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“The commander can have Riverion’s affections,” Mirquios said, sipping his tea as Lunelle watched him. “I will not fight that battle.”

Nayson arched his eyebrows and drew in a long, unsteady breath as Tula attempted again to engage him.

Astra had little else to contribute for the rest of the meal.

* * *

“You told him!”

Astra shoved Luxuros against the damp cellar wall of the distillery. She’d hauled him down the stairs after breakfast, her nerves wound tightly in her back, sweating.

“I had to,” Lux hissed, hands dropping around her waist as she batted at his chest. “ I had to ,” he repeated, holding her blazing glare.

“When I returned to our rooms this morning, he was… also… on his way back and we ran into one another! We’ve been friends for thirty years, he knows me too well. He saw it all over my face.”

“On his way back from—oh. Oh ,” she breathed, tapping her fingers against the commander’s leather vest. “I see.” She bit back the blush warming her cheeks, glad for her sister but distressed that their secret had already gotten away from them twice in one morning.

“This is impossible,” she sighed. “Maybe we need to keep our distance, at least until we figure out the Mirquios and Lunelle of it all.”

His hand splayed against the small of her back, the cool air beneath the palace driving her closer to him.

“Perhaps you’re right. I could go back to Mercury for a few days. Let things cool off.”

“Right,” she said, muffled by his stubble as she climbed his throat with her lips. “You could do that.”

“I should do that,” he whispered, his fingers tightening their grip on her hips as her lips brushed against his earlobe. “As,” he warned.

“You know,” she said between nips of his skin, even warmer than usual as blood rushed to the surface at her touch. “I could still be your queen yet.”

He did not speak, but a quick release of his breath encouraged her.

“Perhaps I should remind you of your duty?” She tangled her hand into his thick curls, pulling to the right and exposing more of his neck to her. His eyes closed against the pressure, hands clenching into fists against the soft fabric of her dress.

A smile tugged at his lips. “And how might I prove my loyalty to my queen?”

A scarlet ripple curled around his heart, beckoning her to press her fingers tighter around his throat as she ran her teeth along his jaw.

“On your knees, Commander.”

Luxuros did not hesitate to hit the floor, the cobblestones of the cellar cracking against his knees as he crawled his hands over her thighs, prepared to worship her in any way she saw fit.

We’re in the library . Ameera’s voice interrupted the tightening spiral in her belly as she threaded her fingers through his curls.

“Godsdammit,” Astra huffed.

Luxuros gazed up at her, full lips parted, a purple disappointment rippling through his chest.

“Go,” he sighed, rising to his feet. He brushed his thumb over her bottom lip, caressing the pout that formed as he glanced at the stairs.

“I’ll return in a few days. I can properly worship you then, my queen.”

* * *

Astra tapped her finger against the soft velvet of Ehlaria’s novel, watching her sister as she scanned the Shadow Bargaining manual in the back corner of Lunaria’s library.

Maidens hovered, but most knew they were out of luck when it came to intriguing gossip between Ameera, Astra, and Lunelle. Anything even remotely sensitive would travel between them in silence.

The halls of the library rose over them, glass ceilings bare to the Moon and her cohorts. Astra counted the stars she could name as she tried to take her mind off what she was missing in the distillery.

You know, I always thought Selenia had a strange coldness to her , Lunelle sent across the table.

Astra nodded. I said the same thing. I don’t want to give too much credit to Ivonne, but she may have been onto something.

“I found a few more notes in this journal,” Ameera said quietly, flipping open a navy-bound volume overflowing with elegant script. Prayers, incantations, and diary entries fell off the pages. “This one in particular was interesting.”

Astra stood over Lunelle’s shoulder to read.

Cycle Day 28

Wolf Moon 2,486

The queen has finally enacted her revenge for Spring’s argument. This month’s funding was three-quarters of the typical allotment. She cited the need for more military protection along the Rift as the cause, but I’m certain it’s a reprimand for daring to question her mother’s motives.

Ellume will pay the price for Selenia’s bloodlust.

“I saw her at The Flare,” Astra whispered. “Selenia.”

Ameera turned to her, a twisted violet flooding the walls of her lungs. “You didn’t?—”

Leona and Solan were Tethered , she sent to Ameera, and then to Lunelle, both responding with the same sharp gasp.

Lunelle’s lips tightened into a line as Ameera asked, “How did you?—”

“I went within,” Astra whispered. “You can spare me the lecture. The commander already gave me an earful.”

“You told Luxuros?” Lunelle sat back in her chair, crossing her arms.

“I had no choice,” Astra admitted. “I was trapped in the Rift within. I’m lucky he found me when he did. He pulled me back.”

“Astra!” Ameera groaned.

She held her hands up in surrender. “Again, I’ve had the lecture.

Selenia told Solan and Leona they could sever the Tether, but it ended up killing Leona.

Solan wasn’t trying to hurt her, he was devastated .

The Flare was a response to his grief—not an attack.

I know it was a dangerous endeavor, but this information changes everything, does it not? ”

“It certainly does,” Lunelle breathed. “These Tethers are troublesome.” She half-laughed, unsure how else to process this revelation.

“We need to understand why she did it. Whatever she was after, she had to trade her Shadow for the power to do it.”

“Was it purely political?” Ameera asked, sinking into the seat beside Lunelle. “The Solar and Lunar Courts have been enemies for millennia, but if Leona and Solan were Tethered… the gods wanted something from them. But what?”

Astra nodded. “That’s what we need to find out. And soon.”

* * *

Lux watched Astra pinch the stems of a handful of wildflowers from the edge of the meadow.

“Where are we, anyway?” she asked, soaking in the fragrant floral. Though dulled on the astral plane, the perfume was still sweet enough to catch.

“Not far from your father’s home village, actually,” the commander said, propping himself up on his elbow as he let the Earthen Sun warm his face.

“The Mercurian outpost is just a few minutes that way.” He pointed into the forest, dense with lush greens and peeling browns. “I used to come here for some peace.”

“It’s lovely,” Astra said, returning to the picnic blanket he’d summoned her to moments after her head hit her pillow. “I can see why my father misses it so terribly.”

“I spoke to him this afternoon,” Luxuros said, picking at a blade of grass. “On my way back to Mercury I caught him in the gardens. He said he can only keep our secret for so long, that the truth always has a way of revealing itself.”

“He is, unfortunately, always right.” Astra let her head fall back, enjoying the sensation of the Sun her mind conjured from the memory of the Mercurian streets.

He reached for her bouquet, wrapping a long blade of ryegrass around it and tying it off.

“We’ll sort us out after we sort out Lunelle and Mirquios and, well, the war, and, I suppose Selenia. ”

Luxuros frowned. “Quite the to-do list.”

Astra’s lips parted with a snarky comment, but something at the edge of the meadow caught her eye—a glimmer along the rippling seams of the dream.

“Did you see that?” she asked. Lux followed her line of sight but the shimmer vanished.

“What?”

“There was something strange.” She pushed herself up from the blanket and edged toward the ripple, waiting for it again.

Come on, Fire Queen, we’ve got somewhere to be , a voice whispered quietly. Her eyes snapped to the commander, who didn’t seem to hear the voice. He was still watching the spot in the woods, now on his feet behind her.

Astra hesitated—a push in her spine begged her to move forward.

If you won’t come to me, I’ll have to come to you , the voice said again.

“Who are you?” she asked aloud, drawing a confused stare from Luxuros.

If you don’t come play, you’ll never find out. She stepped forward and then rocked back on her heels, arguing with the strange impulse in her bones to keep moving.

She turned to the commander. “I have to go.”

Luxuros darted forward and reached for her hand, but she was already disappearing into the thicket, compelled by a force she did not understand.

An olive hand reached for hers through the trees, glinting against the Sun, wrapped in a pristine black cuff. She shuddered against the warmth of his touch, so different from the commander’s.

His fingers closed around her wrist and the training she’d spent months on with Lux kicked in. She dropped back on her hip as she felt the commander’s arms wrap around her waist, pulling her from the stranger’s touch.

“Ah, ah, ah, Fire Queen,” the voice said. “We’ll have none of that now.”

He reached out and touched Astra’s forehead, and she was gone.