“That makes two of us,” Astra mumbled. The constant onslaught of everyone’s emotional state was bad enough, but attaching their exact words to it? A nightmare. As Mirquios watched her face, a slow heat burned over her chest, so different from the one in the garden. There was no alarm in this warmth, no warning.
The only threatening thing about it was the sickening thought that she just might enjoy the way he looked at her. The spiraling line of thinking from the garden drummed up again.
What if… what if?
“So you can’t read my mind, but do you see my aura or…?”
“I don’t see auras,” she answered him, shaking her head. “I see colors I’ve learned to tie to specific emotions. Well, I don’t physically see them. It’s more like I just know them, in here,” she said, tapping her forehead.
“Can I test you?” His eyes held onto hers, a wicked grin breaking across his deep skin, sending a shiver over hers.
“Of course.”
“So just… think of a feeling?”
“A memory. Something that made you feel strongly.” She leaned over her desk as he conjured the memory, the cool tones in his chest swirling to a hazy gray with tendrils of lavender woven between midnight blues and icy teals. The colors gave way to the emotions in her mind. Trepidation, worry, clouded by something stronger, more resolute.
Duty.
“I know this one well,” she said softly. “The complexity of obligation and honor. Resentment for choices made on your behalf. The strange blend of pride and moral decay beneath your skin. Hope that you aren’t letting your court down.”
“Incredible,” he murmured. “Another one.”
The smokey cloud rolled into something warmer, gilded. Glowing yellows and whites with a streak of ruby flame overtook him. Anticipation waltzed with nerves, a blush of relief, the whisper of something sparkling across a dance floor.
She dropped her eyes—gods be damned—was she blushing?
“This is certainly the most intriguing way someone has ever flirted with me.”
“I think it would be much less exposing if you could read minds over feelings,” Mirquios whispered, his eyes turning toward the paintings behind her.
“Most people around me have learned tricks to keep their feelings quiet. I try not to pry unless invited, but in a large crowd, it gets difficult to breathe. Most strangers have no idea what they willingly give away to me. It’s exhausting.”
“Hence the hiding,” he said, gesturing to the study.
“Hence the hiding,” she repeated.
“How long do we have until someone notices and insists you return?”
“Hard to say,” she sighed, running a hand over her wild waves. “Lunelle would alert me if Mother were searching.” She tapped her forehead to reinforce her point. “Although it’s entirely possible Father has already dragged her back to their quarters. He’s not one for parties.”
“That’s another rumor I’d like to get to the bottom of,” Mirquios said, leaning on his knees. “Your parents. The legends are fascinating—are they truly Tethered? A Lunar demigoddess and a common human soldier?”
Astra’s lips parted in a wide smile. “Unusual, to be sure,” she explained. “But the gods weave souls together for a reason. If you observe them, watch the way they move together as one spirit, the way they orbit one another… you’d understand why they couldn’t escape one another.”
Mirquios took this in and tapped his fingers against the desk. “I don’t know that I’ve ever witnessed it.”
“Never? Are Tethers not common in Mercury?”
“I’m sure they are outside of the palace. But to my knowledge, none of the pairings I grew up with were anything more than carefully arranged legal documents.”
“Ah yes, that first feeling you showed me. Duty.”
“Does your mother expect you to marry without it, even with her own experience? Life Untethered?”
Astra thought about this for a moment. She’d never really considered it either way—it wasn’t unlikely she had a Tether roaming the realms. Most did, but her mother’s case was the exception, not the rule in the upper echelons of society. Matches were made through strategy, not stars.
Some courts didn’t recognize Tethers at all, merely viewing them as a fairytale. Others, like the Venusian Court, thrived on them.
