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Chapter Thirty-Two

“Y ou just have to do it,” Luxuros growled, his patience wearing thin as they teetered on the edge of the Lunar Gate, the Rift’s mystic waves rippling beneath them.

He’d hit his limit three “just jumps” ago.

“It’s easy for you. You practically lived in it,” she said.

He was not amused. “Astra, it’s not as complicated as you think. You did it before with Riverion!”

“ You did it before with Riverion. I was just along for the ride.” She rolled onto the balls of her feet, trying to summon the courage to tip forward. The maidens guarding the gate wondered if the gold coins Astra slipped into their palms were really worth their silence.

“Okay,” Luxuros breathed. “We’re already late. I’m going to count to three.”

Astra frowned. “It’s not going to work.”

“One.”

“I will not jump into an unknown void just because you’re a big boy who knows his numbers!”

Lux scoffed, the slightest hint of amusement at his lips. “Two.”

“You can count to one hundred, Commander. It does not matter!”

“Three.”

“And I’m still not ready?—”

She didn’t get to finish the rest of her argument as Lux hauled himself in her direction and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, throwing them both into the Rift.

The freefall only lasted for a split second, but it took her breath away all the same as her body landed amongst streaks of brilliant pinks, yellows, reds, and blues, each buzzing with its own specific frequency. The vibrations gently cradled them as they slipped along the blurred river.

White lights sparkled around them, blinding her. “Are those stars?”

Lux didn’t answer. He was too busy searching through the haze of color and light, his eyes fixed on a pale green thread, glowing like the stone on her hand. He released the arm around her back and looped his fingers around the thread, their speed accelerating as she buried herself closer into him.

“Why is it so fast?”

“Stop asking questions and look around,” the commander laughed. “You’re missing it.”

She absorbed as much as she could, but everything whizzed by at such a fast clip she could hardly keep her wits about her. They passed a portal of gleaming blues and purples swirling into space, veering off from the rest of the colors.

“That goes to the Outer Courts,” Lux explained.

Another lightning-white streak flashed by them, the heat of it warming her face. “Where does the white go?”

Lux glanced down at her. “Solaris.” He looked over his shoulder. “Brace yourself, we’re coming up on the Mercurian Gate.”

“Brace myself?”

The thread pulled them into the carved pale green stone gate, brilliant facets reflecting off each other. It spat them out onto a sandy platform, a crash landing Astra hadn’t, in fact, braced for.

Luxuros landed and rebalanced himself, but Astra pulled him sideways as her boots slipped out from under her. Her knees buckled under the sudden force.

“Steady,” Lux huffed, tightening his grip on her shoulders to stabilize her. Though it was more of a ghost with his amulet on, the Tether still bounced between them, their eyes both dropping to it at the same time.

“You can let go of me,” Astra sighed.

Luxuros released his hold but kept her hand in his, yanking her from the platform and into the beige halls of the Mercurian palace. He moved quickly, dipping into the servants’ passage.

“It’s early morning here, not many will be awake, but it’s easier if we aren’t stopped at every turn to introduce you. The Mercurians are excited to have a queen,” he sighed at the last few words, dropping her hand as he led them down the narrow corridor.

She followed close behind, her chest tightening as he rounded a corner ahead of her. He stopped without warning and she collided with his back. She pushed away from him and folded her arms over her chest.

“I asked Mirquios to station me somewhere else,” Luxuros said, still facing away from her, eyeing a fork in the halls. “He denied my request.”

Astra sighed. “And that should concern me because…”

“I just—I didn’t want you to think I was trying to make this harder for you.”

That riled Astra.

She couldn’t help the rage that seeped from her lips.

“Oh! So now you want to be proactive about your communication. You know, if you had just told me from the very beginning what happened, we could have worked something out. I never would have cut that amulet if I knew what you were trying to prevent. If I had known, I could have spared us!”

Lux’s breath caught, his voice low and strained as he twisted to face her. “Would you have?”

She could have said yes, but it would have been a lie—and it was too late. He already saw it all over her face.

Instead, she glanced at the sparkling alabaster tile they stood over, their boots just a breath apart. Her hand reached for his chest, resting over the spot she’d watched his fingers push into for months, soothing an ache she was only just starting to understand.

“As,” he whispered, a golden heat simmering under her fingertips. His eyes closed for a moment, covering her hand with his. A deep crimson smoke billowed between them, drowning Astra’s senses. He leaned forward slightly before backing off, restraining himself.

His palm weighed against hers in the silence, a memory slipping over her into her mind.

Not her memory, she realized.

His.

The rich scent of the soil in the palace gardens filled her lungs as he stood on the other side of the hedges under the Summer Solstice Moon.

“Hello?”

She heard her hesitant voice call out, his feet poised to run, the tension in his muscles begging him to get as far away from her as possible.

Lux’s chest exploded as she ventured toward the hedge and he scrambled to shield her from what was now clearly a Tether taking shape, a nightmare in his heart.

She called again, “Is someone there?”

Her skirt dragged against the cobblestones. He’d already committed the way it moved to memory. As she’d swirled in a circle with his king, his best friend, he’d felt himself caving inward and panicked.

“I can feel you,” she whispered. He needed to run. He needed to breathe. He needed to find the Lunar elf queen and beg for her help.

But she was so close.

Just one last look wouldn’t kill him. Probably. He stepped toward the hedge, peering at her through a hole in the foliage. Her ruby curls tumbled over her back, licking at the pale green gown he’d already started resenting.

To see her at all was a certain kind of punishment, but in his own home court’s colors? Devastating.

“Fine,” she relented. “Stay hidden, but it’s my obligation to warn you that the Midwood will not take kindly to intruders. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Lunar elves decided they could use a meal. Especially one so warm,” she said, and he watched her sink into her hips.

It happened before he could stop himself, the craven desire for her to hear his voice.

“Oh, please,” he rumbled back. The leaves rustled as he got too close, sending him backward. “Everyone knows the price of a Lunar elf is but a handful of gold coins.”

He could practically hear her eyes roll. Her confidence was misplaced but alluring all the same. “For the average citizen, perhaps. But you…”

Gods, she was as stubborn as she was gorgeous. “What of me, Princess?”

She hesitated for a moment, a pause he wished to reside in forever. “Take your chances then. Between the elves and my army, you’ll find yourself in quite a predicament. Or, you could surrender yourself now. I’d be happy to deliver you into the queen’s hands myself.”

“As much fun as that sounds, I have somewhere to be.”

“Who are you?” she demanded.

“No one you need to worry about,” he lied. He was exactly the thing she should be worried about—terrified of.

“Surely, that’s not true. Who are you here with?”

He laughed darkly, amused at her insistence. “I have somewhere I have to be.” His eyes caught the edge of the row of bushes. If she got too bold, too curious, she’d only need to poke her head through.

He’d already taken enough from her.

Lux darted away, the hedge rustling behind him as she hollered after him, “Suit yourself!”

“How did you do it?” She asked, daring to look him in the eyes. “How did you tolerate it?”

Luxuros shrugged, the movement pulling her hand up with his shoulders. “I do not fully know.”

He dropped his hand from hers and ran it over his face, wiping away the shame he felt prickling at his skin.

“I’ve run into magic similar to yours before.

I know how to protect myself, but it took everything in me to keep the Tether at bay.

I slept for two days at Ehlaria’s after I begged her to help me, to give me anything to stop this from ruining both of our lives.

She enchanted the moonstone in exchange for the looking glass, but even her magic wasn’t strong enough to stop the pain.

Every moment in your presence has been an unbearable struggle, Astra.

I have not drawn a full breath once since meeting you for fear that I might fuck this up. ”

She stared at her hand against his chest, his heart beating beneath her touch.

“Oh,” was all she said. She had held him in such a firm category for so long, it was difficult to imagine him any other way.

But then again, it wasn’t.

“I’m a very pleasant person, actually,” Luxuros added, chuckling against her palm. “But between the physical strain and the emotional pain of being near you and your stubborn attitude, I can admit I haven’t been my easygoing self.”

“I did think it strange how much my father liked you,” Astra wondered aloud. It pained her, the realization that there was an entire other version of the commander she might never meet. “And then I tortured you in your sleep,” she groaned, pulling her hand away, a rush of misery washing over her.

“Yes,” he said, a slight smirk pulling at his lips. “I could have stopped you earlier.”

“You should have!”

“I am trying to do the right thing. But I am only a man at the end of the day.”

“A man who is so certain that this would never work?” She gestured between them, her nerves tangled in knots.

“If Solan found out, what do you think he would do? Or, shit, the Court Above. They have laws against this very thing. You know that, don’t you?”

She did know. She’d memorized them as a child. At seven and eight, the thought of a union with the enemy was repulsive. It never occurred to her to question the laws against Solar and Lunar courtiers marrying.

“It will settle. The discomfort. It gets easier, though I can’t lie to you. It never goes away.”

“Fantastic,” she huffed. “I can’t kindle a damn spark with the king, but his commander sets my entire soul on fire and wants nothing to do with me.”

Lux swallowed.

“You know that’s not true,” he said softly. “Maybe Ehlaria could help, she helped once.”

Astra’s ears perked at the mention of Ehlaria’s name.

“I’m not certain this isn’t exactly what she wanted to happen.

The book she gave me—I told you it’s about two star-crossed lovers.

A Light Mage and a Shadow Witch, when they finally…

” Astra cleared her throat, aware of how close he was.

“When they finally connect, they dissolve into a spectrum of color and light. They become the Rift.”

Luxuros considered this for a moment, turning it over in his head. “So what, you think if we… connect , we save the world?”

Astra balked, a scarlet blush running from her cheeks to her chest.

“Is this you being pleasant and easygoing, then?” She moved to pass him, but he caught her arm.

“I am sorry, Astra. Truly.”

“I wish you weren’t,” she mumbled.

He held her gaze for a moment longer before blinking away whatever thought crossed his unreadable mind.