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Chapter Forty-Two

“D id you get some sleep last night, darling?”

Astra glanced at her father from their dutiful perches beside Oestera on her throne in the gardens, the Winter winds kicking up as courtiers lined the Lunar Gate. They mingled and sipped on moonshine, dressed in their best, ready to celebrate the triumph of Lunelle and her champion.

Whichever one of them made it back first.

Oestera hadn’t looked at Astra once since she arrived. She quite preferred it that way.

Lunelle stood beside her sister, wrapped in silver and black leather, less a queen and more a warrior. The Lunelle she’d seen in Mercury. Astra tried not to shift too much—she had similar vestments beneath her golden gown, but no one needed to know that.

“I slept enough,” Astra replied, the lie leaving her lips with ease.

She watched as Lux stood against the misty waves of the Rift, his long hair pulled back into a knot at the top of his head, stoic as ever.

His eyes scanned the courtiers, landing on her long enough to send a soft shimmer over the Tether.

It took everything in her not to give in to the nerves ravaging her bones, begging her to run—to yank him from the platform and disappear on Riverion’s back.

But they had a plan.

It would work.

It had to.

“Welcome everyone!” Oestera rose, stepping forward as heads whipped in her direction.

“Thank you so much for joining us on this most sacred night, celebrating centuries of tradition. For our visiting friends, a Lunar heir’s trial is not just a feat of strength or endurance, but a symbolic gesture between her and her future partner, demonstrating they are equally matched and equally capable when faced with adversity.

“This morning, in the temple, our champions were separated from their Shadows, the piece of them that holds their darkest qualities, the hardest parts of themselves to look at. The most powerful parts of themselves. They offered their Shadows to the Nether Queen herself in a ceremony few ever undertake—she has them in safekeeping. To complete this rite, they’ll have to descend into the Court Below and reunite with their Shadows, through whatever means necessary.

They’ll rely on their Intuition, their empathy, and their magic to complete their task.

The first heir and champion to return will be crowned Queen and King of the Lunar Court. ”

Oestera looked to her left where Lunelle stared stone-faced, her heart racing. Blood-red fear pounded against her chest, but her face displayed none of it. She’d trained for this day for years.

Mirquios and Arcas flanked Lux on the platform near the Rift, tension rolling off them.

“Whenever you’re ready, dear.”

Lunelle drew in a deep breath and Astra knew this was her only chance. Everyone would be distracted as they watched Lunelle cross the garden.

She sent her sister a quick message. See ya in there, Ice Queen .

Lunelle’s smile curved slightly as she took her first step across the crowded garden.

Don’t forget to stick your landing, Fire Queen.

Astra slipped away, only Nayson’s quick glance clocking her as she darted behind the hedgerow, skirting the withering moonblossoms as she pumped her legs. As she ran, the tension on the Tether pulled with every thump of her feet against the forest floor.

She did not give herself the chance to break or hesitate at the rippling edge as she leaped through the Rift’s smokey barrier.

She landed in the cosmic river with a soft twist, her eyes searching for the obsidian thread that would pull her down to the Court Below. She caught sight of it between brilliant blues and violets, wrapping her fingers over the shadowy cord as the rest of the courts whirled by.

By dawn, the thread would be gone again until Spring.

She sailed past the Outer Courts Gate and watched as the Rift darkened into a deep, purple haze consuming the edges. A hundred paces ahead, a black stone gate loomed, absorbing any remaining light from threads that seemed to originate from the gate’s gaping mouth.

Or perhaps it was where they ended.

Her feet twitched as she braced herself, a decision she regretted as soon as she hit the slippery sand. She’d expected something more solid. A pair of steady hands reached for her shoulders, righting her as she oriented herself in the murky haze of the Court Below.

Lux hovered behind her, his chest locked down, a reminder that they had no idea what they might encounter here.

She worked to build the same iron wall around her own chest.

“I thought I told you to stick your landing,” Lunelle said, glancing around at the desolate stretch of muted gray dunes.

“She never roots into her knees?—”

Astra’s glare silenced the commander. “Lunelle said it!”

She brushed him off. “Where’s the prince?”

“Which one?” Mirquios snorted, eyeing his best friend.

“That one,” Lunelle pointed to a blue streak blazing a path into the dune below. “He took off as soon as he landed. Before we go…” She reached for Astra’s forearm, pulling her close and searching her eyes. “Just in case…”

“Do not ‘just in case’ me!” She pulled her arm away from Lunelle, frowning. “I need you on your queen shit, Lu, not your just-in-case shit.”

“Astra,” she said sternly, her jaw set as the sands beneath them whipped around their calves. “If anything happens to me, keep going. I mean it, don’t come back for me.”

“Lunelle!” she groaned.

“Promise me,” she said, the desperation in her chest so intense she could hardly breathe.

“No!” A vision of Lunelle’s coronation robes resting on Astra’s shoulders lit up her mind, sending a wave of agony over her muscles.

“Promise,” she insisted, her eyes locked on Astra’s. “The rebellion will keep spinning without me, but without you...”

At once, Astra understood. She was being a queen.

Astra nodded, the fear in her sister’s voice enough to stop her arguing. She shoved the flash of the coronation robes to the back of her mind.

“I promise.”

Lunelle slipped back into Mirquios’s waiting arms, one last embrace before they plunged into whatever faced them at the foot of the dunes.

“I’ll see you on the other side,” he said to Luxuros, clapping him on the shoulder. Mirq gave Astra one more look, one last moment of silence before they turned and stared down the steep slope of the gray dune before them, stretching into oblivion.

He laughed, “You ready to burn it down, Fire Queen?”

Astra lifted an eyebrow and smirked.

“How long have you been waiting to say that?”

The king shook his head and in two long strides, he was over the edge of the dune, his powerful legs carrying him down into the mire. A blur of leather and might, Lunelle’s silver hair was a streak of starlight behind him.

“Well, shit, I guess we’re off then,” Astra muttered to Lux.

“You have the locket?” he asked.

She touched her neck, chains intertwining together. “Yep.”

“Blade?”

“Three,” she smirked. She pointed to the tight spiral of curls at the nape of her neck, held with a golden crescent Moon.

Lux’s eyes swelled with an odd mix of fear and pride as he watched her adjust the pin.

“Just say it, Commander.”

“Say what?”

“That under all that fear and loathing, there’s a small part of you that actually believes we can do this.” A slow grin cracked across his worried face, that silver-speckled rosy hue spreading through his veins.

He held up his fingers, a minuscule slip of space between them.

“A very small part of me.”

“I’ll take it.” She crashed into him, stealing one final kiss before they went their separate ways. “Go get that Shadow, Commander. You’re not as handsome without it.”

“Don’t fuck it up, Fire Queen,” he whispered, his lips twisting into a smile against her. If she stayed a moment longer, she’d never find the courage to leave him.

She pushed her legs forward, stumbling over the crest of the dune and urging her ankles to steady as she skidded down the soft silt to the bottom. She refused to look back over her shoulder, trusting the tension in her gut to be enough of an assurance that he was still safe.

As her feet hit the desolate plane at the base of the dune, she spun to get her bearings.

If the map Ameera sketched last night was accurate, the River of Souls was directly to the West of the tangled forest they’d need to pull their Shadows from.

She jogged across the cracked ground, her lungs filling with plumes of dust.

Pace herself. That’s what Lux had drilled into her head all night. If she exhausted herself just getting to Leona, she’d never make it out of any altercation that may pop up.

She carved a path through a colorless valley, gray stone rising over her head in two fearful towers, blocking what little light broke through the clouded sky.

Everything was silent save for a whistling breeze cutting through the canyon walls, bouncing from side to side, and peeling the strands of hair escaping from her bun off her neck.

It took her an eternity to break through the canyon. The cracks of the dirt ground gave way to a pebble beach, each charcoal shard crunching beneath her leather boots as she skirted behind a line of bleached flora along the shore.

The whisper of hushed waters slipping along the bank tickled her ears long before it came into view. Under the rushing of the water ran a low hum, like walking into a ballroom before the music started, the gossip rising above the heads of the guests.

Voices, she realized.

Souls.

She climbed the last hill of pebbles and sand and dropped over the top, carefully tiptoeing her way to the riverbank. The water swirled, black as ink, as it rushed through the Court Below. It was wider than she could see across, rippling and winding through the lifeless hills like a serpent.

The moment her feet hit the shore, she felt them.

All of them.

Thousands. Millions, more likely, slipping by every second on an endless journey out to some sea somewhere, folded between foamy rivulets. Some heavy, some angry, some bitter.

Some all three.

Others were excited about the possibilities of wherever they were going. Her eyes stung with the welling of emotions. She closed them, trying to focus.

She found the space inside of her, that peaceful hot spring brimming with color and life ready to pour into. She channeled the water, letting it flow through her fingertips and pushing the misery and fear and awe into it, giving a void to fill.

She could breathe.

She could concentrate.

She moved forward, edging closer and closer to the muddy waterline, the leather of her boots sliding along the pebbles as they dissolved into sand.

How exactly did one pluck an individual soul from a river of millions?

She reached out her hand, fingers trembling as her skin broke the water’s surface.

Much colder than she was ready for, it sent a shock through her arm and down her spine.

The souls slipped around her skin, sparkling against her, gripping her hand, begging her to pull them out.

They clamored like fish to a lure, shimmery shadows hoping to hitch a ride back to the Living Courts.

She drew her hand back as if she’d been bitten.

The necklace. She shook her head, clearing it of the quiet hissing pleas running under the current.

Save me, pick me, release me.

She reached around her neck and searched for the cold chain, pulling it from the depths of her vest. Even the glint of the moonstones were dull in the Court Below as if no light reflected in their facets at all.

For the first time, she felt a true chill of fear run down her arms, the danger of what she was trying to accomplish unsettling her stomach.

“Leona Aurellis,” she called out, holding the necklace above the waters. “Come claim what was taken from you!”

She didn’t know what she expected to happen, but the silence that followed wasn’t it.

“Please?” she asked, feeling as stupid as she sounded.

But then, midway across the babbling waters, she saw it. She saw her.

Rising from the depths, her wild hair fell into shadowy ribbons as she materialized on the beach. Leona’s faded face stared through Astra as she glided along the shoreline.

“Who calls me?”

The voice was not alone. It echoed against all the other tenors beneath her, stringing them into one dissonant chord.

“You don’t recognize your own namesake?”

Something about Leona’s barely-there countenance sank, twisted in on itself.

“Astra,” she murmured, her voice softer, calmer.

“Sorry to bother you,” she managed, dangling the necklace in front of her. Her fingertips wrapped weakly around the gold, trembling.

The shadow slinked closer to Astra, her feet never leaving the surface of the water. “I see you’ve been conspiring with my mother.”

“Would you like it back?”

“No,” she said, bowing her head. “Keep it. Whatever she traded you for must be worth the trip here.”

“I don’t want it.”

“You will, darling. Oestera... is she...” She let the question linger, her voice so similar to her mother’s, but curved where Oestera’s angled.

“She doesn’t know I’ve come.”

“Of course, she doesn’t. She’d kill you first just for thinking of putting yourself in such danger.”

“Might have been a more efficient way to speak with you.” She stretched her legs, aching from slipping against the crumbling dunes.

“You’re so much like her,” Leona hummed, the admiration rolling off her form.

“That’s what I keep hearing,” she chuckled.

“You may have inherited my name and fiery mane, but the way your eyes take me in, the way your lips fall into a tight line, it’s like I’m looking at her again.” Something in Leona’s velvety chorus of voices caught, and she stopped.

It all rushed out, everything that lingered within her spirit.

She may not have blood and muscle and bone to store it, but the pain was still there.

Perhaps it never dies, then—the love we carry when we’re living.

How unfathomably horrifying, to be haunted by life even when you’re haunting in death.

“It’s not so bad,” Leona mused.

“You can?—”

“You, yes.” Her shadowy head nodded. “Not everyone. You wear it all right there on your precious face, don’t you?”

“It’s frequently cited as an issue of mine, yes.”

“It’s a reminder of the love I had for her,” she continued, ignoring Astra’s self-deprecation. “That before I was here, bound to an eternity of slipping away, I was her sister. Her soulmate. The pain, it’s only a whisper now.”

Astra swallowed, Lunelle’s silver eyes searing in her mind. “I see.”

“Why are you here, Astra?”

She shook off the dread pooling in her fingertips and drew in a short breath, the truth leaping into her throat that she’d been trying to talk herself out of since it occurred to her last night.

“I’m here to capture Selenia’s Shadow.”