Shattered Souls (Guardians of the Maiden Book 3)

Might we retire for the evening? Cassiel sent the thought through the bond as he helped Dyna up from the snow, and brushed it off her skirts.

It’s still early. You wish to retire now?

Cassiel picked up her crown, placing it back on her head where it belonged. He let his hand cup the back of her cold neck and drew her to him, grazing her cheek with his nose. I wish to continue what we started last night.

Dyna gasped, choking back a cough, her cheeks flaring. He sensed her remembering the feel of his lips traveling up her inner thigh and it elicited a curl of heat sinking through her stomach. Your Majesty, that was very direct.

The formal address indicating his new status only stirred him further. He had the urge to envelope her completely. To have her under him, warm, close, and protected from any harm. She was so dear to him. Her heart, her mind, her body, her soul. He wanted all of it in every way possible. After having her, he couldn’t imagine any other existence.

Cassiel’s trailed his fingers slowly from her wrist to her elbow. The bond was fully open because when she shuddered, he was aware of the electric currents running up her arms and down her spine. That is the beauty of having a wife. He brushed his lips on the edge of her ear and he was gratified by her soft sigh. I can be direct because I can feel how her body responds to mine. And she quite enjoys it when I touch her.

Dyna covered her red face. Cassiel!

He chuckled and tucked her head against his chest. “You are adorable.”

He wanted to have her forever, to hold her like this every day. To kiss her, tease her, care for her, make her sigh at his touch, but also laugh unreservedly and smile as bright as the sun. He wanted to love her, and be loved. He wanted to finally be happy. If this was what it felt like, then life couldn’t be any more perfect.

At the clearing of a throat, they both looked up at Zev standing with his arms crossed a few steps away, Lucenna and Rawn behind him. Dyna’s cheeks went from pink to bright red. “Do I even want to know what you said to make her blush like that?”

Cassiel hid a grin. “No, you don’t.”

But the brief sunny moment passed into shade as they all looked at him with sudden seriousness.

“So, you will take the throne,” Zev said. It wasn’t a question.

Cassiel took a deep breath as Dyna slipped her hand in his. Her support fortified his decision, and he nodded. The acknowledgment seemed to shift something among the Celestials.

Circumstances continued to back him into a corner, forcing his will. He didn’t want to be king, but he felt obligated after learning what his father sacrificed. More so knowing what was at stake. The resolve to accept his fate was jarring. It left him adrift in a wind with no sense of direction.

Zev surprised him when he said, “I have decided to stay in town. I think you’ll need me.”

“The transition of power is a dire time.” Rawn’s sharp eyes scanned the trees. “And it appears your father thought well ahead to plan for every possibility.”

Valkyrie were all over the manor, their gold armor glinting in the sunlight. Legion warriors, about two hundred in number. Some were out of sight, but Cassiel could sense them watching. Dyna tensed he knew she must sense what Cassiel did the moment his father had arrived. Heavy tension hovered in the air, like something was waiting to drop.

“The mercenaries are also on guard,” Dyna said. There was a peculiar tightness in her tone.

Lucenna crossed her arms. “Our one advantage is that no one else knows we’re here. I don’t believe there will be trouble, at least not yet. But we have not forgotten about the voice in Hermon.”

Those threats were very real, regardless of how eccentric the person sounded.

Cassiel would leave nothing to chance.

The Valkyrie stood at attention and clanked a fist over their hearts. They bowed as the High King strolled through the courtyard doors to the quad with Lord Jophiel. His father’s complexion looked much better than yesterday, and he moved without a hint of feebleness. Sleep had wiped away the frailty, but not his age.

His heavy crown and royal robes had been replaced by trousers and a winter coat. They shared a long look in the windy silence.

“Come walk with me.” He didn’t wait for a reply. Cassiel followed as he headed for the gravel path, away from the others. Only Amriel and Yelrakel followed at a distance. The snow crunched under their boots as they took the paths of the manor gardens. It couldn’t truly be called a garden when it was mostly dried vegetation and mud coated in frost.

When they were a good distance from the manor, his father said, “You have decided.”

It wasn’t a question. Of course, he must have had someone reporting to him.

Cassiel crossed his arms behind his back. “Though, I still question why you chose me to be your successor when you have two other pureblooded, true born sons.”

“There are reasons why Malakel and Tzuriel are not suited to be my heir, which we can discuss later.” They stopped on the further end of the gardens and his father turned to face the quad. “She means everything to you.”

Cassiel looked at where Dyna stood among their friends, laughing at something Zev said. She looked so happy and beautiful, radiating like the sun. His life had always been unstable without any solid direction. The moment Dyna accepted him, there had been no other possibility that didn’t include her. Perhaps there never had been. He had done everything to push her away, to be harsh and difficult, to the point of being despised. And yet she still offered her hand when he tried to run. Listened even when it was so hard to speak. Cried for him when he couldn’t.

That was the difference between being a burden and being wanted.

“She does,” Cassiel said softly.

His father’s expression grew serious. “Now, imagine her vanishing when she is cut down.”

The vivid image played horribly in his mind. Flames flared out of his body and melted the snow at his feet. The instinct to destroy surged like a feral animal. His head snapped in the direction of movement on his right. Amriel halted, his expression dark, hand already primed on his weapon.

Cassiel’s posture grew more rigid and he let out a snarl. He was filled with the sudden the urge to kill the Celestial, instinct having marked him as a threat.

Yoel waved the guard back, looking at Cassiel curiously. “All it took was merely a thought to activate your flame. We are standing quite aways from Dynalya, and made no attempt to approach her, but we became your targets.”

Cassiel exhaled a sharp breath and the fire vanished. “What was the point of that? I could have harmed you.”

“I am testing a theory.” He nodded to where Sowmya stood by the manor doors. “The lieutenant is sworn to you and to your mate. She would never harm Dynalya, but imagine her doing so while suppressing the instinct to attack.”

Cassiel scowled even as the flames immediately sprouted from his fists. He tried to hold back his power, but his veins burned from the strain. The fire slowly spread from around his feet, inching towards the manor. It didn’t matter who it was. His instinct to protect would prevail, and Cassiel doubted it could be controlled. If this was how he reacted with someone he trusted, how would he react when it was a diplomat or a noble who looked at Dyna the wrong way?

“Cease to resist,” his father said. “Allow the force to flow through your being. Balance can only be found when you move with the current of the fire and not against it. Accept it. To become one there is only one way. Be the flame.”

Cassiel glowered at him dully. “What does that even mean?”

Captain Yelrakel cleared her throat. “It means your fire must be allowed to move freely, Your Highness, while maintaining control. Don’t subdue it. Let it flow and call it back.”

She had already trained him to do that. Cassiel made the flames swivel around his body before extinguishing them into smoke.

“You are right. He has no problem wielding it,” his father said thoughtfully.

Yelrakel nodded. “Yes, Your Majesty. But summoning had never been the issue.”

Containing it was.

“I prefer you not to speak about me while I’m standing right here,” Cassiel said, crossing his arms. “Clearly, the issue is me. If I cannot resolve it, will you have Uncle put witch bangles on me again?”

His father fell still.

His brow furrowed and he glanced at the manor. “No. Nothing good would come from containing your power, and bangles would not stop you. Controlling your flame is the only way.”

He had easily burned through the bangles before. Other than Skath metal, nothing else would resist Seraph fire. “What if it’s impossible?”

“Impossible is only an opinion.” Yoel canted his head as he looked past him. “The one to control your flame is not you.”

Cassiel turned, his gaze landing on Dyna as she and Lucenna began their morning magic lessons. He remembered then the day in the commons when he had gone after his brother, so enraged nothing would have stopped him if she hadn’t arrived. Her voice pulled him back from his feral madness. She had walked through his fire to reach him.

Unscathed.

“She…can touch my fire,” he admitted. “I don’t know why.”

“Your Seraph fire will never burn her because Dynalya is your balance. Two parts of one soul. Only she can quell it.”

Sensing his stare, Dyna looked up and smiled at him, and it held the light of a thousand suns.

You were made for me and I for you…

“How could you possibly know this?” Cassiel asked, turning to him with narrowed eyes. “There is no other pre-recorded mention of Seraph fire in our history other than of King Kāhssiel’s. When I was in Hermon, I took it upon myself to visit the libraries to research on my new ability and to see what caused him to harm his people. All that was mentioned was that fire consumed him, turning him into some sort of beast that could not be stopped. The Realms banded the armies together to fight him.”

The king and Yelrakel exchanged a look.

“What are you not telling me?”

His father nodded to the Captain and his Royal Guard, silently ordering them to leave. He went to sit on a bench and motioned Cassiel to join him.

“You know, it was your mother who chose your name,” Yoel said, gazing at the barren forest. “It means the speed of Elyōn and guardian of the Heavens. She liked that for you. A great defender. I merely found it honorable to name you after our first king. But now I wonder if it was indeed the will of fate.”

Gentle flurries blew past them, catching in his father’s hair. “The reason you do not find the full story is the same reason why any kingdom fabricates history. To hide their shame. King Kāhssiel was a benevolent leader but very powerful. Nothing could oppose his Seraph fire, his compulsion took root with a mere thought, and other gifts that our people lost when they fell here. The reason he had Seraph fire was because he was never Forsaken. He chose to come to the Mortal Realm to help guide our people back to the right path. Because of it, he was favored by our god and made king. It created an envy among his generals, and they secretly turned on him.

“Kāhssiel had no weakness until the day he met his True Bonded. Unfortunately, she was human. While our people were not wary of humans yet, they found the union abhorrent. And when she became with child, our people called it an abomination and used it as an attempt to overthrow him during an attack. Kāhssiel sent her away with one of his trusted generals not knowing he would be the one to throw her off a cliff.”

Cassiel’s heart jolted in his chest. His mind repeated all the moments Dyna had nearly fallen to her death over and over. He couldn’t imagine failing to catch her in time.

“The loss should have crippled the King, if not outright killed him,” his father said. “They failed to anticipate how much vengeance can drive a being. Without her, it consumed him and he swathed the world in a sea of flame.”

Cassiel’s throat bobbed. “How long did…?”

“He lived for a year after her death, the longest ever recorded.”

One year with that excruciating pain?

“He only perished once everyone involved in her death was dead.”

Something tugged at Cassiel’s mind, but he couldn’t quite grasp it. Something he struggled to remember.

“Her name?” he whispered, his throat clamping. “What was the name of his mate?”

Yoel looked at him in a way that made him hold his breath. “Sheli.”

The air whooshed out of him, ice sinking through every corner of his body.

Lev sheli. The affection he called Dyna by. His mind was spinning.

Cassiel had to swallow to make his voice work. “If you are attempting to tell me I am the reincarnation of some mad king, this conversation is finished. Whatever rumors you heard in Hermon were conjured from predisposed nobles desiring to slander my name. My abilities are a coincidence, nothing more.”

His father didn’t argue with him. He fell silent as he traced shapes in the snow on the stone bench. “I have come to find life is made up of coincidences. A monsoon blew through Hilos on the day I was to wed. It caused a shipwreck on our shores with only one survivor. Your mother. I brought her to North Star where she was taken in by a family descended from Lunar mages.”

Everything in Cassiel was shaking. This was another story with an unhappy ending. The urge to flee had him leaping off that bench.

“The Astrons.”

Cassiel stopped, his feet frozen in the snow. His shaky breath clouded in the air. He kept his back to his father, not wanting to look at him even if he couldn’t stop himself from listening.

“Some time passed before we met again and had you. When you were a year old, Elia brought you to meet her adopted family. But when your surrogate aunt embraced you, your eyes glowed blue with divine flame. Shortly after, she gave birth to a baby girl with bright red hair.”

He had to lean on a tree to hold himself up.

“Elia knew what it meant and what tragedy would follow once the Realms realized who you were. So she went to Mount Ida in search of a cure for your divine flame. To spare you from the inevitable.”

Cassiel sank against the tree’s trunk. Anguish tore through his chest. He had always known she left because of him. Because of what he was.

As a child, he remembered her rambling about wings and preserving life. He’d always assumed she meant for herself. But now he knew how unreliable memory could be.

“Why did you not go after her?”

“I tried, but she had hidden herself from me. Elia did not want to be found. Perhaps because she was angry I did not believe her. I did not want to believe it,” his father said softly. “I became consumed with trying to locate the island so I could bring her back. The night of the winter solstice, I realized I had not only forgotten your birth-date, I had neglected to protect you. But it was too late.”

His body spasmed with the phantom slash of claws ripping through his chest. He sank to his knees in the snow.

“How much…how much time do you have?” Cassiel asked, staring blankly at the snow.

“Perhaps another few years.”

Only then was he able to take a full breath since yesterday.

They still had time.

“I admit, I was selfish,” his father said. “When I gave you my lifetime, I held on to ten years because I wanted to see who you would become. I did, and yes, I am proud.” Cassiel met his gaze, and a sad smile formed on his father’s face. “Like you, I also conveyed to my father I did not want to be king. I even considered shearing my wings to be free to live how I wished. In time, I found my path, and so will you. A true leader does not seek greatness. They are called to it. If you choose not to heed the call, you will still be who you have always been. My son.”

They had lost so much time to secrets and misunderstandings. Wedged between resentment and affliction. His parents sacrificed everything for him, and he had resented them for it. The veil that had muddled his life lifted, and now all he felt was shame.

Cassiel swallowed, fighting the burning in his throat. “You… you let me hate you.”

Yoel exhaled and nodded. “It was no more than I deserved for what you sustained. My greatest sin was perhaps separating you from Dynalya. It was essentially a form of rejecting your mate. That pain left you both catatonic for days. Had there been a bond, it might have broken you. When you woke, your Seraph fire had fallen dormant and you looked empty inside. I thought if I erased that night and sent you to Hermon while she remained in North Star, it would change your fates. Yet your paths crossed once again by a Hyalus tree. It was a sign from Elyōn that I could not stop your destiny. I could only prepare you for it.”

Cassiel never understood the meaning of destiny. And he didn’t understand it now. But some dastardly Druid once told him that was the thing about fate.

Nothing was ever certain.

“You asked me why it had to be you.” His father placed a hand on his shoulder. “The answer is simple. The throne has always been yours.”

The declaration sent an electrical charge through Cassiel’s chest, and with it a sudden clarity. The feral animosity that surged at any threat against Dyna wasn’t merely because of their bond. It was because he had already lost her before. “All of this began because of my abilities, and now that the Realms know I have the power to destroy them, someone is after my mate merely to take me down. I have to protect her, even if that means disappearing. I will whatever it takes because now I have someone precious to protect.”

“Going into hiding won’t stop him.”

He stilled, recalling something his father had said yesterday. Someone sent you to North Star, but it was not her. “You know who it is.”

But Yoel was no longer looking at him. His wide blue eyes stared at something past his shoulder. Cassiel whipped around. At first he didn’t know what he was looking at until he saw a refraction of light flickering on the roof of the manor as if reflecting on something.

It flickered back and forth in a steady rhythm.

Like a signal calling to the sky.

“It’s too late to run,” his father said grimly.

A long blare of the town’s horn blasted in the distance three times. It was the only warning they got before the sun was blotted out by a host of armed Celestials.