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Chapter Twenty-five

Arien

“Just don’t push her.” I reminded my mother, sitting in the same meeting room we’d met my sister in yesterday. We were waiting for her and Calix to arrive so we could plan our next steps, but I was worried about my mother and sister clashing again.

“She needs to understand—” Mother began, but I cut her off with a glare.

“She does understand, but she also has other concerns,” I told her firmly. “You can’t expect her to have no will of her own, Mother. She’s your daughter, after all.”

She glared at me, slapping me on the arm, but I just shrugged casually. “It’s true. You both have strong personalities and slightly different goals.”

“She needs to take the throne of Day, Arien.” Mother insisted quietly. “We’ve worked so hard to ensure things would be ready, and now she wants to blow it off for a man .”

“You thinking that just proves that you don’t know me at all,” Asteria said, walking into the room.

I sighed dejectedly, closing my eyes briefly. I should have known it was a lost cause.

“I will take the throne of Day.” Asteria continued, and my eyes widened slightly at the resolve in her voice. “But we’re doing this on my terms. Not yours. Not anyone else’s but mine. I’ve had enough of Fae controlling my life.” I winced at the reminder, the one part of my mother’s plan I’d raged against the most: sending my sister into slavery.

“I will never let another control my fate again. Understand?” Asteria raised a brow, and Mother nodded slowly.

Only because I knew my mother so well was I able to detect the conflicting emotions she was feeling. Pain, at not knowing her daughter. Anger, at having to give up control. But mostly pride that her daughter was already proving that she was the queen we needed.

“Very well.” Mother conceded quietly. “And I apologize if my words offended you. That was never my intention. I just worry about the fate of Day Kingdom, and according to Arien’s report, we think…”

She trailed off, looking to me, and I took over.

“Aelius knows about you. Likely thanks to Cyrus. Making this more complicated than we’d hoped.” I informed her. “We had been aiming for the element of surprise at first.”

Asteria nodded slowly, and I noticed Calix kept quiet, but close. He let her take control of the situation, but was by her side should he be needed. I hated to admit it, hated even thinking about my sister with anyone , but it seemed like she could have done a lot worse for a mate.

“Since he’s clearly aligned himself with Cyrus, it makes sense. And we all know this will come to war. With what Cyrus is doing, we have no choice but to stop him, or the balance will be destroyed forever,” Asteria said, clearly thinking over the situation at hand.

“How many lords in Day will follow me?” she asked after a moment of silence.

“About half,” I replied. “The others are too far up Aelius’s ass.”

“It’s a little less than half.” Mother countered, side-eyeing me reproachfully.

I sighed loudly, shaking my head with rising dread. “It’s half.”

She turned a stern glare on me, all queenly offense. “What are you talking about?”

Asteria sat back, hiding a smile as her brow rose. I nearly rolled my eyes. She’d been lucky at least to avoid this all her life.

“Ergun is with us,” I admitted reluctantly. “His one condition was no one but me knew until it was time to tell Asteria.”

“Arien!” Mother snapped, her eyes wide. “How am I supposed to properly plan when you keep secrets of this magnitude!”

“Did you want him as an ally for Asteria?” I asked plainly, unwilling to let her roll over me on this one.

“Of course I do! That’s why I repeatedly attempted to bring him to our side!” she said, exasperated. “A wasted effort, apparently.” Mother glared at me, making me sigh loudly.

“This was the only way to secure his support. I chose to do what would help Asteria, even if your pride was hurt in the process,” I told her softly, trying to curb the sting of my words.

She huffed, offense in every line of her body, before turning to Asteria instead. I let myself roll my eyes once hers were off me.

“Can we begin pulling in their forces?” Asteria interjected, looking to Calix. “If we can combine them with Night, that would give us the best chance. We need to defend both borders while we’re trying to sway Sunrise.”

Calix nodded slowly, fingers playing with a pen on the table like he itched to move pieces on a map. I could certainly relate. “We will plan to evaluate when we return. It’s likely that Cyrus is planning an attack, and I’m working on getting more intel from my spies, but in the meantime, we should reach out to those who support you in Day. We’ll need to see which kingdom takes priority to deploy our forces to first: Dusk or Day.”

I nodded, thinking that their plan was pretty solid. More allies would give us a better chance of success, and if Cyrus and Father hadn’t moved yet, it gave us a bit of time before a full-scale attack became necessary.

“I’ll summon those loyal to you, my Queen.” I bowed my head to Asteria. “I will mobilize our forces and plan to rendezvous at the border with Night that’s closest to Tairngire. Ergun is the nearest lord anyway.”

“He's a good friend of mine, as well.” Calix spoke up again, “I’ll send him a message.”

I blinked in surprise, not having expected that. I raised a brow at him. “Didn’t you close the borders? How have you maintained a friendship with him?”

Calix smirked, his eyes twinkling. “Ergun’s so close to the border, he’s practically part of Night.”

I rolled my eyes at him, a begrudging smile twitching onto my face while Asteria snickered.

“And what do we do about Aelius and his forces? They will try to stop us at some point.” Mother cut in, looking surprisingly fidgety.

“We can hold him off until they return from Sunrise,” I reassured her, determined to do my part.

“Then we have a plan.” Asteria clapped her hands together, a smile on her face. “And just to make this abundantly clear, you need to free all of your slaves.”

Mother rocked back in her seat, more gobsmacked than I’d ever seen her. I blinked slowly, processing the news. It wasn’t unexpected really, not with all we’d discussed previously. Not to mention her own experience with the practice. But I hadn’t allowed myself to really consider it before now.

It was unbelievable, in truth.

We’d always had slaves. What would we do without them?

“We can’t just free our slaves,” Mother argued, leaning forward toward Asteria.

“You can, and you will.” Asteria raised a brow at her, her face surprisingly severe. “You named me your queen, did you not? This is my order. Go home. Free your slaves. Free all the slaves of Day. Send out notices, tell your commanders. I don’t care. Just make it happen.”

Mother’s mouth opened and closed, no sound coming from her, she was so flabbergasted.

“What do we do then? Not only will we be without significant labor, resources, and frankly, any idea how to continue running our castles and economy, but the humans would also be without any way to provide for themselves.” I pressed, not wanting to see Day implode from this choice.

Asteria’s first act as queen couldn’t destroy her kingdom.

I wouldn’t allow it. Not for the kingdom’s sake, even, but for hers.

I wanted her to succeed and for the kingdom to thrive under her leadership.

I told her as much, and watched as her eyes watered. She looked so torn, and she turned to Calix with a helpless look on her face. Agony filled her eyes, and I realized then I truly had no idea what she had experienced. How being a slave had molded and shaped her. How it might have almost destroyed her. The look she gave her mate told me there was a depth of hurt there that couldn’t be easily fixed.

A crown can’t cure trauma.

Calix reached out and placed one hand on her leg and the other cupped her cheek. I almost wanted to look away. The moment felt too intimate to witness.

“You know it took me many years to abolish slavery in Night,” he said softly, stroking her cheek. “I know you want to free them now, but Arien’s right.”

I was shocked, to say the least; I thought the brash and brutal warrior king who’d locked down his borders and began attacking kingdoms just to apparently free human slaves wouldn’t have the forethought to consider such matters.

Maybe I’d underestimated him.

Maybe we all had.

“We need to do this slowly and carefully. That’s how we accomplished it successfully in Night.” Calix dipped his head, meeting Asteria’s eyes as she ducked her own head, pain crossing her face that was so stark it was hard to look at.

“I can’t just leave them there,” she pleaded, and Calix bumped his forehead to hers.

“We won’t.” He swore. “We won’t leave any of them. I swear to you, we won’t stop until every last slave is free. But we have to set them up for success.”

“Because they won’t have any way to survive without help.” Asteria sighed miserably, sagging against him. “They’ll need guidance. A way to live. All of it.”

“Exactly,” he murmured back, but before anything else could be said between them, Mother just had to say her piece.

“You truly expect to free all the slaves across Celesterra, Asteria?” She began, and my sister’s head whipped over to her with narrowed eyes. “How do you expect us to live? They do… everything.”

“Yes, they do,” Asteria hissed back. “And what do they get for it?”

Mother scoffed, “I understand, truly I do, that you feel some sort of connection to the humans after being forced to live as one but?—”

“There is no but!” Asteria yelled, slamming her hand down on the table as smoke began rolling out of her mouth.

Mother sat back in her seat, wide-eyed, while Calix stood, putting a hand on Asteria’s back while shooting daggers at Mother. I could only cringe, resigned to watching the inevitable unfold.

“You sent me away, suppressed my magic, and all but slapped chains on me yourself! Gift-wrapped for the Fae!” Asteria snapped, her claws extending rapidly and digging into the table. I realized with a burst of surprise that her claws were silver and purple, not gold and purple.

What in the Otherworld?

“I—” Mother tried, only to be bowled over.

“I was raised as a human, by humans! I lived my entire life enraged by our treatment at the hands of the Fae. I hated all Fae with a burning passion because I just wanted the ability to control my own life!” she screamed, a distinct rasp from the smoke rising from her throat tinging her words.

I’d never seen Mother so shocked in my entire life.

“I had nothing and no one that was mine. My parents loved me, but because the Fae worked them to the bone, they barely had time for me. I spent years alone, miserable, dreading Placement Day when I’d get put to work. And when I finally went—Oh!” She threw her hands up in the air.

“I got stuck with a psycho prince who wanted nothing less than my body because, to him, I belonged to him. He owned me, and I had no autonomy. I couldn’t even pick my own clothes! Or wear my hair naturally because he preferred it curled! He manipulated me; he used me. He would have gotten his way and had me wholly had Calix not shown up just in time.”

“And you know what?” she growled, long fang shining in her mouth as her hands slammed back on the table, leaving gouges with her claws. “Every. Single. Human. In. Celesterra. Is dealing with the exact same thing. If not worse . Being whipped bloody and beaten. Killed to prove a point. Drained for their blood. Their lives belong wholly to you ,” she snarled, resentment pouring from her.

“And I will not allow it to continue. The humans will be free if I have to light this whole continent on fire.” A lick of fire billowed out of her mouth, and Mother stood quickly, her chair falling back in her rush to avoid the pillar of flame.

“This is happening with or without your support, Aurelia,” Calix chimed in, rubbing Asteria’s shoulders to try to calm her rage. It was never easy with dragons. I suppose we were all lucky Mother wasn’t also a dragon. Her cobalt and white-furred fox form didn’t bleed into her Fae form as much as it did with us dragons.

“Maybe, for your daughter’s sake, you should consider what means more to you. Having slaves to wait on you hand and foot, or your daughter herself,” he continued, and as conflicted as I was about the issue, that he would stand up for my sister in such a way had a flare of approval rising in me.

The silence in the room was deafening.

Asteria scoffed, turning from the room. Calix went to follow, but I ran after her first.

“Asteria!” I called, and she turned in a fury, only to calm slightly when she saw it was me.

“I’m sorry about her,” I told her sincerely. “She means well, truly, but she’s had control for so long, I think she’s struggling to adjust to what it actually means for her fully grown adult daughter, who she doesn’t truly know, to come in and take over.”

Asteria raised a brow, but I continued. “It’s no excuse, and I’ll talk to her.”

Asteria sighed deeply. “I don’t know what I imagined meeting my mother to be like, but…”

She trailed off, and I smiled weakly. “I imagine this must all be incredibly strange for you.”

She barked a laugh. “You have no idea.”

“I know tensions are high, but we both love you,” I told her quietly. “I hope you know that, at least. We’ve waited so long for you. My entire life has been preparing nonstop for the day you finally came home. It’s amazing to just have you in front of me.”

She softened at my words, or maybe my sincerity, possibly both. “Was that fair to you?”

Her murmured question took me off guard. I shook my head. “What do you mean?”

“By the Otherworld. You spent your whole life, just, what? Preparing to be my General? Did you not get to choose what you wanted to do?” she asked, clearly conflicted.

My mouth opened and closed, not sure what to say. I hadn’t ever considered anything else. This was the path Mother set before me. And, of course, I’d do anything for my twin sister.

“I never had any choices, Arien.” Asteria smiled sadly, clearly understanding. “But I’m free now, and able to make whatever choices I desire. I want the same for you.”

“I’m not enslaved,” I said, confused, shaking my head.

She reached a hand out and cupped my cheek. “You don’t have to be a slave to be stuck in a cage.”

I struggled for words for a moment. I was a bit choked up to my mortification. I was a General for Hyperion’s sake. “It’s an honor to be your General, Asteria. However it happened, I like what I do, and I love you . This is what I want.”

She studied me for a moment before nodding decisively. “Well then.” She smirked. “Best get to work.”