The thread pulled them into the carved pale green stone gate, brilliant facets reflecting off each other. It spat them out onto a sandy platform, a crash landing Astra hadn’t, in fact, braced for.
Luxuros landed and rebalanced himself, but Astra pulled him sideways as her boots slipped out from under her. Her knees buckled under the sudden force.
“Steady,” Lux huffed, tightening his grip on her shoulders to stabilize her. Though it was more of a ghost with his amulet on, the Tether still bounced between them, their eyes both dropping to it at the same time.
“You can let go of me,” Astra sighed.
Luxuros released his hold but kept her hand in his, yanking her from the platform and into the beige halls of the Mercurian palace. He moved quickly, dipping into the servants’ passage.
“It’s early morning here, not many will be awake, but it’s easier if we aren’t stopped at every turn to introduce you. The Mercurians are excited to have a queen,” he sighed at the last few words, dropping her hand as he led them down the narrow corridor.
She followed close behind, her chest tightening as he rounded a corner ahead of her. He stopped without warning and she collided with his back. She pushed away from him and folded her arms over her chest.
“I asked Mirquios to station me somewhere else,” Luxuros said, still facing away from her, eyeing a fork in the halls. “He denied my request.”
Astra sighed. “And that should concern me because…”
“I just—I didn’t want you to think I was trying to make this harder for you.”
That riled Astra.
She couldn’t help the rage that seeped from her lips. “Oh! So now you want to be proactive about your communication. You know, if you had just told me from the very beginning what happened, we could have worked something out. I never would have cut that amulet if I knew what you were trying to prevent. If I had known, I could have spared us!”
Lux’s breath caught, his voice low and strained as he twisted to face her. “Would you have?”
She could have said yes, but it would have been a lie—and it was too late. He already saw it all over her face.
Instead, she glanced at the sparkling alabaster tile they stood over, their boots just a breath apart. Her hand reached for his chest, resting over the spot she’d watched his fingers push into for months, soothing an ache she was only just starting to understand.
“As,” he whispered, a golden heat simmering under her fingertips. His eyes closed for a moment, covering her hand with his. A deep crimson smoke billowed between them, drowning Astra’s senses. He leaned forward slightly before backing off, restraining himself.
His palm weighed against hers in the silence, a memory slipping over her into her mind.
Not her memory, she realized.
His.
The rich scent of the soil in the palace gardens filled her lungs as he stood on the other side of the hedges under the Summer Solstice Moon.
“Hello?”
She heard her hesitant voice call out, his feet poised to run, the tension in his muscles begging him to get as far away from her as possible.
Lux’s chest exploded as she ventured toward the hedge and he scrambled to shield her from what was now clearly a Tether taking shape, a nightmare in his heart.
She called again, “Is someone there?”
Her skirt dragged against the cobblestones. He’d already committed the way it moved to memory. As she’d swirled in a circle with his king, his best friend, he’d felt himself caving inward and panicked.
“I can feel you,” she whispered. He needed to run. He needed to breathe. He needed to find the Lunar elf queen and beg for her help.
But she was so close.
Just one last look wouldn’t kill him. Probably. He stepped toward the hedge, peering at her through a hole in the foliage. Her ruby curls tumbled over her back, licking at the pale green gown he’d already started resenting.
To see her at all was a certain kind of punishment, but in his own home court’s colors? Devastating.
“Fine,” she relented. “Stay hidden, but it’s my obligation to warn you that the Midwood will not take kindly to intruders. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Lunar elves decided they could use a meal. Especially one so warm,” she said, and he watched her sink into her hips.
