Delia led me into a room that was dominated by a huge round table in the center, with a map of Celesterra carved onto the top and little pieces representing armies and palaces scattered across it. The room was filled with people, but I didn’t get a chance to see who before I was nearly bowled over, Priscilla launching herself at me. I fell back a step trying to right myself, laughing, as I caught her.
I caught Calix smiling at us from the corner of my eye, but my focus was quickly brought back to Priscila.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.” Priscilla gushed, her smile beaming. “Can you believe this place? It’s not at all what I had imagined!”
“It’s incredible.” I couldn’t help matching her smile, relief filling me at seeing her well. “I haven’t seen a lot yet, but what I have is amazing.”
“We’ll have to fix that shortly.” Calix interjected, smiling at the sight of our reunion. “We’ll take you ladies out tonight and show you the city, but for now, let me introduce those you don’t know.”
Calix cleared his throat and turned to the table, as Priscilla and I grabbed our own spots around it. I somehow ended up right next to Calix, several people helping to usher me into place in a whirlwind of movement. I only realized where I landed when I looked up, meeting his eyes. My lashes fluttered in surprise, and I turned to find somewhere else to focus before I embarrassed myself. I spotted Eris across the room, and she gave me a nod, a slight smile gracing her face to my surprise. I was worried that Emmie wasn’t here, and I feared that if she still believed herself in love with King Astraeus, we’d have a battle before us to get her to see sense.
“Asteria, you already know Eryx, my Intelligence Officer, my Spymaster in short.” Calix introduced, nodding at his friend. I smiled at the boyish looking Fae and gave him a nod in greeting. I could only imagine how many trusted that innocent face with their secrets.
“Yes, I believe I cried all over him already.” I told Calix wryly, watching in delight as Eryx’s face went bright red and the room broke into laughter.
“In my defense,” Eryx drawled. “I didn’t want to leave you alone if I could help it. You seemed like you needed someone.” His cheeks were still pink, and I couldn’t help warming more to him.
“Thank you, Eryx, truly.” I said softly, and he nodded in return with a blushing smile as Calix clapped his shoulder before continuing his introductions.
“I’m not sure you were properly introduced to Baach before. He’s my Master of Ceremonies—essentially, he plans all our parties.” The group laughed and the redhead in question rolled his eyes. I recognized the redheaded Fae instantly as the one who helped break me out along with Calix, Eryx, and Harpina.
“I’m also a warrior, not just a party planner.” Baach gave a flourishing bow, followed by a twinkling wink as he rose, and Icouldn’t help the laugh that burst out of me—his offended tone at Calix’s description was clearly a joke, but his dramatics were hilarious.
“And of course, you know Harpina. She’s my Constable.” Calix added. My eyebrows furrowed at the unfamiliar term, never having heard of the position before.
“I handle law enforcement for the kingdom.” Harpina told me, thankfully recognizing my ignorance. She smiled widely, if a bit wickedly, as she continued. “We’ll have fun tonight, don’t worry. We know just where to take you for your first night out! But first we’ll get down to planning.” She rubbed her hands together excitedly.
My eyebrows rose at Harpina’s clear enthusiasm for both going out and battle planning, but Calix merely rolled his eyes, leaning over a bit toward me.
“Harpina lives and breathes battle, it’s why I made her Constable.” He confessed, and I laughed lightly at his description—it certainly made sense based on what I’d seen thus far. Calix blinked for a moment at me before he cleared his throat and turned to the large Fae male I met in his tent. He was the same height as Calix, but much wider, and while I appreciated a muscular form, Calix’s was much more to my taste. Lean and muscular, like he was sculpted by the gods them—Old Gods!I needed to stop thinking about him that way.
“And this is Titan, my General.” Calix waved a hand in the man’s direction and nodded gruffly at me, but his lips tilted up briefly at the corner of his mouth before he caught it.
“This is Lilith. She’s my Beastmaster, handling all the animals from horses in the stables to the ones in the menagerie.” He nodded to a female Fae with long, wavy brown hair and eyes the green of nature itself. I could absolutely see her in the forest with a horde of animals at her back.
“Nice to meet you.” Lilith greeted me, waving, sedate but cheerful all the same. I returned the sentiment before Calix turned to a pretty blonde Fae with big blue eyes. She beat him to the punch before he could even open his mouth.
“I’m Ilta, it’s wonderful to meet you!” She bounced on her toes, a large smile showing off shining white teeth with tiny little sharpened canines, and where Calix’s were intimidating, if sexy, hers were honestly adorable. “I’m King Calix’s secretary. I help with all the sorts of things, basically keeping him on track. I’m so excited you’re finally here! We’ve been talking about it for what seems like ages now.”
I tilted my head to the side, confused. I glanced at Calix, opening my mouth to question him on what Ilta meant, but to my surprise, Calix had a slightly bashful look on his face. He quickly moved to introduce someone else before I could interject. Ilta smirked at Calix, not seeming to mind the quick rush past her introduction as she winked at my bewildered expression.
“This is my sister, Princess Liviana. She’s a seer, so she helps us with the visions she receives.” A seer, and his sister at that? She looked much like Calix, with the same silvery white hair, the same royal, beautiful facial structure with sharp cheekbones, straight noses, and plump lips. The only difference was she had luminous silver eyes instead of purple.
“I thought all the seers stayed with the Oracle?” I inquired, not sure exactly what the difference between the two was, but I did know that the seers were required to work with the Oracle. I was too embarrassed to ask those in the room for clarification.
“They’re supposed to.” Princess Liviana nodded, smiling slightly. “But my brother refused to let me go.” She paused, chuckling. “The Oracle couldn’t really argue with Calix when he threatened to hide me away forever—after burning her cavern to ashes—if they tried to take me.”
My eyebrows flew upward in shock. I knew the Oracle wasn’t someone that anyone, even royals, messed with. She was a direct line to the Fae’s gods. That Calix fought so hard to keep his sister, obviously spoke to how much he loved her. It was refreshing after spending so much time in Dusk, with its feuding royal family, to see royals who would instead go to extremes to protect one another.
“This is Callisto.” Calix introduced a woman with medium brown skin and black hair in tight curls that fell around her face and to her shoulders. Her eyes were nearly black as well, but unlike Queen Stelara’s, hers had a warmth that the queen lacked. “She’s one of my advisors and takes point on the Resistance.” That got my attention quickly.
“It’s so nice to finally meet you, Asteria.” Callisto gave me a broad smile, and while I was very interested in learning more about the Resistance, I again noticed that word:finally. What were they talking about? “We’re hoping you’ll be able to help us take the next step forward in freeing humans across Celesterra.” Her confidence in her role was clear, and she was clearly a fighter, a warrior, despite being human.
“It’s nice to meet you, truly. But—I don’t know how I can help with something of that magnitude.” I admitted, not able to help fidgeting under their collective stares. It seemed like they were betting a lot on me for some reason, and I didn’t know how much I could help beyond providing information on Cyrus.
“That’s why we’re here.” Calix spoke, leaning forward with his fists on the table. “We have made efforts to get as many humans out as possible across the realm, but it’s gotten to the point that the other kingdoms are now taking the attacks more seriously and beginning to counter us.”
His voice was hard, all traces of the playful Fae long gone. “We need to be careful; I refuse to risk my people’s lives any more than necessary, Fae or human. Prince Kian has been a goodally, but he’s limited in the help he provides. He has never been in his brother or father’s confidence, but my sister foresaw in her visions that the human Cyrus claimed would be the one to change everything.” His eyes cut to Princess Liviana, and mine followed, astonished to find out the gods had delivered a vision ofme.
