CHAPTER 170: YOU’LL DO IT TOO

Ariston

The silence that followed my cry was worse than any wound Rael had given me.

He just stood there—for one fleeting, torturous second—watching me. His face unreadable beneath the veil of falling rain. Water dripped from his hair, from Aelin’s motionless form on his shoulder, from the jagged edges of the ruined temple around us.

Then...

He let out a long, quiet sigh. A tired, broken sound. The kind of sigh you give when you’ve already made a choice you know will hurt someone—and you’re doing it anyway.

And then he turned away.

!!!

His action shattering me.

The sound of his footsteps vanished with the rain. One, two, three soft splashes—and then silence.

Rael didn’t turn back.

Didn’t offer a word.

Not even a glance.

Just a tired, quiet sigh.

Then he bent his knees—

—and leapt.

In a blur of motion, he cleared the crumbled wall of the half-built temple, Aelin limp over his shoulder, his coat flaring like wings behind him.

Then he was gone.

And I was alone.

My arm, still reaching out for him, trembled... then gave way. It fell uselessly into the rainwater pool with a dull splash, the ripples spiraling out around me as if mocking my helplessness.

I stared at the wall. At the place where he vanished.

For a moment, there was no sound but the slow, pitiless rhythm of the rain.

Then thunder cracked again—louder than before, a bone-shaking roar.

Something inside me broke.

I gasped.

"Dad..."

But it was too quiet. The rain took it.

And then I screamed.

I screamed so hard it tore my throat raw. All the pain, betrayal, the memories, the hope I’d buried and dared to resurrect—it all came pouring out of me. A scream born of grief, rage, and the ache of a child who had never stopped waiting.

But just as it left my mouth—

—thunder shattered the sky.

The storm swallowed me whole.

My scream drowned beneath the weight of heaven’s fury.

It was as if even the world refused to hear me.

I collapsed forward, my body folding into the cold pool, cheek pressed to the stone as rain mixed with blood in the water.

He left me.

He chose to leave me.

Again.

And this time, he took her too.

My tears were silent now. My breath shuddered. My hands clenched into the water like I could hold something—anything—together.

But I couldn’t.

I couldn’t even hold myself.

The world was water and ruin.

Rain beat against the temple stones, loud and merciless, hammering down from the sky as if trying to wash away what had just happened. My fingers curled weakly into the shallow pool, gripping nothing but cold, empty water. The reflection staring back at me was a blur—distorted, broken—like me.

But then...

Footsteps.

Fast. Heavy. Slapping against the wet stone. Getting closer.

The ripples in the rain catcher grew wider, distorting my reflection further. The sound—sharp and urgent—rushed into the silence like a lifeline.

I barely turned my head. My body was too weak. My vision swam. I didn’t know if I was imagining it until I heard his voice—

"Ariston!"

A blur of dark clothing and hair came into view. Then arms—strong, real—wrapped around me and pulled me upright.

Drakkar.

He dropped to his knees beside me, rain soaking him through, his arms locking around my shaking frame like I was something precious that might break apart if he let go.

"I’m here," he said, breathless. "I’ve got you, I’ve got you."

I broke. I don’t know why but just looking at him made me cry

The sob tore from my chest before I could stop it. My fists clung to his coat, and I buried my face against his shoulder, crying harder than I had in years.

Drakkar

The rain had grown heavier now—so loud it was hard to think. Hard to breathe.

But not hard enough to drown out the sound of Ariston crying.

And I had never seen Ariston cry.

Not during the worst nights of the war. Not when he bled out after the abyss tore him. Not even when we’d lost people, fellow companions. Not when the world collapsed around us.

But now—

Now he was breaking.

And I didn’t know how to hold the pieces.

He was trembling in my arms, soaked through, blood running from a wound above his brow, mixing with the rain that wouldn’t stop falling. I tried to pull him closer, to anchor him, but something in him snapped, he shoved at me—fighting, thrashing, as if I was the one who’d hurt him.

"Let me go," he snapped, voice cracked and raw.

"Ariston—"

"Let go!" he shouted, trying to stand, to stagger forward, toward the wall

I grabbed him by the shoulders, forced him back down with more strength than I wanted to use.

"Stop acting like a brat!" I shouted over the storm. "This isn’t the time!"

Lightning cracked overhead. The courtyard lit up for half a second like a dying star.

Ariston glared at me, eyes burning even through the water. "Why do you care?! You shouldn’t care about me!"

"I probably shouldn’t," I yelled back, my chest rising and falling. "But I do! God help me, Ariston, I do! I’ve cared since the first night we shared. You had already caught my eye when I saw you fighting like crazy on the battlefield." I recalled the time we were at war and I first saw him running up the body of this huge crocodile chimera, eyes fierce, no fear as he held his sword and slashed its back to reveal the core in its back.

I still remember how dazed I was to see that.

It was like the world stilled for a moment

"Not a day has gone by where I don’t want you," I told him as rain surrounded us both.

His expression faltered. Something in his jaw twitched.

He turned, gesturing with a shaking hand to the broken wall where he tried to run to a moment ago

"He left," Ariston rasped

"What?" I frowned as I looked at the wall and it was the moment it hit me.

Where is Aelin?

"Rael- dad, he- he took her."

Oh shit...

He tried to get up again but this time his legs gave out. I caught him and embraced up, but started fighting with me

"Let me go!" He screamed, his voice sounded raw

"You are in no condition to go anywhere!"

"You don’t have to care." He glared at me, eyes full of tears, "He left," He pointed at the wall, "Just like everyone else. Just like you will too!! You all leave. You all lie. No one actually wants to stay!!" There was so much emotion in his voice it left me speechless. All I could do was stare at the beautiful face of his that was broken and battered, "You’ll get tired of me too, Drakkar. You’ll see the mess I am and walk away just like he did!"

The words hit me like knives.

And then I understood.

I saw it.

Not just in his words, but in his eyes. In the way he looked at me. I understood why he was always with one step of distance—just enough space to run if he had to.

He wasn’t cold.

He was scared.

Terrified.

Of being loved.

Of being left.

Like he had been before

I couldn’t say anything. The truth of it lodged in my throat like glass.

So I did the only thing I could do.

I grabbed him. Pulled him back into me. Arms tight, unrelenting, rain-soaked and desperate.

He fought me again. Hard.

His fists slammed against my shoulder, my chest. He was still crying. Still shouting something I couldn’t understand over the thunder.

But I held him anyway.

I wouldn’t let go.

I can’t let go

I pressed my forehead to his, soaked and bloody and shaking, and whispered, "You don’t have to be afraid of me."

But he kept fighting.

"I won’t leave," I told him, "I won’t," I kept repeating it, "I won’t leave you. I promise."

"You will!"

"I won’t," And I kept holding on, "I will always be with you."

Till the time he finally settled into my embrace quietly and sobbed there.

***

Draegon

The rain hadn’t let up in hours.

I stood before the high-arched window of my study, papers in my hand, though I hadn’t read a single word in the last ten minutes. Lightning pulsed across the sky like a warning, casting jagged white reflections against the wet glass. Wind howled low through the stone corridors of the citadel, and thunder answered it like a voice from the deep.

I should have gone back to my work.

I didn’t.

Instead, I stared out at the storm.

Aelin should’ve been back by now.

She was excited to meet Ariston’s father figure, so, I didn’t argue and let her go.

Ariston was with her. That had been enough for me...

But

Now the air was too quiet, the rain too heavy, the wind too sharp.

I glanced down at the papers in my hand. Briefings. Reports. Nothing important enough to still the gnawing unease curling like smoke in my chest.

I shifted my stance, trying to shake it off.

Ariston is with her, I reminded myself again. There is no safer blade at her side than his. He wouldn’t let anything happen.

But then why...?