Page 15 of Court of Dragons and Ashes

Lysander is shaking with fury, but Arden keeps pushing. “You don’t think my father would have asked your father for help unless there was a dire need for it? Your father never helped, never did anything to try to save anyone. Probably the only good thing that your father ever did in his entire life was go to the Spirit Court and try to save everybody. You’re angry about the only good thing that he did in his entire rule. You’re angry for fucking nothing!” Arden grabs his shirt, pulling him closer. “You’re my brother, not in blood but in my heart, and you’ve fucking cut it out and destroyed it. I chose you, broken and all, as my family, and you blackmailed the girl I love, tried to kill me, and betrayed everything good you had. You’re on your fucking own from now on!”

My heart cracks, and I realise it’s Lysander’s pain I’m feeling too. He is destroyed by this too. How can we get past this?

“I don’t need you.” Lysander pushes him away.

“But you need her, don’t you?” Arden asks, waving a hand at me. “You blackmailed her when she was fucking terrified, and now she’s your destined mate. Isn’t there an irony in that? Someone that you broke, scared, and used to get close to your enemy actually ended up falling in love with your enemy. You were right to tell her to kill me then. I was already in love with her from the moment I met her.”

“Stop. Please.” I step up next to them both. “You’re family. Please, we can fix this. I know you loved your father, Lysander. It’s okay to love him and agree that he wasn’t a good person. But you need to stop this revenge, stop hating everybody. I’m on Arden’s side with this. You need to put it behind you if we have any chance of a future.”

“He’s not going to do that, princess. I don’t think he is even capable of doing the work to be a good person.”

That’s the final straw for Lysander, and he slams a spear of water straight at Arden’s chest, but that’s a mistake. Arden catches it, and it turns into mist. Arden is in his element, in every sense of the word, and the fire here is fuel. I rush away from them both as streams of lava explode out of the volcano, heading right for Lysander. He defends himself with water from the very sky, and they meet in a clash of deadly steam, as I scream and duck. It doesn’t touch me, as though they have willed it not to. Sobbing, I watch them fight, knowing this is my fault. I scream, begging them to stop, but they don’t.

Eventually everything seems to fade, and I find Arden holding Lysander down on the ground, his face inches from lava. It is burning his arm as he screams and roars underneath him, and I feel my arm heating like I can feel his burning, too. Arden punches Lysander hard in the face. “How the fuck couldyou do that to me? I was there for you.” He punches him again. Lysander isn’t fighting him. Why isn’t he fighting back? “I was there again and again for you, and you were fucking betraying me!”

He punches him one more time as I run over and grab his arm. Arden looks at me. “Please stop. He’s my destined mate. Please, for me, stop.”

Arden pushes off my hand and rises off Lysander. “For her. You fucking worthless asshole.”

He walks across the lava, leaving us both behind. Lysander is a bloody mess, matching my heart as it cracks to splinters. We might have won the test, but Aphrodite definitely did better. I glance at my hand, at the mark there and see the fire chain is gone, along with the water one. I shake my head at Lysander before stepping onto the lava after Arden, heading back to the Fire Court. As I walk across the lava, it’s only then that I feel it. Arden, in my mind, and his emotions like a fiery, angry vortex.

A mate bond.

Arden is my destined mate, and he hates me.

CHAPTER 8

ARTEMIS

“You could have sent her body to the Mist. To be buried with our people.”

I barely move when Prince Kian steps to my side, his words barely an echo to my ears as I picture the woman who cared for me my entire life being killed. Again. I see her in my nightmares, in daydreams…whenever I close my eyes. I was powerless, weak, and useless to stop my mother from murdering her. I tuck my wavy locks behind my ear.

“She did not want that.” I keep my voice quiet, like the dead need my whispers, and I never look away from my nanny’s grave. The grave is simple yet elegant, her body laid within the earth, a headstone with small water droplets from the rain running down it. Her name etched in the stone for time to keep. There are water lilies spread across the small circular pond above her grave. Her favourite flowers. I used to get them for her as a child because I loved how she smiled at me. I blow out a breath, trying to force myself to talk about her like it doesn’t gut me. “She was from Earth and spoke often about wanting to go back. Tara told me once, when she died, to bury her body in the ground, with water lilies above. Beauty hiding away death, she said.”

He touches my hand with his, warmth spreading between us. The handsome prince meets my eyes with his green emeralds, his so bright and full of hope. Prince Kian’s scent reminds me of raindrops, but musky and dark, and I breathe it in. I love how it wraps around me, protecting me, settling my nerves. I don’t deserve to feel safe around him. I don’t deserve his friendship, either. The prince of the Water Court looks down at the grave of a woman he didn’t know yet helped make possible. Kian found this small green garden, hidden in the castle, and he gave it to me to make her grave.

When he came back with his mother, he found me alone with her body, crying so hard the blood vessels in my eyes burst. I didn’t want to move. I wanted to die with her at that moment. Kian was the one who picked me up off the floor, helped me heal, and gave me strength. He carried her body to the temple for the priests to wrap her, and then he helped me dig this grave. I wanted to dig it on my own, but he stayed. He helped me find the flowers, and he made the pond with his magic so the water will never change. The headstone was from him; he ordered it, and it was delivered the next morning. I guess there are perks to being a prince.

I’m glad he likes me, if I’m being honest. He’s the only one in the Water Court who does. I don’t know where I’m going to go next. Staying in the Water Court can’t be a permanent solution to my life, but…I don’t think I’m safe anywhere else.

“Arty, tell me what’s going on in your mind.” I turn to him, my eyes filled with tears that I won’t let fall. He never falters as he looks at me. “I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.”

“And why do you want to help me?” I softly ask. “You don’t owe me anything. I know you might feel that way because I got you out of the prisons, but you don’t.”

“Arty,” he breathes my name gently. Like my name holds a million secrets between us. He runs a hand through his short red locks of hair, his jaw tightening. “That’s not?—”

“All of your people hate me because of what my parents did, and you should be one of them. I’m not good, not like you.” My words are bitter, sharp. “Some might think if you spend time with me, you might end up just as terrible.”

“You’re not them,” he firmly replies. “And if you are terrible, then so am I.” He’s shaking his head at me as he steps closer. I can barely breathe when he’s this close, when his body’s pressed against mine, and when there’s nothing between us. This, this is what it’s like to fall in love. I know it, and it’s terrifying. I will ruin him. “Come, let’s go and walk down by the beach. I know it’s your favourite place. The sun will be setting soon, and it will be quiet. We can talk more.”

He offers me his arm and I sigh. “You’re like a valiant prince from a fairy tale. Endlessly trying to save the day.”

Kian’s laugh vibrates around me as I take his arm. “I’ll take that. I am a prince, and saving you is something I’m invested in. Even from yourself.”

I lower my head, looking away. Looking at him for too long is dangerous, and listening to him is too. Sometimes, he makes me dream of a wonderful future, of peace and happiness, things I have never once thought I would be allowed to have. Because he’s right, hurting myself with insults is normal. Whispers follow us as we walk through the court, through the long corridors and the sweeping pathways that lead out to the beach at nearly every edge of the castle.

The whispers haunt me, echoing so loud they chase at my feet like mice:she shouldn’t be here; why has our king not killed her; they should use the girl to get back at her parents; she’s evil; she should not be in our court.” So many whispers, so many death threats…it doesn’t stop here. Prince Kian keeps his headhigh throughout it, like he can’t hear them, like their whispers aren’t real. I wish I could do that, but I can’t. Each whisper is pounding into my head with every moment, making my heart leach of colour.

---