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Everyone is watching, As, pull it together. I’ll find Archera.

Do not leave me , she begged. Ameera slid around the circle, staying in Astra’s field of vision. Her hand rested near her hip, ready to pull the blade tucked into her skirt should she need it.

“Good of you to join us, Commander,” Astra forced, her voice betraying her fear.

Luxuros turned to Mirquios. “Apologies for my late arrival.”

“Did you have somewhere better to be?” Astra sneered before she could stop herself. Ameera’s head snapped from looking for Archera to Astra’s face, set in a glare.

The commander’s eyes locked on Astra’s, reigniting the crushing fever in her veins. “I was in the infirmary,” he explained.

“Are you well, brother?” Mirquios asked.

“Fine, fine,” he laughed lightly. “I found myself on the business end of a torch in the hall. Left a nasty burn.” His head tilted back toward Astra as he spoke. She’d burned him—badly. If she folded his collar down right now, there would be a shallow mark under his ear proving it was all real.

She’d actually traveled the astral plane. She’d gone within, despite the cautionary tales on which she’d been raised.

“Special awareness seems like an important skill for a commander, no?” Astra stepped toward him, sweating under his warmth, but emboldened by the way his eyes widened at her question.

One side of his full lips flicked upward in a smirk. “I was off duty.”

Astra sipped her drink, folding her arms over her chest. “Hmm,” she mused, shaking her head. “Seems the king’s go-to man should always be ready for anything. My Head Maiden, for example, stands behind you with her hand on her weapon, ready to act should anyone step out of line.”

The commander did not flinch as Mirquios stepped between them. “I believe I mentioned she’s a fiery one.”

“Indeed,” Luxuros replied, a spark of something within his eyes Astra didn’t recognize. They dropped to her fingertips, an implication that enraged her.

Not here , Ameera beamed as a flicker of light against her palms died. Just get through this evening, Astra. I’m right here. Every sentry in the palace is here. He can’t very well attack anyone within these walls. He’d be a fool.

Where is Lunelle? Astra asked as she sank back into her hip, tilting her chin. We can’t let him out of our sight.

I’ll keep my eyes on her, you keep your eyes on him. The second this is over we’ll get a plan together.

Astra pressed her shoulders back. “ Do you dance, Commander?”

“Not of my own volition, no.”

“Make an exception for your future queen?” Astra held her glass out to Mirquios who eyed her skeptically, a shimmer of vivid green hope within his chest. He wanted them to get along. She could see the desperation for the commander’s approval embedded deep within the king’s ribs.

Luxuros sighed, his eyes sliding toward Mirquios who nodded enthusiastically, a feeling the commander would not mirror.

His hand reached into the space between them, hovering, despite his reluctance. Astra stared at his bronze fingers, scarred with years—perhaps even decades—of battle and gods knew what else.

She’d touched him in her dream and did not burn for it.

It was uncomfortable, but not lethal. Surely, the rumors of the Solarians’ deadly touch had been greatly exaggerated, but the fear imprinted on her bones screamed at her as she stepped forward.

Her eyes traced the leather lines from his wrist to his shoulders, over his stubbled jaw and molten gaze that threatened her with thousands of thoughts.

She placed her hand in his, the space between their palms catching fire—it was nearly intolerable. The commander pulled her away from the Mercurian courtiers and onto the dance floor, peppered with a dozen other couples as a new melody struck up.

When he did not fall into a rhythm Astra sighed. “Well?”

“Well, what?” Luxuros asked. “Aren’t you supposed to lead here? Or do you not know your own customs, Princess?”

Astra rolled her eyes, yanking him forward and placing her other hand on his shoulder. The commander winced and dipped, forcing her hand away from the flesh she’d singed. She fought the urge to apologize as she caught the downbeat, rotating them toward the center of the floor.

“I know my customs,” Astra muttered. “But yours are quite the mystery.”

“You should have somewhat of an idea given you’re marrying Mercury’s king?—”

“ Not Mercury,” Astra hissed, pulling the commander into her and then pushing him away. Their heads turned in opposite directions. His posture stiffened beneath her palms, slick with sweat.She’d clearly poked at a bruise.

“I am Mercurian, Princess. I do not claim any other lineage and I resent the implication?—”

“Tell that to my bones, Commander! I can feel it—I can feel the traitorous blood that runs through your veins?—”

His hand tightened at her back, crashing her into the sweltering mass of him as he growled beneath orchestral notes, “You do not know what you speak of and I’d appreciate it if you waited to accuse me in private, and not in a room littered with gods know how many courtiers who would hold their questions until after my head hit the floor. ”

Astra twisted from his grasp as he clenched his jaw against the pain in his burned flesh. She spun herself out and then into him, her back pressed against his chest. Her shoulder checked him in the sternum as she turned her head, his breath brushing her cheek.

“Tell me one thing. Are you here to harm my sister?”

Luxuros held her gaze, frozen in the center of the floor. She missed the next step, unable to move until she knew Lunelle was safe. He lowered his gaze, bitter poison laced in his reply.

“Who attacked whom in the Midwood, Princess?”

Astra caught her breath, the heat from him hard to think through. “I do not know what to make of you.”

“Make nothing of me. It’s better for both of us,” he spat, dropping her hand.

He marched off the floor, leaving her alone in the midst of the other dancers, a scarlet rage rushing to fill the void he left as he took his flames with him.

* * *

Astra stared at a pile of divination cards, her mind finally cooling from the evening’s chaos.

She’d pulled cards for dozens of the king’s courtiers all evening, perched at a table where she could watch Lunelle and the commander orbit around one another. Most of the courtiers had retired for the evening, knowing tomorrow would bring its own set of exhausting tasks.

The night air whispered soothing secrets against her bare shoulders, her heart still unsure if it was free to breathe.

It wasn’t, she decided, as a lick of heat disrupted her pensive state.

“I think we’re calling it a night,” Mirquios said to her, dropping a hand onto her shoulder. Ameera sat upright as the commander approached, a trill of vermillion worry sparkling in her stomach.

“I believe I’ll stay for one more drink,” Astra said, resting a hand over his. “But get some rest for your travels.” Mirquios leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her hair and headed into the palace.

Trail them, please. I want to be sure they go straight to their chambers, Astra sent to Ameera.

Ameera slowly rose, taking the outer perimeter of the garden as she stayed a few steps behind. When she was completely alone, Astra finally let out the breath she’d held for hours.

“Shit,” she whispered to herself, reaching for the nearly drained moonshine bottle at the center of the table. Every muscle in her body strained against the knowledge that a Solarian wasn’t just here, he was in her palace, attached to the king.

The complications were dizzying.

She threw the rest of her drink back and gathered her divination cards, slipping them into a silk bag. Astra took her time meandering through the palace to the wing she shared with her sister, careful to sense for anything amiss down every hall.

Just in case.

She bumped her hip against her study door, gasping at the heat that rolled forward through the opening.

“Princess,” Luxuros said, an irritation in his voice from his perch on her writing desk. She thought back to her dream from earlier—had she left anything sensitive out? Her eyes dropped to the black book resting against the smooth marble of the desk, untouched.

“Commander,” she huffed, pulling the door shut behind her. She tucked the bag of cards into an opening on the bookshelf, her blood racing beneath her skin. “If you’re going to kill me, can you at least do me the mercy of making it quick? I’m quite tired.”

Luxuros snorted and uncrossed his arms. “You nearly got us both killed this afternoon, so perhaps you can drop the attitude, Princess.”

“I didn’t plan on running into any Solarians in the woods! I fell asleep one minute, and the next I was in the clearing!”

“You’re undisciplined,” Luxuros said, pushing away from the desk and pacing as he spoke. “Dangerously so.”

“I—”

“Don’t deny it, Princess. If you had a lick of training, you wouldn’t be boiling right now, on the verge of passing out because you’re in the same room as someone with a few drops of Solarian blood!”

“What?”

Luxuros sighed, landing on the sofa against the wall. “The heat you feel, it isn’t real. It’s how your sensibilities interpret the threat of me, but no one else feels it. Your mind is trying to warn you, but you’ve no finesse, no understanding of what it’s telling you.”

“So you are Solarian!”

He flinched. “Part. We weren’t sure how sensitive you’d truly be. I think we’d hoped it was so slight you might not notice.”

“Not a chance,” she snorted. “I felt you a mile away on my birthday. And in the woods before today, I’m sure that was you, too.”

Luxuros frowned, rubbing at an ache in his chest. “Don’t be so sure, Princess.”

Astra moved closer but thought better of it as her skin prickled. “How did you get through the wards?”

“What wards?”