CHAPTER 30A — WHAT AIDEN CARRIED OUT OF THE GATE
Aiden didn't notice Master Veldt stop talking.
He didn't notice the last of the students scatter.
He didn't notice the courtyard doors slamming shut behind the final group.
All he could hear was his heartbeat.
Too fast.
Too sharp.
Every beat pushing lightning up under his skin like an animal trying to claw its way out.
The marks along his ribs pulsed in uneven flashes—green, then blue, then white, like his body couldn't decide which force owned him now.
The pup trembled in his arms, tiny claws dug into his coat, sparks hissing off its fur and snapping against Aiden's chest in frantic, panicked bursts. Its heartbeat was as fast as his—
—but not in fear.
In resonance.
Storm-answering-storm.
Aiden swallowed, but the motion hurt. Everything in him felt too tight, too full, too hot, too close to slipping.
"Aiden?"
Myra's voice.
He turned.
Slowly.
Like moving through mud.
She took one look at him and froze.
Not the alert, combat-ready stillness she got when danger showed its teeth.
No.
This was a different stillness.
A scared one.
"Aiden…" Myra whispered again, softer. "Your eyes."
He blinked.
The air popped.
Lightning crackled around his lashes.
He sucked in a shaky breath and forced his gaze downward, away from her, away from the courtyard, away from everything—
—but Nellie was already there too, small hands clutching his coat sleeve.
Her voice trembled:
"You're hurting."
He tried to speak.
The storm pushed up in his chest like something trying to burst.
"I'm fine," he lied.
Badly.
Nellie flinched. Not from his tone—but from the way his words vibrated, buzzing like static.
Runa stepped in behind them, hammer on her back, posture braced.
She didn't touch him.
She didn't even reach out.
But she planted herself close enough that her shoulder almost brushed his.
Quiet, sturdy, unyielding.
A wall that would not move if he collapsed.
"Raikos." Her voice was low. "Sit."
Aiden shook his head. "I—I can't. If I stop, I might—"
Lightning rippled down his arm, snapping into the air with a crack that drew a dozen flinches.
The pup whimpered louder, pressing its head into his throat as if trying to calm him by force.
Nellie clutched his sleeve tighter. "Please… let us help."
He stepped back.
A mistake.
The storm surged, lashing outward in a shimmer of heat that made the courtyard lanterns flicker.
Myra reached instinctively toward him.
He flinched hard.
She froze mid-step, hand suspended in the air.
"Okay," she whispered. "Okay. No touching. Tell me what you need."
Aiden closed his eyes.
He could feel it—every mark the Gate burned into him, the storm behind his ribs swollen and furious, the echo of that eye in the mist calling him storm-child, and underneath it all…
…the third thing.
The thing that touched him. The thing that shouldn't have.
He tried to breathe.
The storm answered instead.
A crack of lightning snapped across the courtyard stone, leaving a black scar where his shadow fell.
Myra and Nellie both jumped.
Runa didn't.
She stepped forward and spoke quietly:
"You're not going to hurt us."
Aiden shook his head. "Runa—"
"You aren't."
Not a question. A fact.
"But I could," Aiden whispered, voice thick. "I—if I lose it, if this thing in me breaks open, I don't know what I'll—"
Myra stepped closer.
Not recklessly.
Just near enough that he could hear her clearly over the static roaring in his head.
"Aiden… you didn't break in the Hollow. You didn't break in the trials. You didn't break when that monster tried to eat you and the cub. You won't break now."
He swallowed hard, lightning crawling up his throat.
Myra's voice cracked:
"…but you're shaking."
Nellie nodded, tears pooling. "You don't have to pretend with us. Not right now."
Aiden's vision blurred.
From pain.
From pressure.
From fear.
He pressed a hand to his chest, fingers digging into his shirt as if he could hold the storm there by force.
He couldn't.
It bucked again, sparks flaring—
—and that was when the courtyard door opened.
Headmistress Elowen didn't walk out.
She arrived.
Like a shift in the air. Like the forest inhaling.
Her cloak of forest-green rustled once, though no wind touched it. Gold eyes flickered to the girls. To Runa. To the trembling pup.
And then they landed on Aiden.
Her expression didn't change.
But the courtyard did.
The buzzing air calmed. The lightning softened. His storm curled tighter in his ribs, instinctively recognizing something older than it.
"Aiden Raikos," she said, voice soft but carrying like a spell. "Look at me."
He lifted his head.
The storm surged—
Then stilled.
Not fully.
But enough.
Elowen stepped into the circle around him, hands empty, posture open, ancient magic coiling around her like a living thing. She stopped just within arm's reach.
Not closer.
Never assuming permission.
"Tell me what you feel," she said.
He swallowed, chest aching.
"Pressure," he whispered. "Like something wants to force its way out. Like the marks are trying to… finish something they started. And the storm—my storm—won't sit still."
Elowen nodded.
Calm. Measured. Unshaken.
"And the third presence?" she asked softly. "The one that touched you in the Hollow?"
Aiden's breath stuttered.
He hadn't said a word about the whisper.
But Elowen already knew.
He nodded once, shaking.
"It's close," he whispered. "It's… watching me. It felt like it followed me out of the trial."
Myra's eyes widened.
Nellie wrapped her arms around herself.
Runa's jaw tensed like she was ready to swing at a ghost.
Elowen lifted a hand—not to touch Aiden, but to gesture.
A quiet, ancient rune formed in the air. A circle. A line. A spiral.
Aiden felt the storm recoil like an animal scenting a predator.
Elowen's voice dropped:
"It didn't follow you out."
Her eyes softened. "It was already with you before you entered."
The storm flared violently.
Aiden doubled over with a gasp, one knee hitting stone.
Myra lunged forward—
—but Runa grabbed her arm, holding her back.
"Let her work," Runa murmured.
Nellie cried out, but Myra didn't fight. Not really.
The pup screamed sparks, trying to climb up Aiden's chest to shield him with its tiny body.
Elowen lowered her hand.
The rune shone brighter.
"Aiden Raikos," she said gently. "Let it surface."
He sucked in a breath—
—and let the storm rise.
Lightning tore through the air.
Not wild.
Not destructive.
But seen.
Marks along his ribs flared green. Marks along his arm glowed pale silver. His storm spiraled outward in a whirl of blue-white sparks—
—and a shadow flickered across the courtyard behind him.
Tall. Mist-made. Thorn-edged.
A hint of an eye shape pulsing faintly in the air.
Myra gasped.
Nellie grabbed Runa's sleeve.
The pup growled lightning.
And Elowen stepped between Aiden and the shape with a breath like a forest warning winter:
"Not here."
The shadow recoiled.
Not from power.
From authority.
Elowen's gold eyes burned.
"You had your chance in the Hollow," she whispered. "You will not take him here."
The shadow hissed—
—and unraveled, dissolving into mist threads that folded back toward the Gate like water obeying gravity.
The storm inside Aiden collapsed at once, falling inward like a wave retreating after a strike.
He slumped forward—
—and Myra caught him.
Not forcefully.
Not dramatically.
Just arms around his shoulders, holding him upright, head pressed to his chest like she needed the proof of his heartbeat.
"You're okay," she whispered fiercely. "You're okay. You're okay."
Nellie pressed against his other side, sobbing in relief.
Runa stood guard over both of them, eyes sharp, jaw tight.
The pup curled under his chin, trembling but alive.
Elowen stepped closer—slowly, gently—and rested a single hand near his shoulder.
Not touching.
Just close enough that he could feel the warmth.
"You held back when you could have burned the Hollow down," she said quietly. "You shaped power instead of being shaped by it."
A pause.
"And you faced something no student has seen in a hundred years."
Aiden breathed, voice raw:
"…is it gone?"
Elowen shook her head.
"No. But it is… patient. Observing. Waiting for you to choose the kind of storm you will become."
Aiden closed his eyes.
He leaned into Myra's shoulder.
Nellie held his sleeve.
The pup nuzzled him.
Runa kept watch.
And Elowen added, softer than all of them:
"For now… you've won."
The courtyard exhaled.
The storm settled.
And Aiden finally—
finally—
let himself breathe again.