Page 21

Chapter Twelve

T he feel of his flesh lingered the next morning, even through the muted maze of her dream.

It was worse when he passed her table at breakfast, laughing with a Mercurian advisor, the heat so staggering it lit up her nervous system anew.

“How did you sleep?” Mirquios asked from across the table, his eyes fixed far away. The energy in the room was stifling to Astra. They’d make their departures soon, either back to their home courts or to Pluto, and the anxious oranges clouded her vision.

“Fine enough,” she said quietly. “And you?”

“Quite well, considering. Though I don’t think Lux can say the same. That burn kept him up half the night.”

Her eyes flashed across the terrace, Lux’s dark hair loose and wild around his shoulders this morning. “It’ll heal,” she insisted.

Come pack with me , Lunelle beamed, her voice tight from her room.

Be right there . Astra looked to the king, who sipped his morning tea gently. “My sister is searching for me. I’ll see you at the Lunar Gate?”

He smiled, but she could tell his mind was drifting toward Pluto already. She knew that gurgling gray inside of him well. She was no stranger to the distraction of a court’s weight.

Lunelle was much less pensive, much more frantic as Astra entered her room. Maidens flitted about, stuffing gowns and jewels into trunks while she tucked journals into her bag.

“I’m sure everything will be fine,” Lunelle said softly, mostly to herself.

“Of course,” Astra said, nodding. She stretched out over Lunelle’s luxurious bed, giving Lunelle’s tension places to hide within her limbs.

“I’ve been training my whole life for this,” Lunelle chirped, a shaky red rolling over her gut.

“And you’ll have Mother, for better or worse.”

“Right.”

“Right,” Astra assured her.

Lunelle stopped moving, her eyes welling. “Mother above, Astra. This is it, isn’t it? This will be the start of the next inter-court war. It will define my entire reign and I’m not even on the throne yet!”

“Lu.” Astra rolled off the bed and crossed the room, wrapping her hands around Lunelle’s shoulders. Her panic was so palpable it drained both of them into a tornado of violet fear and white-hot frayed nerves.

“Mother does not want a war. Mirquios does not want a war. Pluto certainly doesn’t want a war. The majority of the courts are on our side and will want to settle things peacefully. This is an exercise in diplomacy, nothing more.”

Hot tears danced at Lunelle’s lashes. “Do you really believe that?”

“Absolutely,” Astra lied. “Solaris has been silent for thirty years! Mother has spent my entire life preparing for her chance to shut Solan down.”

“You’re right,” Lunelle conceded. “Thank you.”

“You’ll return home to me in a week or two and we can forget this whole awful mess.”

Lunelle sighed. “Just in time to marry you off.”

Astra’s eye twitched. “Let’s take this hour by hour, shall we?”

Lunelle nodded, pulling from her sister’s grip and reaching for a few books from the nightstand to add to her bag. “I suppose you should go say your goodbyes to your betrothed.”

“I suppose I should,” Astra sighed. “I had Ameera slip a few satchels of tea into your bags, just in case Pluto is a desolate wasteland.”

Lunelle only gave a clipped giggle in response, her eyes tracing the lines of her sister’s back as she left her room, committing to memory the way she moved so confidently.

Astra dodged frantic maidens in the halls, wandering her way through the Andromeda wing where Mercurians dashed in and out of rooms.

She reconsidered saying goodbye now, the panicked plumes of reds, oranges, and violets pushing her back down the hallway.

Instead, she climbed the tower to the roost, reveling in the open air—thin and brisk at this elevation. Riverion sensed her right away. He poked his massive head up and over the stone wall separating him from the next dragon, snorting a smokey greeting laden with irritation.

“Hush, you,” Astra grumbled. “I know you’ve been well taken care of. I saw you circling for hours yesterday.”

Riverion ruffled a disagreement, but he still pushed his head into her hands.

Astra slid into his pen, taking a seat against the stone and gliding her fingers over his cool scales.

Emerald and blue hues poured over one another into an oceanic coat, hypnotizing under the faint slip of the waxing crescent in the early morning sky.

“With Mother away, we can take to the skies again, hmm?”

Riverion seemed pleased with this, releasing a long sigh as he looked toward the city below.

She never dared to leave the palace when she was in Lunaria.

It was far too much work to get her mother on board, but she enjoyed watching the citizens below bustle about their morning chores.

She envied their blissful ignorance of what lurked outside their gates.

A heatwave billowed behind her and she craned her neck, searching for which of Riv’s juvenile stablemates was getting too bold.

“Oh,” she sighed. “You.”

The commander leaned against the roost’s far wall, arms crossed in what seemed to be his default stance. “If you were better trained, you’d have sensed me tracking you from the Andromeda wing.”

“If you were less of an asshole, I might take your advice into consideration. Alas.” She tossed him a bitter smile, rising from her spot on the floor. Riverion’s head perked up, taking in the stranger.

“Hornsby?”

Astra muttered, “Look closer.” People always did that. They saw a big, powerful dragon and assumed he must be a coveted pureblood Hornsby. They never considered a more common mutt like Riverion could be so well-raised.

“Will he burn me if I get too close? Or is that just his rider?” Luxuros sounded as if he was joking, but Astra saw it in his eyes—his uncertainty.

“Perhaps he could even you out,” Astra said.

Silence and spite were all she got back.

The commander’s large frame slipped over the stable walls.

He leaned closer to Riv, still maintaining enough space between them to get behind the wall should he lunge.

Riverion turned and glanced out of the roost, twisting his neck skyward to show off the way his scales lit up when the Moon hit him.

Luxuros gasped. “A Silvershift! Of that size?”

“Half,” Astra offered. “Half Silvershift, half Firestarter.”

“Remarkable,” the commander breathed. “Where did you find him?”

“I didn’t. I inherited him.” Astra drew in a tight breath. “He was my aunt’s.”

Luxuros hung his head for a moment. “Ah.” He stepped forward, extending his hand toward Riverion’s snout.

“Wouldn’t do that,” Astra mumbled. “He doesn’t like men.”

Riverion swung his head around and threw Astra a glare that she could interpret as fuck you as he nuzzled the commander’s waiting fingertips.

“Traitor!”

“Good boy,” Luxuros chuckled, patting him gently. “Half-flame recognizes half-flame, I suppose.” The commander winked, drawing a content chortle from Riverion.

“Gods smite me,” Astra cursed, wiping her brow as the heat of him settled against her.

“Mirquios is leaving,” Luxuros said. “I came to find you so you can bid him farewell.”

“Great,” she chirped. “I’m glad to be rid of your insufferable temper.” She hopped over the stable wall and Luxuros trailed her, laughing darkly.

“Oh, I’m not going with him. He requested I stay back.” He stepped over the gate with little effort and crossed his arms, a sickening smirk on his lips. “Babysit.”

Astra’s head started shaking before he got the final syllable out. “No. Absolutely not ,” she growled, a red tide crashing against her lungs. The commander backed away, his eyes flashing to her fingertips. “I’m not a fucking monster , Commander. I thought you were attacking me!”

“Can’t be too careful,” he said, shrugging.

“This isn’t happening.” Astra took the steps two at a time, the cool air streaming into the roost eaten up by Luxuros at her back.

She darted across the courtyard and through the Celestial Hall, Luxuros never more than a pace behind her.

As she burst into the palace gardens and through the cobblestone paths to the Lunar Gate, her father’s eyes widened, recognizing the flame burning within hers.

“Astra!” Mirquios broke from his conversation with Nayson, turning with arms out for his bride, but by the time he registered her ire, it was too late.

“I do not need your commander here to babysit me. I am a grown woman,” she barked, dodging his hands. The king’s eyes swept from Astra’s to Nayson’s, who found himself particularly interested in something in the trees above. “I can manage perfectly fine on my own!”

The king held his hands up in surrender. “I meant no offense.”

She snarled, “I am not offended.”

“You certainly sound offended,” Luxuros groused behind her.

“Commander,” Mirquios warned, turning toward her. “We have no idea how long we might be gone. What if Solaris uses this as an opportunity to mount an attack here? You can hold your own, but can you hold an entire city?”

“I don’t know,” she pouted. “I’ve never tried.”

“Lux has decades of experience in these things. He is a resource to you,” Mirquios insisted. “If you’re to be the queen of Mercury, you have many, many things to learn about the inner workings of our court. Lux has spent his entire life navigating it. He can teach you.”

Astra sighed. She hated a fair point. She unfolded her arms and nodded reluctantly, settling into this unfortunate truth. “Very well.”

“We’ll start with manners,” Luxuros whispered. Astra glared at him over her shoulder, debating if anyone would really blame her if she fired another spark at his arrogant ass. Nayson’s lips twitched into a smile, only fueling the fire within his daughter.

“Is every man in this godsforsaken court determined to insult me?”

“I’m sorry, darling,” her father hummed, pulling her to his side. “But the king here makes a solid argument.”

“And I conceded!”

“Tell that to your face,” Luxuros snarled, gesturing at the glare firmly settled across her lips.

Mirquios put up a valiant attempt to suppress the laugh in his throat, but he was unsuccessful.

“You know, I don’t believe the queen has signed any contracts yet,” Astra huffed.

“That’s true,” Mirquios smirked, reaching for her hand. “I’ve heard the Plutonian princess is quite beautiful. Decisions, decisions,” he mused. Astra softened at this, but her father stood taller, eyeing them as he spoke.

“Good luck with that,” Nayson scoffed. “Do you two know what denying a Tether does to one’s mind?”

Astra blushed. The same rush of heat raced to the king’s face. It had been easy to forget the lie their entire betrothal was predicated on. She frowned, swaying closer to him, mimicking the gravity she’d watched her parents cope with their entire lives. “You’ll watch out for my sister?”

“Of course,” he said, pressing his lips into the back of her hand. “Lunelle is family now.”

Astra nodded, grateful her sister would have someone of the same mindset in the foreign court. “Come back in one piece,” she whispered, placing a soft kiss on his cheek.

“Don’t destroy each other, please,” he begged, gesturing between Astra and the commander. Mirquios gave her one last smile before fading into the whirring mist of the Rift, dozens of courtiers following.

Luxuros leaned toward her. “Princess?—”

Astra held up a hand as she passed him, unwilling to entertain another word from him this morning.

“As!” Lunelle skipped toward her sister, throwing her arms around her neck. “I’ll write to you,” she insisted.

“You better,” Astra laughed. “I feel I’ll perish of boredom without you here.” Lunelle squeezed her tightly and then bounded off to Nayson, leaving Astra to contend with a cool gaze as Oestera’s eyes settled over her.

“I know you won’t stay out of trouble,” she said with a slight smile on her lips Astra wondered if she imagined. “So I won’t ask you to.”

“And I appreciate that,” Astra returned.

“But do try not to do anything that opens us up to a two-front war, hmm?”

Astra grinned. This was something she could adhere to. “I think I can manage that.”

Then her mother shocked her by pulling her into a hug so brief, so strange, that she was almost unsure it happened. She released Astra just as quickly, her breath caught in her lungs.

As Astra turned to leave, a strange devastation pooled in her chest, catching her completely off guard. She glanced around the gardens, sure something horrible was happening, but her eyes landed on a clash of color at the gate, plumes of peony pink longing and screaming violet fear.

Oestera and Nayson faced each other, their eyes locked, the buzzing feelings between so sincere Astra felt she needed to turn away as they prepared to say goodbye for perhaps the first time since they’d crossed paths nearly four decades prior, at that very gate.

Astra hardly made it back to her room before she fell onto her bed in a heap, the aching within her parents’ chests driving her to tears.