Layers of soft rugs flopped over the floors, glittering silver threads woven through them. In the center of the room, a large, lavish bed begged her to collapse into its luxurious bedding. A sheer black silk fell over it, creating an inky canopy with stars embroidered in constellations across the sky.
She tried to still her heart as she crossed the room, pulling off her slippers and flopping against the black velvet bedding, smelling of lavender and smoke and spices. Lux did not speak, folding himself into an armchair in the corner, leaning his elbows on his knees, his eyes brimming with misery.
“Get on with it then,” she sighed.
“We wanted to make sure you weren’t involved in anything nefarious, that was all.”
“How long did you watch me?”
“Not long! Just a few weeks, and only a few times. I promise you.” Lux ran his hands over his face.
“Why does she have it?”
“She borrowed it,” he shrugged.
She shook her head. “Try again. Ehlaria borrows nothing. You made a trade.”
“I did.” He did not offer more.
“Luxuros,” she growled, a furious plume of red smoke rising. “What did you do?”
“I traded her for this,” he said, snatching the leather cord around his neck and pulling the moonstone pendant out from under his shirt. “Okay?”
“And what does it do?” she asked through clenched teeth.
“What it needs to.”
The crimson fury in her lungs threatened to spill out as she glared.
He threw his hands up, sliding it back under his shirt. His eyes narrowed. “It dampens my emotions. It protects me from your prying eyes, okay? It blocks you.”
“How?”
He rolled his eyes, annoyed at the vulnerability she was requiring of him. “I’m not an elf! I do not know how their magic works.”
She glared. “You have that much to hide from me then? That you’d trade something so useful for a way to dampen it?”
“Astra,” he whispered, his head hanging. “It’s not that I have so much to hide. It’s that I don’t know what I need to hide. When we watched you, we realized you were much more powerful than your mother let on. I was afraid you’d be able to sense things about me I myself don’t even know. Whoever I was before, whoever The Flare erased, I have no affiliation to. I am a Mercurian. I did not want there to be any questions about that when you met Mirquios. I did it to protect him.”
“You did it to protect you!”
His eyes flickered to hers for a second. “I did it to protect you. Above all.”
“Me?”
He nodded. “I could have been anyone to Solan. I was a boy when it happened, but I was still raised in Solaris. You saw the fire within the Solarian in the Midwood. What kind of cruelty is carved into my bones? At what point do generations of hatred erupt? It’s all I think about. When I left Mirquios here on your birthday, I half-hoped you’d put him out on his ass just to ensure I never brought any harm your way. But then you two… you two did whatever it is you did and I had to have a fallback plan.”
“Whatever it is we did,” she scoffed. “You really have so little respect for the Tether, then?”
Lux leaned forward, a curl at the corners of his lips alarming me. “I respect Tethers. When they’re real.”
Her eyes narrowed as blood rushed to her ears. “What did he tell you?”
“He didn’t have to,” he snarled. “If you two had actually formed that bond, you’d have lost your damn mind weeks ago. When was the last time you even wrote to him?”
“I’ve been distracted by a million other things!”
His eyes flared as they locked on her, refusing to release her from their heated stare. “You’ve been distracted by your king’s commander. None of those dreams would have happened if you were truly Tethered to Mirquios nor would I have allowed them to continue. I love my brother. I wouldn’t betray him, and I don’t believe you’re the kind of woman to trifle with his heart.”
