Page 18 of Ties of Starlight

In all my years, I've never hated anyone like I hate him. Especially now. The nephew of Captain Bror. I didn’t know it was possible to hate someone more than I hated Bror. If their relation alone wasn't enough reason to hate him, he's always harassed me, trying to get under my skin, mocking me just like his uncle for my human blood. But now he’s condemned me to misery by trapping me as his wife. As if this could ever make me his wife.

I'll never be his. This will just be a mistake. Another stumbling block. I'll figure out what I did wrong, and next time I'll fix it. The cycle won't break until then.

Idonea reached up and brushed her fingertips over her starry necklace. She continued writing.

I'll get through this life.

I'll get it right in the next one.

Idonea was still writing when she heard footsteps. The faint hum of Nyrunn’s existence crept closer. She didn'teven have time to make sure the ink was dry before she shut the journal, hiding her words as someone came into the tent.

She turned to see it was Nyrunn. No one else would dare enter.

In all her lives, Idonea had never done this before. Every time she'd done this, it was Olaug. Whether they had the same names or not, it was his soul, and Idonea always knew the one her soul was bound to.

She glanced at Nyrunn's wrist, the starry lines branding him like no other king had ever been before. Now she was bound to him, but this was a bond death could and would separate. What she had with Nyrunn was a mere shadow of her bond with Olaug.

Nyrunn was carrying a tray as he stepped back into the tent, his expression impassive and guarded. He paused, staring at her far longer than necessary.

Why? Even if he wanted to make her miserable, why make himself miserable as well?

He cleared his throat as the tent flap shut behind him. He lifted the tray slightly. “I'm starving. I take it you probably are too since neither of us have had the chance to eat since this morning.”

Idonea took a deep breath. She needed to keep herself together in order to get through this. She couldn't keep falling apart and letting anything and everything fall out of her mouth. “I suppose I am hungry.”

She couldn't let her guard down for even a second.

He nodded and moved toward the bed, the only space really large enough for them to both sit and eat. Idonea wasn't thrilled with the seating, but she hadn't been lying. She was hungry.

He sat on the edge, setting the tray in the middle and only taking up as much space as necessary. Idoneaslowly approached, forced to sit fully on the bed or else her skirts would send her off the edge. He lifted the lid, presenting two plates and glasses, the same dinner that was being served outside the tent to the whole court. It was also the same meal that was always served at the wedding of the Cometa Couple, taken from the first meal Agnarr and Gytha shared, according to the legend. Venison. Agnarr wasn't just a warrior but a hunter as well.

At least according to the stories.

Idonea knew she wasn't Gytha. She hadn't been part of the first Cometa Couple, but she had been selected as Gytha's chosen sometime after the Star Elves had started continuing the ritual. The farthest back Idonea had traced herself was the sixth couple being her first life. Ever since then, Idonea had always been Gytha's chosen.

So that was how she knew exactly how this meal was supposed to look and how she knew the little dark purple cake wasn't part of it. It was never part of the meal. It wasn't tradition.

“What is that?” Idonea asked, narrowing her eyes at the out of place dessert like it was the reason she was now married to the wrong elf and was going to have to try again in another life before she could be free.

At this point, she was so clueless as to her mistake in this life, it could be.

Nyrunn looked up, raising an eyebrow. “You know what an Asterberry Cake is.”

He started cutting into his food while she kept glaring at the offending dessert. “Of course I know what it is. What is it doing here? It's not part of the Cometa Couple's wedding meal. It's not supposed to be here.”

Nyrunn finished his bite before looking up. “I told the kitchen to add it. And it's not part of the traditional meal,no, but the Constella could give me no real reason not to add it as it has nothing to do with the magic.”

Was this another symptom of whatever had gone so horribly wrong now that she was married to the wrong man?

When she still made no move to eat, staring at the cake as though it might gain the ability to speak and answer her, Nyrunn huffed. “Will you just eat?”

She was drawing more suspicion and she couldn't afford that, so she set to eating, ignoring the dessert and focusing on the traditional aspects of the meal. Even though it was tempting her with its blue sparkling glaze and asterberries artfully placed on top.

Once she started eating, her hunger flared up, and it was easier to focus on that than on the elf sitting beside her who wasn't supposed to be.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Nyrunn finish before her and move to dig into his little cake. Her eye twitched, but she focused instead on forcing the venison down her throat. For a meal she knew she would be required to eat every life she lived, it had never gotten any better. She hated venison.

But she was hungry enough to get through it. It was tradition.

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