Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

TERRIN

E lle kisses my cheek before leaving with her other mates. It's been five hours since she went into the darkness on her own and somehow bonded herself to it, becoming far more powerful than any ruling queen of any court. She has every power now, and it was an honour to be able to witness any of it. She was glowing with every colour of the elements, and they were bending to her will.

I don't remember the moment the dragon spell broke, but it snapped like a broken branch, and then I was standing with the others in that place. Time seemed to just stop, and after Arden mostly told her off for doing this alone, we just walked out together. I think they are all just as amazed as I am and so proud of our mate. She is ours, ceremony or not. We can have some royal ceremony to mark her as the queen if she wants, but I'm not fussed about any of that shit. I want her soul, her heart, and I don't want anything else. My mate looks back, her eyes finding mine. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"

"I think it's better I do this alone. I'll find you after," I promise her. I can't speak in her mind anymore. That seems to be lost with the spell that bound me to my dragon form. "Go rest."

"We got her." Grayson nods at me and I nod back. I didn't like any of them to begin with, but they are growing on me. They are good men, and they only want to please Elle. Having that in common, we might even become friends.

I watch them go before turning and walking down to the dungeons. I'm going to go every day until they speak to me, until they finally listen. I don't know whether they've taken in anything I've said. I hope they did, but if they didn't, they're still my family. My sister, I've always had. Even in dragon form, we used to fly together. She was fine till she took the commander on as her rider. Did she know he was her brother? Maybe. Maybe that was when the obsession started. Maybe she can't understand why we killed him. I hate the thought of that motherfucker, and if I could have killed him a thousand times over, it wouldn't be enough. Fuck him.

I enter the dungeons, which are warm, and the castle has kept them nice. I look at my sister first. She's not in dragon form anymore. The spell was broken on her too, and I'm glad to see it. She's wearing a black cloak, her long black hair falling down her back, and she stares at me with the same colour eyes as mine. "The spell is broken. Well done. Now what do you want, brother?"

"I'm going to send you back to the West with our brother. Hate me if you want, but you're my family." I lift my chin. "And first you're going to make a vow in blood never to harm anyone from the Spirit Court, including Ellelin."

"She killed him!" she seethes. "He was your brother too, if what you're saying is correct, and she killed him. He was my rider!" Her eyes grow wet with tears.

"He was a rapist, and what else do you want me to say? She is my mate, but even if she wasn't, if I caught him hurting anyone like that, I'd have killed him!" I shout.

"I don't believe you!" she shouts back, but it's weak. She must have been able to sense his emotions towards Elle at the very least.

"Yes, you do, you're just too stubborn to admit it. You're siding with him because of that bond that's clawed into your chest, and with time, you will recover from the death of the bond and get your mind back. I know deep down you are a good person who has done terrible things. I felt the bond with my own rider and I know what it's like to have that deep connection to someone other than yourself. I've seen other dragons in the West lose their riders and become insane. They often chose to die, and nothing we said could save them. You remember this, and yet you're still alive. You chose to continue on with your life. He's dead and you've bonded with another rider. He's alive next to you. He's also your brother too, and so am I. Time will heal your soul, sister." I leave her and walk down to the tsar's cell.

The tsar looks like a broken man. Fuck, I don't even know his name. "What's your name?"

"My family calls me Aodhan," he answers in an indifferent tone. Aodhan. All those years I've seen him in the West or heard of him through the whispers, and he was my family all along.

"I need something and I'm not bullshitting around the topic," I tell him outright.

"Do you expect me to give it to you?" he actually questions, coming into the light. We don't look remotely like each other. I don't think I'll quite get used to that. My sister, at least I see that we have the same eyes, but him? Nothing. "Do you know how insane our parents were when they were looking for her? They never mentioned you, not once. But her? The obsession with the missing princess, it never stopped. Never. It went on and on, and they blamed the East. Maybe they knew, and it's why magic became so hated and the war became what it is now. So much death on both sides, and now what? What do we do next?"

I cock my head to the side. "They were monsters, and maybe following their example is a path we can choose to avoid. We can be different."

"Yes, they were, but not to me. Maybe they would have been to you, I don't know. But they were evil to their people. I worked hard to stop that. My wife…she won't forgive me for what I did with Aphrodite. I didn't want to. No part of me wanted it. But I broke every vow we had anyway. I have nothing to go back to, and you might as well kill me. The land is yours then, and you can rule." He laughs, but it's hollow. "I have nothing."

Against my better judgment, I take the key, and I unlock the door. I sit down on the bench, feeling the cold seeping through my trousers. He surprises me by sitting next to me, and I watch him for a long time. "You won't know if she'll forgive you if you stay here, if you stay locked in here. Make a vow and tell me how to be the king of the dragons out there and the riders."

"You want to be tsar?"

"Whatever the fuck title you want, I don't care, but those dragons cannot attack with Aphrodite. They will die. We all will die. I need you to come with me and tell them I'm in charge." I lay out my plan.

He searches my eyes. "Why bother with me? Just kill me."

"You're family, and I don't give up easily. So, no." I slip my dagger out of my trousers. "Your hand, brother."

He lays his hand out, and I draw a line across his palm in blood. It's up to him now. "I vow on my blood never to harm anyone bound to the Spirit Court or Ellelin. I suspected what my brother was, but I never had any proof, and I loved him. My wife hated him, and she never said why. And now, now that I know the truth, I think, is there a reason why? Did she know? I've always been protective of my family, but I look back and only see failures."

He pulls a crown out of his cloak. "How did you get that in here?"

"It's bound to our blood," Aodhan explains. The crown is yellow, glittering. It's magic. "It's always rejected me. The crown's been in our family for generations, and our father could never wear it either. I don't know why I kept it close. I thought my child would wear it one day, but it wants you."

The minute I touch it, it glows brighter. I feel like it controls me as I gently rest it on my hair, and I feel the power from it spread through my veins, wrapping around sharp dark magic within my chest. "Thank you."

"You were destined to be a tsar or king, it seems, and I will not stand in your way. I just want to go back to my wife, to my family. I will take our sister with me." He looks at her. She is sobbing in the corner of her cell.

I rise to my feet and go to her cell, opening it next. I walk in and she looks up. "You're free, but you will never be welcome here, not after what you've done. Ellelin comes first. Make the vow before you leave with Aodhan soon."

Aodhan walks with me to the door, and he looks lighter, happier almost. "I never wanted to be tsar. I only wanted freedom."

Now he has it, and it is mine.