His eyes softened, the anger fading into something even more horrible. Acceptance.
“I will stay until I can’t take it anymore. I’ll find another way to dampen it. I’ll make another trade with the elves. I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe until the only threat that remains in your world is me. And then I will go. I’ll find another court to continue the fight in, but I will not be the reason all the work we’ve done fails.”
His words hit like bricks.
They could give in and become yet another duet of star-crossed enemies in centuries of failed attempts—fodder for tragic poetry and paintings—or they could suffer apart and have an actual shot at change for their people.
It didn’t matter which option she’d choose. Lux had decided, and there was nothing she could do to convince him otherwise.
And as much as she wanted to deny it, he’d made the right one.
Chapter
Thirty-One
Lux was at least gracious enough to stay quiet on the walk back.
He left Astra in the safety of the palace gardens, one last devastating look before disappearing into the halls.
Except he didn’t disappear.
She felt every one of his movements from the warm waters of her bathtub. Every line he paced back and forth, every circle he wore into the floor of the Andromeda wing, the cord in her chest pulling and releasing.
The amulet might have dulled the physical sensation, but her heart knew all the same. It was agony.
She leaned her head against the curved edge of the pool, the water now uncomfortably cold. She’d been hiding in here too long. She knew it, but she could hardly get her head around what happened, let alone what to do about it.
Not that there was anything to do about it.
He’d made himself clear.
And he was right. Centuries of bloodshed couldn’t be wrong. She attempted a deep breath, but the Tether tightened and suffocated her.
“As?” Ameera was in her bedroom, looking for her. If she sank under the water now, she’d hear the bubbles, surely. “They’re back from Pluto!”
As if this day couldn’t get any worse.
“I’m in here!”
“Your mother and the king are in the Celestial Hall.”
She nodded, making no movement.
“You’re being requested,” she said hesitantly, appearing at the edge of the pool. “For obvious reasons.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Whoa,” she breathed, her eyes landing on Astra’s fallen face. A river of orange alarm slithered up her arms. She eyed her, clearly distressed by what she saw. “What happened?”
“Elf wine.”
She faded into the dressing room across the way, a faint blossom of anxious orange crawling her shoulders.
“Shake it off, Fire Queen. It’s showtime.”
It took a good ten minutes to find the strength to leave her dressing room, shoulders rolled back as if her entire world hadn’t just changed. As if she couldn’t feel the very center of that world walking quickly along the Andromeda halls, probably beside Mirquios.
Naturally, her mother was irritated with her the moment she entered the Celestial Hall.
