I dug deep into the core of her, flinching as her agony pierced through my mental shields.
Ascendinghurt.
Like molten fire flooding the inner spirit. I’d experienced it when I’d accepted the Source Architect position. However, I’d gone into the situation knowing what to expect.
Aflora was neither willing nor expectant.
I should have seen this coming, but I would never have anticipated this from Constantine. He was handing her the source. Only because he intended for it to kill her. Still, she could survive—wouldsurvive—making it a huge risk, one I never thought he would take.
“I don’t understand how this is possible,” I heard Kolstov saying. “The ascension trial requires blood.”
“Nacht blood,” Shade replied.
“Yes,” I agreed, my voice slightly strained from trying to maintain a connection to Aflora while also talking to her mates. “Her connection to the Nacht family line—via Kolstov, and I suppose through Zephyrus’s Guardian bond—would have granted him initial access to perform the enchantment. Then thesource accepted the link because she’s mated to a Nacht and a Morte.”
Morte being Shade’s bloodline. Though he rarely used the surname.
“She’s also the Earth Fae Queen,” I added, swallowing as a volt of energy slammed into me from the source. It served as an order to mentally step away from Aflora and allow her to fully ascend. I responded by crafting an intangible wall around her and then made myself a proverbial door. The energy pushed against me, forcing its way through and turning me into a siphon of sorts.
It burned.
But I accepted the burden.
Because it was the only way to ease her into this… to give her a fighting chance.
“A royal by nature and blood,” Shade said, his voice oddly distant. “So all Constantine needed to do was recite the ritual?—”
“And the dark source went right for her,” Kolstov finished for him. “Shit.”
“Precisely,” I tried to say, my lungs squeezing with the effort.
A hand met my shoulder, the palm large and unwelcome. Then Zephyrus’s power rolled over me, his protective enchantment providing a foreign balm of sorts.
I shuddered, the tranquility of his touch… unexpected.
It granted me space to breathe and somehow shifted my burden to him temporarily. I studied his charm, curious as to what spell he’d cast.An absorption spell, I translated faintly. Not what I’d expected, nor anything I’d ever experienced before.
Zephyrus pushed more into me, forcing me to take it.
I almost shoved it back at him in retaliation. This group dynamic was going to annihilate my patience. I didn’t work as a unit. I preferred to lead and be followed, not collaborate.
But for Aflora… I’d try.
And as this helped me relax, I accepted his assistance.
“She needs to pass her first trial,” Kolstov said, answering some question I’d missed. Or maybe he was just thinking out loud. “Trust.”
I nodded in confirmation. She would have to rely on those closest to her to guide her. “But it hasn’t started yet. The source is still settling.” I could feel it filling every inch of her soul, blackening out her access to the elements. Or trying to, anyway. Her roots were fighting the intrusion, denying the dark source a proper home.
She gasped, still unconscious and yet fully awake at the same time.
The inky lines writhed in annoyance.
Her roots held.
“Fae,” I whispered, awed and terrified by the convoluted mix of magic dancing inside her. It was hypnotic and beautiful and so damn wrong. Cerulean sparks bonded to black lines, green flares, purple smoke, and deep red contours. But at the center of it all was a thriving tree, the branches a swirl of color and magic, as the dark source tried to penetrate her elemental home with a variety of cruel twists. “She’s fighting it.”
Perhaps not intentionally, but instinctively.
