Chapter 360: _No More Waiting

Elian’s POV

*****

“Hold up.” Aurora’s eyes all but fell out of their sockets as she, Elian, Lucian and Kyren hurried down a hallway. “You’re… you said you’re…” She spun around before whispering. “… Pregnant?”

Elian sighed, placing a hand on his stomach. “Yep. Didn’t think I’d be announcing it to everyone else like this though.”

Lucian stifled a laugh. “Yeah, Mom’s excitement is going to be out of this world when she finds out.”

“Princess.” Kyren’s attention was fixed on Aurora, whose expression appeared to shift after Elian’s revelation. “You said there’s something you need to tell us—I can’t help but wonder how serious it is for you to take us to the others.”

Aurora didn’t answer at first.

They turned a corner before arriving at a black and gold door.

“Oh, trust me.” She finally stopped, head swerving to Kyren and then Elian. “It is.”

Now, Elian couldn’t help but get even more worried as she opened the doors. Inside was a room lit by blue crystals. At the centre stood an obsidian table, with the Dowager Luna Queen, Seraphyne, and Sylas already seated around it.

Elowen’s eyes lit up. “Lord—I mean Kyren.” She beamed. “Didn’t know you would be visiting today.”

The Rogue King was surprisingly warm with his response. “Believe me when I say it was abrupt.” He sat first, quickly followed by Aurora and Lucian.

Elian sat last, sandwiched between Lucian and Kyren.

With everyone gathered, Aurora shot straight to business.

“I got another vision.” She steepled her fingers together. “I wasn’t certain, but I originally felt like that first vision with the shattering moon and the palace was exaggerated. By none other than Amara.”

Elian immediately tensed. “What do you mean Amara exaggerated your vision?”

Aurora’s silver eyes flitted to her mate. The latter placed a hand on her shoulder, an assurance that she should continue.

[Barely a minute in, and this is already feeling like one heck of an intervention.]

“After Amara captured me,” Aurora continued, “my mind hasn’t exactly been the same. It was like she… placed this bug. This nagging dread that pushes the narrative that whatever we do, she’ll be victorious at the end.”

Her voice hardened. “I feel like it messed up with my natural precognition. The moon shattered in my vision, but in reality, it’s just a single crack that’s slowly magnifying. The palace was destroyed in my vision, but in reality that was quelled as well.”

Lucian raised a hand. “Aren’t those just signs that we stopped your vision from happening?”

“Whatever your answer to that is,” Kyren’s head tilted a bit, “what’s your point, princess? What’s the new vision?”

Fortunately, Aurora didn’t keep both men hanging. “Yes and no, dear brother.” Her gaze landed on Kyren. “And about my latest vision… the Divine crystal.”

“… What about the crystal?” Elian asked, leaning closer with his heart rate already quickening.

“I saw… shadows. Rushing into the Dark lands. Laying waste to its capital.” The princess’s face was grim. “Then I saw a hand shoot out from the depths of the desert sands. The crystal clutched within its fingers.”

Elian froze, a lump suddenly sticking in his throat.

Well, that didn’t sound absolutely horrifying…

“In case you weren’t aware,” Kyren folded his arms across his chest, “Noctreth was attacked. While the palace was under siege by Garrick, my mother sent a clone—”

“This was beyond what happened that day.” Aurora interrupted. “I-I heard thousands of screams. Smoke billowed into the crimson skies without any signs of ceasing.”

“That hand holding the crystal.” All heads turned to Elian the second he spoke. “Do you think… it was Amara’s?”

Aurora shook her head. “I remain unsure, but what I think we all know,” her eyes swept past everyone, “is that no matter what, we can’t let her get her hands on the crystal.”

“It’s under heavy protection,” Kyren announced.

“And it wasn’t during the last attack?”

“What do you suggest we do?” Kyren’s frustration was becoming clearer by the second. “Sit around like ducks and act paranoid? When we,” his fist clenched so hard that the lights responded by flickering, “could simply take the fight to her doors. Gather our combined forces and make her kneel.”

He turned to Lucian. “You told me you’d have my back during this war.”

Lucian blinked. “I do, Kyren. We—”

“Then prove it.” The Lord of the Dark Lands rose to his feet. “Quit sitting around waiting for the next attack. Take the bloody fight to her. I don’t give a damn if Arcadia is unaware of its Matron’s insanity. But trust me…”

Those crimson orbs locked on every face one by one. “… If there’s anything Garrick’s siege proved, it’s that Lunaria isn’t exempt from Amara’s wrath. So do with that what you will. And don’t rein me into any fuzzy vision without taking action.”

With that, Kyren shoved his seat back until it scraped harshly against the marble floor.

“Kyren, wait.” Elowen and Elian called him back in unison, but he stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

Silence.

Elian bit his bottom lip.

He could feel Kyren’s rage bubbling like an active volcano. And he guessed why.

“He lost,” he spun his head back to Aurora, who now had her face buried in a palm, “a man who’s been by his side for decades. Farrell was more than a commander. He was like a son.”

His gaze averted to Sylas, the only other person who could understand what that felt like. The lad’s blue eyes lowered, but it was clear he felt some guilt.

Elian sat straighter than an arrow. “Yet it was all for nothing. The one who killed Farrell was nothing but a damn clone,” his head angled to Lucian. “We can’t keep stalling. I-I know I wasn’t the biggest fan of war, Lucian. But after dying and everything we went through that day—”

“Mother,” the Alpha King shot off his seat, a cold light igniting in those silver eyes. “Inform the Council, the Elders and all leading personnel of the Lunarian military.”

A smile played on the corner of Elian’s lips as Lucian strode to the door with an air of finality.

“We’re taking the war to Arcadia.”