Page 46 of Rift
“Commander,” Mirquios warned, turning toward her. “We have no idea how long we might be gone. What if Solaris uses this as an opportunity to mount an attack here? You can hold your own, but can you hold an entire city?”
“I don’t know,” she pouted. “I’ve never tried.”
“Lux has decades of experience in these things. He is a resource to you,” Mirquios insisted. “If you’re to be the queen of Mercury, you have many, many things to learn about the inner workings of our court. Lux has spent his entire life navigating it. He can teach you.”
Astra sighed. She hated a fair point. She unfolded her arms and nodded reluctantly, settling into this unfortunate truth. “Very well.”
“We’ll start with manners,” Luxuros whispered. Astra glared at him over her shoulder, debating if anyone would really blame her if she fired another spark at his arrogant ass. Nayson’s lips twitched into a smile, only fueling the fire within his daughter.
“Is every man in this godsforsaken court determined to insult me?”
“I’m sorry, darling,” her father hummed, pulling her to his side. “But the king here makes a solid argument.”
“And I conceded!”
“Tell that to your face,” Luxuros snarled, gesturing at the glare firmly settled across her lips.
Mirquios put up a valiant attempt to suppress the laugh in his throat, but he was unsuccessful.
“You know, I don’t believe the queen has signed any contracts yet,” Astra huffed.
“That’s true,” Mirquios smirked, reaching for her hand. “I’ve heard the Plutonian princess is quite beautiful. Decisions, decisions,” he mused. Astra softened at this, but her father stood taller, eyeing them as he spoke.
“Good luck with that,” Nayson scoffed. “Do you two know what denying a Tether does to one’s mind?”
Astra blushed. The same rush of heat raced to the king’s face. It had been easy to forget the lie their entire betrothal was predicated on. She frowned, swaying closer to him, mimicking the gravity she’d watched her parents cope with their entire lives. “You’ll watch out for my sister?”
“Of course,” he said, pressing his lips into the back of her hand. “Lunelle is family now.”
Astra nodded, grateful her sister would have someone of the same mindset in the foreign court. “Come back in one piece,” she whispered, placing a soft kiss on his cheek.
“Don’t destroy each other, please,” he begged, gesturing between Astra and the commander. Mirquios gave her one last smile before fading into the whirring mist of the Rift, dozens of courtiers following.
Luxuros leaned toward her. “Princess?—”
Astra held up a hand as she passed him, unwilling to entertain another word from him this morning.
“As!” Lunelle skipped toward her sister, throwing her arms around her neck. “I’ll write to you,” she insisted.
“You better,” Astra laughed. “I feel I’ll perish of boredom without you here.” Lunelle squeezed her tightly and then bounded off to Nayson, leaving Astra to contend with a cool gaze as Oestera’s eyes settled over her.
“I know you won’t stay out of trouble,” she said with a slight smile on her lips Astra wondered if she imagined. “So I won’t ask you to.”
“And I appreciate that,” Astra returned.
“But do try not to do anything that opens us up to a two-front war, hmm?”
Astra grinned. This was something she could adhere to. “I think I can manage that.”
Then her mother shocked her by pulling her into a hug so brief, so strange, that she was almost unsure it happened. She released Astra just as quickly, her breath caught in her lungs.
As Astra turned to leave, a strange devastation pooled in her chest, catching her completely off guard. She glanced around the gardens, sure something horrible was happening, but her eyes landed on a clash of color at the gate, plumes of peony pink longing and screaming violet fear.
Oestera and Nayson faced each other, their eyes locked, the buzzing feelings between so sincere Astra felt she needed to turn away as they prepared to say goodbye for perhaps the first time since they’d crossed paths nearly four decades prior, at that very gate.
Astra hardly made it back to her room before she fell onto her bed in a heap, the aching within her parents’ chests driving her to tears.
Chapter
