The Trial and The Tether.

The Trial and The Tether.


Chapter Eighty: The Trial and the Tether

BANG!

The war room door slammed open so hard it bounced off the wall. Everyone jumped, papers fluttering. 

Aiden stood in the doorway, chest heaving, eyes blazing.

“Aldrich!”

He was across the room before anyone could blink, storming right up to his Alpha. 

“What are you thinking, leaving me off the roster? Did you honestly think I’d just sit here knitting booties while you go fight a volcano?”

Aldrich turned, his face a mask of strained patience. “Aiden, you and Gabriella will hold the mansion. It’s the safest place, my love. You have to understand.” 

His voice was gentle, the voice he used when he was trying to be reasonable, and it just made Aiden angrier.

“The safest place is at the source of the problem, stopping it for good,” Aiden snapped, crossing his arms over the small, firm swell of his stomach. 

A defiant shield. “I’m going. My mind’s made up.”

“You’re carrying our child,” Aldrich said, his own voice hardening. “I won’t risk it. I can’t.”

“And that child will inherit a world overrun by rock monsters if we fail!” Aiden’s voice rose, echoing in the room. He took a step closer, jabbing a finger at Aldrich’s chest. 

“Let’s be real, Aldrich. Who stopped them in the tunnels? Who has the fire that actually works? I’m not just pregnant. Right now, I am the most powerful weapon this pack has.”

“You are not a weapon,” Aldrich growled, his own temper fraying. “You are my mate. My heart. My job is to protect you!”

The Seer, who had been watching silently, drifted forward. She placed a cool, thin hand on Aldrich’s tense arm. 

“He speaks the truth, Alpha. The Prime did not choose a vessel to be kept in a glass case. The Moon Child’s power is needed. To deny it is to court failure.”

A tense, heavy silence filled the room. Aldrich’s gaze warred with Aiden’s…fear against fury, protectiveness against purpose. 

Finally, Aldrich looked away, a muscle ticking in his jaw. He’d lost.

“Fine,” he ground out, the word tasting like defeat. “But you stay behind me. At all times. That is not a request.”

Aiden didn’t smile. He just gave a single, sharp nod. Game on.



Mount Obsidian wasn’t what they expected. It wasn’t a simple hole in the ground. It was a fortress.

A colossal archway, made of seamless black stone, was sealed shut. 

Glowing blue runes snaked across its surface, pulsing like a slow, ancient heartbeat and standing guard before it was a statue that wasn’t a statue.

It was a Stone Sentinel, twice as tall as Aldrich, carved from gleaming obsidian. In its hands was a massive tablet, not a sword. 

As they approached, its head turned with a sound of grinding rock. Light ignited in its hollow eyes.

“To walk the Path of Molten Truth, you must prove your worth in the Trial of Stone,” its voice boomed, shaking pebbles loose from the mountain. 

“A champion must face me. Victory opens the path. Defeat… ends your journey.” It gestured with a slow, heavy hand to the scattered bones and rusted armor at its feet. 

The finalists from other, unlucky teams.

“I’ll fight,” Aldrich and Aiden said in perfect, furious unison.

Aldrich’s hand shot out, gripping Aiden’s arm. “No. I’m the best swordsman here. This is my trial.”

“Aldrich, no! Look at the bones! It’s a death trap!” Aiden pleaded, his fear cutting through his anger.

Aldrich turned, his big hands coming up to cup Aiden’s face. He leaned close, their foreheads almost touching. 

“And that’s exactly why it has to be me,” he whispered, voice thick with promise. “I will not lose. I have too much to come back to.”

He let go and strode forward, shrugging off his jacket. The Sentinel watched, unmoving.

Aiden’s heart hammered. He couldn’t just watch. As Aldrich drew his sword, Aiden’s eyes flared with that familiar, otherworldly white-gold fire. He darted forward before anyone could stop him.

“Aldrich, wait!”

He placed both hands on the hilt of Aldrich’s sword. His own power surged down his arms….not the destructive inferno of the tunnels, but a focused, brilliant flame. 

It raced along the blade, covering it in dancing, celestial fire that burned white and blue.

“You fight with your strength,” Aiden breathed, locking eyes with his mate. “But you’ll fight with my fire, too. Now bring my heart back to me in one piece.”

He pulled Aldrich down into a searing, desperate kiss that tasted of fear and iron-clad hope. When they broke apart, Aldrich’s eyes were blazing with a new light.

“Alright! Enough! The guardian’s getting bored!” Fiona yelled, though her own hands were clenched with worry.

The Sentinel moved. It was shockingly fast, its stone greatsword a blur. 

Aldrich ducked, the wind of the swing ruffling his now-glowing white hair. He rolled, came up, and lunged, aiming for the knee. 

The flaming sword bit deep, shearing through black rock and leaving a sizzling, molten wound.

The Sentinel roared, a sound of grinding boulders, but didn’t stumble.

Then it feinted. A massive stone fist backhanded Aldrich across the cavern. He hit the ground with a sickening thud, the air knocked from his lungs.

“ALDRICH!” Aiden screamed, lurching forward. Grants wrapped his arms around him, holding him back. “LET ME GO!”

The Sentinel loomed over Aldrich, raising its sword for the final, crushing blow.

Aldrich pushed himself up on one elbow, gasping. His eyes found Aiden’s across the distance. He didn’t see the descending blade. 

He saw his mate’s tear-streaked face, the protective fire in his eyes, the life growing within him.

A roar tore from Aldrich’s throat…pure, undiluted Alpha fury, amplified by a mate’s terror. He didn’t retreat. 

He charged forward, under the arc of death, and drove the white-hot sword upward with every ounce of his strength.

The blade plunged into the Sentinel’s chest. It froze.

Cracks spiderwebbed out from the wound, glowing with Aiden’s borrowed fire. 

The Sentinel looked down, then at Aldrich. It gave a slow, grinding nod of respect.

“The fire of the stars… and the heart of a protector. You are worthy. The path is open.”

It exploded into a million shards of light, which swirled like a galaxy before funneling into the archway. 

With a deep, earth-shaking THRUM, the giant doors rumbled open, revealing a staircase that spiraled down into a pulsating, fiery darkness.

Merrick let out a low whistle. “Damn, Aldrich. Remind me never to challenge you to arm-wrestle.”

Aldrich didn’t hear him. He was already striding back to Aiden, who broke free from Grants and ran into his arms. 

Aldrich lifted him, spinning him once before crushing him in a hug, their foreheads pressed together, both of them breathing hard.

“Told you,” Aldrich murmured into his hair.

“Don’t you ever scare me like that again,” Aiden whispered back, his voice muffled against Aldrich’s neck.



The heat at the bottom was immense. They emerged into a cavern so vast the ceiling was lost in shadow. 

In the center was a lake…not of water, but of shimmering, silver magma that bubbled and churned. The Primordial Forge.

And there, at its edge, was the artist.

Kneeling, his bare hands submerged in the molten silver, was a man… or what was left of one. 

His skin was like parched desert earth, split with cracks that glowed from within with the same silver light. 

He hummed tunelessly as he stroked the magma, like petting a cat.

“You have come to see my children,” he said without turning. His voice was like sand sliding over glass. “They are beautiful, are they not? Eternal….Unfeeling and pure.”

“You’re attacking innocent people!” Prince yelled, his voice echoing.

The figure…Baki…turned his head. His eyes, pits of molten silver, slid over the group and locked onto Aiden. 

A slow, terrible smile cracked his dusty face.

“I am saving them, little Moon Child,” Baki crooned, standing. The magma dripped from his fingers, solidifying into tiny, skittering rock creatures. 

“Flesh is weakness, disease and decay. It hurts. I will give this world a stronger skeleton. A painless eternity.”

As he spoke, the magma lake heaved. Not with small creatures this time. 

A shape began to rise from the center…a monstrous, half-formed golem, as big as a house, sleeping within the molten heart.

“And you,” Baki said, pointing a glowing finger directly at Aiden, his voice dripping with vile hunger. 

“You are the final ingredient. A pregnant Omega, brimming with life… and touched by a prime celestial spirit. Your spark is the key to waking my masterpiece.”

Aldrich’s roar of fury shook the cavern. He stepped in front of Aiden, his sword blazing once more with Aiden’s fire. “You will not touch him.”

“Crush it all!” Aldrich commanded.

Chaos erupted. Smaller rock monsters poured from the lake as Baki flicked his wrists. The team leapt into the fray but Baki wasn’t focused on them.

With a clawed hand, he made a twisting motion. The cavern ceiling above Aldrich, Merrick, Grants, and Prince groaned and shattered, tons of rock crashing down, trapping them in a rubble cage.

“ALDRICH!” Aiden screamed.

Before he could move, the ground at his feet erupted. Stone ropes, burning with inner heat, snaked around his legs, his torso, his arms, pinning them to his sides. 

They yanked him forward, towards Baki and the bubbling lake.

“A life for a life,” Baki chanted, his hands weaving symbols in the air. A sickly silver light began to glow around Aiden. “Your fleeting, fragile spark will ignite an eternal flame!”

A cold, draining pull started deep in Aiden’s core. It wasn’t just pulling on his energy. 

It was hooking into something deeper, something brighter and more precious…the warm, budding light of his unborn child.

The Alpha Prime’s voice shrieked in his mind, a sound of pure panic, smothered by the overwhelming geomantic magic.

The horrifying realization hit Aiden like a physical blow. He doesn’t want me. He wants the baby’s power. He’s going to consume our child’s life force.

Terror, sharper than any blade, sliced through him. He fought against the stone bonds, but they were unbreakable. He met Aldrich’s eyes through the dust and rubble. 

His Alpha was wild, desperate, tearing at the rocks with bleeding hands, his face a mask of utter devastation.

Aiden poured every ounce of his being into a single, raw cry…not of fear, but of a promise and a warning.

“ALDRICH!”

From within the stone prison, a voice answered with a sound that promised the end of worlds.

“AIDEN! NO!”