Chapter 58 58. Chapter
Elijah
The air in the courtyard of the hunter house still crackled with Aurora’s vibrating magic and the suffocating desire between us. She was still breathing hard beneath me, her lips red from my kiss, her eyes filled with that awakening storm that both fascinated me and made me cautious.
Then a single sharp crack shattered the moment and broke that perfect, burning tension apart.
I was on my feet at once. My movement was smooth, like a shadow. I pulled Aurora behind me and shielded her with my body. My eyes burned red as my vision sharpened to its limit. In the thick fog of the swamp, where the House’s magical protection met the dark water of the dead channel, a figure stood.
He was not hiding. He was not crouching in the shadows. He stood there as someone who knew he had been noticed and enjoyed the attention.
“Who are you? Show yourself before I tear out your throat,” I thundered, and the weight of my power made the air tremble.
The figure stepped out from between the trees. He was tall and broad shouldered, with the kind of confident posture only those have who have faced death more times than a mirror. He wore a dark travel cloak stained with mud, and the hilt of a longsword rose over his shoulder.
“Still this friendly, Elijah?” a deep, rough voice said. “I thought centuries would have softened your manners.”
My stomach tightened. I would recognize that voice among a thousand. It was familiar from the dark corridors of the Clan and from old battlefields where we had fought side by side against the shadows of the High Council.
“Donovan?” I lowered my defensive stance slightly, but my muscles stayed tight and ready. “How did you find this place? No one should know where we are.”
Donovan smiled, but there was no joy in his eyes. He looked like an old comrade, a friend with whom I had shared dark secrets in the past. He was the only Hunter I had ever truly respected, because he did not follow rules. He followed his own sense of honor.
“The wind betrayed you,” he said, pointing upward where the clouds still carried traces of Aurora’s magic. “An outburst like that can be felt even on the far side of the swamp. I thought they had already finished you, old friend. Or at least the girl you kidnapped.”
I felt Aurora tense behind me. I heard her fast heartbeat and sensed her confusion through the bond.
“What do you want, Donovan?” I asked coldly. “If the Council sent you, know this. I will not give up my life easily. And neither will she.”
Donovan took a few steps toward us, then stopped at the edge of the courtyard. His gaze drifted from me and settled on the girl behind me. I saw a brief hesitation, a shadow crossing his face, something rare in a hardened warrior like him. His hand moved toward his sword by instinct, then clenched into a fist at his side.
“The Council did not send me,” he said quietly. “I came on my own. The Clan is whispering that the junk is alive. That a Ruler is keeping her.”
At that moment, Aurora stepped out from behind me. She was not afraid. She lifted her chin in defiance, though confusion vibrated in her eyes.
“Who is this man, Elijah?” she asked. “And why does he talk about me like he knows me?”
I looked at Donovan’s face, then back at hers. The realization struck me like a blast of icy wind. Donovan had never spoken of his family in the hundred years I had known him. But their features, that stubborn jawline, the unique shape of their eyes, the resemblance was impossible to deny. And in Donovan’s gaze, I did not see a hunter’s anger, but something far more painful. Guilt.
“Elijah, do you know him?” Aurora pressed. Her voice trembled.
“I do,” I answered hoarsely. “Donovan is my friend. The only Hunter I ever trusted.”
With a heavy sigh, Donovan pulled back his hood. His face was more scarred than I remembered, but now the similarity to Aurora was undeniable. She stepped back, her hand flying to her throat.
“I never saw you in the Clan,” Aurora whispered to him. “Who are you?”
Donovan’s voice broke when he spoke. “They never allowed me near you. They lied to you and told you that you were alone in the world. And they told me that if I tried to reach you, they would kill you. I thought I could protect you by staying away. I thought if they believed you were worthless, they would leave you alone behind the Clan walls.”
“What are you talking about?” Aurora asked sharply, disbelief cutting into every word. “I have no family. My parents died before I could remember them.”
Donovan took a firm step toward us and reached out his hand, but did not touch her. “Our parents died, Aurora. But you were not alone. They separated us.”
She looked at me, her eyes desperate for answers. I stood there with my hand still resting on her waist, while my friend, the man I had fought beside a thousand times, was tearing apart the reality she had lived in until now.
“Aurora,” Donovan said again, his voice filled with raw, elemental pain. “I am your brother.”
The silence that followed was heavier than all the stones of the House. Aurora went pale, her legs shook, and through the bond I felt a shock wave of disbelief and pain crash into me, strong enough to almost bring me to my knees.