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Chapter Twenty-Five

“A nything stand out?” Astra asked Ameera, her lanky body stretched out on a blanket in the gardens, stacks of books anchoring the corners in the early Autumn breeze.

“Not particularly. I’m beginning to think we’re crazy.”

“Me too.” Astra flipped through Ehlaria’s translation for the third day in a row, waiting for something new to jump out at her.

She’d made it halfway through the story without anything appearing relevant to the Rift, or Selenia, or Shadows.

So far, it read as a jumbled string of plots between two star-crossed lovers.

They met in a vague realm between realms—a Shadow Witch and a Light Mage. They were too afraid to touch, but couldn’t stop wandering back to one other over the decades.

Perhaps it needed to be read in its original tongue to make more sense. She could convince Lux to read it, probably, not that he had much free time these days.

He’d spent the last few weeks either working on tricks with her or organizing things back home.

A few days after they’d returned from Ellume, Mirquios sent along a novel’s worth of notes for Lux to tend to, worried that their prolonged stay left Mercury vulnerable.

They’d been engaged in intense debates and negotiations from what Lux reported and what Lunelle wrote.

Her sister was overwhelmed, homesick, and unsure she belonged in Pluto, her letters riddled with the things she missed about home.

Astra still received brief notes from Mirquios with each post drop, usually something sweet and meaningless.

The way two strangers would write to each other, she’d remind herself.

She rolled onto her back, holding up the book to cover the nearly full Moon above, the light washing them in a cool glow.

A litany of questions she’d avoided rolled through her mind unstoppably fast.

Would she ever adjust to the golden light of the Sun? Would her heart ache forever for the cool tones of the Moon—its presence gone from half her life, just like that? Would she ever feel more than a tepid tolerance of the king’s touch?

Was that something she could make do with? Before she could stop herself, she slipped back into Celene, strong hands running across her back under the springs. The heat in her spine as it arched against the commander’s touch… could she really sacrifice that? Or something like it, of course.

Ameera interrupted her. “You’re leaking your bummer mood all over me.”

“Oh,” she laughed, that had become more of an issue as she expanded her abilities. They’d been working on shields, but the concept of keeping her feelings in had always been foreign to her. She’d been an open book her entire life, to everyone’s detriment, but especially to her own. “Sorry. Ameera?”

“Hmm?”

“What do you know about Tethers?”

Ameera closed her book, pushing herself up from the blanket. “Quite a bit,” she said, a rush of orange skepticism between them. “They’re a much larger deal in Venus than they are here.”

“Of course.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Ask what you really want to ask.”

“Are they always instant?”

Ameera’s lips smiled tightly, a release of something in her chest Astra could not trace.

“Not always. There are plenty of cases where they take time to develop. I had a cousin who was with her husband for a decade before theirs snapped into place. It was after their first child—something changed within them both and that did it.”

“Fascinating,” Astra breathed. “So there can be a right person, wrong time?”

“Something like that. But my cousin still knew. Deep down. Sometimes even the gods get the timing wrong.”

“But do they get the Tethers wrong?”

Ameera sat with that in tense silence for a moment.

“No. They do not. The gods stitch Tethers together the same way they weave Souls and Shadows into one. Once attached, it’s irrevocable. You’ll find each other in a million lifetimes if you have to.”

A group of maidens crossed the garden, fiery orange blossoms, red roses, and yellow daisies falling from buckets in their hands.

“It can’t already be the Equinox,” Astra said.

“It is, indeed,” Ameera confirmed. “Tula didn’t want to burden you with planning the ball. She’s still worried you got hurt on her watch.”

“Good enough for me,” Astra replied. “I may not even attend this year. I owe Ehlaria a visit.”

“You don’t think the court will notice the only Lunar Princess missing?”

Astra crumpled inward, her shoulders falling. She’d forgotten about her duties on nights like these, taking part from the sidelines most of her life. “Damn.”

“Your mother picked out a stunning gown for the occasion…”

“You knew I wasn’t leaving the moment I got here, didn’t you?” Astra sighed, Ameera’s eyebrows wiggling.

“Oestera missed you, As. I know it’s hard to believe.”

“So I won’t.”

Ameera only glared at her.

Astra laughed at the familiar expression. “You’re spending too much time with the commander.”

* * *

“You have got to stop leaving your right side open when you block me on the left,” Lux groaned.

She heaved a sigh. They’d been at this for an hour already.

Roll, rise, block, attack. Over and over again until her head drowned in delirium.

“If someone attacks me, I’m not wasting my time with a physical altercation. I’m much more powerful in here.” She tapped her forehead with one hand, flashing a flame between them with the other.

Lux shook his head. “There are a dozen situations I can think of without even trying where your magic wouldn’t matter. Your hands could be bound, or someone could dampen your abilities. There are ways to ward against elemental magic. You can’t always rely on that.”

“Fine,” she relented. “Again.” Lux dove for her ankles, taking her down for the hundredth time as she rolled from his grip, kicking his bad shoulder.

“Fuck!”

“Shit,” she whispered, crawling back toward him, “Are you okay? I forgot which side—” He cut her off with a push onto her back.

He slid over her, knees squeezing her sides, and pinned her hands above her head, pinching her skin.

The ryegrass in the same meadow they’d met tickled her wrists. Mocking her.

“Roll, rise, block, attack,” he hissed against Astra’s face. “If I was your enemy, would you stop to make sure I wasn’t hurt?”

She grunted, attempting to pull her wrists from his grip, the weight of him making it impossible. “Let me go!”

“You have no clear firing path,” he ground out, pushing her wrists into the ground harder. “What’s your move?”

She scrambled, trying to think. She held him in her mind the same way she had the Solarian in the Midwood, sending a spiraling cloud of smoke into his face. He backed off, but he only lost his concentration for a second.

“If I’m trying to kill you, I’ve already done it. Think, As.”

The weight of him over her, the leather and oak scent of him, the heat rising as she lost her grip on his bloodline—it was all-consuming. She wriggled again, hoping to get a knee free, but he was just too heavy.

“I can’t think! You’re drowning me!”

“Come on, Fire Queen, you’re better than this,” he whispered against her ear, hands tightening.

A dark thought rippled through Astra’s mind for a second.

From here, it would take only an accidental brush of her hips, or a whisper of something utterly distracting to break him.

She shook her head, clearing the fog in her mind, embarrassed she’d even let herself imagine such a thing.

He was the king’s commander, not a plaything. She was to be his queen. The king’s wife. She was supposed to be Tethered to the man for gods’ sakes.

“And you’re dead,” Lux muttered, releasing his grip on her wrists and rising off of her.

Astra’s head swirled, the heat rolling away like a smothered campfire.

He held a hand out to help her up. She reached for it, letting just a slip of flame lick at her fingertips.

Searing his palm enough to cause him to pull back, but not enough to melt flesh.

“Do better tomorrow.” Lux flexed his hand, refusing to give her the satisfaction she sought as he left her on the ground.

She would happily let him sit in his disappointment.

The alternative was to drown in this dizzying haze as sparks of white-hot guilt for feeling anything come alive under his touch blazed against her.

He was right before, on the way out of Celene.

She’d been left alone too long.

* * *

Astra was three-quarters of the way through the novel Ehlaria gave her.

She had notes sprawled across her desk and several empty coffee cups forming a ring around her. She hadn’t left her study all day.

The plot had finally gotten interesting.

The Shadow Witch could summon the Shadows around her and use them to cast spells. The man, a Light Mage, was born to keep the Shadow Witches in check.

She thought they were on the precipice of confessing their love to one another when she heard three quick knocks on the study door. No thoughts behind it, no emotions to scan.

“Luxuros,” she said, setting the book down as he pushed the door open.

“You’re up late,” he murmured, closing the door behind him. He sat on the sofa from which he’d spent most of his Summer lecturing her, his eyes unfocused in a way she hadn’t seen often.

“Sleep has eluded me lately,” Astra confessed, organizing her notes so she didn’t lose her place.

Lux nodded toward the book and the translation, sitting next to each other. “Anything interesting?”

“It’s a captivating story, but I’m not sure any of it is relevant,” she sighed, frustrated. “It’s a romance story between forbidden lovers.” Lux didn’t respond. She continued, “I was just about to get to a good part when you interrupted.”

He smirked. “A good part, huh?”

“You’re foul,” she laughed. “Not that kind of good part. A love confession.”

“Ah.” He leaned back, crossing one leg over the other. “So it’s only a matter of time, then.”