My eyes opened when we suddenly landed, and Calix put me on my feet. He chuckled, leaning down to kiss me softly. “Can’t let you fall asleep.”
I batted lightly at his chest, yawning slightly. “Your fault.”
“I’ll accept that.” He nodded with a sly smile before looking over my dress. “And look, not a wrinkle.”
I looked down, and sure enough, the dress was just as perfect as before. Calix straightened my crown softly, but everything else was perfectly intact, thanks to the Fae magic that kept our hair and makeup in place. It was a necessity when they tended to get wild at every party.
“Okay, now I need to get dressed.” Calix chuckled, and I rolled my eyes at him, shooing him away.
* * *
Calix came backto collect me, but by that time, I had worked myself into a panic.
“Asteria?” he called, walking into my rooms.
“Yes?” I called back nervously, wishing we could postpone this.
“Ready?” he asked, and I swallowed hard, not answering.
He came around the corner into my bedroom, where I was sitting on my bed.
“Asteria?” He tilted his head, confusion in his eyes.
“What if I can’t do this?” I asked, wringing my hands in my lap. “Not just this, but all of it? Being queen? What in Tartarus do I know about being a queen? By the Otherworld, I was a human a couple of months ago!”
“Asteria—”
“What if I mess everything up?” I continued, panicking more by the second. “What if they all hate me? What if?—”
“Asteria!” He shook me gently by the shoulders, and I looked up with wide, frightened eyes.
“Calix…” I trailed off, lost. Everything had hit me at once. All the pressure, all the things people were expecting of me. Where I had come from, and how little I was prepared for any of this.
He kneeled before me, taking my hands in his and squeezing. His eyes were kind and gentle when I met them, not a trace of panic or doubt within them.
“I know this is all a lot for you.” He began. “But I have no doubt that you will be everything we need and more. Not because you were raised to be queen, but because you weren’t.”
I cocked my head in confusion, opening my mouth, but he put a finger over my lips, silently asking me to wait.
“You have always been stronger than you know. You dealt with your magic and emotions locked up in ways no one else has ever had to. You were forced to grow up enslaved, despite what you should have had. You persevered, despite all the odds against you, because you refused to follow the status quo. You listened to your heart, and it told you that it waswrong. Despite everyone else telling you otherwise, you listened to that inner voice inside you, and you fought to get yourself out of a bad situation that everyone else told you to accept.”
My eyes started to water without my permission. The way Calix explained it sounded much grander than how I viewed it. I was headstrong and stubborn, and never truly thought about the consequences.
“That is why you will be an amazing queen, my réalta.” He smiled, and I was momentarily taken aback by how beautiful he was when he smiled like that. He was always gorgeous, but that smile—damn.
“You will never allow the status quo to continue if you know it’s wrong. You won’t listen to advice you know is bad. You will follow that golden heart of yours. One lit by the sun, that shines in the stars, and glows against the night. It will always lead you right. And the people will love you for it. You think they love me?” He shook his head.
“Those humans out there, they only love me because I abolished slavery. Something I only did because ofyou.” He took one of my hands he was holding and flattened it against his heart. “Yoursense of right and wrong was so strong, it bled through a bond that was blocked by magic and sunk itself intome. It’s one of the many reasons I love you. And it’s whytheywill love you, too.”
He lifted our joined hands and brought them to my cheek, wiping away my tears. I sniffed, leaning into him. Our foreheads met, and we sat like that for a moment as I composed myself.
When I leaned back and nodded with a slight smile, he tilted my head back for a quick kiss, then smiled, pulling me up with him.
“Now, are you ready, love?” he asked gently, and I smiled back, nodding.
“Now I am.”
* * *
