She felt their eyes bounce from the Mercurian king to the Plutonian prince, and settle on her. Lunelle held her composure, but the inhale of her grandmother’s next breath drove something sharp into her chest.
“One champion is soverydull. Two is interesting...” Selenia turned about the room, every step a performance, well rehearsed. Selenia paced before the crowd, drawing out the moment, savoring it. “Three. Three’s enticing. You’re in quite the predicament, Oestera. The Solar king is mounting an attack, he’s already invaded Saturn and Jupiter. Is Plutoreallythe best Outer heir you can do?”
Lunelle’s face turned, catching Arcas as his jaw clenched, the Shadows between them reaching for one another.
Selenia’s brow arched. “Did you even attempt to find a stronger alliance?”
Oestera rooted into her heels, her lips quaking with a million thoughts she could not say.
“I—”
Selenia had no patience for it. “Spare me, Oestera. Luckily, as always, I’ve done the work for you. My right hand discovered somethingquitefascinating when your second-born came to visit me.”
Lunelle reached for someone, anyone, her hand finding Arcas’s as he moved closer to her. She could feel the same uncertainty course through him that flooded her heart, beating loud enough that she knew he could hear it. Could feel it.
Oestera’s eyes flickered to Astra, a pain within them Lunelle had never seen before.
“It’s always the second-born that breaks your heart, wouldn’t you agree, Oestera? You younger lot may not know this—it’s not well documented in the Living Courts—but there’s only one way to get through the Court Above’s gates outside of a Solstice or Equinox. No mere mortal can pass.”
Arcas’s hand tightened around Lunelle’s, her lungs filling with dread. She looked for Luxuros, his jaw set as Selenia spoke. There, in the way his shoulders sloped. In the hold of his chest. She saw the same rigid posture that had been carved into her from birth.
“Now, a demigod has certain privileges. So color me intrigued when a certain commander came to collect my granddaughter.”
“Oh,” Lunelle breathed, a complex web of thoughts collapsing on itself. She turned against Arcas, looking for Mirquios, the Tether between them shaking with the conclusion they’d both drawn.
“And now that I see you, Commander, the resemblance istrulyuncanny. Wouldn’t you say, Oestera?”
Luxuros stepped onto the floor, his stature so much more than a mere man. More than a soldier or a commander.
A prince.
Selenia frowned. “Well?”
Oestera’s lips twitched. Her head tilted, a spark of something in her eyes setting the whole damned room ablaze.
Selenia relished in her verbal dagger, sinking it into her daughter’s chest.
“Luxuros Soleras.”
Lunelle thought she might be ill. She let go of the prince’s hand, pushing away from him, but she felt his fingers grab hold of the back of her dress, trailing her as she bolted toward Astra.
She needed to get to her sister.
Selenia’s words only got louder as she twisted the knife.
“The heir to the Solar throne. Two thousand years of trials and we’ve never had a champion of your lineage for obvious reasons... but it does make one wonder.”
Astra,Lunelle sent. Mirquios’s gaze found hers as he held Astra back from the goddess.
The commander was a statue, frozen in place, his entire world falling into an infinitely shifting sea.
“You seem confused,” Selenia cooed. She grinned as Astra finally broke from the king’s grip, her lips trembling as she grasped to understand what had just happened.
Luxuros did not speak.
“No matter,” Selenia sighed. “It’s settled. You will join your king and the Plutonian prince to compete for Lunelle’s hand. Good luck, Commander. Now, we were celebrating, were we not?”
She clapped her hands twice, and that’s all it took.
