Lunelle’s frigid glare silenced him. She shoved her door open with her hip, backing into the slim opening.
“You made a good point with him this evening, for what it’s worth,” he said, pushing against the wall and stepping away. “When I told you there was strength in silence, I had no idea how right I was.”
Lunelle huffed.I imagine the list of things you do not know is long, indeed,she thought as she pushed the door closed.
Astra would have said it, loudly and without hesitation.
They were different in at least that way.
ChapterSix
Lunelle rushed so quickly into her chambers that she failed to see the unnerved look on Lura’s face.
She flopped onto her bed, feeling rather like a petulant teenager instead of a fully grown soon-to-be-queen as she shook off Mirquios’s prideful grin. She’d resented being compared to her sister—that’s what bothered her, she realized. It was natural, of course, for people to do it.
Gods knew the Lunar Courtiers loved nothing more than to hold them up beside one another, but it was a game they both lost.
Astra was nothing like Lunelle, and Lunelle was nothing like Astra, and the court was all the better for it. They would never understand the talents each of them possessed, forever reducing them both to Fire and Ice.
She could have told him so. She could have given him the same treatment Arcas received—she’d kept a litany of observations about the Mercurians’ behaviors should Astra ever need a reason to change her mind.
Not that minds changed once Tethered, of course.
She resented something else almost as much as the comparison—the lilt to his tone, the suggestion that he was special for seeing something within her she’d always known about herself.
He may have been the first person to say it aloud, but she’d realized years ago her power was in the held breaths of courtiers, in the things they do not say.
“This is useless to dwell on,” she muttered to herself as she rolled over, flipping her metallic locks across her shoulders. Something crunched beneath her as she tossed. She sat up, sliding her hand between the bedspread and her stomach, finding a small envelope with her name scrawled across the front.
Her eyes darted to the two maidens by the door.
“Would you like a moment, Princess?” Lura asked. Her pale amethyst eyes fell directly on the envelope.
She’d been waiting for Lunelle to discover it.
Lunelle wouldhaveliked a moment. She would have liked several moments.
“Yes, Lura. Thank you,” Lunelle said. Her finger was already midway across the seal, cracking the navy wax with one quick swipe as they shuffled into the next room.
Princess Lunelle Aurellis,
It is with great honor that the Plutonian Court receives the next Lunar queen. We’ve heard promising things about your wise heart. Surely, you must realize, all is not well within the courts. It is up to the future generation of leaders to right the wrongs.
Meet us at midnight tomorrow at The Underworld and see a side of the courts you’ve never dreamed of.
Beneath the elegant script bled an inked dagger pierced through a crown and a short line in a language Lunelle did not recognize, though she was fluent in several.
She pursed her lips, a flicker of something heated within her and caught her off guard. Folding the parchment inward, she found a space between her journals to slip the note. Though she wasn’t sure how she knew, she was certain it wasn’t for public consumption.The Underworld, she thought, a chill racing between the tissue of her spine like a fish swimming upriver.
She shook her head. Nothing good could come of anything of the sort, especially after last night’s showing.
“Lura,” she called. “Can you draw a bath for me?” She rolled her shoulders back, stretching her neck, trying to find somewhere to keep all of the tension. It was always moments like those she wondered how her sister kept from burning down entire cities—the tension within her certainly felt flammable enough to ignite fires.
“Already drawn, Princess,” Lura smiled as she poked her head back into the room.
“You’re an angel,” Lunelle said quietly, chewing on the edge of her thumb.
“Princess?” Lura stepped into the room, glancing over her shoulder for any other ears as she dropped her tone. She pulled nervously at the edge of her robes.
