“You’ve seemed unwell these last few days,” he said.
“Have I?” she asked, knowing he was doing her a kindness by calling it so gently.
“I hope that it doesn’t have anything to do with the other night?—”
“No,” Lunelle scoffed. It had nearly everything to do with that night, but not for the reasons he thought.
“Good. I know we are… somewhat attached, Princess, but I would like to discuss formalizing our engagement.”
“Oh,” Lunelle breathed. “My mother really should be?—”
“She and I have spoken. Many times. But I find myself wondering if you do indeed wish to take the Plutonian throne?—”
“What?” she asked, sitting up straighter to face him.
“Where did I lose you?”
She bit her lip. “If we were to wed, Arcas, you would be the Lunar king. I would not be the Plutonian queen. You would forfeit your throne to your sister—you are aware of this, surely!”
Arcas frowned. “I assumed your sister would take the Lunar throne and you’d rule beside me.”
She eyed him, baffled. “Forget all of the reasons I would have no need to make such a trade, but why wouldyougive up a more powerful throne?”
“Youhave more power in the Lunar Court. I would be an accessory at best.”
Lunelle sneered. “For one thing, that’s not how it works in the Lunar Court. My father is an integral leader in our society—you’ve clearly been stained by your father’s misgivings about women on thrones. And for another, by your own logic, you’d prefer I become the accessory, then?”
His lips twisted as his face flushed. “That is not what I meant?—”
She folded her arms across her chest, the buzzing of the Tether whispering to double down. To wound him. She stood, determined to say her final piece and leave his grasping for a lick of sense.
“Allow me to remind you which one of us is here to beg the other’s mercy,Prince.” She spat the word, her foot digging into the soft ground.
“Lunelle,” he sighed, standing from his perch. “I did not mean to hurt your feelings.”
“My feelings are fine!” she declared. “It’s my pride you’ve assaulted if anything. I will not be relegated to planning balls and festivals, Arcas. We are heading for a war, a war the likes of which has not been seen in centuries, and I am poised to lead the most powerful armies in the universe through it. I will not be stepping away from my court for anything, but especially not for a man who does not understand the first thing about duty—a man who not a month ago told me he’d just as soon appoint someone else to his throne because he’s tooscaredto do right by them.”
She moved to dart into the trees, but he caught her elbow.
“And what ofyourlogic then? If you’re so offended by my lack of duty to my court, surely you can understand why I might have changed my mind after a certain princess woke me from my stupor?”
Lunelle pulled her arm from his grasp. “If you truly cared about them, you’d do whatever it took to secure their safety. You’d sit proudly beside the Lunar queen and let your sister, who ismorethan capable, lead them to victory. Staying here out of a sense of duty instead of seeking out what would be truly beneficial is cowardly at best. Selfish at worst.”
“Yallara is a child?—”
She snorted. “And you’re so grown?”
Arcas glared, hovering over her, his eyes falling as the wheels turned within his mind.
“My sister is easily swayed by the movements around her, she does not understand their larger implications, she does not understand the long-term impact, and she has no respect for the traditions of our ancestors! My father would turn in his grave if I put her on the throne.”
Lunelle grinned, the cracks in his armor showing now. She stepped closer, her proximity cutting off his thoughts.
“Your father? The one you told me in no uncertain terms was amonster. Why are you so haunted by his voice? What part of you still cries out for a man who, by your own admission, had no love for his sons? The world that made you is gone—it’s burning away by the second. You are well-heeled, Arcas, but even the most loyal dog still sleeps outside.”
“I beg your?—”
She clutched at his tunic. “Ask yourself why you’re so dedicated to earning the approval of a ghost.”
