An understanding passed between them, Oestera’s eyes closed against the tears that formed.
And then they were consumed by pastel mist.
Ehlaria reached out and rested her hand on Oestera’s arm, her eyes glistening with tears. Oestera took a breath but it didn’t quite make it to her lungs.
“When we lost Leona, when I lost her—” Her voice shattered, unable to keep up with the flood of emotions.
“Take a second,” Luxuros nodded solemnly, understanding her frayed nerves in a way so few could.
Oestera’s lips shook, a sight that set Astra’s heart on fire.
“You lost so much, too,” Oestera whispered, her eyes fixed on the commander’s face. She took a deeper breath and released it. “When we lost Leona, Solan never recovered. He became consumed by the grief. A severed Tether can kill a normal man! After The Flare, he became convinced we’d plotted it with the gods, that we’d tricked him. He’s been shut off from us since—no attempts at communication have worked. And besides that, we were in such a precarious position. Lunelle was a child, you were an infant. I couldn’t risk the gods turning their eyes onto our court and digging deeper. The other Nova chapters faded away, crushed under the weight of courtiers and monarchs unwilling to relinquish their power. So we fell back. We waited. And then you.”
Oestera reached her other hand to Astra’s cheek, the touch so foreign.
“You were born wide awake, Astra. We’d never seen anything like it. We were sure that you were Leona sent back to take her revenge.”
Maeve and Oestera glanced at each other, soft laughter passing between them.
“From the moment you could sit up and crawl, you could read us. You had Light. We thought maybe it was a side effect from The Flare, but now I realize, all along, you’d found one another.”
Oestera reached past Astra and tapped Lux’s forearm gently, her eyes holding a thousand different emotions—regrets, hopes, fears.
“As you grew, your power was alarming, and Selenia noticed it immediately. Her desperation to stomp out any hint of Light from you was clear. Even after her Ascent to the Court Above, she spent more and more time around us, watching. Watching you. She’d visit constantly, even when the gates were closed. When she threatened to tell the gods about you, I broke. Selenia made us a deal.”
She pulled them through space and time and they landed in Lunaria, twenty-five years prior.
“I don’t trust you.” Oestera waved her arm toward her mother. “There is nothing you could say to convince me to put her life in your hands.”
They stood in the Celestial Hall, Ehlaria behind one shoulder, Nayson behind the other. Selenia stood before her daughter, lips twisted.
“If you want to protect her, you have to do this, Oestera. If they catch a whiff of Light within her, they’ll extinguish it. But if she never learns to wield it, they won’t have a reason to look.”
“Perhaps something more significant,” Ehlaria mumbled. “A blood oath.”
Selenia rolled her eyes. “I suppose my word is meaningless to you?”
“Less than,” Oestera replied.
“Fine. A blood oath. Neither of us will reveal Astra’s powers or the Nova Rebellion to anyone. God or man alike.”
Oestera’s lips twisted into a knot. But then, a little red-haired princess squealed across the hall, running from her sister, and the decision was made.
She’d do whatever it took to protect her.
Ehlaria, Maeve, and Nayson would, too.
Selenia produced that same sickly shadow blade and it was done, her gilded blood spilled into Oestera’s scarlet, dripping onto the palace floor.
Oestera rolled back her sleeve, a faint line running across her wrist, the scar already fading now that Selenia had no blood to bind her. It would be gone soon.
She shook her head. “I couldn’t let her get to you. So we locked you down. I distanced myself so you’d never be able to see the truth, you were too powerful, so I had to shut you out—I hated every moment. But I did what I had to, and I let your dad become your safe place. Ehlaria became your confidant. I knew someday we’d be here, we’d be able to tell one another the truth, but until then I had to sacrifice myself for your safety. The blood between mother and daughter is powerful. I knew that one question would be all it took to break me, and the blood oath would have cut me down.
“Every minute of your life has been crafted to enrage you, to keep the fire within you alive until the time was right. I have been training you from day one to hate everything about the gods by becoming just like them. I was selfish and closed off, hoping you’d grow to crave more for our people.
“I sent you to Celene because I knew if you saw what was possible… if you saw the beauty in community, in working together, it would be the final nail in the coffin. I knew you’d never be able to look away, and with the power we’d seen from you without even trying, it would come together.
“We missed you desperately, Astra. I spent every night terrified I’d wake up to find that a god had taken you, or that Solan had finally mounted a return. But I had to let you go. I knew it would work in my bones.
