Page 14 of All the Chaos of Constellations
Her knees began to quake.
“Breathe,” Asher repeated through the bond, quieting her mind.
She inhaled sharply, but her bottom lip trembled.“I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can.”His eyes, dark gray and rimmed with gold, held onto hers, refusing to let go. He nodded toward her mother, the faintest of gestures.“Look at your mother.”
Novalise dragged her gaze away from Asher, blinking rapidly until the image of her mother gradually came back into focus.
“Now, go stand beside her.” Asher’s voice was gentle yet firm.
Carefully placing one foot in front of the other, Novalise walked across the dais to where her mother was standing. The furrow of distress lifted from her mother’s forehead, and she smiled, tilting her head back as the bronze constellations hanging overhead started to move, spinning in a slow circle until the whole of the evening sky was visible through the glass dome ceiling.
Novalise clutched at the bond, clinging to it as though it was the only thing that would keep her from drowning in an ocean of panic.
This was it, the one reading she’d been looking forward to for her entire life. Every breath, every decision, every moment led to this pinnacle of time. Her birthright and all that she was promised would be granted to her. She would take her mother’s place as the next Reader of the Stars. The magic coursing through her blood would enable her to forecast fates through the blessing of the sight. And her soul match, her mate, the one whowouldn’treject her, would finally be revealed.
Novalise rolled her shoulders back, determined to remain unflustered and composed. But a collective gasp echoed through the observatory. The hushed whispers and rising murmurs were too difficult to ignore.
Her mother’s eyes were glazed with uncertainty and darted all over the sky as she murmured a stream of unintelligible words.
“Mother?” Novalise reached for Trysta’s hand. Her fingers were clammy and damp.
“Lady Celestine?” Queen Elowyn stepped forward, layers of emerald silk floating around her like they moved in their own separate space of air. Glinting eyes of rich brown narrowed, latching onto Trysta. “Is something wrong?”
Not once in Novalise’s life had she ever seen her mother rendered speechless. Until now.
“No, no. Of course not.” Trysta glanced over at the queen, then looked upon Novalise, the haze of bewilderment suddenly clearing as though she was seeing her daughter for the first time. When she smiled, it was pained. “Novalise Starstorm Celestine, tonight the stars reveal the path to your destiny will lead you to?—”
Her mate.
Just please, say his name.
“Great change and heartache.”
“What?” Novalise shrieked and jerked backward, her gaze swinging up to the sky.
Icy cold fear licked its way down her spine.
She’d never seen anything like it. Shooting stars streaked across the heavens, a tail of iridescent colors bleeding behind them. Moonlight cut through the clouds like silver daggers. Stars tumbled toward the earth like flickering orbs, burning out and turning to ash right before colliding with the mountain peaks surrounding Celestine. Madness had descended upon the skies. The constellations were in chaos.
“This isn’t right.” Novalise shook her head, pressing her fingers to her temples. She squeezed her eyes shut. “This isn’t what I was promised. I was supposed to find love. This reading should have confirmed that. I can’t possibly?—”
“Darling.” Her mother’s hands wrapped around her wrists, drawing her close. Novalise opened her eyes and found Trysta staring at her, the age lines of her face etched in sympathy. “The stars make no promises.”
The admission went against everything she learned, everything she studied, everything she thought she knew about her magic. Novalise staggered back. “But mother, you said?—”
“Yes, yes.” Trysta’s tone was flippant as she cupped Novalise’s face with her hands, then ran her thumbs along the apples of her cheeks. “I know what I said, but the stars have spoken. As of tonight, your fate is sealed. I can offer you no more answers.”
“No.” Her voice was raw. “This can’t be right.”
Lost.
Everything was lost to her.
She could handle not becoming the next Reader of Stars. If she was meant for something else, then so be it. But she was supposed to wed in a fortnight, and time was not on her side. There was only one male she longed for, and he currently wanted nothing to do with her. The other lords of Aeramere who deemed themselves worthy of being suitors took no interest in her. They either wanted alliances and the reputation that would follow with claiming her as their own, or they were only interested in her for her magic.
Novalise didn’t matter to them. They weren’t invested in her as a wife or an equal, they viewed her as property.
