Chapter 97 As a target
Chapter 97 As a target
Aria’s POV
The sub-zero wind howled through the ruined roof of the greenhouse, carrying thick, silent flakes of snow that swirled around us like falling starlight. Kael remained on his knees on the wet stone tiles, his massive, obsidian-plated shoulders trembling beneath the weight of his receding panic. His hands, still stained with the dark blood of the northern scouts he had bypassed to reach me, were wrapped around my ankles, his forehead pressed flat against the hem of my velvet robe.
Through our bond, the golden highway was no longer a distant hum. It was a violent, rushing river of pure, unfiltered devotion. The raw, territorial beast inside him—the one that had ruled these peaks for five centuries through fear alone—was completely bowed before the white starlight still humming in my veins.
"Kael," I murmured, my voice soft but steady as I reached down, my fingers tangling in the wild, silver strands of his hair. "Stand up. You’re tracking ash into my garden."
He lifted his head slowly. His mismatched eyes were wide, the molten gold of his left eye burning with an incandescent heat while the emerald of his right eye swirled with a deep, reverent awe. He looked at the four neat piles of gray cinders scattering across the frozen pink winter blossoms, then up at the silver Sage rune glowing faintly beneath the skin of my right hand.
"You broke them," Kael whispered, his deep, velvet voice rough and breathless. He rose to his feet in a single, fluid movement, his large hands immediately coming down to cradle the prominent, tight curve of my second-trimester belly. The moment his palms met my skin, the twins gave a synchronized, heavy thump against his fingers, welcoming his familiar cedar-and-rain warmth. "The Eastern elite... the highest executioners of the High Council. They came for a sacrifice, and you turned them to dust."
"They thought I was a prize to be collected," I said, leaning my forehead against the cool metal of his chest plate, the adrenaline finally leaving my system, leaving a heavy, bone-deep ache in its wake. "They thought because I was carrying your heirs, I would sit in the dark and wait for a savior. They forgot that my blood built the original foundations of this world before your lineage ever drew a sword."
Kael’s jaw clenched, his grip around my waist tightening until it was borderline suffocating, his fangs grazing his lower lip in a silent, possessive vow. "They will never forget again. If the High Council wishes to treat you as a target, I will turn their entire Eastern territory into a cemetery before the solstice moons can cross."
By the time the early morning daylight began to break over the peaks, the greenhouse had been secured by a fresh, double-layer barrier of Kael’s personal blood-magic. Elara had been moved to the royal infirmary, the warm Sage magic I had funneled into her lungs completely neutralizing the last traces of the eastern violet poison.
The Grand Council Chamber was freezing, the massive oak table covered in the broken fragments of the communication crystal that had lured Kael away.
Commander Kenneth stood at the foot of the dais, his silver armor dented, his head bowed in absolute shame. Beside him, Leo sat on the stone ledge of the window, his bare, scarred chest wrapped in fresh linen, his amber eyes tracking the silver glow that still pulsed faintly along my veins whenever I breathed too deeply.
"The northern distress signal was a perfect magical duplicate, Sire," Kenneth rasped, his hand trembling on the pommel of his sword. "The scouts at the outpost were found dead in their bunks. The Eastern coven didn't launch an assault on the ridge; they used the scouts' own blood to fuel the ritual that bypassed our lower wards. I take full responsibility for the security failure. My life is yours to collect."
"Your life is useless to me if the gates are empty, Kenneth," Kael snapped, his voice a low, sub-zero drone that made the glass lanterns hanging from the ceiling hum with tension. He sat on the central obsidian throne, his shadow claws scraping against the armrest, leaving deep, glowing purple tracks in the stone. "You will redouble the guard at the lower town crossroads. If a single eastern shadow crosses the riverbed before the solstice, I will personally execute every captain on the shift."
Leo let out a low, gravelly chuckle from the window, shaking his head. "Don't be too hard on the kid, Draven. The Eastern Council didn't just use basic magic. That blood-ritual requires an anchor inside the castle walls. You don't get that clean of a frequency shift unless someone gave them a piece of the Citadel's core bedrock."
Kael’s golden eye flared, a dangerous, calculating light crossing his features. "Julian."
"Julian is locked in the subterranean cells under a triple blood-lock," I said, standing beside Kael's throne, my hand resting over the prominent curve of my stomach. "But Malakor was using his flesh like a puppet. If the old king has the frequency of the core, he doesn't need to march an army through the pass anymore. He can open a localized sealing array right inside our courtyard during the alignment."
"Then we change the frequency," I continued, my voice carrying a sudden, multi-layered resonance that made both Leo and Kenneth look up in surprise.
I stepped down from the dais, lifting my right hand so the silver Sage rune was visible to the entire room. The starlight magic inside my core had settled, but it felt like an infinite, compressed spring, waiting for the final cross of the twin moons to explode.
"The old king built these walls using the ancient vampire text," I said, looking into my husband's flawless, stubborn face. "But he didn't build them with Sage blood. Kael, we aren't going to wait for the alignment to see where he strikes. We are going to use the twins' resonance to overwrite the entire Citadel ward system tonight. We will turn this entire mountain into a trap that only recognizes our blood."
Kael stared at me, his chest heaving with a slow, heavy breath as our blood-bond flooded his mind with the absolute, unyielding logic of the plan. The territorial beast inside him wanted to lock me away from the light, but the Sovereign knew that the woman standing before him was the only shield that could withstand the storm.
With a slow, heavy nod, Kael rose from his throne, his towering frame casting a massive, protective shadow over the chamber.
"The strategy is set," Kael commanded, his voice ringing out with an absolute, lethal authority. "Kenneth, prepare the ritual chambers beneath the solar. Leo, gather your wolves at the inner gatehouse. Tonight, we rewrite the laws of the mountain."