35. Thirty-Five

Thirty-Five

The Morgan great hall was eerily quiet. I hesitated in the doorway to the bedroom. Morning light streamed in through the open window. Ari still stood at the foot of the bed. Bloodforged iron bound his wrists to the bedpost.

The last time I’d been here, I thought I was going to the Castelle compound to die. The last time I’d been here, I’d been infected with corruption. Everything had seemed hopeless.

But now?

Enoch was restored to full power. The Aether was recovering. Valeria was dead. Sebastian was captured. And I was free of corruption.

But it had come at a cost. Now it was time to make sure that cost was worth it.

I stepped into the room, followed by Enoch and Cyrus. The room wasn’t small, but it suddenly felt crowded with the three large men filling the space.

I wouldn’t waste words on the shell of Ari that remained here. It was time to make him whole.

“How … uh ...” I waved my hands. “How do we do this?”

Enoch and Cyrus shared a look.

Cyrus scratched his chin. “Like last time?”

“Once you activate the rune, I’ll bind his soul to it,” Enoch said.

Ari watched them approach with dull purple eyes. Cyrus pulled out something that looked like a pen from his pocket. In a flash of golden light, it transformed into a knife.

My heart sputtered. “I thought you drew runes on the body with a Runemancer’s brand.”

“Relax, Enchanter. The rune is already drawn. I simply have to activate it.”

Right. I had to trust. I wrung my hands as Cyrus cut through Ari’s shirt, revealing the dozens of scars that crisscrossed his chest. The wounds that I’d caused were still open, bleeding black blood.

Enoch had said his body would start to rot without his soul. It made sense, then, that he wouldn’t be able to heal. Enoch drew a soul from the blade of his scythe and held it. He nodded to Cyrus.

Cyrus placed his hand on the four-pointed star. A scar carved into Ari’s chest. Golden light flooded the lines. I squinted into the bright light as Enoch brought Ari’s soul to the rune.

The orb floated to the star until it was engulfed in its light. There was a moment of silence, and then Ari screamed. The sound was guttural and ragged. Ari’s back arched as he strained against his bindings.

My nails bit into my palms.

The rune blazed impossibly bright. Then it went out.

Ari went limp in his bindings.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I rushed to him.

“Enchanter!” Cyrus tried to grab me, but I dodged his hand.

“Ari?” I cupped his masked face.

The spicy scent of gingerbread tickled my nose. Moisture gathered in my eyes as relief flooded me. His magic.

“I suggest you give him some space,” Enoch said. “Resurrection can be hard on the mind and body.”

Valeria’s last words echoed in my head. That one wasn’t a lie, hunter. He will return insane.

Cyrus’s arms wrapped around me, pulling me away as Ari finally stirred. His lilac eyes opened. They landed on me, but there was no hint of recognition there. He roared and pulled on the chains around his wrists.

If you truly love him, you will kill him. You’ll finally free him.

No.

This was Ari. He wouldn’t give up on me . There had to be a way to get through to him. To remind him of who he was.

I dropped, slipping out of Cyrus’s arms.

“Enchanter! What are you doing?”

“Taking off his bloodforged iron.” I unclasped my choker that I’d put on him after the battle. “It must be hurting him.”

“Take a moment to think about what you’re doing.” Cyrus hovered, sparing a concerned glance at Ari.

I started on the chains, but Ari’s straining made undoing them tricky. “This moment is all I’ve been able to think about.”

I finished the first chain, and Ari pulled hard on the other chain, bending the metal until it snapped, freeing himself.

He slammed me into the wall and pinned me there.

“No!” Cyrus gripped Ari’s shoulders, but he was strong. It didn’t matter. I tugged Ari’s mask down and kissed him.

If Ari didn’t remember, I’d remind him. I conjured memories in my mind and channeled them to Ari. Images, sensations, my guilt, my … love .

I squeezed my eyes closed as they flooded me.

The first time I saw Ari in the basement of the Dungeon, he leaned against the wall, and I made that stupid joke about how one of us had to change. He knew then that I was a hunter. He knew all along.

Ari froze against me.

Then, there were times he visited me on my balcony … and the night he stayed with me.

“Why do you wear so much to cover yourself? Even when no one can see you?”

“You can see me.”

Ari relaxed slightly, and I carefully ran my fingers along the scars on his neck.

The clearest memory drifted to my mind. That day in the Colosseum. I’d murdered the Matron. Ari found me sitting among bodies and my own blood. He bared his own secrets to me. He bared his shame and guilt to make me feel less alone. He saved me so many times.

It was my turn to return the favor.

Ari’s lips finally moved against mine. His gravelly voice replaced the echoing memories in my mind. Arsyn.

I smiled against his mouth and savored the taste of his sweet, spicy magic before breaking the kiss. My chest heaved with my breath. Cyrus and Enoch watched. Cyrus’s grip still dug into Ari’s shoulders.

“I love you.” The words tumbled from me. Ari opened his mouth, but I pressed my finger to his swollen lips. “I have to get this out. I thought I’d never see you again and that thought terrified me. You said I wouldn’t feel the same without the corruption, but my corruption is gone, and I still love you.”

Ari tilted his head. “Your corruption is gone?”

“Long story. But I don’t want to talk about that now.” I slid my fingers through his soft hair and pulled his head down.

He paused, our lips an inch apart. “Not here.”

Thick shadows climbed his body, and he disappeared like smoke in my hands. Cyrus stared at me, dumbfounded.

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. That man has a gift for theatrics.” I sighed. “I’m following him. He could need help readjusting.”

Cyrus raised an eyebrow at me. “You’re following Ari because you’re worried about him?”

“Yep.” I cleared my throat and pressed my fingers to the teleportation rune on the inside of my wrist. “I’ll …uh … see you guys later.”

I activated my rune and emerged in the Aether. The wells were still lit, if dimly. I went to the Draqaar well. Where else would Ari go? I climbed over the edge and let myself fall. I focused on Ari, letting the magic guide me.

I stepped out of the bright white into a familiar room. Gloomy light filtered in through barred windows. The bodies had been cleared long ago, but black and red blood stained the dark wood and metal.

The Colosseum. I hadn’t been here since that day the undead attacked.

Ari’s cloaked form was another shadow in the darkness, but I wasn’t afraid of the darkness anymore.

“Why here?” My voice echoed in the cavernous space.

Ari circled, clinging to the edge of the room. He hadn’t replaced his mask or hood. “This was where I first realized I loved you.”

My brain spluttered.

“For centuries, I didn’t say a word. I didn’t kill nor care.” Ari came closer, stopping at the edge of the sunbeam from above. “But all that changed with you.”

I took his hand, gently pulling him into the light. “Let me see you.”

Ari’s hair fell into his eyes.

I grabbed the hem of my shirt and lifted it over my head. My silver hair fell in waves around me, tickling my lower back.

Ari sucked in a breath. “What are you doing?” His burning lilac eyes watched me from behind his hair.

I smirked. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

I captured his hand and brought it to the jagged line on my stomach where Elias had driven a sword through me. Then, to the faint line on my side. A result of the night Em and I tried to save a warehouse of slaves. I brushed my hair back from my shoulder where an arrow wound had healed. Dozens of small, white lines covered my body.

Ari’s hand splayed over my hip. His thumb brushed a corruption scar. “What happened?”

“I thought you were gone forever.” I lifted his hand to my lips, kissing the little white lines.

I slid my hands under his cloak, and unfastened it, slowly slipping it from his shoulders and letting it fall.

Ari’s shirt was torn, revealing his scars and the fresh wounds from my corruption. The slashes covered his skin, crisscrossing one another. I stepped closer, letting my fingers trace the raised scars. They were like brushstrokes on a painting. Each scar was a piece of who Ari was. How he’d become the Wraith, and how he’d become the man I loved.

I stood on tiptoe and kissed the scar that carved its way down Ari’s cheek. He turned his head, capturing me in an intoxicating kiss.

Ari sucked in a breath, and I jerked back. He held his hand over a bleeding wound on his stomach. “I’m fine.”

“I did that to you.” I crossed my arms and turned away. “I’m the reason you’re hurting.”

“You are the reason I still live.” Ari cupped my cheek, guiding my head to face him. I leaned into his touch. “The reason I still want to.”

I tapped the carved arms of my chair and gazed down the gaudy table from my seat at the head. My guys surrounded me, sitting around the table. I sat at the head. Genny and Max stood next to me while Ari took my other side.

I wasn’t a huge fan of staying at the Castelle compound, but there were still injured otherworlders here and Cyrus didn’t want to risk moving Sebastian until it was time to teleport to Niaras.

The Castelle great hall was packed with hunters, demons, otherworlders, and even humans from Haven. The hunters kept to their own side, but the otherworlders weren’t exactly unified. Bickering between the factions filled the room, and energy crackled in the air. They argued, but at least they weren’t killing one another. For now.

Sabrina clapped her hands together, sending a psychic kick behind it that had every being but the hunters grasping their heads and groaning. But at least they were no longer arguing.

“Much better.” Sabrina’s red lips lifted in a smirk. “Thank you all for coming and thank you all for responding so quickly to my request for reinforcements.”

“We want answers!” A short, green-haired elemental raised her fist from the back of the room.

“And answers you shall have,” Sabrina said, always the diplomat. “That’s why we gathered you all here after the events of yesterday.” She waved at me.

“Me?” I swallowed. Sabrina urged me on while the room looked at me expectantly. I cleared my throat. “I am Arsyn Morgan, also known by some as the Enchanter.” Whispers spread among the otherworlders and hunters alike. “You may have heard things about me and likely have your own reasons for mistrusting me.”

A young hunter stepped forward. Her duster was torn and dirty. Hunter marks decorated her gaunt cheeks. “I heard you were the one who killed that woman.”

“Um, well I—”

“She did!” Genny waved her arms dramatically. “Ripped Valeria’s soul right out of her body.”

Another hunter stepped forward. “What will happen to the Castelle boy?”

“He is being held in the compound for now,” Cyrus answered. “He will be taken to Niaras for his trial.”

“He should die alongside the others!”

Shouted agreement rang through the room. At least they could all agree on something.

“I have deferred to the Gray Matriarch’s judgment for those hunters captured with Sebastian, but by creating and wielding corruption, he has committed crimes against the four worlds. His fate will be decided by the bennu council.” The corner of his mouth lifted in a slight smile. “But I can assure you, the bennu council is anything but gentle.”

That seemed to pacify the crowd for now, but my stomach turned. A fate worse than the one that awaited Sebastian from the hunters?

“Our Patriarch is dead.” My distant cousin, a Morgan, stepped forward from the hunters. His sharp gaze drilled into me.

I swallowed thickly. My father had named me heir before he died. “I will—”

“Hey!” Genny slammed her fist onto the table. “You think you can abandon us and then just waltz back in here and become Matriarch? I’ve trained for years to be heir.”

“I thought you didn’t want to be heir?” I whispered.

Genny winked at me. “Savior of the four worlds, huh? I’d say you have enough on your plate, wouldn’t you?”

The Morgan nodded at Genny and stepped back. My breath rushed out of me.

“What about our magic?” a fire elemental asked. “My daughter was born a month ago. I … I don’t feel any magic in her like I did with her sisters.”

Sabrina clasped her hands at her waist. “Our recently revived reaper is ferrying souls and mana as we speak.”

The conversation continued, but my focus moved elsewhere. My men surrounded me. I was in a room of powerful hunters and otherworlders. But the only thing I could feel was the carved edges of my chair and the cold that seeped in from the open window.

I felt the loss of Enoch’s gift keenly.

I’d become so used to their auras. Their magic was a sort of security blanket for me. A constant reminder that they were here. That I wasn’t alone.

I slid my hand from the arm of my chair and reached for Ari. His hand swallowed mine as his magic took over my senses. I sighed, savoring the feeling.

I was alive. And we were together. Nothing else mattered.