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Chapter Twenty-Six

L ux did not show up to the gardens after breakfast.

They’d made it a habit to meet there after they ate, spending a few hours on whatever trick he wanted to hone next. They’d break for lunch and then fill the afternoon with self-defense lessons.

But this morning, Astra was alone, left to her own devices, still wrestling with a lingering ember in her chest and guilt picking her apart. It was unconscious, pulling him into her dreams like that, but didn’t that mean something alarming about the wants hidden in her heart?

She needed fresh air and a break from his relentless sear. Perhaps he needed a break, too.

She took her book to finish in the quiet of the rustling moonblossoms, tendrils of green rapidly fading to brilliant oranges as Autumn tightened her grip. She slipped into a chair, unfolding the stack of parchment, and flipped back to the spot she’d left off last night.

Aurelle reached for Gladrious’s face, her hands cupping the sharp jawline, worried his light would scorch her as she pressed their skin together. She marveled at the faint glow that seeped from his jaw to her palm.

“What if I destroy you?” Her heart was at risk of bursting.

“Then I’d find you in the next life.” Gladrious shrugged. She knew it was true.

She pressed her lips to his, a spark pushing her back for just a moment before he stepped forward, sweeping her up into his arms. The world around them fell away, the space between swirling as the light within him ignited her Soul and her Shadows drowned him.

They dissolved into color and dust and deep darkness and brilliant white, twisting together until they were no more than a whisper of who they used to be. They stretched across the sky in dazzling colors, a river of what could have been, now bursting with the potential for something new.

“Wait,” she whispered, flipping the next page. “Are they… did they become the Rift?” Her heart thumped against her ribs.

“Who?” Nayson slipped into the seat across from her, already dressed in his golden Autumnal hues for the holiday.

“It will only bore you,” she laughed, folding the pages back into their paper wrapping. “How are you holding up? Big night without Mother.”

A sharp pain ran through her father’s chest, concentrated in the center, a purple and black bruise.

“I miss her terribly,” he said, his tone something between sorrow and reverence. “She thinks they’ll be home soon.” He said it for his own benefit more than Astra’s.

“Good,” she breathed.

Nayon’s eyes narrowed, studying his daughter’s face. “Not exactly the excitement I’d expect from a young bride waiting for her betrothed to return.”

She winced. “No. It wasn’t, was it?”

“You know you don’t have to marry him, right? A Tether is a Tether, but you’re still Astra. You have a say.”

She glanced around the garden, all too aware that this was a dangerous topic.

“Do I?” she scoffed.

“Of course! Your mother would certainly be the first to understand.”

“Mother would never understand a damn thing about me,” she snapped, his eyes softening.

“Your mother understands you much better than you’ll ever know, Astra.”

She shrugged. “You’re quite biased, Father.”

“And you only know Oestera Aurellis as your mother. You never knew her as the Rebel Queen.” He smiled just at the thought of her old nickname.

“By her design,” she sighed. “Can I ask you something I’ve always wondered?”

“Of course.”

“Does she keep me at a distance because I’m too much like Leona? Does it just hurt too much to look at me?”

Nayson held her gaze for a long moment, a whisper of a smile pulling at the corner of his lips.

“You do not remind your mother too much of Leona,” he said, rising and waving to a courtier across the garden, arriving for the festivities. “You remind your mother too much of herself.”

He left Astra to ponder that shocking observation, the fire in her veins stirring at the comparison.

* * *

The Celestial Hall glittered in oranges and crimson. Gold cords tied off curtains at the archways over the sea, letting the crisp Autumn air circulate over the heads of the Lunar and Mercurian courtiers.

The room lacked a certain tension that lingered when Oestera’s eyes scanned the crowd, but it also lacked her gravitas. Her flare.

Astra touched the delicate fabric of the wide ballgown Ameera had kept tucked away, designed for a much more significant event by her mother.

A wedding, surely.

Gilded twigs constructed the bodice, woven over and under to create a shimmering lattice from shoulder to hip, flaring out slightly as the golden twigs faded into gossamer wisps.

The bodice gave way to a thousand layers of fine-spun silk, a pale golden hue just kissing the layers, the subtle warmth to the fabric highlighting her fiery tones.

The same silk, hardly visible in a single layer, spilled over the shoulders, creating a sloping cape that caught the moonlight perfectly.

Crystal flutes of moonshine flitted around the room as the quartet staged at the center played on, their hands painted with golden flames as they pulled their bows across their instruments.

“You’ll have to open the dancing,” Nayson said from beside her, his brows lifted.

“Only if you’ll join me.” She smiled, holding out her hand. His dark eyes lit up with the chance to spin about the room with her, like they had when she was a girl. Astra pulled him out onto the floor, her dress swishing against the polished onyx tile as they turned.

“That’s quite the gown,” Nayson thought aloud.

“Your wife picked it.”

“Seems she knows her daughter somewhat, then,” he said.

She’d hurt him by coming after her mother earlier.

“I know I could try harder with her,” she said, the hem of her skirt brushing against the stage and the feet of the courtiers waiting along the edge of the floor. As they glided, the onlookers’ assessments rose in plumes of red and blue, setting her nerves on edge.

“I will implore her to do the same,” he smirked, twirling Astra out and under his arm, bringing her back in and touching her shoulder.

The short song ended with a sweet whine of the violin.

As she bowed to him, she glimpsed a tall, dark, and grumpy commander circling the edge of the room, eyes trained on every entry point as he scanned over the heads of spectators.

She’d worried about seeing him most of the day, embarrassed after pulling him into another dream, but she hadn’t done it on purpose.

She just needed to break the tension.

Astra plucked two glasses of moonshine off a maiden’s tray and slipped into the crowd, weaving between courtiers until she came to one of the dozen arches lining the walls of the hall. She dipped into the evening through the arches, the slight chill forcing her forward until she saw him again.

She counted the archways between them, trying to stay silent as she tracked toward his broad shoulders, his deep crimson tunic glowing against the pale moonstone pillar he leaned on.

Setting her back against the opposite side of the pillar, she held her breath as she prepared to strike. Astra stretched her back around the pillar, hoping to catch him off guard, but he was gone. Her shoulders fell in disappointment as she scanned the ballroom.

She closed her eyes, the hum of the room hitting a pitch she couldn’t hold off. It snapped at her skin, biting her heels and running talons over her shoulders.

“Looking for someone?”

“Shit!” She jumped, spilling liquid from both flutes over the rims and splashing on her dress.

“Oh no,” Lux chuckled. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s my own damn fault,” she huffed as he took the half-full glasses from her dripping hands. She ran her fingers over her dress, flicking the moonshine away from the dozens of metallic twigs.

He watched her for a second too long, shaking his head as he spoke. “Bet if you were careful enough, you could use a little bit of heat to dry that up.”

Astra shook her head. “I don’t trust myself in a room so packed, the heightened anxiety is already making me crazy.

I can hardly breathe, let alone control myself.

” She leaned against the archway, stilling a breath that threatened to choke her as she lifted her hand, showing the commander her jittering fingers.

“Everyone is on edge without my mother here.”

His eyes dropped to her other hand, clenched in the ruffles of her skirt, trying desperately to relax in the crowded space.

Lux leaned close, lowering his voice so only she could hear. “I’ve heard the Lunar elves throw a damned good Equinox party.”

She glanced up, half-expecting him to be joking, but the smile across his lips was genuine, a rare beam of light from the stoic soldier.

She should have known he’d meant it. He was probably just as miserable as she was in a room full of courtiers who could be anyone, with any intention.

At least in Ehlaria’s realm, they knew they’d be safe.

She would never let anyone through the barrier that didn’t belong.

If anyone asks, I was feeling ill and went up to bed, Astra beamed to Ameera.

Where are you actually going?

She grinned to herself, Don’t worry about it.

I’m very worried about it, she huffed.

Lux owes Ehlaria a visit.

Ah, she sighed. Just don’t do anything stupid, okay?

Now, you know I can’t promise that.