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Chapter Twenty-three

Calix

I was fuming as I led Asteria back to the royal apartments so we could talk. The nerve of Aurelia to try to tear Asteria and me apart made my blood boil, and I was near spoiling for a fight. Arien had seemed genuine in his desire to support his sister. But Aurelia wanted to put her on a throne as a figurehead, even if she wouldn’t admit it.

Aurelia had been building power within Day, ostensibly for Asteria, but she also expected Asteria to come to them with no real idea of how to rule. Aurelia had expected to run the show, as she clearly did with Arien. She’d raised him to be her soldier. Similarly, she wanted Asteria to be her key to power.

I didn’t doubt she loved her, but I knew it would be a battle of wills between them. I was so glad Asteria had stood up for herself and what she believed in, and I could see the pride Arien felt when she did so as well.

She was meant to be a queen. Of Day or Night, or some mixture of both, I didn’t know. The prophecy given at my birth clearly tied into the one given at her own. The gods made it clear we were meant to face this together.

Aurelia could fuck off with that separation bullshit, as far as I was concerned.

I opened the door and led Asteria in, watching as she took in the living space around us. The walls had been covered with dusky purple wallpaper, with star opal left around windowsills and doorways for a touch of sparkle. There were several halls leading off the main room to where the numerous bedrooms were, enough of them to fit the entire royal family at its largest.

A gigantic fireplace dominated the space, with a large black dragon head in the middle, its eyes and teeth sparkling with star opal. Its arms came out at each corner, and its claws gripped the edges of the fireplace. Its tail snaked down to the bottom to create a separation between the black wooden floorboards and the fireplace itself.

Two plush tufted black sofas sat vertically before it, and two grey armchairs completed the seating arrangement. A star opal coffee table sat between the two sofas, and a white rug ran underneath the seating arrangement.

Asteria took it all in as I paced the room. She watched me with a frown, and I could see her thoughts working behind her eyes.

She eventually rolled her eyes and began poking around the room. I watched her with amusement, still trying to get my anger under control.

“Where’s your room?” she asked suddenly, and I raised my brow at her.

“It’s this way.” I pointed down one of the halls to where the king’s room was located. I’d stayed in one of the other rooms before my father died. When he did, I was then expected to use the king’s room whenever I visited. It still left me slightly discomforted.

I’d had to do the same in the palace, moving into my parents’ rooms. It was something that always happened when an heir became king. My father had moved in when his own had died, but it was still so strange after all these years.

My palace’s steward had informed me that my father had rearranged the rooms when he took them over, trying to make them his own and less like his late father’s room. My grandmother had still been alive, making it even more awkward for him. She was expected to move out of the bedroom she had shared with her late husband to let her son move in. She’d done so with no complaint, but it never failed to be incredibly strange to me.

I’d redone my rooms immediately, even mourning that I was getting rid of the aspects that reminded me of my mother and father. At least here at the fortress, there was less emotion attached to the spaces.

Asteria immediately took off down the hall, and I followed after her, fighting a smile despite my mood. When we came to it, she breezed right through the door, and I had the image of her doing the same to my bedroom at home.

I bit my lip, thinking of her storming in and crawling into my bed, waking me up in the middle of the night, while her hands slowly peeled my covers away. Having those same hands trail across my skin, leaving sparks across every muscle as she teased me. Until she made it down to my cock, where she’d take me in her mouth?—

Fuck, now was definitely not the time.

Asteria looked around, touching various objects around the room. It had been decorated in black and purple, the royal colors. Like the fireplace in the front room, a prominent black dragon made up the headboard of the giant bed, with the feet of each post made to look like our taloned feet. Deep purple silk sheets covered the bed, adding a splash of color.

Asteria turned to me, and I noticed then that she was shaking slightly.

“Asteria? What’s wrong?” I questioned, stepping closer as my brow furrowed.

She laughed wryly, throwing her hands up in the air. “What’s not wrong right now, Calix?”

I cocked my head to the side, my own fury moving aside for worry as I felt the flurry of emotions coming from her.

“We’re at war with a deranged lunatic who thinks I belong to him.” She began ticking off items on her fingers. “My own father wants me dead. I’m still trying to figure out my magic and being Fae, yet I’m supposed to be queen of an entire kingdom! And now…”

She trailed off, her strong posture slumping slightly and her voice quieting as she continued, “And now I realize that they’ll all expect us to do our duty .” She spat the word like a curse. “For you to rule Night, and me to rule Day, while they force us to forget entirely about the mate bond connecting us.”

She stepped forward, closing the distance between us, and I nearly trembled as I awaited whatever she might say next. After over four hundred years of waiting, my mate was here before me, and I knew she was about to change my life in some fundamental way.

This could be the end of us, over before we even really had a chance to begin—or it could be the start of something new and wonderful. The rest of my life expanded out before me, and for a breathless moment, I felt like I might fall into the void of the future. Of a devastating reality where I was forced to live without my mate, or a fantastical reality I almost never believed would come, Asteria sitting on the throne of Night, a star queen to outshine all others.

I waited, hoping and praying to all the gods that she wouldn’t want to follow the duty her mother had laid before her. I may not know the way forward, but I knew I only desired to go forward at all with her.

Without her, my life would be empty. Dull and bleak, without any reason to continue.

“But you were right. Fuck duty, ” she spat passionately, and my heart beat double time within her chest.

“Do you—” I looked frantically into her eyes, and she smiled slowly.

“I’ve only just now gained my freedom, and I refuse to live my life according to other’s expectations ever again.” Her eyes lit with starlight, the beautiful sparkling silver invading the blue skies in her eyes.

I could feel my shadows responding to my overwhelming emotions. Dragons were emotional by nature, and while I’d mostly mastered control, Asteria managed to destroy it every time.

Her own starlight swirled out to meet my shadows, encasing us in a miniature night sky in my bedroom.

“When she told me we’d have to separate, I realized I didn’t want any kind of future without you, my dorchadas,” she said softly, and I swore my entire body trembled in relief.

“I just don’t know—I don’t know how we do this, Calix.” Her voice shook as much as I did.

“I swear to you, we will figure out a way,” I promised, cupping her cheeks gently. “I will never allow anyone to separate us. For the greater good or not, I don’t give a fuck. You’re mine .” I growled, hands moving so my thumbs brushed the apples of her cheeks, while my other fingers moved under her hair, grasping at the back of her neck.

Her eyes narrowed, the fire stirring within her. “And you’re mine .”

She’d get no argument from me.

My lips crashed down onto hers, unable to stop myself after those beautiful words I had feared I’d never hear from her lips. Her claim lit a fuse inside me that had me handling her more roughly than I intended, but if her moans were anything to go by, she clearly didn’t mind.

“Calix.” I pulled back from her lips mournfully and looked back at her. Her pupils were dilated, and her lips kiss bitten, making my cock grow even harder. The smell of her arousal was definitely not helping matters either.

“Promise me this is what you actually want,” she pleaded, and I cocked my head, confused. I’d thought it incredibly obvious.

“Asteria—” I started, but she shook her head.

“Promise me this isn’t just the mate bond.” Her eyes widened, and I could feel the disbelief stirring in her that it could possibly be anything else. The little girl within that was cast aside, unable to believe she was enough on her own.

“I already told you, I chose you , Asteria,” I rumbled, the power of my feelings for her enough to make fire rise in my throat. “Even if we weren’t soulmates, I would still choose you. It was impossible not to fall in love with you.”

She took a sharp breath, the word landing between us for the first time. The beating of her heart was a calming lullaby, even as it sped up. It kept my lips moving, even as I battled down fear at her potential response. But the words couldn’t be held back any longer.

“Loving you was always inevitable, my réalta. You are perfect for me. Your fire, your dedication, your love, your playfulness, your acceptance. I was on a crash course to loving you from the moment you put that knife to my throat. The bond only confirmed what I already knew. That in any life, you will always be mine.”

“You love me,” she stated. Not a question, but I nodded anyway. Her eyes shone with tears, and a part of me panicked. Until I felt for the bond.

The feeling coming from it nearly bowled me over. I knew I was unloading a lot on her, and that before this, she hadn’t been ready for what an immortal bond meant.

But now…