Heir to a Fallen Star

Chapter 49

When he finally pulls back just an inch, his breathing is ragged, his lips wet and flushed as he stares down at me in the dim candlelight.

"I've got you, Red," he rough-whispers, his chest heaving against mine. "I've got you."

The heavy, frantic storm that chased us into this room has completely passed, leaving behind a profound, breathless stillness. We lie tangled together in the quiet dark of the small room, the muffled roar of the tavern below fading into nothing more than white noise against the steady, grounding rhythm of Kaelen's breathing. Every lingering bit of tension from our arguments, the fear from the trail, and the anger from the tavern floor has finally been thoroughly smoothed away, replaced by a deep, aching relief.

I sink into him, feeling a blissful, safe peace that I haven't known in what feels like a lifetime. In his arms, the rest of the world simply ceases to exist.

Slowly, mindful of my aching hands, I slide my arm up his chest, burying my face into the warm crook of his neck. I take a deep, deliberate breath, inhaling the familiar scent of pine, rain-soaked earth, and clean skin that belongs solely to him. It’s a scent so grounding it makes me almost dizzy with comfort.

"I wish we could stay like this," I whisper against his skin, the confession soft and heavy with a quiet longing.

Kaelen’s hold on me tightens instantly. He wraps his massive arm around my waist, pulling me so close against his side that there isn't a breath of air between us, while his other hand slides up to rest gently in my hair. He presses a long, fierce kiss to the top of my head, holding it there for a long beat as if he could lock the moment in time.

"So, do I, Red," he rumbles, his voice low and raspy in the dark, vibrating straight through my chest. "If I could freeze the world right here, I’d do it in a heartbeat. No stones, no wars, no paths to follow. Just you and me."

He shifts slightly, his fingers gently tangling in my curls, tilting my face up just enough so he can look down at me in the faint moonlight spilling through the window. His moss-green eyes are incredibly soft, completely unguarded.

"But until we can stay like this for good," he murmurs, his thumb tracing a tender line across my cheekbone, "I'm holding onto you. Every single step of the way."

“I could have my own apothecary again, I could teach you the craft and we could work together, or you could find something you enjoy, what would you desire to do”

“Or how about I bring home the coin and you can look after the little menaces running a much in our home.”

Kaelen completely freezes. For a long, stunned second, the only sound in the room is the distant, muffled laughter from the tavern below. He stares down at me in the dim moonlight, his moss-green eyes wide, his jaw slightly slack as the words “little menaces running amok in our home” slowly sink into his mind.

Then, a sudden, breathy laugh breaks from him—a sound of pure, unadulterated joy that I’ve rarely ever heard from him.

"You want me to be a nursemaid, Red?" he rumbles, a massive, brilliant grin breaking across his face, lighting up the shadows of the room. He shakes his head, his chest shaking with quiet laughter as he tucks me even closer against his side. "The fierce Captain Kaelen, reduced to chasing a pack of gold-headed terrors through a garden while you're off making coin? Gods, the guys from my old regiment would never let me hear the end of it."

He rolls over slightly, hovering over me again, but this time there is no tension in his frame—just a soft, melting warmth that makes my chest ache with affection. He reaches down, his large, rough hand gently smoothing over my stomach, his palm warm and heavy through the fabric of my tunic. The gesture is so incredibly tender, so full of a quiet, reverence for a future we haven't even reached yet, that it catches my breath.

"I’d do it," he rough-whispers, his voice suddenly thick with emotion as he looks down at me. "In a heartbeat. I’d teach them how to track, how to defend themselves, and how to completely ignore their mother when she tells them it's time for bed."

He leans down, catching my lower lip in a soft, lingering kiss that feels like a sacred vow.

"But you're dreaming if you think they wouldn't inherit your stubborn streak," he murmurs against my mouth, a wicked spark returning to his eyes. "I can handle an army, Iris, but a house full of mini-Reds? I might actually need you to double that nightshade draft just to get some sleep."

The laughter bursts out of me, bright and unchecked, ringing softly against the wooden rafters of the quiet room. The image of this towering, lethal warrior hopelessly outmanoeuvred by a pack of tiny, stubborn children with my hair is almost too much to bear.

"I never thought of myself being a mother before," I admit softly as the laughter fades into a warm, lingering smile. I look up at him, my eyes tracing the strong lines of his face in the moonlight. "But... I could see it now. Mixing herbs with a big belly, telling you off for teaching them how to climb onto the roof."

Kaelen’s smile softens, turning into something so deeply tender it catches in my throat. He doesn't say anything at first; he just looks at me, his moss-green eyes dark with a quiet, fierce reverence as his hand rests warm and heavy against my stomach.

"You'd be beautiful," he rough-whispers, his voice thick with an emotion he can barely contain. He leans down, pressing his forehead against mine, his breath shaking slightly. "A big belly, covered in flour or dried clover, bossing me around... there wouldn't be a luckier man alive, Iris."

He shifts, pulling the heavy blanket up over our shoulders to block out the chill of the room, sealing us into our own small world. He pulls me flush against his chest, tucking my head securely under his chin.

"We'll get there," he murmurs into my hair, his arms wrapping around me like an unbreakable shield. "We'll find the path, we'll finish this, and then I'm building you that shop. For now, just rest, Red. Let me hold you."

The beautiful, warm dream of a quiet shop and a house full of laughter shatters against the stark reality of the present.

"As amazing as that sounds, we can't," I say softly, the bittersweet truth weighing heavy on my tongue. "I have a memory to retrieve."

Kaelen’s arms tighten around me for a fraction of a second, a silent protest rolling through his muscles, before he reluctantly lets me go. I slide out of the warmth of the bed, the cold air of the room hitting my skin as I cross the floor to our discarded satchels. My fingers fumble through the leather pouches until they wrap around the small glass vial.

I pull the cork with my teeth and, without giving myself time to second-guess it, tip my head back. I swallow Aster's putrid-tasting elixir in one sharp gulp.

It hits my stomach like liquid fire. Instantly, a wave of intense nausea rolls through me, and a bitter, metallic taste coats the back of my throat. Within seconds, the edges of the room blur. The flickering candlelight stretches into distorted streaks of gold, and the floor tilts violently beneath my feet.

"Iris!" Kaelen’s voice is instantly alert, the mattress shifting loudly as he lunges out of the sheets.

"I'm fine," I try to say, but it comes out as a breathless mumble.

Throwing my arms out blindly, my fingers catch the edge of the wooden table to keep me from crashing down. The world spins in dizzying circles, my head throbbing to the rhythm of my spiking pulse. Using the table as a guide, I navigate my way back to the bed, my knees weak and trembling. I collapse onto the mattress and crawl awkwardly over the heavy blankets, seeking the only anchor I have left.

Before I can even steady myself, Kaelen’s massive hands catch me by the waist, pulling me firmly up into his lap. His face is pale with a sudden, sharp panic, his moss-green eyes frantic as he looks at my dilated pupils.

"Damn it, Red, it's already hitting you," he rough-whispers, his hands sliding up to cup my face, trying to force my wavering focus back to him. He can feel the frantic, rabbit-like tapping of my heart where my chest is pressed against his. "Look at me. Stay right here with me."

I reach into my pocket, my numb fingers curling around the cold, heavy shape of the memory stone, and pull it out into the open space between us.

"One hundred and twenty beats," I whisper, my voice sounding incredibly distant to my own ears as the magic of the elixir begins to pull at my consciousness. "Count them, Kaelen. Don't let me go."

The room is spinning faster now, the walls dissolving into streaks of shadow, but I force my eyes to stay locked on his for one last second. I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling his massive frame down, holding him close with every ounce of strength I have left.

"Close your eyes, my love," I whisper against his ear, the words tasting like copper and old magic. "I need those pretty eyes to see my swollen belly... one day."

A ragged, choked breath escapes Kaelen's throat. He squeezes his eyes shut, buried deep in the crook of my neck, his arms wrapping around me so fiercely it almost hurts.

"I'll see it," he vows, his voice a raw, desperate growl that vibrates through my entire being. "I promise you, Red. I will see it. Now go. I'm counting."

The moment my fingers tighten around the cold, jagged edge of the stone, the world fractures.

The warmth of Kaelen's body, the smell of the inn room, the heavy weight of his arms—it all violently rips away. I am thrown backward into a freezing, breathless void, a roaring wind rushing past my ears as the magic of the stone violently collides with Aster's elixir.

One. I can still hear his voice. It sounds like it's echoing from the bottom of a deep, dark well, but it's there.

Two.

The darkness before me begins to bleed, shifting into a blinding, fractured memory of stone corridors, the smell of ozone, and a towering shadow waiting for me in the dark.

Three.

"I'm right here, Iris," Kaelen's distant whisper echoes in the back of my mind, keeping the void from swallowing me whole. "Keep your eyes on the dream, Red. Come back to me."

Before I see her, I smell her, the strong smell of vervain floods the dark room, she emerges glowing, ethereal.

The warmth of her hug is intoxicating. It expands in my chest, a magnificent, heavy weight that feels more real than the stone, more real than the putrid elixir, more real than anything I have ever felt. The scent of vervain wraps around me like a heavy, protective blanket.

Twenty-four. Kaelen’s voice brushes against my ear, a ghostly, desperate vibration. "Iris... keep breathing... I'm counting... don't leave me..." But his voice feels so small compared to the glowing, golden woman holding me. Her eyes are the exact shape of mine. The sadness in her face cuts right through my soul. She has missed everything. The apothecary, the running, the fear... the love. I want to tell her about the shop. I want to tell her about the warrior waiting for me on the other side of the void.

"Just a little bit," a voice whispers in the back of my mind. "Just tell her a few things. She deserves to know."

Thirty-two.

My mother reaches out, her glowing fingers gently brushing a stray curl from my forehead. Her touch is pure light. "Please, Iris. Just tell me what your life has been like. Let me look at you."

I feel myself slipping. The memory isn't moving forward because I'm anchoring myself right here, choosing the ghost over the mission, choosing the past over the future. The edges of the dark room are starting to feel comfortable, warm, and permanent. I want to sit down on the floor with her and talk until the sun comes up.

Forty.

"Iris, your heart is beating too fast," Kaelen's whisper echoes, sounding slightly panicked now, a distant thread of reality fraying in the wind. "Listen to my voice, Red. Stay focused. Come back to me."

My mother looks at me, her beautiful face full of a tragic, longing hope. "Tell me, my dearest. Tell me everything."

“I need to find dad….”

My mother’s face instantly changes. The warm, longing sadness in her eye’s fractures, replaced by a sudden, sharp clarity that cuts through the golden glow surrounding her. The name acts like a splash of ice water, cracking the comfortable illusion of the room.

"Your father," she breathes, her hands sliding from my face down to my shoulders, her grip tightening with a sudden, desperate urgency. "Iris, if you are looking for him, you cannot stay here. You cannot waste your heartbeats on me."

Sixty. Kaelen’s voice cuts through the void, rough and ragged with a growing terror. "Sixty, Iris. You're halfway. Keep moving, Red, please. Don't let go of me."

The golden light around my mother begins to ripple and flicker, the scent of vervain twisting into something sharp and metallic. The dark room around us starts to shift, the stone walls melting and reforming into a different place entirely.

"Listen to me carefully," my mother says, her voice echoing as if she's being pulled backward into the shadows. "He hid the truth where the light never touches the sea. You must look for the..."

Her voice distorts, drowned out by a sudden, deafening roar of wind as the memory violently forces itself forward, dragging me away from her into a deeper, darker layer of the stone.

Seventy-two. "Iris!" Kaelen's whisper is a raw, breathless plea in my ear, his voice the only string keeping me tied to the living world. "Talk to me, Red. I'm right here. I'm holding you. Seventy-two. Come back."

The memory snaps. The golden woman vanishes, and I am suddenly standing in a cold, damp place. The air smells of salt, rot, and old parchment. Before me, a heavy iron-bound door stands slightly ajar, a flickering green light bleeding through the crack.

The iron-bound door is freezing beneath my palm. The green light spilling through the crack pulses, casting long, sickly shadows across the stone floor. The voice is beautiful—achingly, beautifully tragic—wrapping around my mind like soft velvet, pulling me deeper into the trance.

"…My heart was pieced by cupid...i disdain all glittering gold...there is nothing that can console me... but my Johnny sailor bold..."

My hand presses harder against the heavy wood, the hinges groaning as the door begins to slide open. The melodic tune fills my head, drowning out the cold, drowning out the fear, drowning out the putrid taste of the elixir.

Ninety-five. Kaelen’s voice strikes the back of my mind, but it doesn't sound like a whisper anymore. It sounds like a roar, fractured and terrified, vibrating through the very fabric of the memory. "Iris! Stop! Your heart is slamming against your ribs—it's too fast! Ninety-six! Ninety-seven! Wake up, Red!"

Inside the room, the green light flares. The singing doesn't stop, but as the door swings wide, the beautiful melody begins to warp. The pitch stretches, turning into something unnaturally hollow, and the silhouette standing in the centre of the green glow isn't a person at all. It's a mass of twisting, shifting shadows, its elongated fingers reaching out toward me.

This isn't a memory of my father. It's a trap. A parasite in the stone, fed by the magic and mimicking what I want to hear to keep me under.

One hundred and ten.

"Iris, please!" Kaelen's voice is raw, sobbing with a desperate, helpless fury. I can feel a ghostly, crushing pressure around my waist in the real world, his massive arms squeezing me, trying to physically drag my soul back into my body. "One hundred and twelve! I'm pulling you out! I'm breaking the stone!"

The shadow lunges toward the doorway, its jaws opening in a silent, deafening screech that shatters the beautiful song into a million jagged pieces.

With a violent, full-body convulsion, I tear myself out of the dark void just as the shadow’s jaws snap shut in the green light.

The memory fractures into a thousand flying shards of glass, and reality hits me like a physical blow. I slam back into my body with a ragged, desperate gasp, my lungs burning as if I’ve been drowning for hours.

"He hid the truth where the light touches the sea!" I choke out, the words bursting from my lips before I can even process the sight of the room. "He hid the truth where the light touches the sea! Kaelen—where the light touches the sea!"

I repeat it over and over like a mantra, my voice frantic and breathless, using the words as a lifeline to piece my shattered mind back together. The putrid taste of the elixir is still thick on my tongue, and the room is tilting violently, but the terrifying green light is gone.