I reached up, feeling for my neck. Blood came away on my hand, but no wound greeted my searching fingertips. The skin was smooth. Unblemished.
What. Was. Happening?!
I looked up, seeing Calix frozen as he watched me, paralyzed from a storm of fear and shock, but I couldn’t focus on that. Not as I realized—as I realized I could now feel so many differentthings. That nebulous feeling I always felt—my skin feeling too tight, my body wanting to take up more space—that feeling had been correct all along.
Iwasbeing held inside a too tight shell. My skin never fit me right because itwasn’tright. Feeling like there was something always just out of my reach…
I didn’t want to believe it. Because it meant that everything I knew about myself was a lie. True panic started to take root, clearing its way through the shock and confusion andawe—
I couldn’t lie to myself. I knew now what it was that had been locked up inside me, screaming to get out as it rattled its cage…
Magic.
Magic flooded through my body. I couldfeelit. It was a riotous force within me. Too long held back, it had finally snapped its chain—and now bared its fangs.
I raised my hand as I noticed the magic crackling at my fingertips. I brought my hand in front of my face and cocked my head to the side as I took it in, the bright light that had washed over me whenever it had held back the magic,mymagic, all this time had broken—that light was now playing over my fingertips. Like it couldn’t help but play now that it was free.
It was beautiful, like millions of little stars dancing around my fingertips. Flitting around one another in a swath of sparkle, like I’d shaken the night sky upside down and dumped the stars out of it and onto my hands. Just like in my dreams, I realized with a jolt. Starlight infused my hands then, making them glow in the darkness.
It wasreal. I gasped in a breath—it was all real. Whatever had held back my magic when awake, it didn’t affect me as much at night, allowing me eventual access to it. Allowing me to bring stars to my command.
Wonder and awe crashed together with desperate panic and more confusion than I’d ever felt.
It was then I noticed the other changes in me. My skin, the faint illumination—it wasn’t just the magic. Or maybe itwasand that was why all the Fae had that slight illumination to their skin when one looked closely. Either way, the illumination traveled past where my new magic played, continuing up my arm, to my chest—
“Asteria.” Calix’s breathy exhale sounded a million miles away, even as I yearned to go to him. To look into those purple eyes and find a port in this storm.
But I couldn’t.
I could feel the tremble in my hand as I lifted it. Bringing it to my ear, I started at my ear lobe and gently ran it upwards. Up, and up—and where a smooth, rounded top used to be—a pointed tip met my fingertips.
The world seemed to tilt and shift. Everything I once knew about myself crumbled to stardust. My breathing picked up in panic as I faced the reality of what was happening. It didn’t make sense. Icouldn’tmake any sense of it despite what was happening. I knew what this was, what I was. But it couldn’t be, it wasn’t possible. And yet—I knew it was undeniable. The feeling like I was stuffed into too tight skin was gone. The wrongness I always vaguely felt, like I was smothered and suffocating in some nebulous way—It was gone too. Everything clicked into place with heart wrenching awareness.
Fae.
“I’m Fae.” I breathed out, looking up and connecting with those purple eyes I dreamt of, my breathing too quick and on the verge of hyperventilating. But once my eyes locked on Calix’s, it felt like something snapped and then locked into place.
His eyes were wild, looking at me so intensely, like he had never seen anything so astounding in all his long life. His silvery white hair swished around his face as he moved quickly, kneeling before me, and taking my face in his hands. His eyesroved my face like it might disappear from right in front of him. His fingers stroked my cheeks with a heartbreakingly gentle wonder.
“You’re more than that, my réalta.” Calix murmured, and his voice still sounded like he was out of breath. Like his awe, his surprise at what was occurring had stolen the breath from him. His eyes shined brightly, water building up in them as they fluttered closed for a moment, only to open quickly so he didn’t miss a moment.
The feeling of—ofhome—of safety and love and life, like darkness and stars made manifest, filled my lungs. All of it hitting me as Calix looked into my eyes.
When he opened his mouth, I didn’t think anything could shock me more than the discovery that I’m actually, somehow, in some way I couldn’t fathom—Fae—mere moments ago. But what I was feeling between us, some instinct I always followed where he was concerned, told me what was coming would change my life forever—and I could barely handle what was already happening. Part of me wanted to cover his mouth and stop the words I could already feel in my bones.
In mysoul…
But speak he did, his whisper full of wonder and happiness—heartbreaking relief.
“You’re my soulmate, Asteria.”
And I could only crumble.
Chapter 41
Queen Aurelia Earendel of Day Kingdom POV
Sittingamong my ladies in waiting, listening to them chatter about nonsense, like who will marry who, I nearly rolled my eyes. Thank Hyperion, I had much more decorum than that. But still, I wished to tell them marriage wasn’t all it was made out to be.
