“Right,” Lunelle agreed.
She didn’t say she feared it would be for the worse.
“Right,” Astra repeated.
In her thirty years of life, Astra had never responded to her in a single word. Dread tugged at Lunelle’s heart once more.
“Mother above, Astra. This is it, isn’t it?” She reached for a satchel of dried lavender from the nightstand to press into the toes of her favorite boots. Lura slipped behind her, snagging the boots and casting another warning glare. The bile in her stomach rose a touch higher into her throat. “This will be the start of the next intercourt war. It will define my entire reign and I’m not even on the throne yet!”
Astra hopped off the bed and closed the distance between them. Her warm touch as her hands came to rest against Lunelle’s shoulders did little to ease the chill settling between vertebrae in her spine. Astra’s fiery gaze held hers, widening as Lunelle gently sifted through her fears and found new places to tuck them out of sight.
“Lu,” her sister said, squeezing her shoulders. “Mother does not want a war. Mirquios does not want a war. Plutocertainlydoesn’t want a war. The majority of the courts are on our side and will want to settle things peacefully. This is an exercise in diplomacy, nothing more.”
“Do you really believe that?” Lunelle asked.
“Absolutely,” Astra said with a feigned conviction. It was a lie, and not one of her better ones. Lunelle appreciated the effort all the same. “Solaris has been silent for thirty years! Mother has spent my entire life preparing for her chance to shut Solan down.”
That was the truth—whether her nervous system believed it or not. Their mortal enemies a thousand times over, the Solar Court hadn’t caused so much trouble since their last attack three decades earlier. But things shifted quickly.
“You’re right,” Lunelle sighed. She didn’t like admitting defeat to anyone other than Astra. “Thank you,” she added.
Astra brushed her fingertips against her sister’s delicate complexion, the slightest hint of a frown pulling at her lips.
“You’ll return home to me in a week or two, and we can forget this whole awful mess.”
Molten tears welled against Lunelle’s starry eyes—not because she was afraid, but because in all the panic since news had arrived of Pluto’s removal from the Outer Courts, Lunelle had nearly managed to forget that this was not a temporary separation for the sisters.
No matter what happened in the Plutonian Court, no matter what resolution they were able to come to, they’d return home, and Astra would marry the King of Mercury and leave her side forever.
Lunelle winced. “Just in time to marry you off,” she said.
Astra’s shoulders stiffened. “Let’s take this hour by hour, shall we?”
Lunelle stepped away from her sister’s grip and slid another stack of books into her trunk. She did not even look at their titles or care much at all about what they were. She simply needed something to do with her hands.
The tears made another attempt to spring forth. Biting them back, she leveled her tone.
“I suppose you should go say your goodbyes to your betrothed.”
Astra let a tight breath slip between her lips. “I suppose I should.” She winked as she patted her sister’s shoulder once again. “I had Ameera slip a few satchels of tea into your bags, just in case Pluto is a desolate wasteland.”
Astra did not hesitate at the door as she left, off to bid her fiancé farewell.
Mirquios.
Lunelle had yet to speak to the man since his court’s arrival in the Lunar Court.
He’d made his intentions clear from the moment he strutted into Astra’s birthday ball—he was after a Lunar princess for his throne. She’d understood, of course, it was as strategic an alliance a Living Court could make.
What mere man wouldn’t want a Lunar demigoddess at his side in the face of certain war?
Especially one rumored to have such a grip on the Lunarians’ mysterious ancient magic. Astra defied its bans simply by existing.
While Lunelle believed the notions of her sister’s powers to be greatly misunderstood outside of the bounds of the Lunar Court, all it would take is one conversation, one catch of Astra’s incisive gaze across a ballroom even, to know the second-born Lunar princess was something different.
Somethingmore.
And even if Lunelle could fault the young king for being charmed by her sister—which though she tried, she couldn’t—she certainly could not deny their fate once Astra revealed their union to be ordained by the gods themselves through that godsforsaken Tether.
