“Mother.” I greeted, giving her a smile before my eyes narrowed back on Soren, who’d drifted closer to her.
“How was the council session?” she asked, her lips pursing in aggravation. She’d tried for years, unsuccessfully, to get father to let her join the council, but he was convinced women had no place in such matters.
Precisely why he couldn’t know about Asteria.
I sighed, slumping into the oversized stuffed chair across from her as I ran my hand through my long, black hair, so unlike the shoulder-length golden locks my father prided himself on. Her sitting area had the two navy blue chairs we were sitting in, with a matching sofa currently left unoccupied. They were perfectly situated in the funnel of sunlight from the arched balcony doors on the far wall. The white walls kept the room feeling bright, but the gold columns lent it a stately air I knew my mother prided herself on.
“Father is convinced Night will attack,” I told her, still turning the situation over in my mind.
Mother frowned, leaning forward slightly. “That makes no sense, Calix has never dared upset the balance in such a way. What has brought him to such a conclusion?”
“Why don’t you ask him?” I snorted, and Soren glared at me. I turned to face him, staring him down until he lowered his eyes. Yes, he’d gotten much too bold since he began working with us. I had no issue with humans, just the ones who believed they had some sort of claim on my sister.
He obviously hadn’t taken finding out about Calix well.
By Hyperion, neither had I, but for much different reasons. I suppressed a shudder. Some things a brother just didn’t need to know.
“Very funny.” My mother’s lips twisted, like she wanted to smile and frown at once. “You know Aelius wouldn’t tell me anything. I’m forced to rely on others for information.” She gave me a pointed look, letting me know in no uncertain terms that I was one such other, and she expected me to tell her now.
“Truthfully, I have no idea,” I admitted. “But I get the feeling he’s hiding something.” That made her sit up straight in her chair, worry clouding her eyes. I was just as uncomfortable knowing there was something we were missing here.
“That can’t be good.” Mother stressed, picking up her drink from the wooden end table beside her and taking a sip of wine as she thought on the news. “We should hopefully hear back from your sister soon. I sent the letter off, so now all we must do is wait. If your father has plans of his own, we must get ours in order.”
The gleam in her eyes was familiar, one I’d seen often over the years as she raised me nearly single-handedly, my father rarely wanting to bother with his failure of a son. She’d spent years turning members of the court around to her side, getting them to abandon my father, all without him knowing. Preparing for the day Asteria was ready. That gleam told me she was plotting, and once she got going, she was a force to be reckoned with.
I let a smirk lift my lips as I asked her, “Should we not wait for the future queen to help decide how to move forward? There is much we’re still unaware of. And we don’t know how she will react to the revelation of who she truly is.”
“Exactly.” My mother sat back, satisfied as if I’d just proven her point. I raised a quizzical eyebrow at her, and she smiled back at me. “She will be inexperienced in these matters, Arien. We must guide her on the correct course.”
An uneasy feeling slithered through me. Based on every report we’d heard about Asteria, she was not one who would take well to Mother’s manipulations. The very idea of manipulating my sister was disgusting to me, but Mother had long been playing this game, and I was unsure whether she knew any other way now.
“Mother—” I tried to protest.
“Son.” She cut me off, eyeing me sternly. “Prepare a battle plan to present to her. We must be ready. Aelius is making moves we’re unaware of, and Asteria is now ready to take her crown.”
She stood up, draining the last of her wine. “The time is now, Arien. We no longer have the luxury of waiting.”
With that, she swept out of the room, her little pet following along behind her like the train of a gown as I narrowed my eyes at them both.
Something told me that when my mother and my sister finally met, it would be no less than two opposing forces of nature colliding.
Chapter Five
Calix
With my armyfinally arriving back in Tairngire, I was anxious to get an update from Titan and Eryx. I’d been doing my best to give Asteria the space she’d requested, but it was taking its toll on me.
Twenty-one years since my mark came in of waiting to meet my soulmate, plus the Nox-damned agony of trying to keep away from Asteria these past months… I could hardly be held accountable for my foul mood. I’d done my fair share of waiting already, and having her so close, yet so far, was what I imagined others felt when I inflicted the pain of Tartarus on them.
But I refused to give in. I wouldn’t destroy my relationship with Asteria before it even began. She needed space. Needed time.
And I needed to kill something.
Anything to get some of this—thisfeeling, out.
It was like everything I felt for her was being stuffed down and pent up, and I wanted nothing more than to let it explode.
But not now. Not yet. I had to do this right if I was going to have any hope of keeping her.
