REJOICE

47

Vera loomed above Aria, those once-silver eyes now filled with hungry flames. The ground shook around them, quaking and splitting and tearing into a million pieces—

"Aria!" A voice boomed through her. " Aria! "

Luka , she thought, a sob wracking through her. No, no, no, he has to get out of here. He shouldn't be here.

Vera raised a fiery hand, ready to kill the man Aria cared for so deeply, dark skies raging behind her. A black dragon soared high in the skies, unaware of the danger that was about to befall him. She screamed for him, but no sound came out.

"Aria, wake up! It's just a dream!"

Sweat dripped down her temples as her eyes shot open to find Luka leaning over her, his face contorted in fear. Beyond him, stone bricks had dislodged themselves from her walls, sharp pillars erected jaggedly from the floor. She was frozen, her breath rattling in her lungs with every exhale.

"It's okay," he pulled her upright and into his arms, wrapping her in an embrace. "You're okay, it was just a dream."

Tears streamed down her face and glistened against the skin and soft hair of his bare chest. "She was here, she was…" Another gasp escaped as her chest heaved at the thought of lo sing him. Luka's heart pounded against her cheek as he wiped her damp hair from her brow and held her tightly.

Aria wrapped her arms around him with a soft sigh of relief. She needed him. Needed this.

Her dream wasn't real. But he was.

Luka pulled back to meet her eyes, cupping her cheek still lined with tear tracks. "You gave me quite a scare. I thought you might bring down the whole damn building," he said with a small smile.

She winced. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

He shushed her. "Don't. It's nothing we can't fix. I just wanted to make sure you're okay."

She nodded solemnly. "I'm okay. Thank you," she paused, admiring those kind eyes that bore into hers with worry. "Thank you for waking me."

"I'm just next door if you need me," he released her cheek and began to back away. But she grabbed his hand, stopping him.

"Stay."

Luka's pulse quickened at her fingertips. "Aria, I—"

"Please," she whispered. "I don't want to be alone."

He gulped, uncertain. "Do you want me to get Taren? Your mother? They're not far—"

"No," she rasped out an incredulous laugh. "I want you , Luka." She emphasized the word, declaring those feelings that had been building in her so forcefully these past months. The ones she'd finally come to terms with, admitted to herself, the past few days.

Her eyes shone in the dark as she looked at him, unyielding. The nightmare—the thought of losing him—was enough to shake her out of whatever hesitancy she'd been feeling. They may not have a long future together, but they had right now. And that had to be enough. "Stay with me. Please. "

Relief swept over Luka's face, a sighed breath escaping his lips. He climbed into bed beside her, pulling her into the crook of his arm.

"You can tell me to leave any time," he said, his face buried in her hair as he placed a hesitant kiss to the top of her head.

Aria felt how fast his heart beat, his clammy palms that cupped her arm gently. She closed her eyes against his chest. Luka was real. This was real, she reminded herself. This was what she was fighting for, even in her dreams.

"I won't," she breathed him in. That familiar, petrichor scent filled her nostrils, sending a pang through her chest. She drifted quickly back into sleep, cradled in Luka's arms.

The nightmares stayed away this time.

***

Aria was the one who had to shake Luka the next morning, waking in a panic when she realized how late it was. They scrambled out of bed, already having missed breakfast and the first part of morning training. But the heaviness of the night before weighed on her.

"Luka," she stopped him, his hand on the door to return to his own room for his leathers.

She pulled his face to hers, their lips meeting slowly, gently, solidifying the unspoken thoughts and words that danced through their minds. "I forgive you," she said quietly against his mouth. The words she knew he needed to hear.

"You have no idea how much that means to me, Princess," he breathed the words against her lips as she felt him smile. "Thank you. "

She watched him leave, a contented grin spreading across her face before she slipped into her training leathers and rushed to meet the rest of their troops along the open training field.

She emerged into the bright sun to find her father, Professor Embris, Hyla, and a few other wind-blessed, Zephyrian fae already swirling and dancing with the air around them. Most of the other troops were stationed everywhere but the field, clearing the area for them to practice storm generation, if they could even call it that.

"Sorry I'm late," Aria panted as she approached, barely audible over the ripping wind around them.

"Wasn't this your idea?" Hyla teased Aria, her normally-voluminous curls now in long braids down her back.

Aria rolled her eyes. "Ha, ha."

"If we're all warmed up," Professor Embris interrupted, "then I would like us to practice some basic maneuvers to sync with each other."

They all nodded and lined up shoulder to shoulder. Even Arach, who hadn't actually had to participate in any sort of training for nearly a century. "Apologies if I'm a bit rusty," he muttered to the group before they began their back and forth motions, sweeping their arms left, right, up, down. Eventually their movements became synchronous, the gusts strong enough to topple trees if there had been any around them. The day stretched on as they followed Jil's orders, focusing first on tuning into each other's magic.

One day stretched into many, and by the time a week had passed, they had finally moved onto harnessing the southerly winds off the coast, sending them every which way to see what happened, sometimes colliding them with fronts from the north in the hopes of a violent pop-up cloud .

But the most they'd done so far was darkened the skies. No rain, no lightning. No storms. And Aria was frustrated with herself for thinking they'd be able to pull this off in weeks, something that had allegedly taken her ancestors years to master.

"I don't understand why it's not working," she said as she sunk further into the bath, the water lapping at her chin. Luka sat beside the tub, still naked from their earlier activities. She had been desperate for something to distract her from her frustrations, and he'd been more than happy to oblige.

He pulled her hands from her face, exposing her pout. "You still have time," he said.

She avoided his gaze. "It doesn't feel like it."

"I know. But you've already made so much progress in just a week. You'll figure it out," he said, brushing the tip of his finger down her arm, down her stomach, lower. "Perhaps you need another distraction?"

"You can't distract me forever, Luka," she squirmed beneath his touch with a light giggle. She grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers between his under the water. "I'm already going to be sore for the rest of the day."

"Fine," he huffed in fake annoyance. "Then allow me to change the subject." Aria arched her brow. "Evelyn's worried about you. She thinks you've been ignoring her."

Her eyes dropped to the water. "I haven't been ignoring her. I just don't know what to say to her."

Concern knitted across Luka's forehead. "What do you mean?"

She paused, the silence heavy. "I don't know how to tell her. About us."

"You don't have to tell her anything, if you don't want to. You don't have to tell anyone anything, actually," he lifted her chin upward. "I think she just wants to know that you're okay. But I promise, she already knows what's been going on between us."

"She's not upset I haven't sought her out?"

"First of all, she's not one to dwell on lovers. They come and go for her. But friends don't. All she asks about is whether you're still upset or not." His thumb brushed her cheek. "And you still could, you know," Luka smirked. "Seek her out, I mean."

Aria's brow furrowed. "I thought… Are we not…?"

Luka's grin was widespread now, teasing. "Are we not what?"

"You're really going to make me say it."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"Please don't be facetious," she rolled her eyes. "Are we not… I don't know…" She hesitated, playing with his fingers still threaded with hers. She'd never really considered what to call their situation, relationship, whatever it was. But if they put a name to it, what did that mean for them? Their realms? What pressure and expectations followed?

But the feelings between them were far more serious than any other relationship she'd been in, despite their short time together. And she didn't want to mess that up. Not like she had in the past.

He watched her contorting face. "What do you want us to be? There's no right answer," he said, "though, I definitely know what I'm hoping for."

Her heart suddenly sank. "Is it worth saying, when it may not matter given what may happen in the next few days?"

"I would love to hear you say it, regardless of what awaits us."

"It's never been done before, Luka. The impact— "

"Someone must always be the first," he studied the pout of her lips, "and I think it should be us. Don't you?"

She sighed. Yes , she did think it should be them. The first fae and shifter official courtship in the history of Wren. Even if it made them crazy to think so. She looked up at him softly. "You really want to court the heir of Allar? And everything that entails?"

Luka's eyes glowed with joy as he brought the back of her hand to his lips. "I would love nothing more than to court you, Princess." He trailed light kisses up the length of her arm until he reached her neck, her jaw. She turned to face him, joining their mouths, sealing their agreement. Their unspoken promise.

She pulled back. "I don't think we should tell anyone yet, not until we succeed."

He breathed against her. "I will shout it from the rooftops the moment you let me." She smiled, but he looked at her seriously. "For the record, this doesn't have to mean that we rush into anything, okay? We take things at your pace. My parents courted for years before they decided to marry. We could never tell anyone , and that would be okay, too." He brushed his thumb over the back of her hand. "Our little secret."

She blushed, suddenly self-conscious. "But if we are, in fact, courting—even in secret—why would I bring Evelyn back to my bed?"

He looked at her incredulously, laughing— laughing —at her. "Because you enjoy her company! And here I was, thinking the fae had caught up with the times." He shook his head mockingly. "Aria, I would be a selfish lover to keep you from someone or something that fulfilled a desire for you in some way. You're both consenting adults, you're free to explore whatever relationships you wish. But if you tire of me, or no longer wish to continue our courtship, I just ask that you be honest about it. We owe each other that much."

Aria wore her shock plainly on her face. "You're serious."

"Deadly," he gave her that sly, confident smile.

"And what if I wish to only be with you?"

"Then we will share every night together, uninterrupted."

"And if I wish for you to only warm my bed, no other's?"

Luka met her eyes longingly. "Then your wish is my command."

"Well, that hardly seems fair," she scoffed.

"That might be a problem for some, but not for me," he said. "If for some reason I want to seek pleasure elsewhere, I would speak with you first. But my lust is almost exclusively tied to my attachment to someone, and I don't foresee myself developing romantic feelings for another person anytime soon."

Aria's eyes flashed wickedly. "So if I invited Evelyn to join our bed—together—you would decline?"

"I didn't say that," he said, the corners of his lips tugging upward. "I assure you, Evelyn and I don't share any romantic feelings any more. But I would be lying if I said I hadn't considered it. I think you'd quite enjoy it."

Aria felt like she needed to pinch herself. She'd heard of these types of arrangements before. And she'd had her fair share of casual hookups. But this was different. Courtship was so rare, left usually just for nobility. Common fae didn't need to court, didn't require the pomp and circumstance of displaying their engagement and seeking approval of other families. They didn't need to politicize their love lives.

And with her family, every courtship for generations had been arranged for power and offspring, not matched for love. She wasn't sure of the rules. If they differed .

But who cared about those archaic rules anyway? She liked these rules better, they felt more in-tune with the nature of being alive, of needs and wants and everything in between. Luka could see thoughts flashing through her mind. "And to be clear," he added, "you are not held to one thing or another at any time. This relationship is a living thing, it may grow and change with us, just as we will grow and change with each other. I just wish for us to communicate, that's all."

She was grateful for his maturity, for his willingness to spell things out with her. She'd never had someone be so open about their feelings. Maybe this was what she'd been missing in all of her other relationships.

Trust.

Aria smiled. "I think that is a reasonable request." She pulled herself up to meet his lips. Their mouths played against each other, tongues swirling in a give and take they'd practiced many times now. Aria wrapped her arms around his neck and he hoisted her out of the water, hauling her to the bed. "Luka!" She squealed against his mouth, her body dripping all across the floor. "You're getting everything wet!"

"If you're included in that list, then that's all I care about," he brushed his lips along her jaw, nipping at her ear as he set her on the edge of the mattress.

Yeah, she was included in that list. "We're going to miss dinner," she warned.

He grinned against her throat before making his way down her body. "Don't worry, Princess. I have plenty to feast on here."