“Besides, who am I to get in the way of the age-old Lunar Queen, Solar King Tether cycle? It’s always an interesting cleanup for us down here. Gives us something to talk about.”
“I hate to disappoint you,” Astra grumbled. “But neither Lux nor I sit on thrones. We’ll only bore you.”
She twisted back, her skirt swirling in an unholy wave of grief and sorrow. “I suppose we’ll see. I do have one question for you.” She slinked closer, running a frail finger across Astra’s face and tilting her chin toward the muted light filtering through the trees.
“Why risk it at all? You know the stories. You’ve seen where your dearly Descended aunt ended up, you’ve seen what the Tether did to your rotten grandmother?—”
“Selenia?”
Her brow sloped, forming an amused arch. “She doesn’t know,” she said to the Shadows that clung to her. “I love that I get to tell you this.” Luciela tapped Astra’s forehead with a shriveled finger, sending her falling backward through a sulfuric mist.
“You’re a fool,” Luciela mocked, resting against a throne built from the spines of who knows how many creatures.
Astra stood at the edge of a dull palace, the walls carved from onyx stone. In the middle of the room, just a breath away from Luciela, stood Selenia. No dark ring around her, no chill, but the silver glimmer of a newly Ascended goddess.
“I did not ask for your opinion. I asked if it could be done.”
“Anything can be done for a price, Selenia.”
Her face contorted, lips pursing as she weighed what she was willing to give up. Something inside her broke, a violet pooling in her chest drowning her. “Name it.”
Luciela swallowed, her appetite for tragedy piqued. “Your Shadow.”
“And you can promise it will work?”
“Hmm.” She glanced from the window to her right, eyes falling on glass etchings in runes Astra didn’t recognize. “I guess you’ll just have to trust me.”
“Fine.” Selenia did not hesitate. Whatever she asked for, she needed desperately. Luciela lifted a hand, rotating her palm toward the ornate carvings in the ceiling. By the time she stopped moving, a silver dagger rested against her decaying skin.
“It’s a shadow blade. Only one in the realms. I need it back when you’re done,” she said flatly, as if she wasn’t handing over a one-of-a-kind treasure. “He has to do it, though. The Solar God must choose heart over head for once.”
Luciela’s eyes flashed toward a massive sphere floating above an arched column at the back of the room. It seemed to buzz with a steady rhythm.
“You best be on your way, Selenia. The gates will close soon, and without your Shadow, you’ll no longer be welcome in the Court Below. I’ll take the shadow blade back in the Spring if we have a deal?”
Selenia nodded, opening her mouth to reply but a scream bounced off the hall as she crumbled to her knees. Black raced from her veins toward Luciela’s outstretched hand.
“Sorry, I should have warned you. Hurts like a bitch.” Luciela drew the last dregs of the Shadow from her, Selenia’s chest heaving. “Off you go!”
Selenia rose, her face gaunt, a dark ring gleaming in the low light around her. The icy chill she’d come to associate with her rippled through Astra as she left the room.
Astra blinked, returning to the Court Below.
“Why did she do it? Why tear Leona and Solan apart?” Astra asked, stepping back into the Court Below’s forest.
“Oh,” Luciela winced. “I suppose I dropped you too far into the conversation. I’ve had a few cocktails. You understand. That trade was not to sever the Tether from your aunt’s soul, but Selenia’s.”
“Selenia!”
“It’s a tragic story. It always is,” Luciela chuckled, delight floating on the dark notes. “Your grandmother was not the first-born heir to the throne, a burden I know you’re intimately familiar with. She had a sister, Athene. They were close as girls, but Selenia was a bit of a rebel at heart. Runs in the family, I suppose. She knew her Shadow Goddess abilities were off-limits, but curiosity is a damned good high, Astra. Selenia was working with the shadows along the edge of the Empyrean. She didn’t know Athene was in the water. She was just fifteen when she drowned, and Selenia never recovered from the guilt.
“Athene was a bit of a bore. She was hardly here before she Ascended, didn’t come to a single one of my dinner parties. I suppose the one benefit to dying young is it’s much easier to confront your moral failings when you don’t live very long.” Luciela twisted as she spoke, pacing before Astra. “Athene took her place in the Court Above, sitting beside the Solar God, Lucian, on the Lunar Throne above. Well, you can imagine, two powerful, attractive ethereal beings don’t spend that much time ruining everyone’s lives together and avoid falling in love.
“But it wasn’t Fated. No Tether blossomed, though Athene waited decades with a pathetic hope in her heart. And then your dear grandmother made her Descent. Now Selenia loves a good party. It took her ages to embrace her Shadow and I was almost sad to see her go. But don’t tell her that.
“She strode through those gilded gates Above and embraced her long-lost sister. Their reunion was the stuff of poetry, truly. Until Selenia met Lucian, and their chests caved in and souls brushed one another, blah, blah, blah. You did it, you know what it’s all about. Selenia couldn’t take the guilt. She’d drowned her sister in one life and was well on her way to doing it in the next. So she came to me and she made a deal, one that I’m sure she regrets to this day.”
Luciela leaned back, folding her arms and touching her hand to her chin.
