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Chapter Twenty-Three

T he commander left his room first.

His heavy boots thudded against the obsidian floor, stopping briefly in the study before heading for the balcony. Astra had been awake for hours, listening. Trying to decide how to look him in the eye after her dream.

It was just a dream, she told herself. Her spine tingled as her mind wandered back to the warm water, his hands even hotter as they slipped over her skin.

She shook her head, the smell of coffee percolating wafting into her room.

It was just a dream, after all. She hadn’t consciously traveled there, not like before.

They’d been drinking. She was lonely. He didn’t need to know, and she needed to forget it.

Astra pulled on a pale lavender dress and boots from her closet.

She glanced in the mirror on her dresser to twist her hair into a half-back knot, sliding the crescent pin into the mess of curls.

She smoothed the wrinkles in the linen of her dress, officially out of reasons to linger in the bedroom.

The coffee smelled so divine to her hungover senses—at least she could soothe one headache.

“Morning!” she chirped, passing by the balcony and heading straight for the pot of coffee he’d brewed on the small stove in the corner.

The balcony doors opened to a fair breeze where Luxuros sat on an iron patio chair, dwarfing it as he sipped on one of the coffee cups next to him.

Her eyes landed on the second cup as that tingle in her spine begged for attention again.

Enough , she hissed at herself.

She sat beside him, the heat she’d worked so hard to keep at bay stronger now.

He glanced at her quickly but did not speak, which would have been expected, but this morning, his silence suffocated her.

She fussed with the skirt of her dress, watching the breeze ripple across the lush grass along the Somnia’s riverbed below.

Women were shaking off the night and starting in on their daily chores, their eyes flickering up to the man on Astra’s balcony as they passed.

Waves of moss-green curiosity and amber discomfort floated on the late Summer air, but they seemed to settle when they caught sight of her ruby curls beside him.

“I want you to train me,” she blurted out. “ Train, train me.”

Luxuros nodded. “I can do that.”

“It’s that easy?”

“I think it’s for the best. We know more about the dangers you’re up against, Astra. But I’m not just going to train you on the mental game, you need to learn basic self-defense. And some diplomacy?—”

She huffed. “I hardly think I need lessons in diplomacy from your pissy ass.”

The commander only stared at her, waiting for the words to echo against her skull.

“Fine,” she sighed, setting her coffee cup on the glass table. “I heard it. I’ll learn anything you want me to.”

“Very good,” he mumbled, his eyes turning out toward the sea beyond the city. “One more thing,” he said, the fire behind his gaze sparking with something that made her nervous. Something that felt rather like the ghost of last night’s simmering flames.

A bead of sweat rolled down the back of her neck, despite the cool morning.

“You’re getting greedy, Commander,” she muttered. She drained her coffee and leaned forward, spotting Cameren and Ameera leaving Cam’s building and heading their way. They wound over a bridge, a basket of what Astra hoped was something Sephone baked between them.

“Lux?” she asked, his condition still hanging in the air.

She turned back around and met his strange stare, a wickedness within his smile she couldn’t begin to read.

He took his time as he wrestled with whether he should say whatever sat on the end of his tongue, but as she heard her door scrape inward, he murmured softly for her ears only.

“You have to do something about the dreams, As.”

Her chest exploded in a symphony of mortified reds and oranges as heat rushed across her limbs. “Wh-what?”

The commander’s lips curled into a truly diabolical grin. “Were you unaware, Princess?”

“We brought breakfast!” Ameera cheerfully burst into Astra’s living room, poking her head onto the balcony and displaying her basket proudly. Astra barely heard her over the rush of blood in her ears. “Oof, what are we fighting about now?”

“No fights here,” Lux sighed, smirking still as he finished his coffee. “We were just discussing a dream Astra had last night.”

A scarlet blush unfurled over her chest. She growled, “Commander!”

“Was it serious?” Ameera asked, her vivid yellow concern wrapping around Astra’s heart. “A vision?”

“No,” Astra bit. “A nightmare, actually.”

“You should have heard her scream,” Luxuros teased, resting his boots on the balcony railing as he leaned back.

“Luxuros!” Astra hissed, kicking his feet back onto the floor. “Which one of us needed lessons in diplomacy?”

Lux opened his mouth to argue with her, but Cam cut him off.

“We have a job for you, if you’re willing to lend us your strength, Commander,” Cam said, cutting through the tension as she tossed Astra a scone. “The younger girls managed to jam a boat under the bridge. They’ve been working at it all morning but have made little progress.”

“I don’t want to distress anyone,” Luxuros said.

Just me , Astra groaned internally.

Cam waved a hand. “These women know Astra would sooner fling herself off the cliffs than endanger them. Her word is good. Though you may want to watch out for your own sake. They aren’t too happy that your king is taking her away from us.”

Astra sighed, a purple pang of guilt tightening around her wrists.

“I’ll take you to the docks, Lux,” Ameera offered. “We’ll check on Riv, too. Cam says he’s in rougher shape than we thought.”

“We can send him home in a few days, but I wouldn’t ride him for a while, As. His wing took some damage when you landed.”

“Perfect,” Astra whispered. Ameera and Luxuros were hardly out of the door before Cam slid closer to Astra, aware that every wall in Celene had ears.

“Ameera showed me the Shadow Bargaining manual. I pulled a few texts to send back to the palace with you. It’s not an exact match, but there’s a book of Saturnian mythology.

Their patron goddess, Saturnia, promised the Nether Queen a black diamond ring if she granted her the ability to see auras.

Saturnia went back on their deal and the Nether Queen blew her soul into a billion shards of black diamond, forming a ring around Saturn so her people would never forget her betrayal.

There are a few other similar exchanges between ancient gods and the Nether Queen.

They may not be speaking of Shadow Bargaining, but it’s a start. ”

“Thank you,” Astra said, a chill crossing her arms.

“I also pulled some texts on the Ascension process. If Selenia truly made her full Ascent, which she would have had to in order to take the Lunar Throne in the Court Above, she would have reunited with her Shadow and Soul in the Court Below. If she did trade her Shadow, it had to have been recently.”

Astra shook her head. “I’m not sure about the timeline. We have records in the library of the palace, but I think she Ascended before I was born. I don’t have many memories of her, but she was already on the Lunar Throne Above when I was old enough to form memories.”

“Whenever it happened, it’s not good. That kind of power has to be up to something nefarious. The Court Above is not the end-all-be-all, Astra. There are powers even the gods fear.”

“So it never ends, then?” She smiled weakly. “Thank you for compiling all of that. I know there’s a common thread somewhere. I just need more information. But Solan,” Astra whispered his name as if the crests of the rivulets below might be spies. “He’s moving, Cam. We need to be ready.”

“I was born for this, Astra,” Cam grinned. “As were you.”

* * *

After lunch with the Celenian council, Astra mounted her horse with a long list of needed supplies in hand.

She wasn’t sure when war was coming, but she knew Celene would be ready. She’d managed a quick visit with Riverion before taking the pulley cart back up the cliffside and darting through the village as woman after woman stopped her to speak.

“Add some pigments for Seph to our list,” Astra said to Ameera, her mind a steel trap for Astra’s scattered thoughts.

“What for?” Lux asked. It was the first thing he’d said to her since breakfast.

“She’s a gifted painter. Whatever happens, someone needs to document it. She reminds me of my father, quietly absorbing everything happening around her to capture it permanently.”

The commander considered this as Ameera galloped ahead of them, her eyes scanning the perimeter of the forest for any strangers.

“You love them so deeply,” Luxuros finally said.

She only nodded, surprised by the tears that sprang so freely to her eyes. Leaving the first time had felt like a temporary mission.

Leaving now felt like the last time before everything changed.

She did her best to swallow the feelings.

She’d been vulnerable enough with him that morning, even if it was against her will.

Now, she couldn’t stop spiraling into memories of the dreams she’d had since he first appeared in the court.

All the times her mind had painted a softer portrait of him after arguing all day.

All the times his warmth had reached out to touch her.

Mother above, she was blushing again.

“Celene is the only place in the world where no one recoils when I express a strong opinion,” Astra said, desperate to cover the shaking feeling inside her.

“No one rolls their eyes or sighs when I pose an idea. And better, if it’s a bad one, they tell me without fear.

They don’t eye my fingertips because I’m not a monster to them.

I’m passionate. No one manipulates or plots to shape my will.

They trust me to be the leader they know I am. ”

Luxuros kept pace beside her, smiling as he replied. “The little girls down by the bridge this morning were using berries to stain their hair red. They called one another ‘Fire Queen.’”

If she hadn’t been blushing before, she certainly was now. “We need to move faster, Lux. We have to figure out what’s happening before they get hurt. I can’t let them down.”

“You won’t,” he assured her.

She smiled, the ease of it sending another blaring reminder of last night’s dream to the forefront of her mind.

“I’m sorry about the dreams,” she said quietly, watching Ameera ahead as she spoke. “I didn’t know. I thought… I thought they were just dreams. Before, when we met in the Midwood, I’d been cognizant of it. It was intentional. These were… not.”

The commander’s lips twitched as he reached for the cord around his neck. “It’s all right. I was only teasing you this morning. You’ve been left alone too long, Astra.” He pressed his fingers against his chest as he sauntered beside her. “The Tether must be driving you to madness.”

“That’s not—” Astra stopped herself. He was offering her an out. “Yes. Quite maddening.”

“But I would like to set the record straight,” Luxuros murmured, his voice edging into a lower register that raised the hairs on her arms. “The blood of the cruelest warriors in the universe flows through my veins. I’m the decorated commander of one of the strongest armies in all thirteen courts.

I won wars in four realms before you were out of your governess’s care. ”

He yanked on his mare’s reins, circling in front of Astra and cutting into her path. She reared back, her horse huffing as she held his blazing gaze.

“I wouldn’t beg.”

Lux dug his heels into his mare’s sides and sped away, the rhythmic thumping of her hooves perfectly paced against Astra’s heart. She rolled her eyes and told herself the sudden rush of fire-orange adrenaline filling her lungs was a pathetic attempt on her body’s part to regulate.

She told herself it was just a little lust.

What she hadn’t noticed was the way the alarm curled around her ribs and pulled, crushing the bones together in a desperate warning. She didn’t notice it rising from her right side, not hers to hold at all.

The force of something, someone slammed into her and sent her soaring off her horse and crashing against the muddy forest floor, an explosion of furious color and sound shoving her into the brush.

A scream ripped through her lungs as she pushed back, but her arms were pinned beneath a suffocating weight.

The last thing she heard before her assailant smashed her head against the ground was the metallic ping of a sword and the fury of a warrior unleashed.

A scarlet rage settled over her like a blanket as the world released her mind into the ether.