It happened before he could stop himself, the craven desire for her to hear his voice.
“Oh, please,” he rumbled back. The leaves rustled as he got too close, sending him backward. “Everyone knows the price of a Lunar elf is but a handful of gold coins.”
He could practically hear her eyes roll. Her confidence was misplaced but alluring all the same. “For the average citizen, perhaps. But you…”
Gods, she was as stubborn as she was gorgeous. “What of me, Princess?”
She hesitated for a moment, a pause he wished to reside in forever. “Take your chances then. Between the elves and my army, you’ll find yourself in quite a predicament. Or, you could surrender yourself now. I’d be happy to deliver you into the queen’s hands myself.”
“As much fun as that sounds, I have somewhere to be.”
“Who are you?” she demanded.
“No one you need to worry about,” he lied. He was exactly the thing she should be worried about—terrified of.
“Surely, that’s not true. Who are you here with?”
He laughed darkly, amused at her insistence. “I have somewhere I have to be.” His eyes caught the edge of the row of bushes. If she got too bold, too curious, she’d only need to poke her head through.
He’d already taken enough from her.
Lux darted away, the hedge rustling behind him as she hollered after him, “Suit yourself!”
“How did you do it?” She asked, daring to look him in the eyes. “How did you tolerate it?”
Luxuros shrugged, the movement pulling her hand up with his shoulders. “I do not fully know.”
He dropped his hand from hers and ran it over his face, wiping away the shame he felt prickling at his skin.
“I’ve run into magic similar to yours before. I know how to protect myself, but it took everything in me to keep the Tether at bay. I slept for two days at Ehlaria’s after I begged her to help me, to give me anything to stop this from ruining both of our lives. She enchanted the moonstone in exchange for the looking glass, but even her magic wasn’t strong enough to stop the pain. Every moment in your presence has been an unbearable struggle, Astra. I have not drawn a full breath once since meeting you for fear that I might fuck this up.”
She stared at her hand against his chest, his heart beating beneath her touch.
“Oh,” was all she said. She had held him in such a firm category for so long, it was difficult to imagine him any other way.
But then again, it wasn’t.
“I’m a very pleasant person, actually,” Luxuros added, chuckling against her palm. “But between the physical strain and the emotional pain of being near you and your stubborn attitude, I can admit I haven’t been my easygoing self.”
“I did think it strange how much my father liked you,” Astra wondered aloud. It pained her, the realization that there was an entire other version of the commander she might never meet. “And then I tortured you in your sleep,” she groaned, pulling her hand away, a rush of misery washing over her.
“Yes,” he said, a slight smirk pulling at his lips. “I could have stopped you earlier.”
“You should have!”
“I am trying to do the right thing. But I am only a man at the end of the day.”
“A man who is so certain that this would never work?” She gestured between them, her nerves tangled in knots.
“If Solan found out, what do you think he would do? Or, shit, the Court Above. They have laws against this very thing. You know that, don’t you?”
She did know. She’d memorized them as a child. At seven and eight, the thought of a union with the enemy was repulsive. It never occurred to her to question the laws against Solar and Lunar courtiers marrying.
“It will settle. The discomfort. It gets easier, though I can’t lie to you. It never goes away.”
“Fantastic,” she huffed. “I can’t kindle a damn spark with the king, but his commander sets my entire soul on fire and wants nothing to do with me.”
Lux swallowed.
