Like she’d been when she’d surrendered to the call within her and shoved Arcas into a wall, refusing to let him slink off into the night.
Mirquios crumbled into a heap beside her, his lungs puffing as his Shadow landed another blow against his neck.
Lunelle ground her hips deep into the sharp thorns, embracing their revenge against her skin as the fuel she needed to throw her Shadow from her, rolling to her right and scrambling to her feet.
I hear you, she thought,I see you.
She reached for her king’s head, tilting his chin up toward her as his Shadow rounded the clearing, reading for another round. His bright eyes were so heavy, so tired.
She was in charge, like she’d been when she let every rule and boundary—imagined or not, faked or not—fall away at the edge of a cliff and threw her arms around a king that did not belong to her. Could not belong to her.
Unless.
Lunelle smiled, the radiance dimmed in the faded lights of the Nether, but warm all the same.
“We’re all making it out in one piece, right?” She yanked him to his feet, pressing her back to his again, taking on his weight as best she could as she watched both their Shadows wind up, haunched against the ether and gathering the darkness around them to launch them forward.
She could have what she wanted, but she could not have it without help.
“Astra!” she screamed, searching for the bright ruby of her sister in the trees. Their Shadows rushed in, two infinite pits of black clashing against their braced bodies.
Her Shadow did not hold back, consuming her as she leaned into her heels. Her eyes burned against the onslaught, Mirquios’s muscles flexing against hers as he tried to dodge the viscous rhythm of his own haunting.
A flash of scarlet in the corner of Lunelle’s eye grabbed her focus for just long enough that her Shadow wrapped its grip around her arm, squeezing with a ferocity she could not get on top of.
“He’s hurt!” Lunelle called to her sister. She could not face her Shadow if she was worried about saving him. Mirquios would always win in that equation. Astra circled them to catch her eye as her Shadow twisted against her, begging for her to give in.
Astra huffed, “Did they tell you how to get them back?”
Lunelle shook her head, Mirquios leaning over her as she felt his slick pant leg stick to hers.
“Tula said something about listening to them! I don’t know!” He bent and dodged once more, shaking her as he moved.
Lunelle’s eyes snapped forward, peering into the swirls that stung her. She knew what her Shadow wanted—she knew whatshewanted.
And she was no longer afraid to demand it.
Lunelle wanted to lead the fight against the layers of lies from the Court Above,andshe wanted to do it from the Mercurian’s glittering golden streets. She wanted to be her sister’s protectorandbe protected by her. She wanted to bask in the golden light of the Sun,anddrown in the silver secrets of the Moon.
“You have to embrace them!” The commander’s voice bellowed from a distance. Lunelle’s Shadow seemed to breathe at his revelation.
“The more you fight, the harder it is!” Arcas called. Lunelle turned when she heard his voice, his tall frame thrown over Luxuros’s shoulder.
She did not have a moment to wonder how he found himself there.
Lunelle stopped resisting the touch of her Shadow, stopped wrestling the call to the void of it. She leaned forward, reaching her arms around it, and whispered an apology she didn’t know she was choking on for so long.
As the murky blacks and glittering sapphires of her deepest hidden layers melted against her flesh, she knew what it was that she’d wanted all along—she longed to be worshipped by day and death, sunbeams and starlight.
She wanted to hold it all within her, all the versions of herself she was and would be, and she wanted to love them from every angle.
She raised her hand, admiring the depth of color returned to her starry complexion, the rush of cold breath moving through her veins in a gentle sigh. Arcas landed at her feet with a heavy thud, the breath leaving his lungs as she stared at those eyes—those sharp gems, cut just to reflect her.
Mirquios screamed as he lifted his hands to the dim break in trees overhead, searching for whatever light he could find. Lunelle spun, wrapping her fingers around his shoulder.
“Your leg?”
“No!” he barked. “You could have warned me they’d say such horrifying shit,” he sighed.
