She laughed, a finger curling around her chin. “True love will make you indebted to all of us before the end. But having the word of a Goddess, even if she comes in a young form, is quite interesting to me. Very well.” She gazed out at the other Afeya on the shore, their eyes blinking in the night, watching me, giggling into their hands.
Ramia shook her head at me, the movement almost too subtle to see.
“Bring her to me,” the Queen commanded. “Now!”
“No!” Auriel yelled. But two Afeya materialized out of nowhere grabbing my arms and dragging me away from him.
Auriel followed behind us, I could feel him at my back and then he suddenly made a sound of pain as he was forced to stop his approach.
The Queen held up her palm, a shimmering silver light taking form as a Valalumir star.
I sucked in a breath. I still remembered the night I accepted my contract with Mercurial. The way the Valalumir had sparkled and shone. The blinding pain when it entered my body.
But that had been the Red Ray, the original light of the Valalumir. What the Queen offered was only a portion of her soul. Not the light itself.
“Lyriana, don’t,” Auriel yelled.
The Moon Queen held up her hand once more, and Auriel was silenced. She turned the star back to me, letting it spin and twirl as it floated above her palm, every bit as mesmerizing and dazzling as Mercurial’s had been.
Some part of me railed against this, my stomach turning in warning. But I couldn’t take my eyes away, nor could I back down. Not with what was at stake.
“Well?” the Moon Queen purred. “Are we in agreement?”
“That depends. What are the terms?’ I asked.
Her eyes flashed, focusing again on my chest, like she was seeing my contract with Mercurial, like she was reading some fine print I’d never known about.
“First,” Queen Ma’Nia continued, “you will fulfill your agreement with Mercurial. What I want from you cannot be done until his wishes are complete.”
My stomach turned. Shared goals, indeed.
“Then,” she said, “you will grant mine.”
“Another vague favor?” I sneered. But my skin was crawling with fear.
The Queen’s eyes narrowed, looking beyond me. “Shhhh. Calm yourself, Auriel.”
I followed her gaze, Auriel’s mouth remained closed, but his face was red like he was trying to yell and scream. He shook his head when his eyes met mine, full of alarm.
“I’m sorry,” I mouthed, and turned back to the Queen.
She smiled. “Vague? Have patience. I will tell you what I want, and what you will do if you wish to save your lover.” Her eyes flashed, a cat-like smile on her face. “Your most recent lover.”
My hands clenched. “Name it.”
She waved her hand, showing off silver-painted nails. She blinked, and they turned amethyst, then silver once more. “You, Lyriana Batavia, are going to do something we’ve all greatly desired for centuries. You are going to lift the curse upon us. You will remove the bindings that force us to bargain, that have forced us into a singular immortality for a thousand years. Unable to die, unable to start anew, to begin fresh, to live different lives, to reunite with our loved ones in the Celestial Realms.”
I blinked, for once realizing how immortality itself could be a curse.
“You want to be mortal?”
“Yes,” she said.
“You’ll be able to do magic still—any kind of magic you want, but freely?” My heart pounded with a warning. They’d have nothing stopping them, nothing to control the power they’d have, no way to rein them in. Until they died. Whenever that happened. It could be dangerous. The knowledge they had, the years of practice and perfection.
“We can do any magic we want at last, wherever we want and whenever we want. And … when we so choose, when our work is complete, we will wither and die, and be reborn.”
I bit my lip. “How long will you remain before that time comes?”
