Hyperion frowns.But now you’re here.You can do it.Won’t he be surprised when we tell him youcoulddo it after all?
I doubt Asteria will want a two-affinity freak like me.She doesn’t have to,I say.She didn’t know that I was Azar and Axel.I can’t help thinking about her surprise earlier, when she called me—as Axel—an idiot.Hyperion’s a better choice.
Not for me,Asteria says.I’m happy to fulfill your father’s wishes.
3
Axel
As I prepare for my wedding, I can’t help thinking how strange my life has become.The last thing I remember, I was leaving for Earth, tasked by my father to finally fulfill the prophecy that’s been hanging over me since my hatch.
I was going to locate the heart, wrest it away from the earth children, and return it to our people.
Everyone would rejoice.
My father would finally be proud of me.I’d have a place.I’d be what he needed—what everyone needed.Only, that’s not what’s happened at all.I’ve been on Earth for months, and I’ve made no progress.
No heart.
No conclusive evidence of where they’ve hidden it.
Earth children—humans, as they call themselves—are all trying to kill us.Earth blessed have become suddenly powerful, but my secret’s also been outed.
I still can’t believe that I divulged it myself, voluntarily, in an attempt to protect ahuman.A very strange human with wings.A human I both hate and...am fascinated with against my better judgment.
There’s still nothing but a blank spot where my memories should be.
The news of my dual affinities rocketed through the ten thousand blessed here, but so far no one has done anything about it.At least, not yet.Hyperion has barely even talked about it.All of our people are gathering now, preparing to herald my wedding and mating ceremony with Asteria, the princess of the strike blessed, sent to help create the first blessed egg since we left Earth.
At least, we hope.
I’ve known this day was coming my entire life.
I never dreaded it.
Asteria’s beautiful.She’s elegant and smart, and she listens.I can’t think of a single blessed I’d rather mate with—our children would be powerful and strong.They’ll be fit leaders one day, when she and I can’t rule any longer.It’s smart.It’s what my father wants.And it’s what I want—mating with her, producing a successful egg—it would cement my place as my father’s heir.
Still, for some reason, I keep thinking about the winged human.
I shake away the stray thoughts and focus.
I only have a handful of decisions to make.When blessed marry, there’s a ceremony with a very particular set of promises, and then we dance in the sky.It’s beautiful, and when powerful blessed wed, the blessed all celebrate the union along with them.The air above Iceland will soon be replete with winged blessed, trumpeting their best wishes.
The ocean below will churn with water blessed, and the earth blessed will probably celebrate more than any other.It’s not every day that one of their kind mates with a strike blessed.Actually, I’ve never heard of such a thing.Though since I’ve been alive, only the earth blessed have successfully reproduced, and since they can’t fly, their mating’s a lot less exciting and beautiful.
But now the earth blessed do have wings.
Which means I need to decide how I’m going to marry Asteria—in which form.I’m analyzing the reasons for each when Gordon interrupts me.
Again.
You have to free them.Gordon’s obsessed.He’s being more obnoxious than I ever recall him being, about anything in the past few centuries.
Yes, you do.Rufus has been just as bad.
They don’t even seem to be scared that I’ll melt them.You do know I’m not just Axel.I may be in my earth blessed form now, but only because I’m debating what form to take for the ceremony.I’d like to show the others in a very real way that I’m both, and what better way to do it than as Axel?
On the other hand, Azar’s a more impressive sight, and he flies faster.Not a lot faster, but enough that it’s noticeable.It would be embarrassing if Asteria outflew me at our very first mating.
