40. Aldrin

Chapter 40

Aldrin

R elief crashes through my body so hard I think it will knock my feet out from under me. Keira is here, in my arms, gripping my waist tightly, as though neither of us could stand without the other.

Still, I cannot believe it.

Her body is so soft against mine, and I want to lose myself in every luscious curve of it. An earthy scent rises from her hair, like crushed leaves, and I pick some of the offending vegetation from it, smoothing those golden red curls.

I have dreamt about this reunion for a long time. Almost three months, though it has only been a few weeks in her world.

Keira is everything.

I cannot exist without her.

I don’t want to.

Those calls she made, filled with raw emotion and pain that poisoned my very soul, I could not ignore them. But if she asks me to leave, I will.

I am not the wild, possessed fae they believe me to be.

Insane?

Probably.

Lovesick and foolish? Most definitely.

But not toxic. Her needs will always be put before mine.

I finally loosen my hold on her. There is so much we need to talk about and we have very little time to do it. Those stunning, hazel eyes look up at me with awe, and my heart lurches because I have missed them so damn much.

I begin to say something, but all thought flies from my mind.

A ring of purple-black bruises wrap around her throat, the size and placement of a man’s fingers attempting to choke her. It drives maddening rage to rear up within me like some ugly, feral beast.

I was not there to protect her.

“Who did this to you?” I growl, as I trace my fingers along her throat. “I will kill that princeling with my bare hands. If he hurt you, I will hunt him across this realm.” I shake with the effort of keeping all that rage inside.

Keira’s hand flies up to the cursed marks. “Yes. Finan did this. You will be proud of me, Aldrin. I tossed him across the room and left him gagged and tied him up in ropes of air.” A slow smile fills her face.

“He deserves to be cut into tiny pieces.” I have to force my gaze away from those marks, otherwise I will tear my way out of this temple and find him, but a sense of pride at her strength fills me.

It is not an easy thing, standing up to someone who has power over you.

“I created a mess, Aldrin. I’m in a lot of trouble with the crown.”

“Self-defense should never create trouble for a woman.” I tenderly run a hand across her cheek. My blood runs hot as a fire of rage flares bright within. “I’m going to kill him. I’ll rip him from limb from limb, nice and slow, so he can’t ever hurt you again.”

Keira reaches up on the tips of her toes and kisses me. Her lips are warm and soft as they press against mine. I lose myself in the sweetness of them, forcing them open and sliding my tongue between her teeth. I run my hands through her hair as her lips move against mine.

Gods, I have wanted only this for so long.

She pulls her body closer to mine and I lift her off her feet, her legs immediately wrapping around my waist. Our kiss deepens with urgency, as my hands run over every curve.

My heart feels like it will explode from tasting her again.

All I know is that I need more and more. It will never be enough. I could have a lifetime of this, and I will always want more.

I pull away from her lips and place kisses down her neck. “Fuck, I have missed you.” I rumble into the soft, delicate skin.

“While this is a nice reunion and all, some of us in the room don’t care for a show.” Silvan snaps.

“Speak for yourself. I’m bored senseless.” Drake laughs.

I could kill both of them in this moment.

Keira unravels herself from me and turns to them. “Drake! You’re healed!”

“Yeah.” He sits up from his makeshift bed on a long pew and his cloak falls to his waist. “Apparently it takes more than a Belladonna Assassin and their poisons to kill me.”

“Hhhmmm. We couldn’t get rid of you that easily,” Silvan grumbles from the other side of the temple.

My people rise from their beds, and Drake, Klara, Silvan, Hawthorne, Zinnia and the rest crowd around, though keeping their distance from Keira.

It is fair. They do not know if she will support us, or be brainwashed by the other humans.

“You’re all here,” Keira says in shock. “Except Cyprien and Lilly.”

“I couldn’t risk Cyprien getting caught up here,” I utter.

Those large doe eyes turn on me. “And how did you get caught, Aldrin? Surely this temple and its wards can’t truly contain you.”

“Hah!” Drake laughs. “Well, that’s a story.”

I shoot him a dark look, then lead Keira away by the elbow to a private room behind the altar. The last thing I need is an audience.

I look at her nervously and run a hand through my hair. “Are you pleased to see me?”

Her eyebrows raise. “Am I pleased to see you? Can you not tell?” Her hands find their way onto my chest. “I am here because I tried to open the portal on my own to get back to you, and utterly drained myself. Because I was crazy to leave you. I cannot live without you, Aldrin. I can’t deny that any longer.”

Tears prick my eyes at the surge of emotions, but I hold them back.

The gods know it felt like half my soul winked out of existence the moment she left. All I want is take her in my arms, to taste her again and strip the clothes from her, but we don’t have time.

I take Keira’s hands in mine. “Do you still trust me?” When she nods, I quickly continue. “We have little time and there is a lot I have to tell you. You’re right, this temple and their flimsy wards would not hold us, except I made a bargain with the high priestess.”

Her mouth falls open. “My grandmother made a bargain with a high fae?”

“When we arrived here, we were spotted by their scouts.” The words flow out of me quickly. “Our options were to kill the priestess, kidnap her or attempt to evade the forces she would muster. You know my feelings on the former two methods, especially when I want an alliance with the humans, so we remained on the move, setting up camp in a different site each night. There were multiple skirmishes when they caught up with us, but we got away clean without hurting anyone.”

I run a hand across my face. “We made it to Appleshield Castle, infiltrated the outer wall using Silvan and Zinnia’s invisibility wards, but there was no sign of you there, Keira. You had already gone to the palace and we overheard guards speaking of your wedding to that princeling in two weeks. It killed me, Keira.”

My throat tightens as that pain wells up within me. I have to swallow down the lump that forms. “You were in this kingdom’s capital. I considered traveling to Sunbright City and infiltrating the palace itself, just to speak to you, but the risk was too great. I had to bring you to me. So I came here, to the Priestess’ Sanctuary and offered a bargain to the high priestess. She thought I had gone mad. A fae turned possessive and feral for a human woman. I hope you believe me; it is not true.”

I can no longer look Keira in the eye .

I tricked and manipulated her grandmother, and maybe she won’t be able to forgive me. Perhaps I am as bad as our reputation.

Keira takes my face in her hands and forces me to look at her. “What was the bargain you made, Aldrin?” Her voice is so tender, I want to crumple into her lap and tell her everything. How I grieved for her and thought I would never see her again.

“My bargain is that we cannot harm any human until the lord protector himself arrives to give us our sentence for trespassing, with the condition that I would speak to you in private first. Each of my people made the same oaths. We cannot fight to defend ourselves. It was the only way I could see you.”

Keira’s rosebud mouth hangs open. “Do they know that you’re powerful enough to walk out of here, anyway?” She laughs. “You could simply tie them up. A favorite pastime of yours.” She raises an eyebrow at me. Gods, I just want to kiss her again.

“My grandmother must think she can overpower you with Appleshield’s forces, when they arrive.” She pauses for a long moment. “Does she know you are the king of the Spring Court?”

My heart stutters.

The high priestess knows exactly who I am, but I am not quite ready to broach that with Keira. I need a few more moments of her looking at me like I am her whole world, before those revelations change it forever.

I lead her to a throne-like chair and sit her down in it, then kneel before her, so our eyes are level. “Don’t marry that prince, I beg it of you. He doesn’t deserve you. Your husband should worship you every day. You should be valued above all else, including a crown.”

I grab both her small hands in mine. “I want you at my side, Keira. You would be a true partner, my equal. I will value your thoughts, needs, and independence. Be my queen, not his. I have little to offer than exile, but I will cherish you above all else. We can carve out a life in this realm in some remote corner, if that will make you happy. Or we can live out the dream we spoke of, uniting the humans and fae together. I will lead whatever life you want, so long as you are at my side. ”

Tears run freely down Keira’s face and I reach up to brush them away. “Is the idea so terrible? I can leave now and cross back to my realm if you prefer?”

“No. Gods, no. I don’t want you to leave.” Keira laughs, tightening her grip on the hand she still holds. “But what of your dreams, Aldrin? Your court and your realm? You can’t turn your back on your people.”

“Ah Keira, they don’t want me. That much is clear. I spent enough time in exile that it doesn’t matter anymore. Cyprien can be the steward to sit on my throne. I will only have to return to my realm for brief intervals from time to time, to help muster the lords to him and our cause. None of that is more important to me than you.”

Her eyes sparkle as she takes me in, her fingers tracing the lines of my face. A rosy glow colors her cheeks and her lips part to say something, but the yelling of men’s voices draws both of our attention to the main body of the temple.

“Are the Assassins of Belladonna still hunting you, Aldrin?” Keira stands and spins toward the door. “Could they have followed us here?”

“No,” I say, standing and pulling her nearer. “I can guarantee the assassins will not cross into this realm.” Nervous anticipation rolls through me. “Your father has arrived.”

The color drains from her face. “My father.”

“To give my death sentence, I expect.” I can’t help the bitterness that rolls through me.

“I will not allow it.” The tips of her hair flicker with embers.

She tries to march straight through that door to confront the lord protector himself, but I grab her arm and pull her back. “Keira. The prophecy. There is more I haven’t told you.”

She shoots me an incredulous look. “We don’t have time to talk about prophecies right now, Aldrin. I need to de-escalate this before an outright battle breaks out. You don’t understand my father’s temper when he thinks one of his own is under attack.”

She is right. I have run out of time.

By their laws, they should execute us right where we stand. I will not allow it .

Cold dread washes through me, and not for the army outside. She needs to understand. Hear it from me. Or I will lose her.

“Keira, please. Let me explain. Just a few more moments. This is not the first time?—”

A resounding crash echoes throughout the temple and we race into its main body to find the great doors flung open. Rows of human archers with iron arrows notched and pointed at us are visible beyond the wide doorway.

I pull Keira behind my body as I approach, taking cover from that threat of fire beyond the walls of the temple. My warriors stand ready amongst the pews, airshields rippling before them.

“High fae of the Otherworld. I summon you out of our sacred temple to hear your judgment and sentence for trespassing into this realm.” A deep, masculine voice booms, brought to us upon an amplifying air wield. It bounces off the walls of the temple.

Keira steps out from behind me, straight into the aisle and line of fire. I try to grab her and pull her back to safety, but she simply smiles at me.

“They won’t harm me, Aldrin. I know every one of them.” She points at the dozens of archers. “That’s my father out there. Let me talk to him.”

I hate it.

I absolutely hate the idea of hiding behind her. Of putting her before me, into the line of fire, but she makes sense.

I want to give her everything, to make her happy, and that includes a life with her family in it, so we need to win them over. But I will not allow her to go alone.

“Stay close to me, Keira. I could not bear it if they snatch you away and take you somewhere that I can’t reach you.”

I follow her to the doors, building an air shield before us, layer after layer until it is an inch thick. My people add their magic to my own, fortifying it until neither an arrow or sword could penetrate my defense.

I don’t trust those archers. A single one of them could get spooked, and loosen an arrow that finds its way to Keira instead .

An entire army amasses within the natural bowl of the sanctuary, with hundreds of soldiers behind the archers, all in a uniform of emerald surcoats and brown leather pants. I am sure there are just as many hidden within the trees and do not discount the power of the priestesses and druids.

It could be a bloody fight to retreat from this, especially when I cannot harm a single one of them. I never promised I wouldn’t tie them up.

A man mounted on a black stallion sits at their head and he is a truly imposing figure. The lord protector has Keira’s fiery red hair that blows in the wind, with a short beard to match and a deep green gaze.

Those eyes narrow with deadly intent as they fall on me.

Recognition glows within them.

Keira tries to step over the threshold of the temple, and I grab her around the waist and hold her back.

“I can’t follow you beyond here,” I whisper in her ear. The building still offers us some cover. It means I don’t have to hold this draining shield to my back or sides.

“Take your damn hands off my daughter!” The lord protector roars, and my hands slip away, as though they follow his command instead of my own. “Keira! Come to me, sweetheart. Stand behind our soldiers where you will be safe from him. You do not understand who he is.”

“Father, he will not harm me,” Keira calls out. “Aldrin has not come to kidnap me, but to make me an offer I can accept or decline of my own free will. The high fae are not what you think they are.”

“Sweetheart, come here and we can talk about it.” There is an edge of true fear in the man’s voice. He must think I am a monster here to devour his daughter.

Keira does not move. Instead, her back becomes ramrod straight. “On my pilgrimage, Aldrin was a true friend. He helped me and protected me. He even saved my life a couple of times.” I cringe, because I only saved her from the danger I put her in .

“You don’t know this man.” There is a hint of hysteria on the lord protector’s face. “Not like you think you do.”

The blood drains from me. Every single muscle in my body ripples with tension, and I think I am going to be sick.

This is the moment of truth.

Edmund is going to reveal the one damned thing I never got the chance to tell her. Because I ran out of time. Because I am a coward. This is the worst possible way for Keira to find out what I have kept secret.

“Nor do you!” Keira bellows back, finally losing her patience.

“Has Aldrin told you we have met before, he and I? That this isn’t his first venture into Appleshield lands?” Her father spits.

Keira whirls on the spot, staring at me with huge, vulnerable eyes and an unspoken question on her lips.

“Aldrin. King of the Spring Court,” The lord protector barks my title as though it is a curse. “I told you I would kill you if you ever returned to my lands. If you tried to take my second daughter again.”

“What is he saying?” Keira’s face is incredibly pale.

Words escape me.

“This high fae visited our realm decades ago.” Edmund moves his stallion closer to us, as though he intends to grab his daughter and pull her away from me. “To negotiate a peace treaty between our lands. He wanted open trade and migration. I was a fool enough to entertain those notions, despite the treason to our crown, until he suggested a marriage to solidify the alliance. This fae wanted my second daughter to take as his consort back to the Otherworld. He wanted you, Keira. He has clearly been hunting you ever since.”

Dread pumps through me.

Nothing matters but the woman before me.

Keira stares at me as though I were a stranger, or the demon the rest of the humans believe me to be.

She takes a step away from me. “Is this true Aldrin?” she half-whispers.

It shatters my very soul to see her recoil from me.

My breath catches in my throat. “It wasn’t like that. I didn’t come here looking for a consort, just the negotiations, but the prophecy came to my sister in a vision while we were in these lands and I thought she saw my future wife in them. I thought she saw my m?—”

“Why didn’t you tell me you had been here? That you had tried to take me before!” Keira screams at me, taking another step backward. There is such fear in her eyes as those prejudices I had worked so hard to break lock back into place. It utterly breaks my heart. “How can I trust you, Aldrin?”

My chest tightens to the point of pain. “I didn’t know you were the same person when we first met. And then, I never found the right time to tell you. Gods, I tried so many times.”

“He would have dragged you away as a child!” Edmund roars, adding fuel to the fire burning between us.

“No!” I take a step toward Keira. “Never!”

How do I tell her that when Lorrella saw the beautiful woman that would fight at my side, curvaceous and with fire-red hair, we all believed she had found my mate. That her visions were tricky, sometimes set in the past or distant future, but often they told tales only weeks or months before they transpired.

We thought the lord protector’s daughter was a woman grown when I enquired about her, not a fragment of the future that hadn’t been conceived yet. Edmund had been childless at the time.

It is not uncommon in my realm to seal a diplomatic agreement by suggesting a marriage. The choice always would have been hers to make in the end.

When I found her in my realm, stepping out of the portal into that battle with the spriggan and Cyprien, I didn’t know she was the same person. The one whose world was fated to collide with mine. I have no doubt her pull on me is the reason I had unwittingly made my way to the portal that day.

I am not a crazed fae.

I didn’t enter this realm to kidnap or harm her, but from the look she gives me, she isn’t so sure anymore.

“This fae has marked you as his Keira, and he will not stop hunting you. It is what his kind does.” Her father bellows .

The high priestess fights her way out of the line of soldiers and faces Keira from across the field. “I once loved a high fae as well, child. Do not forget what he did to me.”

It is like a spell is broken. Tears run freely down Keira’s face, twisted with utter betrayal.

I reach out an arm to her. “You know me, Keira. You know the oath I made to you. Let me explain.”

She takes another step backward, away from me, and it breaks my fucking heart. It shatters the entirely of my soul to pieces.

My hands shake, because I cannot lose her. Not again. Not over this. There is an entire army threatening me, but all I can focus on is her.

“I would never have—” Something hits me hard in the chest, making me stagger backward a step.

My eyes dart to my airshield. It shatters before me like a pane of glass, the shards falling and dissipating.

I dropped the threads of magic for a heartbeat when Keira looked at me like I was her enemy. The powerful blow of magic that destroyed it links all the way back to the lord protector himself.

He is more fae than he realizes.

In the same instant of time, two closely followed impacts slam into my chest. Time slows. Each second drags out for a lifetime. My body is thrown backward and my feet collapse from beneath me. Searing pain explodes within my chest right before my shoulders hit the ground.

Keira screams my name, but I can’t see her. Her hysteria turns incoherent, becoming muffled and quieter, as though someone drags her away.

My hand flies to the two arrow shafts protruding from my chest and comes away sticky with hot blood. I cough and it drizzles out of my mouth. Agony ripples through me with each shallow breath, threatening to plunge me into unconsciousness, but I have to stay awake and make sure Keira is safe. For a moment, I forget why she is wailing.

The arrows. There are two of them, laced with poison .

I can feel the toxin’s bite, burning at the wound where it enters my blood, slowing my heart rate and muddling my thoughts until they move so sluggishly I am hardly aware of what is happening.

Keira doesn’t come to me.

I crave her gentle touch more now than I ever have in my life. I don’t know if it is because she no longer wants to or if she is being held back. Perhaps both.

The panels of the temple roof slide across my vision. I am being dragged, roughly. Pain rips through me anew with each tug, as the arrowheads protruding from my back catch on the floorboards. I cry out. Klara’s face hovers above mine and she says something as she frantically works over me, but it is all so far away and none of it matters anymore.

I lost Keira.

She will never forgive me and I will never have an opportunity to show her I am not the monster they believe me to be. Everything, absolutely everything, has been taken away from me.

The sounds of battle fill my ears and the static of magic crackles all around me. I recognize familiar voices in the fray, yelling orders at each other, but I can’t remember why we are fighting. Where we are.

A blackness tugs at my consciousness, pulling me down and down into a peaceful numbness where there is no pain. Claws of nothingness close over my mind and as they take me, the agony lessens until it is a distant memory.

I swim in that complete oblivion for the longest time, floating on the tide of a dark ocean.

When I peel my eyes open again, the entire world spins so violently I have to shut them immediately. The throbbing in my chest is a dull ache. I try to raise my hand to it, but my limbs are too leaden to move.

I drift off again, and rouse sometime later. My throat is painfully dry and my mouth feels like it is stuffed with cotton.

I sit up ever so slowly, my arms weak and trembling. There is a heavy weight on them. A tinkling sound reaches my ears, but it makes no sense. I squint in the dimness and turn my head to take in my surroundings, but the darkness of oblivion creeps back in and I almost pass out again.

I push my back against the wall and hold completely still, taking stock of my situation. The pain in my chest is almost gone, which means I have been here for long enough to recover from a severe wound by a weapon that inhibits my healing.

My mind is slow, and I constantly lose the strands of my thoughts. I sit on a basic pallet bed, but it is clean. This room is small, with stone walls and floors. A high, barred window lets in the moonlight and shows a slice of the night sky. There are no other furnishings.

My clothes have been changed, and my moonstone pendant is gone. I have no way to speak to Keira, if she would even hear me.

It takes a long time to muster up the courage to look down and acknowledge the weight in my lap. A chain stretches from the manacles on my wrists to the wall behind me.

I reach for air magic to move the pins and levers inside the tumbler of the lock and find exactly what I suspected. My power is blocked. I am utterly vulnerable. Helpless, in a realm that hates my kind.

I am in the lord protector’s dungeon, drugged, with my magic blocked. I don’t know if the rest of my people are dead or imprisoned like myself. They followed me into oblivion itself, because I couldn’t let the woman I love go. I never deserved their unyielding loyalty.

Keira will not save me.

Not after that look on her face as she backed away from me. I lay my head down against the rough stone wall and wait for my sentence. I am done fighting. I have nothing left to lose.

THE END

Keira and Aldrin’s story continues in A War of Three Kings, Dying Lands Book 2. Pre-order here .

Get the prequel for FREE by click here and discover the love story of High Priestess Naomi’s pilgrimage.