Page 8 of Ties of Starlight

But he'd had... other things on his mind than the other captains of unrelated squads, not when he was searching for any chance to get away from the guards and into the library.

On the day he'd heard who had been announced as the chosen for the Cometa Couple, he might not have known Olaug then, but he’d made it his business to after.

On the surface, Olaug's reputation was pristine, other than the rumoreddalliancehe’d been having around the time he’d been selected as Agnarr’s chosen. One of theyounger sons of a smaller noble family, charming, popular, and a warrior. But Nyrunn went deeper and spoke to the elves Olaug had served with and later led.

And Nyrunn had... concerns.

While no one could confirm or deny the rumors, Olaug was known to like pretty faces and strong drink, and the word “no” rarely left his lips.

However, events as an unmarried elf and rumors Nyrunn hadn't been able to confirm weren't enough for anything substantial. Not when the Cometa Couple requirements were clear, the groom had to be an elf warrior, a leader, and proven himself a true hero by saving the life of another, risking his own in the line of duty. It was why the groom was almost always one of the captains or lieutenants. In his time as captain, Nyrunn hadn't been able to lead missions often, given his status as heir, but it was necessary for him to go on enough to prove himself worthy of the throne. In his time as captain, Nyrunn had saved several of his subordinates in skirmishes with criminals and beasts in the forest.

It all went back to the first Cometa Couple, Agnarr and Gytha, the ones who'd discovered the comet. Their love connected the Star Elves to it, strengthening their magic and giving the Star Elves the ability to establish themselves and defend against the Night Elves, who, at that time, had been trying to wipe them out.

A human girl, a witch, and an elf's love saved them, and if they wanted to keep that strength, a girl with some human blood and an elven warrior would have to follow the same rituals the original couple had performed when the comet came around.

A millennia later, the Star Elves were still there and the Night Elves had been gone for centuries.

Nyrunn had used to love the story, until the day theCometa Couple had been selected. The day he'd lost Idonea to it. He hadn't thought... Adastra was a decent sized kingdom with good relations with the human kingdoms, which meant they had quite a few half-elves, three-quarters elves, seven-eighths elves, and so forth. Gytha’s chosen just had to havesomehuman blood. There were at least two thousand female elves in the kingdom that qualified.

Nyrunn had calculated the odds after the fact. It was too late by then, obviously.

Nyrunn shook his head as he turned down the next hallway, trying to push it out of his head—one in two thousand two hundred seventy-three,less than a tenth of a percent of a chance—

It was done. Regardless of how slim the chances it had been for Idonea to be chosen, it was, and he had to live with it.

Chapter 4

All thoughts of the cursed statistics flew out of Nyrunn’s head when he saw the small crowd in the hallway standing in front of Olaug's room. In the midst of the elves, a mixture of guards and servants and nobles, was Frode.

They were all speaking in hushed voices, but Frode spotted him almost instantly and cleared his throat. “Your Majesty!”

The group immediately turned and spotted him, and their already pale and panicked—panicked for Star Elves—countenances worsened.

Nyrunn picked up his pace and fixed them all with his best kingly, stern look—one of the few things he was grateful he'd inherited from his father and uncle. He’d only been improving it as of late.

“What is going on here?”

Frode turned to the elf at his right who jerked back and shook his head, hissing, “I'm not telling him!”

Frode stepped forward and raised his hands. “YourMajesty, there is no reason to panic. I am certain this is all just a misunderstanding.”

“What is?” Nyrunn kept striding down the hall, several of the elves in the crowd edging away and to the sides of the hall as he approached Olaug's door. “Why are you all outside his door? Have him come out here.”

“See, uh, that's the thing. He's...” Frode looked around again, and not a single other elf spoke up or offered support. “He's not in there.”

What?

“It's his wedding day.”

Frode nodded, clasping his hands together. “Yes, I thought the very same thing, Your Majesty. Why would he not be here getting ready for the most important day in his life—and all our lives because it's the key to our magic—and well, I thought, maybe he just happened to go for a walk or maybe to go find a snack—”

“Get to the point,” Nyrunn snapped. “Where is he?”

“Hmm. Uh-huh, yes, well, that is... I know for certain where he is not.” Frode winced as the other elves shuffled back, looking in every direction but Nyrunn’s. “And he is not here. And he is not anywhere in this castle.”

The silence in the hallway was thick and heavy.

Nyrunn cleared his throat, his next words coming out slow and pointed. “You don't know where he is?”

---