He broke away a moment later and rested his forehead against hers, their hands intertwined between their bodies, the soft night wind weaving through her hair. “I need to tell you something, too.” The solemnity in his tone made her lean back, worried.
“Do you remember the day you found me in the forest and stopped me from—from killing all of those humans?” Aidan removed his hands from hers and took a step away, then sat down on the grass. “That wasn’t the first time. I’d been having episodes like that for a while. For hundreds of years, actually. I’d get so angry and couldn’t stop the fire from building up and coming out.” He shook his head and scoffed quietly.
“You all have it much easier, you know? Rynn’s wind, Jade’s earth, your water…sure, they can all be dangerous. The gods only know I wouldn’t want to make any of you mad.” He snorted. “But fire—it often seems as if its sole purpose is to destroy. To consume. And that’s what I felt like it was doing to me. Maybe…maybe nobody was meant to have that kind of passion and anger within them for as long as I have.
“I would usually try to release all of the pent-up energy high in the mountains or in an open field, somewhere I could let it out and control the blaze. I would just scream until all of it was gone and I collapsed. It was the only thing that made me feel calm again. Then one time, it came out of nowhere. I was riding to the palace in Iona because the Vasileia court had called a meeting. On my way, I overheard a group of rebels planning an attack on the castle. They were laughing about the ways they wanted to kill King Medes and all the things they’d do to Queen Nah-yomi and her daughters’ bodies before they got rid of them…” He broke off, and Kai saw him flex his hand.
“They didn’t see me coming. I set them and their entire camp on fire.”
Kai swallowed. Even though he hadn’t told her this story before, she would be lying if she said she never suspected something like this had happened. She’d seen his rage and control issues firsthand.
“Believe me, sweetheart, I want to put those days behind me more than anyone. I get that you may need some time to trust me, to make sure I won’t go off the deep end again. I don’t want to be that man. And I plan on fighting every day for the rest of my existence to prove that to you and the people of this world. To myself.”
She sat down next to him, tucked her knees beneath her, and laid her head on his shoulder. The peace he’d given her in those words settled into her bones. “I believe you. And I want to do the same.” She sighed. “We’ve been alive for millennia, but we still don’t know what we’re doing, do we?”
He didn’t respond, and the heat of his residual guilt flared up and rolled off of him, warming the air around them. Kai kissed his cheek. “Aidan, I know how you’re feeling. Don’t you think I’ve agonized over the lives I inadvertently ended because of my actions? I have so much more blood on my hands than you. I was a…monster. And that’s something I’ll never forgive myself for.” She took his hand and kissed each knuckle. “I don’t think any less of you. Those were vile men looking to do unforgivable things. You’ve always wanted to protect others, and that’s what you did. You’re still a good man, Aidan.”
He looked at her, brightness shining in his eyes. “Who am I,” he whispered, “that I could be loved by you?”
She smiled as he leaned in and kissed her sweetly, his lips molding to hers as perfectly as they had a thousand years ago. As they always had. They may not be able to wipe away the darkness from their past, but they could light a new path together. And for now, that was enough.
Part Three
Drown
Chapter Thirty
Isla
Fourdays.
Four days of silence from the dark god, of peace from more encounters with robbers or the king’s men, of searching the mountains with her band of elementals. A hesitant sense of optimism was beginning to bloom in Isla’s chest.
Best of all, Jade was confident they were getting close to where the second half of the prophecy was hiding. All she would say was that she could “feel it.” What exactly that meant, Isla didn’t know; she’d stopped trying to understand how Jade’s sixth sense with the earth worked and simply trusted her.
Jade, Kai, and Aidan had decided to leave the Snapdragon and set up camp in the caves close to Rynn and Isla. They claimed it was for the sake of convenience, but Isla guessed the most recent incident with the dark god made them want to remain close together—and away from innocent civilians.
Isla shuddered to think what damage would’ve been done had he forced any one of the elementals to turn against the village.
They spent their days searching the mountains and, when they could, training in both weapons and hand-to-hand combat. If the king sent more men to snoop around, Isla didn’t want to be defenseless again. She put her novice skills to the test over and over with each of the elementals, trying to improve her ability to fight without a weapon. She was fascinated by the way they wielded their elements in tandem with their physical bodies. Jade’s vines in particular were an extension of herself—they were her primary method of attack and, within seconds, would have Isla bound so tightly she couldn’t move a finger.
The four immortals fought one another as well, although Isla could tell it was more for entertainment than anyrealpractice. They were so used to each other’s movements, so in tune with the very nature around them, that watching them was like magic. She was in awe of the way Kai’s water weaved through Jade’s vines, how Aidan’s fire danced and skirted around his opponent while Rynn’s body sliced through the air and landed blow after blow.
There had only been two instances where their practice sessions had to be halted. Once, when Jade and Rynn had devolved into a heated brawl and Rynn nearly lost an eye. The other had been when Kai and Aidan got too heated as well, but for entirely different reasons.
Isla made sure neither of those pairings went toe-to-toe again.
After long days of scouring the mountainside, they all gathered in her and Rynn’s cave to eat dinner around the fire while telling Isla tales of their home in the lost kingdom. She was especially enchanted by the ancient stone palace in the center of Iona: Palace Noctem. Isla asked countless questions about the structure and what life in such a magnificent place was like. It had been made completely of stone except for the gilded dome on top, like a shining golden star in the midst of the kingdom. Isla imagined herself exploring the halls, reading in the library, laying on the grass of the main courtyard underneath a cloudless sky.
The ridiculous and oftentimes embarrassing stories they told about each other also greatly amused her. Once, Aidan had asked Kai if he could “ride a dolphin”—Isla had to ask what this creature was, as she’d never seen anything like it in Evonlea—and Kai had summoned one through the Wyndsor Sea for him. He’d balanced on its slippery back, and when Kai urged the sea creature to swim, it shot off like a dart, throwing Aidan sixty feet over the waves. He had asked to try five more times. When Kai told Isla the story and Aidan reenacted the scene, she’d laughed so hard she fell off the barrel she’d been sitting on.
On the first morning they were all staying in the caves, Aidan had disappeared for several hours without warning while the others got to work. He came back midday with a large block of chocolate—which was very hard to get in Evonlea, as the best soil for producing cocoa beans was in south Karstos—and a small violin. Evidently, he was a natural with instruments and used to play for the king and queen of Iona on occasion. They’d spent every night gorging themselves on the decadent treat and dancing around the fire to Aidan’s music.
But of course, the main reason the shadows had begun to retreat from Isla’s mind was her time with Rynn. Her feelings for him had continued shifting, evolving, taking shape like they were molded of clay. Once the others left their cave in the evenings, they would stay up into the early hours of the morning, lying next to each other on her bed and whispering until she had almost drifted off to sleep. He would cover her with extra blankets before retiring to his own area of the cave.
Each time, Isla fought the urge to ask him to stay.
They toed the edges of that invisible line more and more every day. His hand often grazed against hers while searching cave walls; his fingers tucked pieces of hair behind her ear when he thought no one was watching; his eyes lingered on her mouth, then he’d give his soft smirk when pink spread across her cheeks. It was as if they played an unspoken game of who would break first—and she was pretty sure she was close to losing.
