Page 19

Chapter Nineteen

Asteria

Getting all the humans into Night was quite the production. While I was proud of my mysterious brother for actually sending them somewhere they’d be safe, I was less so that it was only to cover his own ass from daddy dearest.

We were meant to be leaving today for the fortress on the Etheralta Mountains, hoping to arrive and be able to settle before my mother and brother got there, but we were going to have to push it to tomorrow. It meant we’d arrive after them, most likely, but in fairness, they were the ones who created this mess.

I was anxious to finally see the mountains made of star opal. It was a small thought at the back of my head, but it was there, nonetheless. We were a bit too far south to see the mountains from here, so I’d be waiting for tomorrow for that, too.

In the meantime, I busied myself with helping as best I could. The others had made their way out from the capital to help as well, thankfully. Harpina and I were currently working with several other hum—I stopped myself, remembering for the thousandth time I wasn’t actually human— with several humans to help the new arrivals feel more secure in their new surroundings.

It was Fae who had enslaved them, who’d tied them up and sent them to their deaths. For I had zero doubt what was happening there. Cyrus needed humans to feed his blood magic, and his plans required a lot of blood.

It was Fae like Cyrus and Aelius—who was apparently helping him, that I hated. I’d come to realize the Fae were not inherently bad. I knew this in theory after coming to Night, but I always sort of assumed Calix and the others were just the exception.

Even when that didn’t make sense.

His whole kingdom couldn’t be an exception.

And each Fae there had quickly changed with the times when Calix changed the rules.

Now, I realized the only real differences between Fae and humans were magic and lifespan. All things explained by the fact humans weren’t native to this realm. They weren’t meant to wield magic or live forever. They came from a place with little to no magic, most likely. But they were just like us. Just people.

It was this damned system that allowed Fae to look down on and enslave them. If we could break the system, we could fix all of this.

It wouldn’t be easy, I knew. It wasn’t quite that simple, not when the Fae and humans both had been indoctrinated into this belief system. They’d have to be taught new ways to live, not to mention finding a way to overcome the systemic issues between the groups. But I knew it was possible.

Calix had managed a microcosm of it in Night Kingdom, after all.

So for every human who shied away from me and my Fae features, I just worked harder to make the next feel welcome and safe, most of all.

Freedom was a strange thing. Even when it’s wished for all your life, gaining it didn’t mean the chains unlocked. Even now, I still expect to be thrown back into slavery at any moment. And I knew, should Cyrus get his way, that Fae or not, I would be.

“Asteria.” I whirled around at the sound of my name.

“Lady Siria,” I greeted, surprised. I hadn’t seen her since I’d returned from Dusk, but I was happy to see her looking well. Her pink eyes gleamed as she stared at me, tilting her head to the side like she was examining me, her white hair falling over her shoulder.

I shifted from foot to foot awkwardly, unsure what she was doing.

“My apologies.” She bowed her head with a smile. “I never once imagined I’d see a human who was actually Fae. Looking at you now, though, it makes sense. So many things about you screamed Fae, but none of us thought to look any deeper than what was on the surface.” She grinned wryly, looking out over the sea of humans passing into Night. “Though, I fear that's still the case with humans as a whole. We have much work to do there.”

“We do.” I agreed, nodding. I gathered my long, dark hair to one side of my neck, trying to cool off a bit. Working nonstop for hours meant working up quite a sweat.

“I feel like we should have connected the dots before,” Lady Siria admitted, leaving me confused.

“What do you mean?” I asked, shaking my head. She met my gaze straight on.

“I mean the visions Liv had of you. We should have connected it to the prophecy.” Her explanation left much to be desired.

“What prophecy?” I pushed, a strange feeling rising deep inside. Any time prophecy was mentioned, it put me a bit on edge. The idea of our fates being out of our control was an unwelcome one as far as I was concerned. I wanted agency over my own life, not to have it dictated to me by the gods or some Oracle.

“Calix’s birth prophecy,” she replied blithely, apparently thinking it obvious.

“And what was that?” I pressed, needing answers now. This was the second time today alone this was brought up. There was something there I clearly needed to know, the way people kept referencing it.

She straightened then, pink eyes wide with shock. “Oh.” She went abruptly quiet.

“Siria, please.” I reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it. I couldn’t take the way people kept dancing around this.

“You should really talk to him,” she replied, biting her lip. I rolled my eyes at her, giving her a narrow-eyed look.

“If Calix wanted me to know, he would have told me by now!” I threw my hands up, exasperated. But Siria reached back out, grabbing my hands as she shook her head.

“No. If Calix hasn’t told you, it’s likely because he thinks you already have enough to deal with. I know my cousin, and he’ll want to tell you this himself.” Siria smiled softly, pushing a bit of hair, which had fallen in front of my face, back behind my pointed ear.

“You’re so young, Asteria. So young, and with so much on your shoulders already.” She sighed deeply. “And I fear it will only be added to as this war ramps up.”

I squared my shoulders, inhaling a deep breath. “I can take it.”

Her smile softened further, becoming something almost motherly. “I know you can. We all do. That doesn’t mean you need to, however. You have so many people here who love you, Asteria. Who will be there to help you carry the burden.”

Her words unsettled me. I knew there was a lot of pressure on me, but I’d managed to kind of push all of that to the back of my mind while I worked out everything that had happened since Cyrus had taken me.

But her words brought all of it back.

Thanks to Liviana’s visions, everyone was depending on me to ensure this war would be won. I had no more idea of what I was supposed to do, or how, than I did when I was hidden as a human.

While it might be easier as a Fae, I still didn’t understand how I specifically would be the answer to us winning.

Though, the part of the prophecy that claimed I was the reason made more sense now. Everything with Cyrus really jump-started all of this into motion. Calix could have slowly kept stealing into cities to free humans for centuries before it would have gotten to this point if I hadn’t met Cyrus.

Maybe this was for the best, however. We could free the humans sooner and ensure they all live better lives. We could make sure the balance didn’t swing too far toward chaos, saving Celesterra from destruction.

But Siria was right. Everyone saw me as the key to this, and the pressure was a weight on my chest, making it hard to breathe.

* * *

The next day, Calix and I flew back toward the mountains, this time heading for the fortress where I’d finally meet my real mother and twin brother.

No . My mother, the one who raised and loved me, was my real mother. This woman, this queen who sent me into slavery, she was just the one who birthed me.

But her letter still echoed in my ears. I knew she wanted a relationship of some sort with me. I knew she likely had a good reason , but reason didn’t really factor into my rage as I contemplated everything that happened as a result of her choice.

“ Say the word, and we’ll turn around .” Calix’s words filtered into my head as we approached the mountains. I could just make out the shimmer of them in the distance.

His reassurance calmed me, reminding me that he was here and had my back. It was a soothing balm to my nerves. I had no idea what to expect from this meeting.

In all honesty, I’d been trying to avoid thinking too deeply about it.

I had no idea what they were like. Only a quick, kind moment at Placement Day to construct any kind of idea of them from.

I’d always wanted a brother. Someone to sneak around and cause mischief with around the village. Someone who’d protect and fight for me. Who’d tell Verin and her gaggle of girls to leave me alone as he dried the tears I’d pretend I hadn’t shed.

But my mother… I’d had a mother I loved. I didn’t know how to make the idea of her fit in my head. Or my heart.

My anger over what was done to me was still burning too brightly, and without an actual explanation provided for it, I could only stew in it further.

As we flew over the next hill, my fiery breath caught in my throat, smoke spilling from my maw. The mid-morning sun was shining brightly, rising over the mountains before me, lighting them up and making them absolutely glow .

I’d known the Etheralta Mountains were made of star opal, in theory, but seeing it…

The mountains were so different from any rock-formed mountains I’d ever seen. Magic had to be involved in this; there was no other explanation for how truly fantastical it looked. The colors within the white star opal shined brightly: green, pink, purple, yellow, and orange, the colors and shimmer seeming to reflect off the mountain and extend out in all directions in this light. The entire mountain range sparkled like a gem. For that’s what it was, in truth. One gigantic, uncut gem.

No wonder Calix said they had more than enough star opal. Every inch of these mountains was worth its weight in gold. A fragment chipped off the edge could have kept my human family in riches until the end of our days in Sonmathion.

I shook my giant head, still getting used to the monstrous size of my body parts in this form, and called out to Calix, “ No wonder you never worry about money! By the Otherworld, you must be the richest person in this Tartarus damned realm. ”

Calix’s chuckle reverberated in my ears, teasing, “ Does it make you feel better to know your mate can keep you in star opals for the rest of your life? ”

I giggled to myself, thinking of my reaction to getting the necklace from my parents, the one I had with me even now. I wasn’t wearing it, not ready for that conversation with Calix yet, but I knew I would need it for support, if nothing else. Something from the parents who raised me as I faced meeting the one who birthed me.

“ It certainly doesn’t hurt. ” I teased back, his loud laughter a greater reward than any star opal could ever be.

We landed at the base of the mountain the fortress rested on and shifted back into our Fae forms. The mining equipment could be seen from here, but it was the huge building formed into the star opal itself that took my breath away.

“You carved the fortress out of the mountain?” I asked, turning to Calix in surprise.

He nodded seriously. “It’s defensive. No one can breach it. Star opal in this form is stronger than any other material we have. However this mountain came about, it’s nearly impenetrable. We have special tools formed with star opal tips just to be able to mine it. It won’t break otherwise.”

I blinked in surprise. What was star opal, truly? This wasn’t a naturally occurring formation. A gift from the gods, maybe? “You have no idea how it came to be?”

“None.” He shook his head, silvery-white hair brushing his chest, and I took a moment to look him over. Drooling over him, if I was honest. A girl had to take what she could get, and he looked absolutely mouth-watering in this attire.

He always did, in truth, but I rarely saw him in full courtly attire. Today, he’d been forced to dress for diplomatic relations. Not as over the top as the outfit he wore when holding court himself, but more so than his regular everyday clothes.

He was wearing a long, black jacket with purple dragon scales affixed to the shoulders and purple embellishments ran down the front of each side of the jacket that resembled a dragon’s body. The back had two purple wings etched in jewels. Silver embroidery decorated the sleeves, from the wrist to the scales on his shoulders, done cleverly to subtly include stars and moons. Sadly, the collar of the jacket partially covered the warrior tattoo on his neck. I loved that tattoo on him.

The black shirt he wore underneath the jacket had purple buttons running down the middle that looked slightly like the claws of a dragon. It was also cut to a V at the bottom, which complimented the three purple lines going down the very start of each pant leg that formed a V at the top, with the middle being higher than the two beside it.

The outfit was topped with his sword belt, the sheath carrying his black-bladed sword, and the dragon hilt with its wings spread sitting on his hip. He’d insisted on wearing it for our arrival, not trusting Aurelia or Arien.

“My father told me once that the mountains predated the Fae,” Calix stated, bringing me out of my quickly forming fantasies of stripping that jacket and shirt off him, exposing every hidden tattoo until I could lick each one. “We’ve all speculated, but there’s unfortunately no way to know what really happened.”

I shook my head to clear it as Calix looked down at me, a thoughtful look on his face. “Are you ready for this?”

I bit my lip, my eyes shooting downward. Unlike Calix, I worried less about protection and more about how I looked when I met them. I ran my hands down my dress, hoping it met their expectations. They were expecting a princess, the lost heir of Day Kingdom. And even as strange as those titles being connected to me was, I didn’t want them to see me and be disappointed.

I’d decided on one of the new dresses Delia had commissioned for me. The dress was light purple, similar to Calix’s eyes, and appeared to almost change color in the light, with bits of green, blue, and yellow shimmering within it. It made me kind of feel like a star opal myself, if I was honest.

The sleeves draped down in waves, and the skirt had light flowing layers. The bodice was cut off the shoulder, in the sweetheart neckline I’d grown to prefer, with small silver dragon scales coming off where it sat on each shoulder. Silver embellishments crossed diagonally across the bodice and down, looking like shooting stars.

“You look gorgeous, my réalta,” Calix said quietly, grabbing my hands from where I was brushing my skirt. “They will look at you and see nothing less than a queen. I know I do.”

My eyes watered as I met his, the Aurora slowly forming in his eyes, echoing the emotions I could feel from him in the bond.

“Calix—” My voice caught, cracking.

He let go of one of my hands, reaching up to brush a lock of dark hair behind my ear, trailing a finger down my cheek. “In truth, that’s all I’ve ever seen when I’ve looked at you. But now, the entire world will know it too.”

“I’m not queen of anything.” I shook my head in denial, but he growled, pulling me bodily into him, until we were pressed together.

“You are the only queen I see. My soulmate, foretold by the gods,” he rasped, and his eyes flashed as I lifted a hand to his chest, feeling his heart pounding in time with my own.

“Do you mean…” I trailed off, unsure.

“I was planning to explain later, and I will,” he sighed, watching me carefully. “But what you need to know is that you’re the queen Night has been waiting for. A star queen prophesied to come and bring light to my darkness.”

I blinked, stunned by the thought as a wave of emotion rose in me. I didn’t have time to unravel the whole story now, but I did have time for one thing.

I reached up, grabbing his head, and brought his face down to mine. We let out simultaneous moans as our lips met, a clash of passion underlined by the emotion of the moment. His hands grasped my hair and hip, holding me to him as he devoured my mouth with his own, quickly dominating the kiss as I gave in to the sheer power of him.

I could feel shadows running down my body, and knew he wanted to feel as much of me as he could. I wondered if my starlight could do something similar, and since it had already responded to my emotions and covered me in its silvery glow, I willed it to reach out and caress his skin.

His growl rumbled against my mouth as he felt my starlight streak a line down his chest, and I giggled breathily into the kiss. I could feel his pleasure like it was my own, and I let my tongue run along his fangs as my starlight slipped over the bulge in his pants, teasing him as his cock twitched against the whispered movement.

“You’re killing me, my réalta,” Calix groaned as I put more pressure on his cock. His shadows retaliated, slipping under my dress and teasing across my thighs, before finding my lace panties, already growing wet from his kiss. He let his shadows play around them, skirting the edges before pressing down on my covered slit.

“You haven’t seen anything yet, my dorchadas.” I moaned, but was surprised to taste blood in my mouth. I blinked, running my tongue across my teeth, and discovered the sharp canines I usually had now lengthened into fangs. I smirked wickedly against Calix’s mouth before scraping them across his lip.

“Fuck,” he groaned, gripping me tightly, his shadows becoming like bands across me, leaving me immobile and incredibly turned on. He pulled back to look at me, lilac eyes darkened into a deeper purple, the Aurora dancing through them like a storm.

He licked the blood from his lips, before zeroing in on my own lip. I could feel the blood still beading on it, and Calix looked hypnotized as he leaned in to suck my lip into his mouth, his tongue sweeping up the blood. His deep moan shook my entire body.

He forced himself back abruptly, panting. I was left out of breath myself, and weirdly jealous he’d licked away his own blood before I could. His shadows loosened and let me go, and I mourned their presence immediately.

“Calix…” I wasn’t sure how to finish that thought. Things were so mixed up between us. I wasn’t sure I was truly ready yet, but I also couldn’t deny the pull to him. Nor my feelings for him, which I had to admit, were there, stronger than I’d admit, and quickly becoming impossible to suppress.

I knew nothing of love, not truly, but I knew whatever would come about from Calix and me together would be nothing short of cataclysmic.

“If I don’t stop now, I won’t be able to,” he admitted, a growl rumbling deep in his chest that had me pressing my legs together to try to soothe the ache it caused. “Forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive,” I told him quietly. His eyes shot back to mine, and I decided to experiment, pushing my acceptance and desire to him. The feeling I got back in response felt like it lit me up from the inside, just as much as it lit Calix’s eyes.

He started to smile, reaching a hand out for me, “Come on, we better not keep them waiting anymore.”

I gulped, taking his hand and letting him lead me up the mountain. Even if I’d rather we stayed at the base, losing ourselves to each other.

It seemed like a better fate than walking up that mountain and discovering whatever fate may await me in the future.