“You have no idea the kind of evil you just put yourself in leagues with.” Oestera rubbed her forehead, a red flush washing over her, no attempts at hiding it. “You just couldn’t be patient with me! You couldn’t trust me! And you.” She cast her blazing eyes toward Luxuros. “Was this your plan all along? Infiltrate my court and destroy it from the inside out?”
Astra’s eyes locked onto her mother’s, a merciless cloud of burgundy rage spiraling against her ribs. Oestera squinted from Lux to Astra, the anger shifting to something much less manageable.
Fear.
Astra winced. “Why would I trust you? On what merit, Mother? You’ve never once trusted me! Did you think I would just blindly hope that you’ll do something when you’ve sat here and let the court rot for decades?” She was yelling, she knew she was out of line, but she couldn’t bring her voice back down where it belonged. Her eyes flared, a dangerous warning behind them.
“You’ve just wrecked a plan thirty years in the making,” Oestera all but whispered, tucking any trace of passion safely inside of her.
“What?” Astra looked to her father, who sighed as he hung his head. She asked him, “What does she mean?” He only glanced between the women.
“It doesn’t matter,” Oestera snapped. “None of it matters now. Whatever you did, it’s too late. You made your decision and now we will all burn for it!”
She swept out of the gardens, leaving behind a shocking silence as Nayson followed her.
Astra couldn’t breathe, glaring red filling her lungs like blood. She wanted to run, but her feet remained rooted to the moonstone pavers.
“As,” Lux rumbled, pulling at her elbow. Smoke built within her, her mind on fire with the possibilities of what Oestera meant.
“Brother,” Mirquios said, stepping into the courtyard from the edge of the hall. He placed a hand on Lux’s shoulder, exchanging a glance that asked a million questions. Lunelle slipped from the shadows and looped her fingers through her sister’s. They stared at each other in silence for a moment.
“Well,” Lunelle said, clearing her throat. “This is certainly more complicated.” Her eyes fell on Lux’s hand wrapped around Astra’s arm. “Much more complicated.”
“We need a new plan,” Astra said, her skin flushed pink as she swallowed the bile rising in her throat. “A good one.”
“I’ll get coffee,” Ameera whispered from behind them, darting into the halls.
“The Solar Heir,” Lunelle whispered to herself, watching Lux’s face carefully. “I suppose you’ve always had a flair for the dramatic, sister.”
Astra managed a shallow snort, her pulse still racing through her body, but that was nothing compared to the torrent within Lux’s chest.
“We’ll meet you in the Andromeda wing in a moment,” Astra said to Lunelle. She listened to their footsteps fade as she tried to sort through the tangled emotions within them and the real, logical sentiments that drove them.
“I told you I would destroy you,” Lux whispered, afraid to look her in the eye.
“And I told you,” she reached for him, letting her palms rest against both sides of his face. “That I don’t care whose blood runs through your veins. I care what runs through your heart. And whatever happens, whatever Selenia or any god throws at us, I am yours Luxuros Soleras.” She leaned forward, pressing her lips to his briefly, all too aware that anyone could be watching.
“Now let’s go figure out how to keep you from having to marry my sister.”
She hadn’t been asleep long when she sank into herself, falling fast through a disorienting ribbon of shapes and colors, her feet landing with a thud against the forest floor.
“Don’t panic,” a voice said smoothly. Astra’s eyes adjusted, taking in the ground covered in silver and gold leaves.
“Alastair?”
His hand reached out and lifted her chin, Alastair’s dark eyes finding hers. He pulled Astra to her feet. Black trees groaned and creaked in the Winter air.
“I’m sorry to call on you at such a late hour. But it’s important.”
“Where are we?”
“You’re dreaming,” he laughed, waving his fingers beside his face. “Weaver of Dreams, remember?”
“Ah,” she breathed as if that explained everything. The night came screaming back to her as she found her footing. “Why are you here? Why am I here? What did you tell Selenia?”
He held up his hands. “Relax! This wasn’t my doing. I told you that I could sense you both, Selenia picked up on Luxuros and tortured it out of me.” He swept his midnight-black curls away from his neck, a fresh wound climbing the column of his skin below the faded pink scar. “You’re in deep shit, but I’m here to help.”
She shook her head. “I don’t trust you.”
