Page 5

Chapter Five

Calix

With my army finally arriving back in Tairngire, I was anxious to get an update from Titan and Eryx. I’d been doing my best to give Asteria the space she’d requested, but it was taking its toll on me.

Twenty-one years since my mark came in of waiting to meet my soulmate, plus the Nox-damned agony of trying to keep away from Asteria these past months… I could hardly be held accountable for my foul mood. I’d done my fair share of waiting already, and having her so close, yet so far, was what I imagined others felt when I inflicted the pain of Tartarus on them.

But I refused to give in. I wouldn’t destroy my relationship with Asteria before it even began. She needed space. Needed time.

And I needed to kill something.

Anything to get some of this—this feeling , out.

It was like everything I felt for her was being stuffed down and pent up, and I wanted nothing more than to let it explode.

But not now. Not yet. I had to do this right if I was going to have any hope of keeping her.

I waited for Titan, Eryx, and Harpina to arrive, and they briefed me on the fairly standard exit from Dusk after we’d left. Thankfully, Cyrus and Astraeus were caught off guard enough that no real recourse had been made.

Not yet, at least.

We all knew it would come. Cyrus wouldn’t let this stand. His deranged obsession with my mate , was another factor adding to my feral mood. I grit my teeth as a growl slowly escaped at the thought. I looked up to find the three of them watching me: Eryx with wide, surprised eyes, Titan looking more resigned than anything, and Harpina biting her lip to stop her laughter.

I rolled my eyes at her, but she merely snickered in return.

“What is so funny?” I ground out, my voice a heavy rasp as the fire I rarely called in my human form rumbled at the base of my throat. The dragon within me felt restless and aggravated.

“Nothing,” Harpina replied innocently, her wide eyes not fooling anyone for a moment. She sighed dramatically, giving up and admitting, “I’ve just never seen you like this. I’ve heard the stories, of course, of how mates react around one another. But seeing it is something else.”

Eryx laughed joyfully. “Oh great, so we have more of this to look forward to?”

I glared at him, but as usual, he was completely unaffected. Until Titan gruffly responded, “The bond between soulmates is sacred. To be blessed in such a way?—”

He cut himself off, but the other two quieted instantly. Titan refused to talk much about his own past before he came to Night Kingdom during the reign of my great-grandfather. But what we had managed to get out of him over the years was that he’d loved and lost his own mate. To Titan, the bond was something to be revered, not made fun of. The reminder brought a lick of shame over their faces, and I couldn’t help feeling badly myself.

Titan had been like a second father to me all my life. Especially after my father passed and I was left to take over ruling a kingdom and raising my two young sisters. I couldn’t imagine how he must feel now, watching me find my soulmate, knowing his own was gone forever.

The very thought of such a thing felt like my heart being torn from my chest. A shudder ran through me, imagining having to live with half your soul torn from you forever. And to then have it shoved in your face that someone close to you now had what you lost.

“Titan,” I began, but he merely shook his head.

“We need to assume the war will soon begin in earnest.” He changed the topic, and I allowed it, nodding slightly.

“Yes, I know Cyrus will do all he can to get Asteria back,” I growled, eyes flashing with color as rage overcame me. “We need to begin getting everything into place. Including allies.”

“What allies?” Harpina questioned incredulously, cocking her head to the side. “We cut off all the other kingdoms.”

“Yes, but circumstances have changed.” I turned to my spymaster. “Eryx, I need eyes on Dusk. We need to know what their next move is going to be, and when they plan to make it.”

Eryx nodded, his eyes hardening. “Of course. I’ll get Nithe on it.”

“In the meantime, I need to verify where Asteria came from and possibly reach out.” I watched Eryx’s brows furrow as he realized Asteria’s origins weren’t a mystery to me. But I continued before he could do much more than part his lips to begin his inevitable questions. I didn’t want to discuss it with anyone until after I’d told Asteria. She should be the first to know that information. It was the very least of what she deserved.

“We also need to figure out what to do with Sunrise and Sunset. See if there’s any fallout from our mission to Sunset, and whether it’s as a result of our actions or the information we left them. Can you touch base with your spies in each? I need to know their thoughts on what’s happening, and if any of the royals, or even the nobility, can be brought to our side.” I instructed him while simultaneously thinking through our next steps.

We wouldn’t be able to win this war if Cyrus aligned himself with all of the other kingdoms. It would simply be a numbers game, and he would have far too many. So, the groundwork had to be laid now, before Cyrus shored up his alliances.

“On it. I’ll have a report for you by week’s end.” Eryx nodded, his entire bearing firm and serious as he took his orders. I’d always envied the way he could flip between work and play so easily.

As we discussed the next steps, Baach breezed into the room, shaking out his long red hair from the ponytail he’d had it up in. “Ah, home sweet home! How’s the whole mate thing going?”

Eryx groaned while I rolled my eyes, getting on with the rest of what we had to cover. The remainder of the meeting was fairly standard, checking in on the kingdom in my absence, but there was a feeling of unsettled frenetic energy that everyone seemed to feel but not address.

The war for Celesterra was always an idea on the horizon, one without a sure timetable. But now, events seemed to be moving quicker than they had in years, all starting with Asteria. And now that they realized she was my mate, that meant the prophecy would be coming to a head. Just in time to meet Cyrus’s own moves.

The thought of the prophecy that had haunted my every waking moment since birth was a complicated one. But thinking of the words, it made rather a lot of sense now.

“Darkness sweeps across the land

To bring new order to Fae and Man.

A light to brighten his darkness be the king’s fate

Blood will seep and unveil his mate.

An eclipsed star lost who must be found

The power of two will be her crown.

Together, they will usher in a new age

Though not without a war to wage.

A queen of stars and a king of night

Are the only hope to see the world made right.”

Cyrus and his plans, the threat of chaos, all of that must be the darkness sweeping across the land. Meaning that Cyrus was planning a new order for Celesterra. The thought of it sent chills down my spine. With the threat of blood magic, we’d be at a disadvantage, and he would surely not allow that advantage to lapse. He’d be killing humans at a rate never seen before.

But that’s where we’d come in.

A light to brighten my darkness. Asteria . Blood certainly did seep, her own lifeblood draining her enough to snap the cage on her magic and allow it to heal her, unveiling my mate.

An eclipsed star lost. Her power was starlight. And if I was right about who she was, then she was indeed "lost" to those who loved her. An eclipsed star, however… an eclipsed moon meant one hidden in darkness. I suppose that was one way to view what had happened to her. Who she really was, was hidden away.

The power of two will be her crown. That one alluded me, but I was sure it would make sense eventually.

Together, we would usher in a new age. That was the line that had my people so eager for so long. The promise of a new, better world in the aftermath. But aftermath was the keyword there.

Not without a war to wage. The war was now here, after all these years of biding my time and fretting about the balance. Cyrus seemed bound and determined to throw this world into chaos and drag the rest of us down with him. Bitter and angry, obsessive and paranoid, I couldn’t think of a worse ruler for the people of Dusk. Even his father, despite being a dick, wasn’t as bad as his heir.

The last lines of the prophecy, a queen of stars and a king of night, are the only hope to see the world made right… they deeply concerned me. They always had. The implication of the world being made right was that, of course, it would first be wrong. And somehow, only Asteria and I together could fix it.

Was the world doomed to fall to chaos?

Knowing what we were up against, I knew I had to get Asteria to talk to me sooner than later. Besides the pull I felt to her as my mate, we had to be aligned to face the coming war.

It was with that thought that I was determined to get through to her. I couldn’t let Asteria be at risk just because I failed to reach out to her when it was needed most.

But I knew everyone in this damn palace would try to ensure she was left in peace to adjust. Blocking me at every angle. In any other circumstance, I’d be grateful to them for it. But now, it was a serious bother.

Thankfully, no one could avoid sleep forever. And I knew without a doubt that Asteria would be there in the darkness of my dreams.

I was probably more excited than I’d ever been to sleep. The drive to see my mate was riding me particularly hard as I tossed and turned in my sheets, wishing I could just reach out a hand and find her within them as well.

One day, if I got this right, she’d be there.

Darkness greeted me as an old friend. I sighed in relief to find myself in the dream space Asteria and I somehow seemed to share.

Details I was never able to fully capture with the barrier in place between us became immediately obvious now. Asteria was floating among the darkness, shining as brightly as a star. And to my surprise, she was petting an equally luminescent dragon.

My breath caught in my throat. I knew the myth of the moon and sun dragons from the time I was old enough to remember the stories my father told me. Always about our ancestors in some way, but spun in a more fanciful way for a child. As I grew older, he began to tell me the true versions, and he’d always insisted the moon dragon was real. The child of Erebus. A many times over great-aunt, I suppose.

And there she was. Just as real as my father had wholeheartedly claimed. I blinked away the sudden moisture in my eyes. I hadn’t cried over my father since I’d learned of his death, and I refused to do so now, especially in front of Asteria.

I nearly chuckled as I realized she was petting the moon dragon. It was just such an Asteria thing to do. And surprisingly, the dragon trilled in pleasure at her attentions. At least until she seemed to start nudging Asteria toward… me.

Our eyes locked, and the darkness around me was taken up by pure light.