Page 50 of Shardless

“Pleasedon’t tell them,” Taly begged. “Please, Aiden. The less they know, the less contact they have with me, the harder it will be for the Sanctorum to go after them if I’m found out.”

“What’s your plan then?”

“What?” Taly asked, a hitch in her voice.

“Your plan?” Aiden pulled himself up and sat on the edge of the bed. “You ran away to protect them—I get that. But what do you plan to do next? To survive?”

Taly shrugged, fidgeting with the edge of the quilt. “I don’t know. Stay out of sight until the Aion Gate opens? Sarina taught us a little bit about the mortal world. I thought I might be able to travel to one of the human cities. Even if I’m not completely mortal, I still look human. I was hoping I could just… disappear.”

Aiden stood and began pacing again.

“I’m not your responsibility, Aiden.” Taly’s eyes followed him as he traversed the length of the room. “You’ve already done more than you needed to just by healing me.”

“Except that’s where you’re wrong.” Turning and leaning against the table, Aiden sighed. “If you have time magic, then it’s my duty as a member of the Crystal Guard to protect you.” He stopped and ran a hand over his head, scratching the fuzz at the backof his neck. “Whatever you might be—mortal, fey, or something else entirely—the fact is that you’re the first indication we’ve seen in almost 200 years that the Time Shard might be trying to reappear. New mages can’t attune to a school of magic unless a Shard calls to them. At least, that’s the theory.”

Aiden cocked his head to the side. “We have the Attunement Ceremony to force a child’s magic to manifest,” he said, mostly to himself, “but I wonder what would happen if a mage was never taken to the temple. Since you looked human, no one would’ve thought to give you a ceremony, but what if the Time Shard still made the call? Maybe it just took your magic longer to manifest itself.”

“I’m not a mage,” Taly argued stubbornly. “I’m human.”

Aiden snorted. “Not from where I’m standing. The faeflower aside, do you know why harpy venom is so deadly to the fey? It’s because it binds to the aether in our blood. If the venom affected you, that means it found something to bind. Something you needed to survive. You’re a mage.”

“But I don’t look fey,” Taly countered. “Even if I’m not completely mortal, I still don’t look fey. That would make me a… I don’t even know. Something that looks human but has magic? That’s unheard of. There are people who would kill me just for that!”

“I’m aware,” Aiden replied grimly. He stared out the window, a faraway look in his eyes. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll help you. I’ll keep your secret, and I’ll accompany you to Faro. That’s where my regiment is stationed. The High Lord of Water has declared all fey cities in the mortal realm a sanctuary for time mages and their sympathizers.The Crystal Guard will be able to protect you there. We don’t answer to the Dawn Court or their Sanctifiers. Our duty is to serve and protect the Shards—allof the Shards.”

Taly opened her mouth to respond, but Aiden held up a finger. “In return” —he paused, making sure he had her attention— “you have to stay here, at the manor, until the Aion Gate opens.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Yes,” Aiden shot back, “you will. My obligation is to keep you safe. You’re either going to agree to my terms, or I’m going to tell Skye and the Castaros what you just told me. Either way, you’re staying right where you are.”

When Taly looked away, Aiden came to sit beside her on the bed. “The harpy venom isn’t completely out of your system, and I’m just assuming from this point on that I need to treat you the way I would a fey patient. That means you’re still in danger of relapsing. If you go somewhere where the aether is thin, like Ryme, youwilldie. You need to stay close to an aether core, and Harbor Manor just so happens to have its own private system.

“On top of that, you’re not going to be able to get by on your own—not anymore. If you have enough aether in your blood that a harpy would go after you with a water magecastingright next to it, you’re going to have a very hard time going out to the gates to salvage. The magical beasts are rabid right now and drawn to the same places you would need to go to make your living.”

Taly remained silent, stubborn pride still shining in her eyes.

Aiden threw up his hands. “Okay—still not convinced? How about this? The High Lord of Earth’s brother has been spreading all kinds of inflammatory rhetoric about humansand Feseraa at the Dawn Court. Tempris is generally pretty isolated, but the effects of that are going to come here eventually. Mortals already have a tendency to go missing when the Aion Gate is charging, but this year is going to be worse. Ivain and Sarina andespeciallySkye can insulate you from that. Believe me when I say that no fey—highborn or otherwise—is going to piss off the heir to Ghislain. His family has too much power.”

“I’m not going to endanger Skye and the Castaros so that I can hide behind their noble rank,” Taly snapped.

Aiden sighed, adopting a more placating tone, “Look—you don’t have a choice right now. You need the Castaros’ help and the protection that being close to Skye will grant you. And it’s like you said—if they don’t know what you are, it will be much more difficult for the Sanctorum to go after them if you’re discovered. Not impossible—granted. But few things in life are ever guaranteed.”

Taly reached for her necklace, running a finger over the pendant, feeling the small divot in the center. “You’re assuming that Skye will even want me around at this point. I don’t think he’s going to forgive me this time. I went too far.”

Aiden huffed as he pushed himself off the bed. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Just talk to him. Be as honest as you can. That’s all he wants.”

Taly chewed on her lip as she considered Aiden’s proposal. It was a good plan—better than any she had come up with so far—and a part of her was desperate to embrace this unexpected ally. After a year of harboring this secret on her own, she couldn’t deny that it would feel good not to bealone in this anymore.

I’d get to come home, she thought, fighting back a fresh wave of tears. There would be no more nights spent in a shitty room with a roof that leaked, shivering underneath a threadbare blanket because the heating element in her stove hadn’t been replaced since before she was born; no more days where she was so hungry that even Jay’s “leftovers” started to look appetizing.

And… she’d get her family back.

She would no longer have to pretend that she hadn’t missed Skye, Ivain, and Sarina every single moment of every single day since she’d made the decision to leave.

True, it was still dangerous. Just being near her was a risk. But if they didn’t know they were harboring a time mage, then they weren’t breaking any laws. With Aiden’s help, she could still give them that small protection.

Taly’s voice was shaky and uneven when she finally said, “Okay, Aiden. You win. But if anything happens… anything at all—"

---