Page 2

Chapter Two

R iverion’s roost, a tall, skeletal tower, loomed over the Somnia.

Astra skipped across the rickety bridge, noting she should send for the builder in the villages that helped construct the pulley system last Summer as soon as she landed in Lunaria.

The fifteenth step to the roost buckled under her weight. She added that to her endless mental list. The builder overcharged, but her fee was better than broken ankles.

“He’s fed, saddled, and pissed you took so long,” Sephone said, handing Astra a satchel filled with pastries she wouldn’t need for the short flight. “Promise to come back. We might not have the amenities of a big city like Lunaria, but we make up for it in charm.”

Astra frowned. “Lunaria’s amenities come at the cost of my sanity. Trust me, I’ll be back.”

A steamy sigh rolled over Astra.

Riverion, beast that he was, huffed as he perched on the ledge of his roost, desperate to stretch his wings.

As his faithful rider rounded the corner of his pen, he lowered his massive head for a pat.

His gleaming emerald scales pulled silver where beams of moonlight poured in through the windows.

Summer storms had swept in and done their best to keep them both grounded, and he was restless.

“Hi, old man,” Astra whispered, stroking her fingers over his warm snout. It would take but one quick shake to toss her over the ledge to her death, but he was too good for that, despite his ruffled demeanor. “We’re heading home, Riv.”

She flinched at the word. Home . Was Lunaria still home? What made one place home and another simply where you came from?

Another violet tide rose in her, but she shoved it down into the cellar where she locked all the complex colors and emotions she’d rather not untangle away.

In one swift movement, she hooked one boot into the saddle and hiked her skirts up, settling into the leather seat Riverion hated, but it had been ages since they’d flown more than twenty minutes at a time and she wanted to be comfortable for the trek back.

The worn grooves in the saddle gripped her thighs and a breeze struck up as if the gods that hid behind the mountains blessed their journey.

How irritating of them to finally notice her.

Astra flung the satchel around the horn of the saddle and took a breath before nudging Riverion with her heel.

He dove headfirst off the ledge, plunging toward the temple pillars below in a graceful arc, his mammoth wings stretching and breathing against the winds to find their rhythm.

She held on as he banked left and then right between two towers, eliciting gasps from the girls in the gardens.

“Easy, asshole,” she muttered as she leaned into the steep curve upward, her stomach dropping as he spun higher and back again in a series of twists.

He cleaved the air around them in two as they cut a path over the cliffs and into the forest beyond Celene’s gates.

As they sailed away, the violet worry faded into a scarlet guilt climbing the column of her spine.

They’d protected themselves for decades without me , she reminded herself.

It took but ten beats of Riv’s wings to clear the Midwood, the dense amethyst forest dividing the crescent-shaped island of the Lunar Court. Purples and pinks and blues slipped by in the haunted forest, all quiet, save for a few small villages perched along the Somnia as it cut inland.

The tips of the southern city, Ellume, sparkled beyond the Midwood, barely visible through the mist and trees. The crystal architecture caught the endless moonlight and refracted it across the realm in metallic waves.

Riverion coasted for a moment, his claws clipping the tops of the pines playfully. Astra felt the tension coil in his muscles and saw a flare of vicious scarlet in his chest. She leaned forward, draping herself over his neck.

“Please, don’t do it?—”

Pleading was no use. Once Riverion was within sight of the Rift, he was insatiable.

He spiraled upward, too fast and too close to the edge of the misty aurora stretching over the entire realm.

Astra hissed as she gripped the reins around his snout, though her frantic yanking did nothing to distract him from his target.

“You’re going to get my ass thrown in prison if the queen finds out!” Astra glanced up at the rainbow road above, pulling back once again as Riv’s wing scraped the edge, sending shimmering dust flying as the pastel threads that made up the Rift’s strange current shivered at the disturbance.

Riverion let out a smokey sigh as he dipped back down, the torture of his rider complete.

“It’s not funny , Riv!” She smacked at the back of his neck, her nerves on fire as they put enough distance between them and the band of lights she’d been forbidden to enter her entire life.

The Rift carved a path from one end of the court to another, touching the edge of the Lunar Palace before it swept back up and into the ether.

Astra squinted as they drifted away. When the Moon was full and bright, one could see the silhouettes of passing travelers on their way to other courts.

Two dark frames shot by, their hands outstretched to grasp their destination’s designated thread.

Or so Astra had heard.

A spot of emerald envy flared in her chest. She’d only dreamed of the freedom the travelers experienced—of all the demigoddesses in the Lunar Court, she was one of two banned from its use.

She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to imagine it—the Rift on that Summer Solstice three decades ago.

It had been teeming with passengers, both the demigods of the Courts Between and the humans of the Living Courts traveling between cities to celebrate.

She wondered if those on the ground heard the screams as The Flare’s light consumed them.

Riverion plummeted, flinging Astra over the saddle and snorting a flamed warning. “Fine, fine, gods, I’ll pay more atten— shit! ”

The dragon lurched backward, smoke ruffling around them as he roared and pushed away from the treeline.

“Mother above, Riverion, what are you doing ?”

They jolted sideways, the sharp sound of something whizzing past Astra’s ear. She whipped her head around, trying to find the object. Beneath them, an arrow fell back toward the forest and disappeared into the canopy.

“Ah!” A second arrow grazed her arm, severing the silk of her sleeve.

Wine-red blood soaked into the pale lavender.

Astra wrapped one hand around the horn of the saddle and tightened the grip of her knees, trying to sense what might lurk below them.

Red fury; orange self-righteousness. No energy she recognized.

Riv righted himself before soaring higher, pushing his wings with burgundy determination. A third arrow sliced through the air, just barely missing Astra’s face.

“Who in the Court Below?—”

Another twist cut her curse short as Riverion slipped into a current and drifted over the stone walls of Lunaria. Glowing streets unfurled below like satin ribbons peppered by low-lit lanterns.

Riverion’s route was pure muscle memory from there, giving both of them a chance to catch their breaths as he wove around the city gates and into the towering roost above the amethyst palace.

The roost housed dozens of dragons much smaller than him, but his space still sat empty as he crashed into the wooden nest. His claws hardly brushed the hay before quick steps rumbled up the steps and through the door, bouncing yellow energy, preceding a voice Astra had missed every second of every day she’d been gone.

“As!” Ameera’s lungs puffed as she shoved her way through the royal roost’s endless stalls. She must have sprinted from whatever library she spent her morning in when she spotted Riv. “You’re home!”

Her lips broke into a wide smile, a soft point of relief in her golden, angular face. Astra slid off her dragon, pushing at the split silk on her arm. She held up the scrap of parchment that brought her here.

“I had little choice, and I barely made it!” Astra wiped at the blood still weeping from the wound. “Gods dammit, I liked this dress.”

Ameera brushed her fingers over the sleeve, examining the cut. “Who did you piss off?” Her musical laugh lit something inside Astra as she wrapped her in a desperate hug. Her warm honey scent soothed the sting in Astra’s arm.

“That’s how you greet royalty now? I leave for a few years and everyone’s manners go to shit?”

“Oh, my apologies, Princess,” Ameera muttered as she bowed comically low, rolling her eyes.

“Better. And I didn’t get a feel for who they were. No one I recognized. Whoever it was had damned good shot. We were mid-flight over the forest.” Astra tossed one more glance out of the roost as if she could spot the offender through the stone walls.

“Does it hurt? It could be poisoned! There are rumors of rebels in the woods. The queen should have sent someone to escort you,” Ameera grumbled, fussing with Astra’s satchel.

Astra winced. “Please, we both know I wouldn’t have taken kindly to a babysitter. Besides, if she forbade you from visiting Celene all this time, there’s no way she would have sent someone even less tolerant of my… quirks. What do you mean, rebels?”

Ameera’s smile tightened, an expression Astra knew well from years of prodding at whatever it concealed. She’d worn it many times over the nearly two decades she’d served as Astra’s Head Maiden. “It’s a long story. We can fill you in later. Your mother is waiting for you in the Celestial Hall.”

Astra’s shoulders fell—she wouldn’t even get a moment to let Lunaria’s salty sea breeze rehydrate her lungs before facing the court.

“I’ll alert Archera about the arrows. She’ll want to send out the sentry.” Ameera eyed Astra’s soiled sleeve. “Change first. The council is assembled.”

A whirl of amber anxiety flickered through Ameera’s lungs. Astra tried not to flinch. Not three minutes back in Lunaria and she was already causing Ameera heartburn. As if the guilt of leaving Celene wasn’t enough, now she’d have to face what sent her there without a second to adjust to court life.

Astra followed Ameera down the stairs. “I presume you kept my council robes? Or did the queen burn them in effigy after shipping me to Celene?”

Ameera snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous. She let the stable maidens use them to keep the hatchlings warm in the Winter.”

Astra let out a laugh, but they both knew that her mother at least considered it.

She muttered, “So good to be home.”