Just not yet.
Chapter Fourteen
Aidan
Ifhehadtohear one more word about his “callous use of fire,” he was going to burn Jade’s tongue right off.
For the entirety of their journey, she'd reprimanded him every time he got alittlecarried away. Did it really cause any harm when he threw a ball of fire into the fireplace of her and Kai’s bedroom, and a flame “accidentally” hit Jade’s tunic?
Well,thathad been a mistake, anyway. He’d been aiming for Kai, to see if it would make her disrobe.
Aidan never claimed to have noble intentions.
Jade simply didn’t understand how his fire worked. It often had a mind of its own. If it had its sight set on something, it was not easy to control or dim. Especially when it came to Kai’s state of undress.
He supposed that was a metaphor for himself, too.
Aidan was hard-pressed to admit it, but thereweremoments when he struggled to command his fire. It was the fiercest, most temperamental and destructive of the elements. He hated to concede any sort of weakness, but it frightened him at times. How the burning, boiling heat occasionally licked at his control, taunting him to lash out and consume.
He could keep it at bay. Usually.
The three of them had spent every waking moment together since Kai and Jade had found him. After that first night at the inn, they’d immediately headed north, toward the Strait of Pyr and Evonlea. Once again, Jade had not been happy with his methods of conjuring a ride for them—setting fire to the stables in the local town and stealing three horses when the owner was distracted—but she ceased her complaining when he suggested she walk the rest of the way.
The stables had been empty, besides the horses he took. He wasn’t sure what the fuss was about.
In all honesty, Aidan never would’ve caused the damage or stolen from innocent strangers under normal circumstances. He’d been in the town for several days at that point, and on his first day, he had seen the owner of those stables knock his own son to the ground over a minor mistake.
Over the next week or so, Aidan kept a close eye on this man. Aidan had caught him hitting the boy on numerous occasions and had also noticed bruises in suspicious places all over the man’s very pregnant wife.
It made Aidan’s blood boil, thinking about the monsters who would do that to their wives and children. It took a lesser man indeed to raise a hand to those he should be cherishing and protecting.
So no, Aidan had no qualms about burning down the man’s stables and stealing some of his horses. Even if it meant listening to Jade’s incessant nagging. Kai, to her credit, stayed out of their bickering. Although he did catch her smirking at his remarks a few times, which always made him ride taller in his saddle. Perhaps he could win her back in time. After all, she was his wife—and that was not something he took lightly.
She had every reason not to trust him. In those final years of the war, before they chose to slumber, he truly had lost himself. The conflict with the humans, his need for power and control, and watching the peace they’d worked for crumble away had done a number on him. It had been easier to let the fire take over.
So, he had. And it had cost him Kai.
Nothing could take away the fact that he’d ruined things between them. He’d closed himself off from her and everyone else. He’d become his worst self: forceful and combative, using destruction to make up for his waning lack of control.
He may never forgive himself for the things he did to her—and the things she still didn’t know about. But the second his eyes had opened in that underground passage, he hadn’t cared what force threatened him or why the Aether had woken him. His only thought had been of Kai’s sparkling blue eyes, her smile, her touch that burned him in a way his fire never could.
Aidan vowed to do everything in his power to keep her safe, to make her feel loved and protected. To make her feel like the goddess she’d always been to him. And he knew that started with earning back her trust.
After their first full day of traveling north, they decided to stop at another inn. Aidan and Jade were perfectly content to make camp in a nearby cave or under a copse of trees, but Kai insisted on more comfortable lodging.
Jade found this ridiculous, of course, considering a thousand years ago they never had inns and taverns as comfortable as what existed now—with running pipes, no less. But Aidan had known Kai would never agree to sleep in a cave, which was why he may have also taken a small bag of coins from the stable he’d set on fire. Not much, only enough to pay for lodging and keep them fed on their trip.
He felt no regret for taking the money from that wretched man, but a bit of guilt did peek out at the fact that he had taken from the innocent wife and child, as well.
He’d been smart enoughnotto tell Jade about this little indiscretion. Until now.
“You didwhat?”
“You’re welcome to go find a cave to stay in, Jade. No one is stopping you,” he replied as he handed some coins to the innkeeper and gave the horses’ reins to the stable hand for the night.
She huffed. “You know very well I’m not going to do that. But we cannot keep stealing, alright? That makes us no better than vagrants breaking the laws.”
“Would you rather have Kai sneak into their subconscious and make them do our bidding, then?”
