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Chapter Forty-Seven

“M other—” Astra’s chest ached alongside hers. She looked to her father as he leaned in closer to his queen, placing a soft kiss on her shoulder.

Oestera sighed.

“I need you to know that I understand why you kept it from me. Why Lunelle kept it from me. The Tether is often a double-edged sword. The profound love cuts like a blade when you’re obligated to something—someone else.

It’s hard enough when you’re just two people trying to navigate the world, but layer in the political implications, it’s messy at best.”

“Your Majesty,” Lux cut in, leaning around Astra.

She flinched. “Oestera, please. I hate being called Your Majesty.”

Lux glanced between the mother and daughter, a smile tugging at his lips. “Oestera, then. If you started the rebellion… why stop it? What happened?”

Oestera reached for their hands again, pulling them back into another memory.

“Oestera!”

Selenia’s voice tore through the bright Spring air, Oestera’s bare feet dug into the grass as she watched a silver-haired Lunelle pick wildflowers behind a stone manor. She rested a hand on her belly, and Astra recognized her dress immediately. She’d seen it in Solan’s study.

The Sun kissed her cheeks as they flushed. It had been years since her mother’s voice chilled her to the bone.

“How did she find us?” Nayson reached for Lunelle, holding her close against his chest.

“I don’t ? —”

“Oestera!”

She moved quickly, the panic in Selenia’s voice frightening her. She was at the front of the house, her icy glare wild, frantic.

“You have to come home, you have to change her mind!”

Oestera shook her head. “What? Mother, what are you talking about?”

“Your sister!” she cried. “Her little rebellion has found its way to the ears of the gods. The Court Above will destroy her, Oestera. How could you let her be so reckless?”

“How did they ? —”

“Does it matter?’ Selenia roared, a genuine fear in her. “She has to stop this.”

Nayson tucked Lunelle’s face against his chest, her eyes wide with terror.

“Go,” he said. “You should go.”

She kissed them both quickly and followed Selenia into the Rift.

When she landed in the Lunar Court, the air was charged with an acid she could taste, but not name.

A storm was going to break.

Selenia brought her to the Celestial Hall where Leona held court, her eyes sunken. The pain of being away from Solan never left her, never dulled. Her emerald eyes sparkled just a bit when they found her sister’s face.

“Out,” she commanded everyone in the room.

The room emptied around Oestera, her nerves tangling into orange ribbons.

“This has to stop, Leona.”

Whatever light had returned at the sight of her sister extinguished at the words of their mother.

“The Court Above has been informed of your rebellion. I’ve convinced them to look the other way and forgive you, but only if you sever the tie with Solan.”

Oestera gasped, “She cannot!”

Selenia pulled a dagger from her robes, a smoky blade that made Oestera’s insides curl.

“If Solan uses a shadow blade, it can be done. If you sever the tie, the gods will not exterminate everyone who assembled in this very court last week. But if you won’t…”

Her choice was clear.

“Leona.” Oestera’s fingers twisted around one another.

“Perhaps it would be better,” Leona said, her eyes darkening. “To be free from this.”

“You must go. Now,” Selenia barked.

“I’ll go with you,” Oestera offered, extending her hand. They walked together to the garden, a heavy maroon settling between them.

Leona paused on the platform, cradling her sister’s face in her hands. “If something goes wrong ? —”

“Leona,” Oestera glared.

“Just make sure he’s safe, Os.”

An understanding passed between them, Oestera’s eyes closed against the tears that formed.

And then they were consumed by pastel mist.

Ehlaria reached out and rested her hand on Oestera’s arm, her eyes glistening with tears. Oestera took a breath but it didn’t quite make it to her lungs.

“When we lost Leona, when I lost her—” Her voice shattered, unable to keep up with the flood of emotions.

“Take a second,” Luxuros nodded solemnly, understanding her frayed nerves in a way so few could.

Oestera’s lips shook, a sight that set Astra’s heart on fire.

“You lost so much, too,” Oestera whispered, her eyes fixed on the commander’s face.

She took a deeper breath and released it.

“When we lost Leona, Solan never recovered. He became consumed by the grief. A severed Tether can kill a normal man! After The Flare, he became convinced we’d plotted it with the gods, that we’d tricked him.

He’s been shut off from us since—no attempts at communication have worked.

And besides that, we were in such a precarious position.

Lunelle was a child, you were an infant.

I couldn’t risk the gods turning their eyes onto our court and digging deeper.

The other Nova chapters faded away, crushed under the weight of courtiers and monarchs unwilling to relinquish their power.

So we fell back. We waited. And then you. ”

Oestera reached her other hand to Astra’s cheek, the touch so foreign.

“You were born wide awake, Astra. We’d never seen anything like it. We were sure that you were Leona sent back to take her revenge.”

Maeve and Oestera glanced at each other, soft laughter passing between them.

“From the moment you could sit up and crawl, you could read us. You had Light . We thought maybe it was a side effect from The Flare, but now I realize, all along, you’d found one another.”

Oestera reached past Astra and tapped Lux’s forearm gently, her eyes holding a thousand different emotions—regrets, hopes, fears.

“As you grew, your power was alarming, and Selenia noticed it immediately. Her desperation to stomp out any hint of Light from you was clear. Even after her Ascent to the Court Above, she spent more and more time around us, watching. Watching you. She’d visit constantly, even when the gates were closed.

When she threatened to tell the gods about you, I broke. Selenia made us a deal.”

She pulled them through space and time and they landed in Lunaria, twenty-five years prior.

“I don’t trust you.” Oestera waved her arm toward her mother. “There is nothing you could say to convince me to put her life in your hands.”

They stood in the Celestial Hall, Ehlaria behind one shoulder, Nayson behind the other. Selenia stood before her daughter, lips twisted.

“If you want to protect her, you have to do this, Oestera. If they catch a whiff of Light within her, they’ll extinguish it. But if she never learns to wield it, they won’t have a reason to look.”

“Perhaps something more significant,” Ehlaria mumbled. “A blood oath.”

Selenia rolled her eyes. “I suppose my word is meaningless to you?”

“Less than,” Oestera replied.

“Fine. A blood oath. Neither of us will reveal Astra’s powers or the Nova Rebellion to anyone. God or man alike.”

Oestera’s lips twisted into a knot. But then, a little red-haired princess squealed across the hall, running from her sister, and the decision was made.

She’d do whatever it took to protect her.

Ehlaria, Maeve, and Nayson would, too.

Selenia produced that same sickly shadow blade and it was done, her gilded blood spilled into Oestera’s scarlet, dripping onto the palace floor.

Oestera rolled back her sleeve, a faint line running across her wrist, the scar already fading now that Selenia had no blood to bind her. It would be gone soon.

She shook her head. “I couldn’t let her get to you.

So we locked you down. I distanced myself so you’d never be able to see the truth, you were too powerful, so I had to shut you out—I hated every moment.

But I did what I had to, and I let your dad become your safe place.

Ehlaria became your confidant. I knew someday we’d be here, we’d be able to tell one another the truth, but until then I had to sacrifice myself for your safety.

The blood between mother and daughter is powerful.

I knew that one question would be all it took to break me, and the blood oath would have cut me down.

“Every minute of your life has been crafted to enrage you, to keep the fire within you alive until the time was right. I have been training you from day one to hate everything about the gods by becoming just like them. I was selfish and closed off, hoping you’d grow to crave more for our people.

“I sent you to Celene because I knew if you saw what was possible… if you saw the beauty in community, in working together, it would be the final nail in the coffin. I knew you’d never be able to look away, and with the power we’d seen from you without even trying, it would come together.

“We missed you desperately, Astra. I spent every night terrified I’d wake up to find that a god had taken you, or that Solan had finally mounted a return. But I had to let you go. I knew it would work in my bones.

“A few years ago, the High Priestess in Ellume heard rumors of Rebels building again.

I had to act like the queen I never wanted to be and stamp out their efforts.

Lumas and his crew were warned beforehand.

I heard a rumor that there were similar rebellions building in the Inner Courts, like Mercury.

“I knew if I could just get Mirquios here… Antares followed a similar plan, raising his son to rebel against him the moment he was gone. The young king couldn’t tell you about the rebels outright, but I hoped he would involve you eventually.

This new generation, they’re better about security than we were.

Luxuros can confirm, I’m sure, that the price of entry is a similar blood oath.

Not only can you never reveal another Rebel to someone outside of the bond, but you can’t even reveal them within the bond. They have to reveal themselves.”

“You tried to tell me,” Astra turned to Lux. “So many times. You tried to tell me that I was wrong about my mother.”

“No easy feat.” He smirked. “I wasn’t certain. We had our suspicions, but the original Nova Rebels members were mere rumors. No proof, and I couldn’t outright accuse your mother because of the oath.”

“So... my entire life has been a lie,” Astra murmured, her mother’s eyes watching her carefully.

“A good deal of it, yes. And I imagine that will be difficult for all of us to navigate, but especially you. I love you. I always have. You are the great hope of our family, and if there had been another way…”

Astra shoved the bubbling violet overwhelm in her gut back down in a desperate attempt to process. She twisted in her seat to Lunelle.

“How much did you know?”

“Very little.”

Oestera chimed in, “We only told her what we could, when we could. I cherished my sister so much, we hoped to keep things between you girls as pure as possible.”

Astra’s nose scrunched. “Why don’t you have the same abilities? Or Lunelle?”

“We Tethered to mere men.” Oestera’s lips pressed into a smile. “The alchemy has to be between a Light and a Shadow God. Otherwise, we all have our little tricks, but nothing quite at the scale of you two.”

“Mother,” Lunelle whispered, leaning over the table. “How long did you know about Mirquios?”

“Please,” Oestera laughed. “I was with you in Pluto for months. It was hard to watch. Though, from what your father tells me, not nearly as hard to watch as you two. How did you manage it, Luxuros?”

“Not well,” he replied. “Ehlaria helped.”

Oestera snapped her attention toward her friend, Astra realized, not just a tolerant ally. She suppressed a giggle.

“I gave him an enchanted moonstone to suppress his light and ground his feelings. I had nothing to do with the Tether in all actuality. They weren’t quite ready for it when he came to me, and I knew that.

Tethers aren’t always instant. The Fire Queen needed to come into herself a little more.

And you needed to loosen up, Commander.”

Astra shook her head. “Why did it happen when I broke it, then?”

Ehlaria shrugged. “He fell in love with you the second you saw what he considered to be the worst part of himself, what you should have hated about him, and accepted it with no hesitation?—”

“There was a healthy amount of hesitation,” Lux quipped.

“And you fell in love with him the moment he challenged you. Forced you to slow down, stop, and think about what you were doing. You’ve been Tethered in some ways your entire lives, but until you gave up your stubborn denial, it wasn’t able to break through.

When you broke the amulet, I think seeing the commander’s inner world was the final wall that needed to come down between you two.

The amulet certainly numbs the pain and probably saved it tonight when Selenia attacked you, but you cannot fight Fate, Astra. ”

Lux leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to the back of Astra’s hand.

“Perhaps you can fill us in on the rest of the story, then,” Ehlaria gestured toward them. “You figured out the Shadow Bargaining? And took on the Court Below... we need to know what happened down there.”

Astra took a long sip of tea, her head spinning as she tried to reframe thirty years of personal grudges in this new light. She took a deep breath.

“My turn for some confessions, then.”