Chapter 154

Chapter 154
Isla
Aeron’s voice slices clean through the dungeon calm and is colder than the air I'm breathing. He's absolutely in control and he's a hundred percent terrifying.
I feel guilty. And there's not reason for me to feel this way. I've done nothing wrong.
“You were not in our bed," Aeron accuses me, almost scolding me like a naughty child.
I turn so fast the chains on Valeria’s wrists rattle beside me.
Aeron stands there. Tall, perfectly still, one with the shadows, but his eyes…
They are molten lava.
Not with jealousy.
But with the kind of lethal calm that means someone in this room is about to die.
“I... Aeron, no, I wasn’t-” my voice cracks -“I couldn’t sleep. I just wandered. And my feet... it brought me here.”
Jesus. I sound guilty. And fucking stupid.
He doesn’t move toward me.
He moves toward Morvahn.
The druid’s expression doesn’t change.
That serene, reverent smile stays plastered on his face, and it’s that - that look in my son's eyes while he's gazing at me, that finally makes something in Aeron snap.
“What,” Aeron says, “did you do to Queen Valeria?”
“She is a threat to my mother,” Morvahn answers, voice soft. “My goddess. So I removed the threat.”
“You poisoned her.” Aeron’s tone is no louder, but the temperature in the room seems to drop. “You dared to harm someone who is under my protection? You dared to go against my command?”
“She wanted to kill my queen,” Morvahn says again. “She intended harm.”
"But she was no threat," Aeron says.
"It's the intent that matters," Morvahn says.
There is something seriously, seriously wrong with him.
“And so you decide to kill her?” Aeron steps closer, fangs dropping. “On whose authority, druid? Hers?” He gestures to me without looking away from him. “She doesn’t command you. And she sure as fuck does not want you.”
The words hit me hard.
Not because Aeron doubts me, but because he absolutely does not doubt me.
It’s absolute.
Unquestioned.
Morvahn drops to one knee - not to submit to Aeron.
But to me. “The universe made me to serve you.”
Aeron lunges.
I cry out, “STOP!”
He freezes mid-step, breathing hard, hands trembling with the effort not to rip Morvahn’s throat out.
“Stand up,” I whisper to the druid, fury shaking through me. “Don’t kneel to me. Don’t ever kneel to me.”
Whatever else Morvahn might be, broken as he is, he is still my son. I will always love him as my son. And I know Aeron loves him, even if he is angry at him right now. If he kills Morvahn, he will regret it. We are bonded, all of us, whether we like it or not.
Morvahn rises slowly, hands folded at his chest. “But you are-”
“Just your mother,” I spit. “Not your deity. Not your purpose. Not your fucking altar at which to worship. I am nothing special”
He blinks at me as if I’ve just spoken in a language he can’t comprehend.
Beside me, Valeria’s breathing turns wet and shallow.
Aeron finally notices.
“Isla,” he says sharply, “she’s crashing. Can you do something?”
"Like what?" I ask.
She really is going fast now. Her skin has gone waxen gray. Her heartbeat is sputtering. Her lips are the wrong kind of blue. The poison is spreading fast… too fast.
And I did this.
Not by my hand, but because I refused to let Aeron deal with Morvahn.
I should never have let him anywhere near her, or allowed him to follow me around like a lost little pup.
Valeria slumps forward, her silver chains rattling. I kneel by her side, looking for a breath.
“Aeron,” I gasp, “I think she’s dying.”
“She is dying,” Morvahn answers. “Balance returns to balance.”
Aeron whirls on him again. “One more word, and I will scatter you across the realms. If I have to hear about the stupid fucking balance once more time...”
I stop paying attention. Valeria’s body jerks violently, back bowing off the ground, and everything else slams out of focus.
“No, no, no-” I kneel and grab her face -“Valeria. Look at me.”
Her eyes flutter.
Then close.
“AERON-” My voice breaks. “I think she’s dead!”
Her chest stutters. Fails.
Something inside me detonates.
Like a fissure cracking open behind my ribs.
My hands burn with white light, searing hot, glowing just beneath the skin, like stars trapped under bone.
I don't know what the fuck is happening, and I can't stop it.
Aeron drops beside me instantly. “Isla, my love, stop. You are only hurting yourself. Let her die, she's not worth it.”
“I can’t-” I choke. “I can’t stop it.”
Whatever it may be.
As it did when I commanded the wolves, instinct takes over.
Primal, ancient instinct.
Not magic the way the fae used magic.
Not the way druids call the nature spirits or mages to the dark.
This feels like the opposite.
Not weaving life.
Not summoning it.
Recalling it from the brink of death. Pulling a spirit from the other side and forcing it back into its vessel.
The way a body remembers how to breath.
The way a soul recalls its tether.
I press both palms on Valeria’s chest.
The heat floods her.
Light pulsates outward in a throb that shakes the chains on the walls.
She jerks.
Gasps
And screams in sheer fucking terror.
Her heart lurches back to life under my hands like a creature waking from ice.
Then the light dies.
"Why the fuck did you bring me back?" Valeria screeches. "It was better. I don't want to be here. Kill me. Kill me you fucking bitch."
I fall back, like someone cut a wire inside me, landing hard on my ass.
I collapse sideways, gasping. All that pain. All that effort to bring her back, just to be cussed out like that.
Aeron sits next to me and lifts my head onto his lap. “Isla... Isla... look at me.” His voice is frantic now, cracking at the edges. “Are you okay? What the fuck did you do?”
My hands are steaming like boiling water.
I don't know what I did.
Valeria starts coughing, then turns her head and vomits loudly. Something black, stinking of death and decay, the poison Morvahn gave her.
But she is alive.
For all it's worth.
I stare at my hands, trembling uncontrollably. “Aeron… I didn’t mean to… I just... I didn’t want her to die... I don’t know what that was. I don’t know what I just did.”
He pulls me into his lap, holding me tight against his chest. “You saved her. That’s all that matters.”
Morvahn steps closer. "You are magnificence. The goddess of creation."
Aeron snaps, “Take one more step, and I will feed your spine to the gargoyles.”
Morvahn bows his head. “She has awakened another facet.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Aeron snarls.
I bury my face in Aeron’s shoulder, shaking. “Aeron… Do we have gargoyles?”
He laughs softly and kisses my hair, my temple, my cheek. “Yes. They are your guardians. But only dangerou to anyone who threatens you.”
I don't know if he's serious or not, but I laugh along. It feels good to laugh. "Morvahn?"
“He’s done here.” Aeron’s voice is like steel. “He won’t go near you again. I’ll see to it.”
I pull back enough to meet his eyes.
He’s not scared. He's just... done.
He presses his forehead to mine. "You should rest. You can't keep going like this, my love."
Valeria coughs again, rolling onto her side. "You two make me sick," she says in a hoarse voice.
Alive.
Alive because of me.
Alive because I… defied death itself.
Aeron stands, lifting me in his arms.
“We’re leaving,” he tells the guards. “Send for Hakon. Tell him to bring blood down to Queen Valeria and to stay with her. Lock Morvahn in a cell. And if he resists…” Aeron bares his fangs. “You have permission to throw him in a vat of acid for all I care.”
Morvahn bows, serene as ever. “You cannot cage my devotion.”
Aeron’s snarl shakes dust from the ceiling. "I will fucking well try."
I clutch his shoulders tighter as he carries me away.
This shit is getting way out of hand. And there's no one and nothing to rein me back in. There's only Aeron, and I don't know if he has it in him to control me the way he should.