounded her and pressed against her temples, making it difficult to see straight with her own emergent tears.

“Because Miya is a vindictive bitch who has the Court wrapped around her finger.” Ella sensed Kellen said this to protect her so the twins wouldn’t know her presence in their lives was to blame for this. Now that he’d regained the ability to talk, Kellen promised the twins, “I need you guys to know that this doesn’t change anything. Just because she won a small victory does not mean she’s won the war. You’re still mine. She has no claim to you. You just need to spend two hours with her—”

“TWO HOURS?!” they both screamed.

“Two hours tomorrow night,” he continued, the color depleting from Jarion’s face, “but both I, Ms. Rose, and Aros Cavalian’s envoy will be there. You will not be alone with her. We won’t leave your side.”

“NO!” Laya seized one of Kellen’s pillows and hurled it at him. Jarion had completely frozen, solid ice to Laya’s exacerbated fire. “NO! I won’t do it! I won’t go back there! I’d rather be tossed into Terminus!”

“Laylie,” Kellen moaned. He crawled across the floor to sit in front of her. “My beautiful love.”

“NO!” She pushed at his chest, but Kellen didn’t budge. He wouldn’t move, even when she recklessly slapped him across the face and thrust her elbow into his chest. “Don’t tell me I have to, Kellen! Please!”

“I’m sorry.” Kellen’s facial features were bleary from desolate submission. “I hate this just as much as you do…but if you guys don’t go, they’ll call into question my guardianship over you. In a permanent sense.”

“No,” Jarion gasped, finally coming back to life. His fingers dug into his temples. “No. No. No.”

“Please,” Laya bawled, her fingers easing off from trying to hurt him and instead choosing to gather the material of Kellen’s sweater desperately. “Please don’t let her take us from you, Kell.”

“I promise, baby,” he swore to his sister, swiping the loose strands of hair out of her face so they wouldn’t glue to her damp cheeks. “I won’t let anyone touch you or Jare. Never.” Ella lost the battle against tears.

“You’ll be there?” Jarion asked Kellen. He nodded. Jarion then looked at Ella. “You’ll be there, too?”

“Yes,” Ella confirmed with a nod. “We won’t let anything happen to you guys.”

Laya wiggled in Kellen’s arms, begging to be released. Once she was unfettered, she bolted right into Ella’s embrace, wrapping her small arms around Ella’s waist and burying her face in Ella’s stomach.

Ella didn’t hesitate to return the hug. “Thank you, Ms. Rose,” Laya whispered into Ella’s shirt.

“Of course, Laya.” She lifted one arm off Laya and extended it towards Jarion. Kellen relinquished his hold on his brother so Jarion could join his sister in Ella’s arms. “You don’t ever need to thank me. Ever.” She swung her head to the side, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip to contain a sob. She then shook her hair out of her face and slipped her arms off the twins, only to kneel in front of them and proffer a warm smile that didn’t hold any of the anguish mutilating her lungs. “What do I always tell you guys?”

“We can do hard things,” Jarion repeated, eyes warm with reverence.

“We can do hard things,” Ella repeated, squeezing Laya’s hand. “You want to know why? Because we’re warriors . We can do hard things because we’ve survived worse. We’ve survived worse, and we still fight every day to find the light, to believe there is light out there for us to reach, even through all the darkness we’ve faced. What doesn’t kill us should better know how to fucking run. Excuse my language.”

“Cursing twice in one day, Ms. Rose? That’s got to be a record,” Jarion teased her, smudging the tears under his eyes with his fingers.

“I’m not setting a great example for you, am I?” Ella laughed.

“You set the best example,” Laya asserted, creating a new batch of tears in Ella’s tear ducts.

I concur with that statement, Kellen agreed. His gaze set her skin afire.

“I’m sorry I hit you, Kell,” Laya said to her brother, heading back over to him to envelop his neck in a remorseful hug. “I know this isn’t your fault. I know you’ve done everything you can to protect us.”

“It’s okay, Laylie.” He squeezed her back. “All your anger, all your sadness, you give it all to me. I can take it.” Kellen raised his eyes to Jarion. “Both of you.” Jarion nodded in quiet understanding, appreciation swelling between them.

Kellen’s eyes swung to Ella.

You’re going to be okay, she promised him, even though she had no evidence to support that claim.

I know, he answered, his voice a warm caress in her mind. Because we have you.