Forbidden Love - Awakened Hearts

Chapter 8

One of the hybrid companions stepped forward a woman whose features were an elegant blend of human and Novan characteristics. "Tell him, Arinna. Tell him who her mother really was."

The pendant at my throat grew almost unbearably hot, and suddenly, I could see her in my mind's eye, not the fragmented memories I'd carried, but the truth. A tall woman with skin that shifted between human pale and Novan iridescence, she moved through the shadows of the palace itself.

"Lady Celeste," I whispered, the name coming to me as if from a dream. "My mother was Lady Celeste of the Solmere."

Lord Vexan's face went completely still, his markings dimming to almost nothing. "That's impossible. Lady Celeste died in a transport accident before…"

"Before she could reveal her pregnancy to the Court," Lady Arinna finished. "She faked her death to protect her child, knowing that a hybrid offspring of royal blood would be seen as an even greater threat than a commoner."

The fountain beneath us sang louder, as if responding to the revelation. Costa's hand found mine again, and this time the contact sent shockwaves through both our bodies. The partial binding that had connected us for centuries suddenly blazed to life, no longer suppressed by lies and artificial barriers.

"She was the Crown Princess," Costa said, wonder in his voice. "Which means you're not just a hybrid, Ariella. You're nobility. You have as much right to the throne as I do."

Lord Vexan's markings flickered wildly, his composure cracking. "This is sedition! The royal family would never…"

"The royal family is nearly extinct," Lady Arinna cut in sharply. "Your isolation policies have left the Crown with exactly one viable heir—Prince Costa—who has spent six centuries in stasis while you and your predecessors maintained your grip on power."

The water swirling around Costa and me began to change, crystallising into a luminous substance that was neither liquid nor solid. I could feel my body responding to the transformation, my hybrid nature fully awakening after centuries of suppression. My skin now shimmered with subtle iridescence, matching the patterns of Costa's markings.

"I remember the ritual now," I said, my voice carrying harmonics that made the crystalline structures around us resonate. "We need to complete it."

Costa nodded, understanding flowing between us. "The binding was never just symbolic. It was meant to create something new a bridge between our peoples that couldn't be broken."

Lord Vexan lunged forward suddenly, pulling a small device from his robes. "I won't allow this abomination to continue!" He aimed it at the fountain's base, his intention clear.

Lady Arinna moved with surprising speed, her hand closing around Lord Vexan's wrist. "Enough, old friend. The time for fear is past."

Their struggle was brief but intense. As they grappled, the device slipped from Lord Vexan's grasp, clattering against the ancient crystal of the fountain. Instead of destroying the Nexus as he'd intended, the impact seemed to activate something dormant within it. The courtyard trembled as light lines erupted from the fountain's base, racing along pathways hidden beneath centuries of development.

"The network," gasped one of the hybrids. "It's reactivating!"

All across Voidhaven, I could sense ancient systems coming to life, connections that had lain dormant since our failed binding centuries ago. The pendant at my throat pulsed in time with these awakening energies, guiding them toward the fountain where Costa and I stood.

"Now," Costa whispered, pulling me closer. "Before they can stop us again."

We stepped into the centre of the fountain, the crystalline water swirling around our bodies. The pendant blazed between us, its light flowing outward to merge with the fountain's energies. As Costa's hands clasped mine, I felt the final barriers between us dissolve.

The binding ritual resumed exactly where it had been interrupted six centuries before not at the beginning, but at its culmination. Words in an ancient language flowed from my lips without conscious thought, matched by Costa's deeper tones. Our markings his natural, mine newly awakened pulsed in perfect synchrony.

Through our strengthening bond, I could feel Costa's memories becoming mine, and mine his. The pain of separation, the fragments of dreams that had sustained us both as we reached for each other, even in our 600 years of sleep. With brief glimpses of the three other times of when those who tried to set us free. They were about to kill me unless Costa surrendered, and the ones who were in Lord Vexan’s role each time.

Around us, the courtyard filled with spectators not just the guards and hybrids who had been present at the start, but citizens of Voidhaven drawn by the fountain's awakening light. Humans and Novans gathered at the edges of the courtyard, their faces illuminated by the crystalline glow that now completely enveloped Costa and me.

Lord Vexan struggled against Lady Arinna's grip, his composure finally shattered. "You don't understand what you're doing! The binding was never fully tested—it could destroy both of them!"

"Or it could save us all," Lady Arinna replied calmly, though I could see concern in her luminescent markings.

Within our cocoon of light, Costa and I had moved beyond words. Our minds touched and merged, memories flowing between us like water. I saw his childhood in the Crystal Palace, the weight of royal expectations, the moment he first questioned the rigid separation between our peoples. He saw my fragmented upbringing, my mother's whispered truths disguised as bedtime stories, the loneliness of never quite belonging anywhere.

"I have loved you across time," Costa's voice resonated in my mind rather than my ears. "Even when I didn't remember you, I was searching."

"And I was waiting," I replied in the same manner, feeling our separate consciousnesses begin to blur at the edges. "Even when I didn't know what I was waiting for."

The pendant between us pulsed one final time before dissolving into pure energy that flowed into both our bodies. The sensation was like being filled with liquid starlight painful in its intensity but also profoundly right. I felt my DNA shifting, rearranging itself to accommodate something new, something that was neither purely human nor Novan but a perfect synthesis of both.

Costa gasped as the same transformation swept through him, his royal markings expanding into complex patterns that matched my newly formed ones. Our skin now shimmered with identical luminescence, neither his nor mine but ours.