Page 46 of The Last Aether

Flames erupted from along Phoenix’s shoulders. “You would betray your brothers? Lie to us?”

Riven’s eyes went so cold they were practically absent of any color. “From the moment I held her in my arms, I knew she was our aether. It’s why I bound her magic.”

There was a moment of stillness again before mayhem erupted. Kai charged forward, hauling back and slamming his fist into Riven’s jaw. Riven’s head snapped back with such severity, my stomach pitched and twisted.

Atlas was there in a flash, holding Kai back from leveling another blow. But Phoenix was on the edge of losing it. I could see it in the way the flames danced over his body. “You would steal her from us. Destroy our bond before it even began.”

Numbness settled over me. As if Novocaine had been injected into every one of my muscles. I welcomed the nothingness the same way I had when I thought my life was ending.

Riven gave Phoenix a hard shove, sending him hurtling back a few steps. “I would do anything for her.”

His voice cut through the nothingness just enough to land a blow I didn’t want to feel.

“What the hell does that mean?” Kai spat, struggling to get free of Atlas’s hold.

“You have no idea what it’s been like to live with my father. No idea what he’s truly capable of. He’s been determined to find every living member of the aether line since the moment I was born. To eradicate them systematically and without thought. When he found out one of them was living in the human world, that she’d had a daughter? He became obsessed.”

Atlas held Kai’s shirt with one hand but turned to face Riven. “You think I don’t know what it is to live with a tyrant? But you don’t fight them alone. You come to us.”

Riven shook his head. “There wasn’t time. I overheard him making plans with his goon squad. I had to follow or I would’ve lost them. By the time I reached the house, it was already engulfed. I shouldn’t have even had access to my powers, but knowing there was a little girl inside…it snapped something inside me.”

His gaze went unfocused, as if he were seeing the events of that night playing out in front of my eyes. “It was like I could feel her. Some part of me knew exactly where she was. And when I held her, I knew why. She was destined for me. For us.”

“Yet you would keep her from us?” Phoenix bellowed. “You tried to bind her magic, hoping it would conceal her from our world?”

Riven gritted his teeth and stared Phoenix down. “Yes. And I would do it again. Because I knew once my father found out, he’d never stop trying to end her. Once our world found out, they would want to control her or kill her. I would choose Aura over our happiness every damn time.”

“What about me?”

I barely recognized my own voice as it cut through the air. It was as if I were watching the events from up above my body.

Riven blinked, focusing on me. “It was all for you. Every binding. Every deception. Every time I pushed you away. It was always for you.”

Fury pulsed through me, stoking that flame deep inside. “You made every choice for me instead of asking me what I might want?”

His jaw slackened. “My father never would’ve stopped.”

“I don’t give a damn about your father. I care about you. About me. About all of us.”

“You think I don’t?”

My hands fisted at my sides. “If you truly cared about me, you wouldn’t have stolen my voice.”

Riven started towards me. “Aura…”

I slammed my hands into his chest, shoving him back a few steps. But even that small contact hurt. Because while he’d caused me immeasurable pain, some part of me still craved closeness with him.

My chest heaved as I struggled to get my breathing under control. “You hid my heritage, my bond. I’d had everything taken from me and you just took more. Without my consent, without even my knowledge.”

Riven went pale, the lack of color only making the soot stand out more starkly on his face. “I was trying to protect you.”

“No,” I clipped. “You don’t get to hide behind that. How dare you.”

“Aura—” Riven reached out as if he might touch me.

“No! Don’t touch me. I can’t—just leave. It’s what you’ve always been best at anyway.”

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