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Chapter Four

Arien

“We’ll begin moving forces along the border.” My father moved his figures along the map as his lords leaned closer around it, half of them desperate for the opportunity to please him in some way. I nearly snorted. They should have realized by now what an impossible task that was.

“Lord Ergun, with Caersidi closest to Tairngire, you’ll have the hardest job. You’ll need to protect the borders along the south from direct assault.” King Aelius instructed with a hard look at Ergun, who nodded once in confirmation, his blue eyes clouding like a stormy sea. My father expected the lords to fall in line, never expecting anything different could possibly happen. Not when, as king, his word was law.

I was almost perversely excited to prove him wrong.

“Lord Ayden.” His stony gaze shifted to the lord of Magh Meall. “You’ll protect the northern border we share with Night. Everything north of the Etheralta Mountains. Thankfully, Segais is the closest city, and it’s so close to Dusk that I don’t expect much movement from the north, but I’d rather be prepared.”

“Of course, my King.” Ayden’s burnished short curls barely shifted as he nodded deeply, wax keeping them in place. Ayden had always been a slimy bastard in my mind. Something only proven when my mother failed in her quest to sway him. He was too obsessed with his own self-importance to give a shit about anything else.

“What about the coasts? Should Calix’s armies take a ship from Tairngire around our border defenses, we’ll be sitting ducks.” Lord Beltane raised an eyebrow, tilting his head to the side as he studied my father, causing his dark shoulder-length locks to fall to one side. One wouldn’t guess by looking at him and my father that there was any relation between our families, but then again, one wouldn’t guess my father and I were related by looking at us.

I was proud we’d taken mostly after our mother, with the dark hair more common in Dawn and Dusk Kingdoms. My father’s golden skin and light blonde hair were trademarks of the kings of Day, and just another reason of many why I was a failure to him. Only my sky-blue eyes matched his, and the only reason I didn’t resent that comparison was because my twin also shared them. I would cherish anything that connected us, but we’d both undoubtedly gotten our looks from our mother for the most part.

If Asteria’s skin was anything like mine, she fluctuated between our mother’s pale skin and our father’s golden, depending on the season.

A cousin of King Tariq of Dawn Kingdom, Lord Beltane shared the dark hair and pale skin that ran in Dawn’s royal line, only changed with this most recent generation thanks to Queen Oriana’s influence. Yet, Beltane was also a cousin of Aelius through marriage.

Not that it made Beltane or my father agree on anything. No, there wasn’t any love lost there.

My father’s eyes, a replica of my own, met mine, and it was hard to miss the expectation in them. I sighed internally, counting down the days until he was gone. Only a little longer, and I would never have to deal with him again.

I loved my job; I just hated him. Being General to the rightful queen sounded much better, in my opinion.

Still, I didn’t keep him waiting and stepped forward slightly, my hand resting on the pommel of my sword, securely strapped to my side. My golden armor shifted with me and creaked slightly. Bulky and impractical compared to the armor of the foe my father would have us face. I’d raised the concern time and again over the years, but he cared more for the appearance of fine, golden knights than ensuring those men made it off the battlefield.

A golden massacre waiting to happen.

Or maybe not. If what the boy claimed was true, Asteria might be enough of a deterrent to see the lives of our men, good and bad, saved from the wrath of Calix.

Fighting fire with fire wouldn’t work unless my father got his ass off his throne and into the sky, but that was unlikely to happen. Not when he preferred the comfort of his palace to battle these days. He’d rather leave it to me to handle, despite not believing me capable of it.

“Calix hasn’t attacked that way thus far, Lord Beltane.” I nodded to him, and his dark eyes were filled with a light of amusement. He never tired of the push and pull between my father and me. “He’s much more likely to move his armies over land, or fly.”

“And will you meet him in the skies if he does fly?” Lord Kem asked, shoulders back and eyes as green as the grass during the first blush of Pranvera, glaring at me with contempt. A little clone of Aelius, my father tended to treat him like the prince instead of me. His golden hair surely played a part, but more so the way he kowtowed to everything my father said. Kem enjoyed lording my father’s superior opinion of him over me, as if I cared.

His stupid square jaw was set as his eyes trailed up from my boots to the top of my head, the pure disrespect of his perusal of a prince only bringing a smile to Aelius’s face as he clapped him on the back.

“I’m much younger than Calix. My dragon won’t have near as much firepower.” I reminded him needlessly. We all knew what this was. Just another power play to try to make me feel inadequate.

I’d grown used to it over the years.

Since others believed me to be an only child and the prophecy my parents received from the Oracle clearly indicated an important heir had been in her belly, it looked to most like the gods had forsaken me upon my birth.

Of course, I was never the heir at all. That honor belonged to my twin sister, Asteria.

Even if they knew the truth, these men would think me weak for not being chosen over a female. They were fools.

It pained me that I didn’t know my sister enough to say who she truly was, but I did know this: she was no weak thing. She was worthy of the honor the gods had bestowed upon her.

“Of course.” My father sneered at me before turning to Lord Kem, who snickered. I rolled my eyes subtly, Lord Ergun doing the same as he shot me a commiserating look. “We will have warriors ready with ballista’s for Calix if he dares to fly over the border, but I highly doubt he’d leave his armies behind.”

The other lords nodded, and the meeting continued in the same vein, with my father’s snide comments about my leadership and planning how to head off any attack by Night. My father didn’t know it, but I was increasingly confident we had nothing to worry about regarding Night. With Asteria now aware of who she is, she wouldn’t attack her own people. I had to believe that.

Why my father was so sure Calix would turn his sights on Day, however, made me wholly uneasy. Calix hadn’t dared risk the balance between our kingdoms thus far. Just because things were escalating with Dusk and Night, didn’t mean Calix would attack us .

Unless my father knew something I didn’t, and considering his opinion of me, I couldn’t discount it.

After being dismissed with my final orders from the king, I made my way through the shining halls. The palace was largely gold, replicating the sun itself, as well as being one of our royal colors. It was broken up with splashes of white and blue for the sky, and purple as our other royal color, which at least kept things interesting. My eyes followed the filigree that ran along the top of the walls until I passed through the golden arch leading to the north wing where my mother stayed. My father slept in the south wing. Despite being mates, both preferred to be separated.

I felt a pang of sorrow for my mother. Finding our mates is something every Fae wishes for. My mother found hers, only to end up in a battle for the throne that would surely see him dead by the end if she got her way. A horror for any mate to consider, I knew.

But it was a sacrifice she was willing to make for her child.

Even through the sorrow and loss I felt for her—even for myself a bit, for what might have been had my father not despised me for what I represented—I felt incredible pride in her.

That she would sacrifice the love she was destined for, all for the sake of her child, was commendable. It wasn’t something many would do. Not when mates were the be-all, end-all when it came to love.

Her situation was sometimes a comfort to me. I may have never gotten a soulmark, but who would want one if this was what it led to?

Asteria was the other half of me as far as I was concerned. I didn’t need a mate to take that spot. But even my twin had been ripped away from me, and the blame for that lay squarely on Aelius.

I nodded to the guards posted outside my mother’s rooms, and they knocked, announcing my presence. I entered, not surprised to find the boy already here.

Soren had my eye, and not in a good way. He was obsessed with Asteria, even if he wouldn’t admit it. It went beyond whatever they’d once had. Something impermanent and shaky at best, but Asteria’s Fae allure had surely drawn the boy in without either of them realizing it. And now, he had deluded himself that putting her on the throne would bring her back to him.

Based on what Mother reported about their last interaction, about the things Soren hadn’t wanted to admit but eventually did, he had no chance of getting her back. Even if Calix wasn’t in the picture, a human was no fit consort for a Fae queen.

But my mother found him useful, with his dedication to Asteria assuring his loyalty. In this court, that was worth its weight in gold. The battle between my parents had torn the court down the middle, and vigilance was needed to ensure loyalties didn’t sway.

“Arien, my love.” My mother smiled brightly, her mood much more upbeat since the news of Asteria’s transformation.

“Mother.” I greeted, giving her a smile before my eyes narrowed back on Soren, who’d drifted closer to her.

“How was the council session?” she asked, her lips pursing in aggravation. She’d tried for years, unsuccessfully, to get father to let her join the council, but he was convinced women had no place in such matters.

Precisely why he couldn’t know about Asteria.

I sighed, slumping into the oversized stuffed chair across from her as I ran my hand through my long, black hair, so unlike the shoulder-length golden locks my father prided himself on. Her sitting area had the two navy blue chairs we were sitting in, with a matching sofa currently left unoccupied. They were perfectly situated in the funnel of sunlight from the arched balcony doors on the far wall. The white walls kept the room feeling bright, but the gold columns lent it a stately air I knew my mother prided herself on.

“Father is convinced Night will attack,” I told her, still turning the situation over in my mind.

Mother frowned, leaning forward slightly. “That makes no sense, Calix has never dared upset the balance in such a way. What has brought him to such a conclusion?”

“Why don’t you ask him?” I snorted, and Soren glared at me. I turned to face him, staring him down until he lowered his eyes. Yes, he’d gotten much too bold since he began working with us. I had no issue with humans, just the ones who believed they had some sort of claim on my sister.

He obviously hadn’t taken finding out about Calix well.

By Hyperion, neither had I, but for much different reasons. I suppressed a shudder. Some things a brother just didn’t need to know.

“Very funny.” My mother’s lips twisted, like she wanted to smile and frown at once. “You know Aelius wouldn’t tell me anything. I’m forced to rely on others for information.” She gave me a pointed look, letting me know in no uncertain terms that I was one such other, and she expected me to tell her now.

“Truthfully, I have no idea,” I admitted. “But I get the feeling he’s hiding something.” That made her sit up straight in her chair, worry clouding her eyes. I was just as uncomfortable knowing there was something we were missing here.

“That can’t be good.” Mother stressed, picking up her drink from the wooden end table beside her and taking a sip of wine as she thought on the news. “We should hopefully hear back from your sister soon. I sent the letter off, so now all we must do is wait. If your father has plans of his own, we must get ours in order.”

The gleam in her eyes was familiar, one I’d seen often over the years as she raised me nearly single-handedly, my father rarely wanting to bother with his failure of a son. She’d spent years turning members of the court around to her side, getting them to abandon my father, all without him knowing. Preparing for the day Asteria was ready. That gleam told me she was plotting, and once she got going, she was a force to be reckoned with.

I let a smirk lift my lips as I asked her, “Should we not wait for the future queen to help decide how to move forward? There is much we’re still unaware of. And we don’t know how she will react to the revelation of who she truly is.”

“Exactly.” My mother sat back, satisfied as if I’d just proven her point. I raised a quizzical eyebrow at her, and she smiled back at me. “She will be inexperienced in these matters, Arien. We must guide her on the correct course.”

An uneasy feeling slithered through me. Based on every report we’d heard about Asteria, she was not one who would take well to Mother’s manipulations. The very idea of manipulating my sister was disgusting to me, but Mother had long been playing this game, and I was unsure whether she knew any other way now.

“Mother—” I tried to protest.

“Son.” She cut me off, eyeing me sternly. “Prepare a battle plan to present to her. We must be ready. Aelius is making moves we’re unaware of, and Asteria is now ready to take her crown.”

She stood up, draining the last of her wine. “The time is now, Arien. We no longer have the luxury of waiting.”

With that, she swept out of the room, her little pet following along behind her like the train of a gown as I narrowed my eyes at them both.

Something told me that when my mother and my sister finally met, it would be no less than two opposing forces of nature colliding.