“You look like you need a second. Please don’t vomit in the woods, it attracts the worst sorts of creatures.”
Astra was considering vomiting as a way to process all of this. She took a sharp breath, trying to shift the colors within her chest from an overwhelmed bouquet of dying roses to something more neutral, but it was pointless.
“We haven’t even gotten to the most interesting part. There are powers that even the Court Above answers to, Astra. There is a throne that sits vacant and has for millennia because every Ascended Lunar and Solar god and goddess is the same in the end—selfish.
“The Divine Throne can only be claimed by one being who holds both Light and Shadow, Lunar and Solar. You can’t hold both unless you find your missing half and Tether, which plenty of you lovelorn idiots have as of late, but I can assure you that is a new development. You lot love to murder each other before you can even let the Tether form. But not one of you has ever been able to give up power in the end for the other.
“The throne would hold power over every court—including the gods and goddesses—but because every single one of you morons thinks you’re better suited for it than your godsdamned soulmate, you fuck it up. Generation after generation. It’s exhausting.
“Leona and Solan were the closest anyone ever came, and Lucian saw that his son was weak. He knew he’d give everything up for Leona. So he took the only action he could—prevent them from ever uniting again. He convinced Selenia to trick them, and without her Shadow she didn’t have much of a choice. All he had to do was smite her and she’d be stuck with me for eternity. She kept my shadow blade, an artifact I’m still missing, by the way, and they made Leona think it was her fault. That her selfishness cost thousands of lives. They knew she’d never face it.”
Astra’s stomach whirled. “Why are you telling me all of this?”
“Because you should know that you have a choice. You already saw it, didn’t you? Both thrones, calling your name.”
She shook her head, desperate not to let the contents of her stomach escape. “I don’t want it.”
“Please,” the Nether Queen continued. “You can lie to yourself all you want, but not to me. I know you feckless half-humans. Your selfish hearts always win out in the end.”
Astra shook her head again. “No.”
“I could give it to you right now if you wanted. It wouldn’t take much for me to keep him here, trapped in the Court Below. All you’d have to do is waltz right into that throne room whenever you shed that mortal coil of yours... you’d rule it all, Astra. You could finally create the exact kind of world you’ve been working toward, with the snap of a finger.”
Astra held her frigid stare as Luciela spoke, her bones rattling within her, though she hoped Luciela didn’t see it.
“Say the word, Fire Queen, and I’ll throw him into the River of Souls right now. Fuck, from what I’ve heard, he’d throw himself into it willingly. He’d want you to take it.”
Astra glared. “No, Luciela.”
Luciela gagged. “You hate to see a powerful woman give it all up for a man,” she said, holding up her hand. “But I will warn you, Astra, what is for you will always find you, in this life or another.”
“Astra!” Lunelle’s scream ripped her away from Luciela’s torturous game, her stilled heart bursting to life with fear as her head snapped in their direction.
“I’ll see you again, Fire Queen. When you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
Astra barely heard her, adrenaline surging at the thought that Lunelle might be hurt. Another sweep of shadows through the trees wrapped around the Nether Queen, transforming her this time into a slinking black cat, long and lean.
Lunelle screamed again and when Astra turned back around, the Nether Queen was gone.
Chapter
Forty-Four
Astra leaped over the decaying logs between them, following the muffled sounds of screams and Mirquios in pain.
When she burst through the trees into the clearing, Lunelle and Mirquios were back to back, two shadows dancing amongst them, blurs of smoke and fury.
“He’s hurt,” Lunelle screeched at her sister. Astra scanned over Mirquios, looking for the source of his injury as he dodged his shadow again.
She yelled to Lunelle, cornered by a transparent version of herself. “Did they tell you how to get them back?”
Where are you, Lux beamed, his voice heavy, tired.
In the forest, Mirquios is hurt. They’re battling their shadows, where are you?
Coming.
“Tula said something about listening to them, I don’t know!” Mirquios yelled as he dodged another swing.
