Page 33 of Ties of Starlight (Tethered Hearts #2)
I donea didn’t wear necklaces.
She didn’t like the weight of them. Even thin ones with tiny pendants.
It had been two years since she’d worn one. Instead, for birthdays or anniversaries, or even just because they had a ball coming up, Nyrunn always gave her earrings. She didn’t mind showing off her ears anymore.
She sat at her desk in their quarters, fingers idly playing with the edge of her long, dangling earring as she stared out the window that overlooked Novum.
The pages in front of her were completely blank as they had been for the last week since she’d determined to commit to such a project.
This whole project had been Nyrunn’s idea in the first place. Their first year of marriage—once they’d returned to Novum as king and queen, no longer the Cometa Couple—had been a whirlwind as Idonea had been immersed in lessons to equip her for her new role. She’d hardly breathed except for in Nyrunn’s arms at the end of the day when he would tell her how impressed he was with her and how proud he was.
The emotional bond was long gone after they’d finished the ritual, but Idonea felt more connected to him than ever before.
Once her tutors had deemed her ready, they eased back on the lessons and began introducing some simple duties for her as queen consort.
It was something completely new. Idonea had never done anything quite like it before, and she couldn’t get enough of it.
The last two years had been unlike anything she’d experienced in all her lifetimes.
And now she was staring at a bunch of blank pages, one hand playing with her earrings and the other resting on the tiny swell of her stomach, a stack of journals and history books, including Bror’s account, on the ground beside her desk.
All because four months ago, approximately a week after she’d told Nyrunn she was pregnant, he’d had the idea she should make an official account of her own. Tell the full story of her lives that had never been told before. At the very least organize it all so one day they could give it to their children so they knew her story, and their story.
Finally, after months of it being the only thing he would talk about at dinner and when she was trying to fall asleep, she’d given in to his reasoning. If it mattered that much to him, she’d do it.
Idonea dropped her earring and leaned back in her seat. She looked down at her little bump. “You’re responsible for this.”
But her baby didn’t answer her. It was still too early for her to feel any movement yet, although Nyrunn still kept hoping each time he pressed his palm to her stomach he’d feel something.
She looked over at the sun setting. She had a ball to get ready for.
Frode and Asa’s engagement ball. It had taken another year for the two of them to come to their senses, and they’d courted for almost as long before Frode finally proposed.
So Idonea abandoned the pages once more and moved for her wardrobe. She was torn between two different dresses when the door opened and Nyrunn stepped inside their room. She looked over her shoulder, letting go of the dresses as he shut the door.
She reached him, pulling him down for a slow, soft kiss before releasing him with a grin as he placed a hand over her stomach.
“Good evening, love. I’ve missed you,” Nyrunn said, pressing another kiss to her temple.
She laughed. “You saw me a few hours ago when we woke up.”
“And I’ve missed you during those incredibly long and grueling hours.” Nyrunn pulled back. “Are you saying you didn’t miss me?”
“Maybe I would have if that wasn’t your fault,” Idonea said, gesturing to the empty pages on her desk.
“Still no progress?”
“Not a word.”
“You have time, love. Take as long as you need.”
Idonea huffed. “I can’t take too long. I’m not coming back next time.”
Nyrunn laughed. “You might be old in your mind, but you’re still young in physical years. You’ve got a whole lifetime ahead of you.”
“Let’s just be grateful Asa and Frode got their act together instead of wasting each other’s time and ours dancing around the subject anymore. Although, considering Asa has already been talking my ear off about how excited she is for our future children to grow up together and maybe even fall in love, I’m not sure I’m all that grateful,” Idonea said as she turned back to her two options. One would hide her bump and the other certainly wouldn’t. They’d yet to make an official announcement, but the rumors had been flying since the day they’d first returned to Novum. According to the gossip, Idonea was always pregnant. While it was easier for elves who had human blood to get pregnant than full-blooded elves, it wasn’t that easy.
Idonea was loathe to prove the current rumors right, but they were hardly right when they were always blind guessing. According to them, she was pregnant no matter what she wore or did.
She wouldn’t be able to hide it forever.
Nyrunn brushed his fingers over the dress that would hide the bump and said, “As much as I would love to upstage Frode at his own engagement party to pay him back for proposing during our anniversary, I wouldn’t do that to Lady Asa. We’ll announce it soon, just not tonight.”
Idonea nodded, moving to return the other dress to the wardrobe. Nyrunn’s hands brushed over her shoulders as he asked, “Now, we have a little bit of time, love. What do you think is stopping you from writing?”
She leaned back into him and he wrapped his arms around her, both of them watching their reflection as he rested his head on top of hers. “I’m not sure. It just… It feels almost wrong? I’ve been so busy and so happy ever since the comet, this life has been so new and different and it’s terrifying some days but better than anything I could have im agined. I feel… new. Like I don’t have any right to write about the past and all those women I was anymore.”
“But you wouldn’t be the woman you are today if you hadn’t been all those women before,” Nyrunn said, running his hand up and down the bump. “How could it be wrong for you to finally do yourself justice? To set the record straight about it all? If not for the world, but for our legacy.”
Logically, Idonea agreed, but there was still something she couldn’t quite get past.
Nyrunn hummed, face screwing up.
“What?”
“I suppose you’ll be more upset if I don’t tell you. Speaking of justice, I did receive a report just an hour ago…” Nyrunn sighed, pulling his arms back as Idonea turned to face him. “About Olaug.”
Idonea hadn’t thought about him in months, not in the present sense of him anyway. Not since she’d realized she was pregnant.
Really the only time she thought of him was when she was trying to find a way to write about her past, simply because he was such a central piece of it. For so long, without him, there’d been no her.
She couldn’t be more grateful that was no longer true.
“What about him? What has he done?”
Nyrunn raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think he did something?”
Idonea laughed. “Because it’s Olaug. Anytime he’s in trouble, it’s his own fault.”
Her answer appeased Nyrunn, whose jealousy had been soothed greatly by her breaking the cycle and choosing him, but she couldn’t blame him for having a few lingering embers.
“Well, you’d be right. He was arrested, caught just across the border in a rather compromising position with the daughter of one of the Moon Elf nobles.”
Idonea shook her head. “You’d think he would have learned his lesson by now about Moon Elf maidens. Although I suppose that’s rather hypocritical of me.”
“Well, if I don’t step in, they’re going to march him down the aisle with her, and if he’s faithless, which we both know he will be, he’ll be lucky if they only take his life.” Nyrunn sighed. “What do you want me to do? Do you… Do you want me to have him brought back?”
Idonea didn’t even have to spend a second thinking about her answer.
“The last thing I want is to ever see him again.” She waved her hand. “He’s made his bed. If he can’t be faithful to it this time, then that’s his choice. The Moon Elves can have him. It’s his last life and if he wants to waste it making the same mistakes, that’s his choice, but I’m not wasting mine.”
Then Nyrunn was kissing her and she was nearly crashing into the dresser from the force.
They had plenty of time before the ball.
After the ball, Idonea lay beside Nyrunn, his arm slung around her waist and she ran her fingers through his shimmering dark hair, no longer sick with jealousy herself. She just hoped their baby had his hair now as he slept beside her.
He was sound asleep, but it still eluded her. She slipped out of his arms and padded around the room until she sat down at her desk, a little starlight hovering beside her, and picked up her quill.
This is the true and accurate historical record of Queen Idonea, wife to King Nyrunn, Adastra’s rulers and Agnarr and Gytha’s chosens in their lifetime. In this you will find the story of her lives.
All seven of them.