Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Idon’t know what exactly I expected from the Fire Court, but walking in, it’s like being in a sauna. It’s boiling hot, like walking into a desert where it never rains and the heat threatens to engulf you with every breath. I instantly regret wearing tight, armoured leather trousers and a black top with long sleeves. The Water Court symbol is all over my clothes, and I feel very out of place in the Fire Court all of a sudden. At least my hair is up and off my neck, where a sweat is already building up. The high ponytail moves with my every step, the end of the braid hitting the small of my back.

The Fire Court smells like ash, blood, and wine. I glance at Lysander at my side, who looks a thousand times better than he did in the test. Now he is back wearing his usual tight-fighting clothes, and his blue crown is nestled in his thick red hair, which he has cut shorter. A blue sword is on his back, one I’ve not seen before, but his expression is familiar. There is a look of pure and utter vengeance on his face as he holds my hand as we walk down the long room towards the fire throne.

The fire throne room itself is simpler than I would’ve expected Arden’s throne room to be, but there is blood all over the black tiles, mixed in with the flame outlines. A giant stained glass flame is behind two simple seats with an entire domed window room at the back, again filled with stained glass, all brilliant and vibrant reds. It makes the entire room glow in an eerie red-orange haze.

There are benches, rows of them on either side of the pathway, filled with the Fire Court people. They are dressed smarter than us, in short red tube tops and long red skirts, and the men are in dark red shirts and matching shorts. The Fire Court nobles at the front look terrible, and most of them are crying. There are no children here again, and I wonder where they locked them up this time. In front of the Fire Court people are dozens of enchanted guards, clarifying that the people can’t escape even if they tried.

I look around them for just a moment. My eyes flicker across each of them, seeing the same desperation, panic in their eyes. The same shared wish that they weren’t here, that anything else was happening, and they watch me with a mixture of curiosity and hope. Pulling my gaze forward, I try not to focus on their looks of hope that seem like stars in a dark sky. I might not be able to help them, because I made a deal with the gods for the men I love, and I could have cursed everyone in this world by doing so. I refuse to let my head drop when I see my dragon kings, even if my heart feels like it’s left my chest and is in my stomach now.

I remind myself I’ve done something good with Lysander, at least. The Water Court is safe, and I saw my family only this morning before we left for the Fire Court, two days earlier than Aphrodite demanded we come. I briefly saw my mother and grandmother, only for a moment, while Lysander’s mother and brother came back to the court. My grandmother has had no luck waking my mother up. She’s just as still and just as peaceful as she was before. Livia has gone home, Arty and Hope are safe in the Water Court, and for a moment, I felt like I might actually be able to do this. That was until I came here. I need to ask Ares exactly what he’s done to my mother. He must be aware by now that I’ve taken her.

The Fire Court is so much different from my memories as a child, running about with Arden. Neither of us knew, the next time I’d come here, he would be a prisoner and I would be fighting for him. He was just the annoying boy I didn’t much like as a child, and now he is everything I want. Everything I need. Ares and Aphrodite are seated on the thrones, on plush red cushioned seats, leaning away from the open pools of lava on either side of the thrones, which are spitting up embers now and then. Aphrodite has a different red dress on now; this one is full of gemstones in a corset and a short miniskirt.

“You’re early.” Her melodic voice rings out. She stands up when we stop, and walks to Arden. My hands tighten when she makes him stand, and she leans into him, pushing her entire body against his. She runs her hands up his arms, and I take a step forward, shadows pooling at my feet. I’m going to fucking kill her for touching him. Lysander grabs my arm, pulling me to his side. “He would never want her. Trust me, I would know, considering how much he fucking loves you is a constant annoyance to me. It’s the spell, not him. She is teasing you into attacking and giving her a reason to hurt him.”

I try to listen to Lysander’s warning, but I feel like I can’t breathe until she finally leans back, sighing and walking back to the throne. Arden takes several steps toward us before dropping on his knees in front of the thrones, that red haze all over his eyes. He looks thinner than before, but there seems to be no new bruises, no fresh blood. Emrys and Grayson are so still, the red tint of magic glowing in their eyes, and it takes more strength than I thought I had not to go to them, shake them, and beg them to snap out of it. “We’re here for your test. Didn’t want to leave my friend’s court in your lovely hands for too long.”

Arden looks straight through me like I’m not here—like nothing’s here, for that matter. I try very hard to pull my eyes up to meet Aphrodite’s. She grins before winking once. “I don’t feel like having a long conversation with you today. I’m tired. It was a long night with the company of the Fire Court. They sure do know how to throw a party.”

Ares looks bored, running his hand over his staff. He really loves that thing. “Just get straight to the test. It will be more entertaining than listening to her rant on.” He meets my gaze for a second.

I smirk. “I agree, I want to get back to my family.” His eyes turn into slits full of indignation.

Aphrodite raises her hand, a portal opening to our left. She looks far too confident. “Go on, lovebirds.” She clicks her fingers at Arden, and he rises to his feet like her puppet. I grit my teeth, trying not to say anything. Lysander is still, but I can feel the fury rolling off him. I wonder if our mating bond makes him feel my emotions too, how livid I am, until it becomes a part of his own emotions.

Arden moves like a robot to the portal. Each step is absolutely controlled, and I watch the man I love with a desperation fuelled in my heart. Arden’s muscular body moves tensely, like he is fighting back against the hold, and I can’t do anything but watch this beautiful man. His shoulder-length dark hair is wavy, and it only highlights his perfect jawline, high cheekbones and how stunning he is. He takes my breath away, and I know I could stare at him forever, always finding something new to admire.

He walks through the portal, to the other side, which is all red from what I can see. Aphrodite’s words from the beginning of the test come back to me. She spoke, “In the court of Fire, flames burn away any lies.”

What does that mean? Lysander tugs me with him through the portal, and it snaps shut behind us. The blistering, sweltering heat sticks to me here, far worse than the Fire Court, and my throat feels like it’s burning with each breath. We’re on a rock in the middle of the volcano, lava in every direction around us, and I can barely see the edges of the volcano we are standing within. The ground gently shakes, loose pebbles tapping on the rock, by my feet.

“You’re here, princess.”

Arden. My gaze fixes on him as he stares back at me, and his eyes don’t have that red haze anymore. My feet are moving before my mind has caught up, and I close the space between us, throwing my arms around his neck, squeezing him tight. “You’re okay. You’re really okay.”

He cups my face, running his eyes over me. “What are you doing here, and why are you not on Earth?”

I lean back, out of his touch. “We can have a long discussion later about the fact that you decided it was a great idea to leave me on Earth after everything that happened. I’ve already told Lysander how much of a royally fucked-up idea that was, and I am so, so furious with you all. I thought…” I pause, my heart racing. “I thought we were in this together. If you fall, if Ayiolyn falls, I will be at your side and nowhere else. How dare you decide if I want to be here or not.”

“We decided because we love you and know you. You’d fight, with every breath you have, and die. You had no powers, princess, and⁠—”

I fling my arms out. “There is being protective and there is crushing someone’s soul in the name of protecting them.”

Lysander moves to my side. He looks uncomfortable. “We will have this discussion later, but not when we are in a test and close to burning in lava.” He looks at the lava with pure disgust, like it’s the most horrid thing he has ever seen. Water king through and through.

I cross my arms, frustration bubbling in my chest. “I’m not discussing it repeatedly. When all four of you are together, we’ll discuss everything.”

Arden strokes his hand down my arm before taking my hand and linking our fingers. “I’m sorry.”

Lysander is right. We need to focus. Arden might look at home in this volcano, but the rest of us are not comfortable here. “Where are we?”

Arden grins and it makes me smile for a moment, remembering my funny, flirty fire king. “This is in the centre of my court. We’re not in any danger here. The fires will not burn you as long as you’re telling the whole truth. I don’t understand why Aphrodite brought us here for entertainment or a test at all. We can just walk to the portal and get out.” He points to a small ledge in the distance, where there is a portal and a lot of lava between us. “There needs to be no major secrets between us, which I doubt there is, to escape. We’ll be able to simply walk out of here as long as we are truthful. My father used to bring traitors here to get them to tell the truth about crimes, or they’d just stay here forever if they decided not to and die eventually from the lava.” He grins at me. “I’ve never seen or heard of that happening. Most people tell the truth because they want to get out. My father would usually show them mercy, unless they were traitors to the throne.”

Lysander looks at me, and my blood feels like it’s on fire, matching the lava. Arden is oblivious, a trait that is going to cause us problems. Aphrodite put us here because she must have known about Lysander and me. About the blackmail. If we tell Arden right now, he might not forgive us. “But there’s no major secrets between us three, is there? We know everything, so we can simply⁠—”

Arden goes to step on the lava, and I roughly grab his arm to stop him. Confusion is written all over his handsome face as he steps back. Confusion is better than pain, which is what he is going to feel soon. Lysander is watching me. “Are you going to tell him, or am I going to? I don’t feel like letting him get burned to death to keep this secret.”

Lysander runs his hand through his hair, roaring to the dark skies above us. “How the fuck did she know?”

Arden lets my hand go, looking between us now, and the distrust in his eyes cuts through my chest. Oh god, he is going to hate me. He walks to Lysander, grabbing his shirt. “What did she know? The truth, now!”

Lysander pushes him away, and he doesn’t say anything for such a long time. I know I need to tell him. I clear my throat, and they both look at me. I focus on Arden, on Arden who is amazing and doesn’t deserve this. “When I first came back to Ayiolyn for the Dragon Crown Race⁠—”

“I’ll tell him,” Lysander interrupts me. “It wasn’t all you.”

“But I’m the one in love with him, so it should come from me.” I turn to Arden, hating the betrayal written all over his face and he doesn’t even know yet. My stomach drops as I make the words leave my mouth. “When I was put into the crown test, do you remember I didn’t like you at the beginning? I didn’t want to get close to you because you killed my ex-boyfriend.”

Arden’s voice is bitter. “He deserved it.”

“Not the point,” I whisper, feeling my eyes filling with tears for the dragon who killed my ex when we met, but he did it to save me. For the king I never meant to betray…but I did.

Arden rubs his chin. “I don’t get why we’re talking about the past. What happened back then is not a secret.”

I look once more at Lysander before making sure to focus on Arden as I tell him everything. “On that first night, Lysander cornered me in the bathroom. He made it very clear that if I didn’t do what he wanted, he was going to kill my grandmother.”

Arden rounds on Lysander. “You sick bastard, why would you do that? She was a terrified mortal, who we kidnapped. Why would you scare her? What could have been worth it?” Arden looks at me. “What did he ask you to do?”

Clearing my throat, I answer him. “He blackmailed me, told me to get close to you, to make you fall in love with me. Then he was going to get me to kill you because it would hurt you more to have someone you love kill you. Some of the times when I agreed to walk with you, to talk with you, some of it was because I was scared of what Lysander would do to me. What he would do to my grandmother if I didn’t at least appear like I was trying to get close to you.” His heart breaks in front of me. Tears roll down my cheeks as I reach for him, but he steps back. “But it became real. It became real so quickly, because I couldn’t shake the feeling that I knew you and trusted you. It annoyed me because I don’t trust anybody and there was so much risk in loving you. It was real, it is real.”

Arden huffs a laugh, but he doesn’t interrupt me. “I knew when you kissed me. Remember that time that you kissed me in your room after giving me the ring? Lysander was there, and he made an ice dagger in my hand. He made it very clear that he believed that you were already in love with me at that point, but I couldn’t do it. I could not do it, even when I knew what could happen, even if there was a good chance that he’d go and kill my grandmother. My only family left. I could not do it, so I sacrificed everything for you. Please don’t hate me for this, because I do love you, but that’s the truth. The truth between us that she dropped us here for.”

Arden is still. “Quiet, princess.”

Lysander looks at Arden, no apology in his eyes. Just nothing but the cold mask he wears. “We need to talk alone,” my fire king says with ice in his gaze.

I raise my eyebrows at Arden’s request. “I’m not leaving you two alone right now.” Neither of them looks away from each other, like wolves preparing to fight. “I’m going to be right here, in the middle of you both, where I’ve been permanently since the minute I came back to this world. It seems like we were always heading for this, and if you fight now, if you kill each other, then the only person who wins is Aphrodite. Your courts need you…I need you. I’m not okay, I’m trying, but I am not okay, and if you destroy each other, then I lose everything. You’d only be hurting me and your courts.”

Arden meets my eyes for a second, his gaze softening, but then he turns back to Lysander with a vengeance. “Why?”

“Your father, for what he did. He got mine killed,” Lysander answers, simple and straight to the point. But it’s like looking at a bomb covered in thick ice, cracking every so often, and soon it will explode, taking everything with it. “That’s what I believed at the time. I thought it was your father that took mine to the Spirit Court, but it wasn’t just him to blame. I didn’t think there was anyone left in the Spirit Court, but everyone who is to blame for my father’s death is on this rock.”

“You did this for your father? You betrayed me, a fucking brother to you, for him?” Arden shouts. “Your father was a monster!”

“Shut the fuck up!” Lysander shouts.

“Do you think you’re the only court that whispers? Just because your mum lived in a delusional world and thought he was a good person, it doesn’t mean he was.” Lysander goes very still. I can practically taste the fury burning between them, the anger.

“Guys, it’s not…”

Lysander steps into Arden’s face. Arden doesn’t budge, even a step. “You know nothing about my father!”

“I know everything. So did everyone else, except you, it seems. We never spoke about it, but I was sure you knew. I was sure you wanted to be better than him, a good fucking person. The Water Court wasn’t a good place when your father ruled. He was cruel, malicious, and death was a game to him. The royalty test was something sick he came up with. Nobody else had done it before you. He didn’t do it as a child. That was a test he invented for you because he was adamant that his sons needed to be strong. Did you know you had a sister? Older than you that died in that test? I heard my mother talking with yours about how your father had taken everyone’s memories of the firstborn princess, even yours. She asked my mother if it was possible for those memories to be given back, but it’s not.”

Lysander shakes his head. “You’re lying.”

“Lies are part of you and your family, but I hoped you were better. Ask your mother, fuck, even your brother. Everyone knew but treated you like the unstable fucker you are and never said a word.”

Lysander is shaking with fury, but Arden keeps pushing. “You don’t think my father would have asked your father for help unless there was a dire need for it? Your father never helped, never did anything to try to save anyone. Probably the only good thing that your father ever did in his entire life was go to the Spirit Court and try to save everybody. You’re angry about the only good thing that he did in his entire rule. You’re angry for fucking nothing!” Arden grabs his shirt, pulling him closer. “You’re my brother, not in blood but in my heart, and you’ve fucking cut it out and destroyed it. I chose you, broken and all, as my family, and you blackmailed the girl I love, tried to kill me, and betrayed everything good you had. You’re on your fucking own from now on!”

My heart cracks, and I realise it’s Lysander’s pain I’m feeling too. He is destroyed by this too. How can we get past this?

“I don’t need you.” Lysander pushes him away.

“But you need her, don’t you?” Arden asks, waving a hand at me. “You blackmailed her when she was fucking terrified, and now she’s your destined mate. Isn’t there an irony in that? Someone that you broke, scared, and used to get close to your enemy actually ended up falling in love with your enemy. You were right to tell her to kill me then. I was already in love with her from the moment I met her.”

“Stop. Please.” I step up next to them both. “You’re family. Please, we can fix this. I know you loved your father, Lysander. It’s okay to love him and agree that he wasn’t a good person. But you need to stop this revenge, stop hating everybody. I’m on Arden’s side with this. You need to put it behind you if we have any chance of a future.”

“He’s not going to do that, princess. I don’t think he is even capable of doing the work to be a good person.”

That’s the final straw for Lysander, and he slams a spear of water straight at Arden’s chest, but that’s a mistake. Arden catches it, and it turns into mist. Arden is in his element, in every sense of the word, and the fire here is fuel. I rush away from them both as streams of lava explode out of the volcano, heading right for Lysander. He defends himself with water from the very sky, and they meet in a clash of deadly steam, as I scream and duck. It doesn’t touch me, as though they have willed it not to. Sobbing, I watch them fight, knowing this is my fault. I scream, begging them to stop, but they don’t.

Eventually everything seems to fade, and I find Arden holding Lysander down on the ground, his face inches from lava. It is burning his arm as he screams and roars underneath him, and I feel my arm heating like I can feel his burning, too. Arden punches Lysander hard in the face. “How the fuck could you do that to me? I was there for you.” He punches him again. Lysander isn’t fighting him. Why isn’t he fighting back? “I was there again and again for you, and you were fucking betraying me!”

He punches him one more time as I run over and grab his arm. Arden looks at me. “Please stop. He’s my destined mate. Please, for me, stop.”

Arden pushes off my hand and rises off Lysander. “For her. You fucking worthless asshole.”

He walks across the lava, leaving us both behind. Lysander is a bloody mess, matching my heart as it cracks to splinters. We might have won the test, but Aphrodite definitely did better. I glance at my hand, at the mark there and see the fire chain is gone, along with the water one. I shake my head at Lysander before stepping onto the lava after Arden, heading back to the Fire Court. As I walk across the lava, it’s only then that I feel it. Arden, in my mind, and his emotions like a fiery, angry vortex.

A mate bond.

Arden is my destined mate, and he hates me.