Astra, Lunelle’s voice rang like a bell. Ameera shifted at the edge of the door, she felt her amber glow flare into a fully stoked fire as she paced. Lux did not move, frozen to his place, a thousand thoughts racing over his skin, drowning him.
“You seem confused,” Selenia cooed, stepping closer to Luxuros as Astra pulled her hand from Mirquios’s grip.
Lux did not reply.
“No matter,” she sighed. “It’s settled. You will join your king and the Plutonian prince to compete for Lunelle’s hand. Good luck, Commander.” Selenia gave the onlooking courtiers a sinister smile. “Now, we were celebrating, were we not?”
She clapped her hands twice, and that’s all it took.
The music flooded over the tension in the room, covering the soft gasp Astra finally managed to force out. Selenia disappeared into a glittering mist, a chill rippling over the room.
The Solar Heir.
Here in her court—in her own hands, and she’d never even considered it.
Astra’s head swirled, a dozen different outcomes flashing before her, each more disastrous than the next. Lux moved for her, the shock on his face too painful to be manufactured, mirroring her own. A dozen threads snapped at once, Lunelle and Nayson both weaving through uneasy courtiers to get to Astra.
The careful grip Astra had learned to hold around her heart shattered, all of the confusion and angst in the room crashing over her in a vicious myriad of colors.
It sucked the air from her lungs.
“Not here, Sol’ah.” Lux gripped her arm tightly as he hauled her into the crisp night air, the Winter wind a fraction of the relief she needed. She gasped for more of it, trying to push out every ounce of crushing surf with icy air, the sting of it giving her something else to concentrate on.
She felt Ameera, Lunelle, Mirquois—each of them trailing behind the commander, but something stopped them from approaching.
She looked at Lux, his chest filled with just as much misery as hers.
“I didn’t know,” he insisted, his hands wrapping around her, clutching to her shoulders. She wasn’t sure which of them was holding the other up. “I never dreamed?—”
“I know,” she breathed. “I believe you.” She reached for his jaw but stopped herself, cognizant that everyone was watching.
“Nayson,” Lux called out as he released his grip on Astra, fading back into the hedgerow. Her father’s boots stomped against the cobblestones as he rushed to them.
He grabbed his daughter, wrapping her in the kind of embrace a child received when they fell and scraped a knee. When she didn’t respond, Nayson looked to Lux.
“Luxuros? Are you well?”
“I–I don’t know,” Lux murmured, stepping closer to Astra, the release on the Tether one less pull on her grated nerves.
“Astra Leona!” Oestera’s voice was tight as she rushed into the gardens. Astra’s head snapped toward her, a scarlet flare of anger in her chest settling between them. Their eyes met, her cold irises searching her daughter’s flickering gaze.
“We didn’t know?—”
Oestera stepped forward, tilting her head to the side.
“What have you done?” she asked.
Astra pushed away from her father’s grasp, her heart lurching forward.
“What?”
Oestera was frenzied as she spat her questions. “Why did you go to her? What did you offer her?”
“I didn’t?—”
“Do not lie to me!” Oestera shook as she yelled, her nostrils flaring. “I can feel it! What did you do?”
Astra slammed her foot against the pavers between them, all but baring her teeth as she snarled. “I did what you wouldn’t!” Her lips curled as hot tears fought to escape. “I protected my sister!”
