“But a man nonetheless,” Lunelle hummed. “Be careful, As.” Astra swallowed, the sorrow in her chest easing into a melancholy gray, tinged with little flashes of yellow happiness. “You know, I’ve yet to even introduce myself to him. He’s been so obsessed with you.”
“I think you’ll find him quite charming,” Astra insisted, resting her hand over her sister’s and releasing the breath she’d held since the moment the idea formed at the base of her skull.
“Sure, except for the whole stealing my sister away to a far-off land thing.”
Astra chuckled. “You will have to look past that part, yes.”
“I’ll do my best, As.”
Lunelle waited until Astra was surely across the palace and out of view of her emotions before she allowed her tears to flow across her delicate cheeks.
Chapter
Ten
Sleep eluded Astra that night.
She’d wrestled with her sheets for hours when she finally slipped under the current, only to land in a long, dark hallway, billowing at the edges as her subconscious mind tried to patch together a message. She stepped forward, the darkness whispering to her.
Each step dragged her deeper into herself, the hollow sounds of her steps echoing off ribs and marrow. As she came to the end of the hall, the walls fell away, revealing another world entirely. Everything was stark white marble, walls and steps falling into place as she moved through the dream. She turned her face upward, the walls stretching into oblivion.
White towers sprouted to life, looming over her, topped with puffy opal clouds. When she turned her eyes back to the room before her, two thrones sat in the middle. They were carved from crystal, clear facets refracting a strange orange glow, something like fire rising behind them.
The light seemed to ignite the thrones from within, sparkling as it slipped higher over the backs, chasing the moonlight from above. She glanced downward, a row of runes carved into the marble flooring running through the middle of the thrones.
She recognized the shapes—they’d been emblazoned into the cuffs of the Solarian in the orb.
Sit, a voice whispered, not from behind her, but from further within her. She stared at both thrones, overwhelmed by their brilliance.
She searched her bones for some sort of guidance, but nothing came. She was alone.
Tsk, tsk. Where is your intuition, Fire Queen? Have you forgotten who you are?
Astra spun, sure the voice was in the room with her. The ghost chuckled as she fixed her gaze back on the thrones. Refocusing her eyes, she narrowed them to make out more detail.
There, on the arch of the throne to her right, a Lunar etching.
The sigil was the Aurellis family crest, but dripping with a metallic liquid. She drew nearer, a humming reverberating off the thrones that called to her. It was the same as the orb—a song that fell apart through space and time. As she climbed three shallow steps she felt a pull behind her, a heavy train dragging her back.
She twisted to see where she was caught and a dreadful realization settled into her stomach. The robes were not just fancy wrappings—they were the very same coronation robes being stitched together now by the maidens for her sister’s trial.
The shock hit her in the chest, pushing her from the dream and back into her bed.
“Astra?” Ameera asked, slipping into her bedroom the next morning.
She must have drifted back to sleep eventually, though it took some doing.
“Are you feeling all right?”
“Fine,” she lied.
“The council is assembling in the Celestial Hall. There’s news from the Outer Courts.” Astra jumped from her bed, catching her council robes as Ameera flung them across the room. Ameera swept her hair into a somewhat presentable braid before stepping into the hall, doing everything she could think of to shake the strange feeling after her dream.
It was all the celebratory moonshine, she told herself.
Something was gravely wrong in the Celestial Hall. She felt the shift as she passed through the moonstone doors, no less than twenty concerned clouds, dark grays, and purples spinning above the heads of the council. Mirquios and his court lined up near the back of the hall.
She nodded as he smiled at her, heading straight for her mother.
