I nodded—it still sounded a bit strange, but then, I was used to the nebulous Old Gods, who had no specific names or roles.
“The only part of night Nox doesn’t rule is the stars.That—” Calix smiled widely, eyes locking on mine. “Is obviously left to your namesake: Asteria.”
He led me over to the statue on the left, depicting the goddess I’d wished to know all my life. I breathed out, long and deep, examining her.Asteria. The goddess was depicted with beautiful, perfectly symmetrical features, wide round eyes and full lips in a heart shaped face, curtained by long, flowing hair. A body blessed with rounded curves, and only a light, clinging dress to cover them. I couldn’t help wondering where the sculptor had gotten their inspiration from. The goddess’s hands were out with her palms facing upwards, and little stars seemed to almost bounce in her hand—even in stone. Inexplicable wonder filled me as I devoured her likeness.
“We pray to all three here.” Calix said softly, like he didn’t want to interrupt my inspection of the statue. “The Blessed Trinity: Darkness, night, and stars.” I turned to face him, and he was watching me with a soft look on his face. His angular features, with his sharp cheekbones and strong jaw, made him fierce and stunning, a face you wouldn’t expect could contain such softness—yet he managed it. His eyes shined in the shadow of the forest, and I cleared my throat before I could be pulled under their spell.
“Why would humans convert to the Fae religion?” I asked, before I allowed myself to get sidetracked further. It seemed unreal to me when the Fae gods had abandoned us, giving the Fae immortality and magic and leaving mortals with nothing. As much as I’d always wished to know more about Asteria, the bitterness clanged through me. An ugly, uncontrollable type of rage that cut deep inside filled me at the thought of humans worshiping those who left us to our fates, at the hands of those like Cyrus.
Calix gave a long, tired sigh. “Because what you know of them is false, Asteria. What you need to understand first, is that humans are not native to this world.” He looked so earnest, yet his words made no sense. “Many, many years ago, the Fae sent the Wild Hunt to bring back creatures they could use as their slaves. Humans were found and brought back to this world. The Old Gods you pray to? They never existed here. They are whatever memory remains of the gods worshiped in the world humans originally came from, passed down for generations.”
All the bitterness and rage evaporated, leaving me a hollowed-out shell on the inside, nothing but numb in the wake of his declaration.
Calix grabbed my hands, squeezing them and bringing my attention to the fact they were trembling. My lips parted, but no words came out of my suddenly dry mouth.
“I know this is a—shock.” Calix said hesitantly.
I laughed incredulously, the empty sound foreign to my ears. “A shock? You just told me everything I’ve ever known is a lie. We’re not even from this world? How do you know this?” My words came faster and faster, hysteria spilling out in increasing volume.
I couldn’t comprehend the knowledge. I’d never been very religious, never participated in the few religious practices dedicated to the Old Gods my village had held, but still—knowing they didn’t even exist here? That we’d been brought here from another world, just to be slaves? That familiar rage roared back up in me. Swamping my senses until it was all I could see—light flashing behind my eyes and my blood rushing like a glittering firestorm in my veins.
“This is why we’re enslaved?” I demanded. “We were taken and…andbredfor this purpose by the Fae. This is why we don’t have immortality or magic. We weren’t abandoned by the “new” gods at all. They’d always been theonlygods here.” I laughedharshly, but Calix squeezed my hands once more, looking down at me intently.
“Yes, but you and me?” Calix growled, grabbing my attention. “We’re going to stop them from using humans as slaves, my réalta. I may not be able to return humans to whatever world you originally came from, but the gods of this land? They accept all, not just their children, and they will surely guide us as we dismantle what the Fae of millennia ago put in place.”
I looked up at him, witnessing his sincerity, his promise. This Fae, he wasn’t like the others—something inside me had known he wasn’t from the beginning. I had never trusted Cyrus, but Calix, it was all too easy to trust him. He had spent years freeing humans, helping them out of the terrible situations they’d been enslaved to. He was the only one worried about the balance. He was nothing like the others.
“Yes, we will destroy all of those who don’t agree with our plans.” I hissed, the ferocity in my tone so at odds with the otherwise silent, peaceful clearing. If the gods truly could hear me, they would mark my vow: I wouldn’t stop until all the humans were freed.
Calix slowly smiled, a vicious, malignant thing, like he actually enjoyed the bloodthirsty determination and fury blazing through me. His own inner monster coming out to play with mine. “Yes,we will. We will topple this world to its knees, and then, we’ll build a better world for all in its wreckage.”
My skin prickled, hope overtaking me like a fever at the picture he painted. I could see it, the two of us cutting a bloody swath through the kingdoms, until all those who would stop us lay in ashes.
“Now, come along.” Calix shook me from my imaginings. “What I have to show you will be worth stowing that rage in your eyes away for later.” My eyes widened, surprised that he could actually see the rage that coursed through me.
He laughed slightly. “Oh, yes, I can see it, I can see everything.” Calix looked at me intensely, his thumb coming up to trace along my cheek. “You are like no one I’ve met before. That rage, it’s beautiful, Asteria. It tells me you’re going to fight, and fight fiercely. You are…devastation, and you’re going to bring that fire down on our enemies.”
He was right—my rage now had a focus, and I would funnel it all into our purpose. Into seeing the Fae ruined as I liberated this world and saved it from falling to chaos. But first, I had to ignore the tension that sparked and burned between us as we stared into one another’s eyes, drifting closer to each other.
Calix looked down at me and the beautiful aurora swirling in his purple eyes arrested me. Moonglow hair fell into his face as he leaned down towards me, the singular braids on either side doing little to hold the full weight back. His hand squeezed mine tightly, dragging me into him before both his hands abandoned their current positions to grab hold of my hips, as my hands flew to his shoulders, feeling the solid strength of them. We were both breathing heavily as our bodies collided, and I let one of my hands snake up to his silvery-white locks, finding to my satisfaction that they were indeed as soft as they appeared.
“My réalta.” Calix whispered, his eyes sweeping shut as his forehead pressed to mine, and I breathed him in, night and fire consuming me. But reality was a cruel mistress, and it crashed into us hard, both of us remembering at the same time as the mesmerizing pull between us shattered. Leaving us hastily stepping back and clearing our throats. Calix looked at me, opening his mouth—only to promptly close it, turning toward the horses and walking straight to them. I took a deep breath, chastising myself internally, and followed.
We managed tojump back onto our horses and ride on without incident, and before long, we reached a spot where the path abruptly ended. I looked around, confused, but Calix was already dismounting. I followed suit, watching as he swung the hanging branches away with his magic. I was so jealous of that ability—while the royal Fae all had their own special powers that regular Fae didn’t have, it was that magic that ran in all Fae and enabled them to do things like move objects out of their way or summon what they needed, that I truly envied. And now I knew they were blessed with it because they were born here, children of their gods.
While me and my kind? Our ancestors were taken by the Wild Hunt from some other world, one likely without magic since we had not a drop of it in our blood. But I could still feel the magic around me, like a taunting caress against my skin, letting me know it was there to be used, if only I’d been a Fae with the ability to wield it.
“This way.” Calix smiled widely, before disappearing through the brush. I followed, stopping short as I cleared the trees. My breath left my lungs in a whoosh of air as I finally saw what he brought me out here for. Understanding why he wanted me to see this in person as I gawked in amazement.
“What—” I couldn’t even form a proper sentence. The Elysium in front of me…
An oasis stood before me, with what looked like a waterfall—only it wasn’t that at all. Those were…
“This is Nova Falls.” Calix told me, a proud, excited look on his face as he watched me take in the beauty of his kingdom. “It acts like a waterfall, but it’s made entirely of stars. They come into being at the top.” He pointed up to the spot where, had this been a waterfall, the water would have flowed over the edge. “And when they reach the bottom, they become nova’s, exploding intoa burst of color as they hit the bottom, creating the iridescent rainbow banding across the surface here.”
It was unlike anything I had ever seen—more magical, more beautiful, more entrancing. I followed the flow of what must be millions of shining stars as they cascaded down into a pool of—not water, I realized, but Night Water. The same Night Water that came from the Otherworld, only in a much larger pool than what the statue of Erebus held.
The stars twinkled into life at the top before falling in a glittering curtain and when they hit the water, they burst into a dazzling beam of colors—pink, yellow, orange, green, blue, red, purple, every color you could think of. It created an effect where a band, a prism of color was always there, floating above the water where the stars continuously fell and exploded into a supernova of color.
