Aldric Lorne's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Morning light turned the crystal walls to fire. Aldric stood inside his new lair and hated the truth of it. The walls were beautiful. But they were not his alone. Celestine's fairy magic held every stone. Dragons circled outside, waiting. They would not bow to a king who shared his own house. "These walls are half yours," Aldric said. "A king rules alone. No dragon kneels to a lord who cannot claim his own throne." Celestine crossed her arms. Her green wings caught the light. "Then stop clinging to your pride and listen. There is another law. Fairy law." "Speak it." "Marriage," she said. "Under fae law, what is mine becomes yours when we wed. The walls stop being a gift. They become part of you. Your strength returns. And the magic answers your blood, not mine." Aldric studied her. He loved her. That truth had never wavered. But love and a throne were different things. "You would tie yourself to a marked lord?" "I would tie myself to you," she said. "The throne is your want. This is mine." He took her hand. Outside, a dragon roared and struck the door. The crystal held. Celestine pressed her palm to his and spoke the fae words. Light ran from her fingers into his. Aldric felt the ink in the walls reach for him, claiming him as she claimed his hand. The vow sealed. Heat rushed back into his body. His depleted strength flooded home, stronger than before. The walls no longer felt borrowed. They pulsed with his heartbeat now. He was the lair, and the lair was him. A soft glow bloomed by the door. A unicorn stepped from the light, its mane a river of shifting color, wings folded at its sides. It bowed its horned head to Aldric. Celestine smiled. "A wedding gift from my kin," she said. "It carries what you need." On its back grew a fresh cluster of glowing blossoms, tiny fairies rising off the petals. Not a hoard. But a start. Aldric ran his hand along the crystal wall and felt his own power answer. He no longer needed her ink to shape magic. It lived in him now. He pressed both palms to the floor. His new strength poured out. From the crystal rose a shape, scaled and vast, its hide flashing every color. The guardian dragon stretched its wings against the towers. Fire curled from one side of its jaws, frost from the other. It settled at the door, a wall no rival could pass. Outside, the circling dragons pulled back. They had come for a lord with a borrowed home. They found a king with a beast at his gate. Aldric looked at his wife, his lair, his guardian. The credit was his now, and his alone. But a king with a throne draws every rival in the north. He had ended the challenge to his claim. Now the strongest dragons of Everfrost would come to test it themselves.