I loved my job; I just hated him. Being General to the rightful queen sounded much better, in my opinion.
Still, I didn’t keep him waiting and stepped forward slightly, my hand resting on the pommel of my sword, securely strapped to my side. My golden armor shifted with me and creaked slightly. Bulky and impractical compared to the armor of the foe my father would have us face. I’d raised the concern time and again over the years, but he cared more for the appearance of fine, golden knights than ensuring those men made it off the battlefield.
A golden massacre waiting to happen.
Or maybe not. If what the boy claimed was true, Asteria might be enough of a deterrent to see the lives of our men, good and bad, saved from the wrath of Calix.
Fighting fire with fire wouldn’t work unless my father got his ass off his throne and into the sky, but that was unlikely to happen. Not when he preferred the comfort of his palace to battle these days. He’d rather leave it to me to handle, despite not believing me capable of it.
“Calix hasn’t attacked that way thus far, Lord Beltane.” I nodded to him, and his dark eyes were filled with a light of amusement. He never tired of the push and pull between my father and me. “He’s much more likely to move his armies over land, or fly.”
“And will you meet him in the skies if he does fly?” Lord Kem asked, shoulders back and eyes as green as the grass during the first blush of Pranvera, glaring at me with contempt. A little clone of Aelius, my father tended to treat him like the prince instead of me. His golden hair surely played a part, but more so the way he kowtowed to everything my father said. Kem enjoyed lording my father’s superior opinion of him over me, as if I cared.
His stupid square jaw was set as his eyes trailed up from my boots to the top of my head, the pure disrespect of his perusal of a prince only bringing a smile to Aelius’s face as he clapped him on the back.
“I’m much younger than Calix. My dragon won’t have near as much firepower.” I reminded him needlessly. We all knew what this was. Just another power play to try to make me feel inadequate.
I’d grown used to it over the years.
Since others believed me to be an only child and the prophecy my parents received from the Oracle clearly indicated an important heir had been in her belly, it looked to most like the gods had forsaken me upon my birth.
Of course, I was never the heir at all. That honor belonged to my twin sister, Asteria.
Even if they knew the truth, these men would think me weak for not being chosen over a female. They were fools.
It pained me that I didn’t know my sister enough to say who she truly was, but I did know this: she was no weak thing. She was worthy of the honor the gods had bestowed upon her.
“Of course.” My father sneered at me before turning to Lord Kem, who snickered. I rolled my eyes subtly, Lord Ergun doing the same as he shot me a commiserating look. “We will have warriors ready with ballista’s for Calix if he dares to fly over the border, but I highly doubt he’d leave his armies behind.”
The other lords nodded, and the meeting continued in the same vein, with my father’s snide comments about my leadership and planning how to head off any attack by Night. My father didn’t know it, but I was increasingly confident we had nothing to worry about regarding Night. With Asteria now aware of who she is, she wouldn’t attack her own people. I had to believe that.
Why my father was so sure Calix would turn his sights on Day, however, made me wholly uneasy. Calix hadn’t dared risk the balance between our kingdoms thus far. Just because things were escalating with Dusk and Night, didn’t mean Calix would attackus.
Unless my father knew something I didn’t, and considering his opinion of me, I couldn’t discount it.
After being dismissed with my final orders from the king, I made my way through the shining halls. The palace was largely gold, replicating the sun itself, as well as being one of our royal colors. It was broken up with splashes of white and blue for the sky, and purple as our other royal color, which at least kept things interesting. My eyes followed the filigree that ran along the top of the walls until I passed through the golden arch leading to the north wing where my mother stayed. My father slept in the south wing. Despite being mates, both preferred to be separated.
I felt a pang of sorrow for my mother. Finding our mates is something every Fae wishes for. My mother found hers, only to end up in a battle for the throne that would surely see him dead by the end if she got her way. A horror for any mate to consider, I knew.
But it was a sacrifice she was willing to make for her child.
Even through the sorrow and loss I felt for her—even for myself a bit, for what might have been had my father not despised me for what I represented—I felt incredible pride in her.
That she would sacrifice the love she was destined for, all for the sake of her child, was commendable. It wasn’t something many would do. Not when mates were the be-all, end-all when it came to love.
Her situation was sometimes a comfort to me. I may have never gotten a soulmark, but who would want one if this was what it led to?
Asteria was the other half of me as far as I was concerned. I didn’t need a mate to take that spot. But even my twin had been ripped away from me, and the blame for that lay squarely on Aelius.
I nodded to the guards posted outside my mother’s rooms, and they knocked, announcing my presence. I entered, not surprised to find the boy already here.
Soren had my eye, and not in a good way. He was obsessed with Asteria, even if he wouldn’t admit it. It went beyond whatever they’d once had. Something impermanent and shaky at best, but Asteria’s Fae allure had surely drawn the boy in without either of them realizing it. And now, he had deluded himself that putting her on the throne would bring her back to him.
Based on what Mother reported about their last interaction, about the things Soren hadn’t wanted to admit but eventually did, he had no chance of getting her back. Even if Calix wasn’t in the picture, a human was no fit consort for a Fae queen.
But my mother found him useful, with his dedication to Asteria assuring his loyalty. In this court, that was worth its weight in gold. The battle between my parents had torn the court down the middle, and vigilance was needed to ensure loyalties didn’t sway.
“Arien, my love.” My mother smiled brightly, her mood much more upbeat since the news of Asteria’s transformation.
