The Timeless Trials

by A.C. Guess

The woman’s voice blocked out every other sound—every other thought in my mind. I lowered the gun and turned, scanning the crowd in search of the speaker, the owner of the voice I recognized in my soul. My heart froze.

Anger squeezed me with a viselike grip. I had told her to leave. To disappear.

And here she came, doing quite the opposite, screaming her way through the crowd and into my heart. Into trouble.

The instinctual need to protect her struck me like a dagger of truth through my heart, the wave of accompanying realization a crushing weight on my lungs.

I wanted to save her but somehow, in the chaos, I had unwittingly become her biggest threat.

You are most certainly not my friend.”

“No, I am not.”

And no, I am not a prince. Not anymore.”

his older sibling.

Rydar Barragan,

“You are tied to me now, as I am to you.

A reminder of what happened to those who defied the king.

Everyone has a soulmate if they live long enough to find them.

“You do not scare me, Rydar.” “I should.”

“Breathtaking, first and foremost.” He took a step toward me, and for once, I felt his fortress begin to crumble. “And a bit frightening at the moment, if I’m to be honest. I would certainly not hand you a blade in this state.”

“Who did this? What happened?”

almatae,

? Mate? What does this mean?

“It means ‘the one my soul loves’.

Ahh there ya go

Not a common thing, of course, but those who find their almatae are soul-bound

bound for eternity. The truest, deepest love. The king hasn’t been the sa...

“I have no doubts that you will be the end of me.”

I knew I loved her with every broken shard of my soul.

She wasn’t just important. She was the essence of my world.

“This is the most beautiful thing I have seen in my life.” From behind me, his deep rumble of a voice found its way into my heart. “Yes, it comes close, doesn’t it?” I whirled around to find Rydar watching me, his gaze churning with storm clouds and secrets. “Close to what?” But I knew. It was in his eyes. “To the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“When I first saw you, I knew who you were. What you were. You blazed your way into my life like the sun, and you made me feel like there could be a light at the end of all this darkness, and that if I could only be near you, I would find my way out of the shadows.” He turned to face me once more, locking his stormy eyes on mine. “You are my dawn, Rae—a light in my life I will never deserve.”

Almatae. The one my soul loves.

“I want you more than anything I have ever wanted in my life, Rae. Do you not know what you are to me? Who you are? Do you not understand why, from the moment I laid eyes upon you, I found myself incapable of straying from your side? I have never wanted anything more. But I cannot. It will destroy you.”

“Because I love the night. When the sun sets, it marks another day survived. Night falls, and with it comes a peace known only to the darkness. Rest…renewal. If I am the dawn, then you are my dusk. You are the solace I will fight my way towards every day, never resting, never stopping until I can find my way to you beneath the starlit sky. I am not afraid of the darkness, Rydar, especially not yours. This is not our end.”

“I love you, Oraelia.”

“The one my soul loves,”

“To new beginnings,” he whispered, because I was his dawn. “To the end of our troubles,” I responded, because he was my dusk.