Page 73 of Steeling Light
She is strong now in a way I still struggle to comprehend, but inside, she’s more than strong. She’s fierce. She’s independent. She knows that when she speaks, even Cole and Maeve will listen.
Our wings lift us into the air simultaneously, spinning in time with the echoes of our words. Soft flaps that shouldn’t be able to carry us are all it takes to bring us skyward—through the roof and away from those that watch us.
Everything changes. I can see myself the way she sees me. My gray eyes shine with true happiness. Her body craves mine, but it’s her soul that truly needs me. She is strong, and she is bright, but she will always want me to stand beside her. Even though she dwarfs me in power now. Even though she is the most powerful person in Nyth, she needs me at her side.
“I have reminded you that you are strong. And I have helped you to dance even when the night is darkest.” The world explodes with light—golden and shimmering. She is the sun in the middle of the night. Her brightness overshadows even the moon as it sits full and beautiful, and the world beyond our little bubble becomes golden.
Her memories flash through my mind now. The way I’d smiled at her when I pulled the stakes from her chest. The way I’d kissed her rather than cried for her pain. She’s remembering the strength it took for me to face down my father. She’s showing me the man who didn’t give in even when he knew he was beaten.
I’ve thought myself weak, that I was unfit to rule, that I was the second-place Prince compared to Cole, but I was the one who fought forher.I was strongfor her. Not for the world, not for what was right. I stood up to the only person I feared, for her, and I won. I decided that love was more important than anything else, and her memories tell me why she wants me at her side.
Because I truly would let the world burn in order to save her.
“I’m here to save everyone else,” she whispers. “That’s my job. I need you to save me, and I don’t think there’s a man or woman in the world I’d trust to do that as much as you.”
I smile at her as we float high above a golden world, and I tell her the only truth that I am sure of. “You are my world, Ainslee Emlyn, and I care very little for what happens outside of it.”
“You are mine,” I say, “and no one can take you away from me now.” My part of the ritual is done, and I can feel the bond sealing tight. Even a few minutes ago, I’d been worried that I’d ruin this.
Not now. Never again. I know all my fears have been unfounded ever since that first night when I’d refused to dance with her and the fireflies. I’ve never ruined anything with her.
“You are mine,” she finishes. “But you always were. It took a war and Cole’s death for me to understand the truth. You’re my heart, too, and no one will ever come before you. A woman can’t live without her heart.”
Her words fill me with a lightness I’ve never known before. The last pieces of our souls blend together, and there in the sky, we dance amid the golden fireflies. Her lips press against mine, and I breathe her in. She is life and love and goodness.
I’m what is needed to keep that goodness safe. It’s my real purpose, the reason I was born. To be her sword and shield.And her heart.
For the first time in my life, I truly feel whole. I stare into Ainslee’s eyes, and there isn’t a single doubt she feels the same. Terrible things are coming, but that’s part of life.
There will always be catastrophes. There will always be pain and suffering. All we can do is be a light to the ones who fight that darkness, and while I may not have any light of my own, I will happily be the wall that keeps the winds of the world away from the one who does.
We will not smile between the tears. We will dance in the darkness. Like fireflies, we won’t worry when the clouds cover the sun because our love will be a light of its own.
Epilogue
There are few among my enemies that I respect. Even most of the gods have not earned that. The Champion of Hope and her husband hold a place in my heart, though. Inni says I should care about them because they were my parents’ friends, but I am not my parents. No, I will hesitate to kill them because I would join their cause if it were in my power. Sadly, it is not, and I am sure they’ll die by my blade one day.
~Azric Cyrus, Champion of Death, personal journals
60 years later
Ainslee
Today is going to be a hard day. Draeven the Ironbound’s armies are marching against Erelith’s. Erelith’s troops are ready, though, and the villages between the two have been decimated.
Sidon carried Rhion and me to the place where the battle would rage the hardest. The House of Steel is racing between the villages to evacuate the innocents before the armies get there, their speed and strength capable of covering ground far more quickly than the gods’ armies. The House of Light is erecting safe houses for them and preparing hospitals for the injured.
I am the Champion of Hope, the only person in the world with a direct tie to my mother, but the City of Moonlight is her army. She has enhanced all the powers of the Lesser Houses in Selithar. The House of Calm no longer only stops a person from feeling emotions, they can stop a person’s body from moving. The House of Webs have been given more powers within dreams, capable of healing those with broken and fractured souls during their sleep. The House of Green has been given the ability to regrow the body, as well as plants. And the House of Light has been given the ability to make its light solid.
None of them can fight like the Great Houses. Even with these newly gained powers, they couldn’t protect the people we help. Luckily, Rhion is my husband and has pledged himself to the Goddess of Hope just as all of us have, and his House is uniquely suited to fighting even the god-created creatures that prey upon the powerless.
“The Chained are coming from the west,” Sidon says in that steady rhythm that he always speaks in. “And the Burning Ones are coming from the east. They will meet in this village in minutes. I will do what I can to stall them.”
Old scars crisscross his massive body, but he doesn’t hesitate. Once upon a time, we’d believed dragons were undefeatable until Maeve proved otherwise when she forced Calyr’s hand and set all of this into motion. These new creatures were born to fight dragons, though. Unlike the High Fae, their claws can get through the thick scales that would stop even Nightforged steel.
He leaps into the air. The force of his movement shakes the ground, and a cottage built of wood and thatch collapses. I hear a scream, but Rhion is already in the air, wings sprouting from the slits in his armor. He grows as he flies, preparing himself to move entire pieces of the cottage at once. We’re not here to save buildings. All we have time to save are the lives that would otherwise be lost.
“Come out of your homes!” I shout. Golden light streams from my body, and even here in a forgotten corner of the world, the villagers have heard of us. I don’t suppress the smile that comes naturally when I see the children and parents running out of the cottages, so similar to the image that my mother showed me.
