I narrowed my eyes at her, then sniffed. “I’m no damsel, first of all.”
Her lips twitched, “Okay, but you did require rescuing. Twice.” Her twitching lips broadened into a full smile as I shoved her over. Harpina chuckled as she regained her soldier’s stance.
“Seriously though, what did you do to him?” she murmured out of the side of her mouth, like that would stop Calix from hearing.
His glare spoke volumes on the ineffectiveness of that plan. Harpina looked between the two of us before she stiffened. “Wait…”
Her eyebrows scrunched together and Baach meandered over as she looked at us like a particularly complex puzzle. He took the opportunity to drag me into him and engulf me in a hug, making me laugh as my feet left the floor. He twisted me back and forth, swinging me around like a child. But as a rumbling growl echoed behind us, Baach froze in his exuberant greeting.
He set me on my feet quickly, before his hazel eyes joined Harpina in looking between us both, searchingly. She seemed to finally land on something as she gasped dramatically, while Baach tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy.
“By the Otherworld.” Harpina’s words were breathed out more than spoken. “How? How is this possible?” Her eyes were wide and shining. In their depths, I could identify shock and certainly, but it waswonderthat truly filled them.
“It appears that when Asteria was born, someone went to great lengths to hide her as a human.” My head snapped over to Calix so fast I swore I heard my bones snap as well. His gaze was already on me. A complex mishmash of emotions hidden beneath the facade of an oh-so-serious king. It sort of made me want to shake him until his emotions came loose, but I knew that was a terrible idea for a number of reasons.
Completely different than the ones from just a few hours ago.
“You were always Fae?” Baach’s questioning tone broke me out of my concentration on Calix.
I turned to him, my mouth somewhat trembling as I forced it into a smile. “Apparently.”
He shook his head, some of his red hair coming loose from the tie he wore it in for battle. His eyes widened as his gaze shot to Calix.
“Wait, is she—?” He cut himself off, and the unspoken question hung in the air.
They’d all seen how Calix and I were drawn together. Half of them seemed to be rooting for us, while the others worried over his soulmate. The mate bond between two Fae was sacred, after all. Not to mention rare. It was considered a blessing for soulmates to even exist, let alone for them to find one another.
Calix’s purple eyes burned intensely. His silvery-white hair getting mussed out of place as he ran his hand through it. He looked to Baach, who was watching him with his mouth hanging open, “Yes, Asteria is my mate.”
Harpina let out a sound I could only describe as a squeak. She’d been the most insistent on Calix honoring his soulmate. Honoringme. The irony that she warned me away to ensure Calix was loyalto me… I could tell she was just as thrown by it as I was.
“A queen of stars…” Harpina mumbled, her eyes shooting to Calix, a wrinkle forming between her brows. His slight nod made her eyes widen. I knew starlight had burst out of me, but I had no idea what she meant. I was certainly no queen. Not to mention, I wasn’t sure how she even knew I had starlight, since it wasn’t a power I’d heard of before.
Fuck.
My emotions were a Tartarus damned disaster at the moment. I couldn’t delve into this whole mess until I figured out the rest. It was too large a—a—not a problem. No. A…thing, to tackle.
Baach went to open his mouth, a smile already growing, when I prevented him from speaking by doing so myself.
“I need to know who did this. And why. I’ve spent my entire life enslaved because of this.” My voice cracked, and my eyes fluttered closed for a moment. “It doesn’t make any sense. Why would someone do this to me?”
“I mean,” Harpina cleared her throat, “The kind of magic this would have required? Hiding you among humans? That says only one thing to me.” Baach’s nod backing her up made my stomach tighten with nerves.
“And what’s that?” I strangled out through my dry throat. Harpina gave me a look filled with a kind of sympathetic compassion that was near enough to break me right now, and I turned my face from her to Calix, hoping to escape it, even as her next words rattled through my head.
“That you must have been in incredible danger. Anyone who would go to such lengths to hide you, well, I can’t think of another reason for it.” I didn’t think it was possible to feel worse about this situation, but look at that! Apparently, anything was possible.
“It’s likely.” Calix agreed, nodding slightly. “We need to get home and check a few things, but I’m fairly sure I know where we can get you answers.” He was looking at me intently enough that I was sure he saw the hope that lit up inside me, like the stars within sat up and took notice alongside me.
“You do?” I nearly cringed at how desperate I sounded, and Calix softened, his face taking on a look I’d only ever seen trained on me. One full of many emotions mixed together. A connection between us that no one could deny anymore. Not even me.
“Let’s get back first. We’ll have time for explanations, but we need to get out of enemy territory.” I deflated a bit at having to wait for answers. Every part of me was screaming to demand he tell me now.
But I was already on the knife’s edge of another breakdown. So many things swirled in my mind. My state of being, my parents, Calix, and—and what I’d heard as I lay dying. All of it struggled for prominence in my mind and threatened to send me over the edge again.
And Calix was right. I wanted to be far, far away from Dusk. There couldn’t be enough distance between Cyrus and me.
But I could certainly try.
