“It’s okay to feel however you do, Asteria.” Harpina promised, wiping my tears away with a sad smile. “I just didn’t want you to take on that blame when it doesn’t reside with you. You’ll get your chance to make Cyrus pay. That I know. But humans all across Celesterra need you. Liv’s prophecy tells me one thing, that you’re the key somehow. And you need to think of all the humans out there that are being hurt, not just those in Dusk.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Harpina shook her head. “I know you were, that you wanted to free them all—but I don’t think you had truly realized how bad it’s gotten. Things are tipping more toward chaos every day, and the more it does, the worse those corrupted Fae get.”
I nodded my understanding, because she was right. The admittance that I wasn’t at fault for what had happened set something free within me—released a burden I hadn’t known I was carrying. And while Liviana’s prophecy still mystified me, if I was somehow going to free the humans, then I had needed this. This was bigger than my own vengeance. I would still take it, that was certain—but I had to keep the big picture in mind.
I thought aboutit the whole way back, and as we headed to our meeting, I was bolstered once more. My rage simmered justunder the surface, wanting to unleash. My mixed-up feelings of wanting to help all the humans enduring such torture across Celesterra, and my own fury over blaming myself for Cyrus’s actions, were difficult to sort through. I wished I could take my rage out on those it belonged to. Unfortunately, the objects of my ire were far away. For now. Planning an attack was going to be the closest I got today.
I stopped dead in my tracks upon entering the meeting room. When Eris looked up and spotted me, she smiled larger than I’d ever seen her.
“Emmie?” I whispered; afraid I was imagining things.
“Asteria.” Emmie turned to me with a smile. Her bubbly nature was much subdued, but I supposed that was to be expected after everything.
“You’re…here?” I hesitantly questioned, not sure what to make of it.
“I figured it was time to stop wallowing and time to do something.” She nodded firmly but my eyebrows furrowed.
“I thought you were angry we took you from King Astraeus?” I questioned, cocking my head.
Emmie sighed deeply, ducking her head as blonde curls fell into her face, hiding those brown eyes I hadn’t seen a light within for too long. “I was at first, but I realized what a fool I’ve been. I’d allowed myself to be swayed, let him get into my head, and when I realized, I was too embarrassed to face you all. I want to help in whatever way I can. King Calix says you’re planning to invade another kingdom shortly. I want to go with you and help.”
I raised a brow at her and looked to Eris, who nodded. “I trained her to protect herself when we were growing up. We’ll have to keep her out of the thick of the fighting, but Calix swore with our plans it’ll be fine.
I nodded; Eris would know her capabilities best. I’d been surprised when we began training that Eris was so good. When she told me her father had taught her to fight, I’d been insanely jealous. No one in my village would have dared such a thing. I had always wanted the ability to protect myself, but at least now, I could.
I gave Emmie a smile and laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re with us for this.”
She pulled me in for a hug and I sighed in relief. Knowing she was going to be okay was a huge weight off my mind. I turned to Calix and Callisto, only sparing a brief look at the former. If he wanted to ignore me, then fine, I had other things to focus on. Namely, planning this invasion into Sunset Kingdom and the rescue of as many humans as possible.
Calix avoided my eyes, but leaned forward over the table, hands gripping the edge tightly until his knuckles whitened. “You’ll notice we have several additions today. For those of you who are newer here, my lords and ladies join our ventures from time to time. Usually, they rotate who joins me, or sometimes two will come at a time, but since they’re all here for the festivities, they all decided to grace us with their presence.” He smirked as he looked around the table, eyeing the nobles.
“Except they can’t all join us on this mission. If something were to go wrong, we can’t have every single lord and lady of Night captured or killed.” Harpina crossed her arms, raising a brow at Calix.
“Agreed.” Calix nodded sharply. “While they’ll all join the planning, half will stay here. Aibek and Siria won’t count toward that number, since they’re from Dusk, it won’t impact the running of the kingdom.” Lord Aibek and Lady Siria both nodded in acknowledgment, and the vicious little smile on Siria’s face nearly made me smile—she absolutely wanted blood for what was done to her. Cyrus had targeted them and seento their capture; she deserved some retribution as far as I was concerned.
“Rhidian, Kyler, Aisling, Ciaran, Jasira, Polaris, Zillah, Sterling, Ndrita, I thank you all for your loyal service. It warms my heart the way you all seek to support me and the people of this continent.” Calix spoke sincerely, his eyes lingering on his sister. She smiled softly, giving him a small nod. I hadn’t had a chance to really interact with her yet, but the love between them was obvious.
“Sister, as you’re technically my heir should anything happen to me, you and Sterling will stay here.” Calix commanded.
Ndrita immediately opened her mouth to argue, endearing me to her immediately. “The gods haven’t chosen me as your heir, which means the power may not go to me should something happen. I should be there.”
“I need you here.” Calix shook his head. “We have plenty of people to go with me, but few who can run Tairngire with the authority you can as an Atarah Erebus. Rhidian, Kyler, Aisling, and Ciaran will join me, while the rest run things here.” Everyone nodded, except Ndrita who crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at her brother. My lips twitched in amusement, and Calix’s eyes shot to me for all of a second before skittering away. I would have thought I’d imagined it if I couldn’t feel the burn of his gaze so thoroughly.
“We’ll plan to hit Biarma after the festival. We’ll enter from here and here.” Calix pointed to two spots around the capital of Sunset on the map. Using his magic, the little figures on the map slid over to them. “We’ll have two main groups. The one hitting the front gate around the capital will cause mayhem in the streets. Save any humans who are willing and get them out.”
Heads nodded around the room. Callisto picked up the thread and continued the explanation. “That team will distract everyone, and the guards will converge on them, leaving thepath as clear as possible for the second team. They’ll enter from the back and sneak into the palace. From there, splinter teams will go and place the documents containing the intel Asteria obtained detailing Prince Cyrus’s plan to use blood magic and weaponize iron.”
Everyone turned to me, and I smiled wryly in acknowledgment. Hopefully, my information would convince Sunset not to ally with Dusk, but either way, we’d at least put plans in place to counter it.
“Asteria, Eryx, Harpina, Callisto, and Emmie, you’ll be with me inside the palace. With the distraction, we should only have a handful of guards to deal with, but every human will be paired with a Fae just in case. That way each pairing will have the protection of magic in addition to blades.” Calix looked at each of us as he called our names, but his eyes cut back to me for a moment after, and our gazes locked. I forcibly moved my eyes elsewhere—he couldn’t ignore me and then stare me down, dammit.
“We’ll split into three smaller teams. Each team will be assigned the room of either King Tieran, Prince Vesper, or Prince Zakat, and will be responsible for delivering the documents to it. We’ll meet back up outside the palace at our entry point.” Calix said, using his shadows to roll out the map containing the palace’s layout and place figures on each room we’d targeted.
“For those of you on the ground outside—shock and awe. Use your powers, use whatever you have. The bigger the distraction, the more time we have.” Callisto added, looking anxious for the task ahead. Nods and grunts of affirmation passed around the room.
“Asteria, you’ll be with me, and we’ll hit Tieran’s room.” Calix surprised me, and I whipped my head back to him. He was already looking at me, and I could see the worry in his eyes.He may have been ignoring me, but I knew it wasn’t for a lack of care, and my anger melted away. He was in an impossible situation, and I knew I hadn’t made things easy on him—I’d in fact made them quite hard, when he was just trying to do the right thing.
“Eryx, you’ll take Callisto to Vesper’s room, and Harpina, you’ll be with Emmie and take Zakat.” Calix continued when he tore his eyes from mine. “Ensure you’re back at the meeting point quickly—we won’t have time to waste.”
