Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
The large party concluded its inspection of the city, finding Avarice with minor disrepairs after the jump across systems and dispersed.
Elnath and the greater Asterism, aside from Tala and Aela, would stay in Avarice until sanctioned visits for more celestials were secured between the two neighboring starcities.
Arche was coming along as well, though the invitation had only been extended to Tarek, his Adjacent, and his intended.
An attendant entered Aela’s rooms and blinked at the wall of trailing vines that brushed the smooth stone floor.
He cleared his throat. “The Prime Apparent has requested that you join him to meet with the other Houses,” he announced into the room.
“I sent a dress ahead,” he added, a question edging his voice.
“Thank you,” Aela called. The attendant let her know he would wait outside to escort her.
Grimacing to herself, Aela uncoiled from her nest on the ground, once again surrounded by piles of books, star chart scrolls, blankets, forgotten cups of tea, and pillows tossed about the floor.
After the city tour, Aela had come back to her quarters to freshen up before diving back into her futile research.
Pulled by the Theora sky, Aela glanced toward her open windows. Gone were the Aurora Sisters, left behind when Avarice traveled across the realm in a rainbow of light. What greeted her now was a pale haze that leaked into the night, coming from the neighboring starcities.
Rolling her shoulders, she swiped the white garment left for her off the table and walked through her bedroom and bathing suite.
Placing the ivory dress on the counter in the middle of her closet, she turned back and glared at the door frame leading into the bathroom where Tarek had her pressed against the wall the previous night.
“I should never have let it get that far.”
Aela had felt a shift between them before the destruction of Prente.
Tarek had been more affectionate toward her, and she was finding it increasingly difficult to fend him off.
Banishing thoughts of him crowding against her and his hot breath laced with strong drink, Aela faced herself in the standing mirror along the wall.
Her complexion had paled considerably during the six months she had been in Avarice, more to do with the lack of direct sunlight—or lack of freedom.
Foregoing cosmetics, Aela applied a few drops of floral oil to the ends of her hair and raked the rest through her ashy tresses, then slipped on heeled shoes and stepped into her dress for the meeting.
Ever one to make a grand entrance, Tarek ensured they were the last House to arrive for the Primary meeting. It seemed Tarek had instructed the attendant, who led Aela to the traveling rings in the Taureon palace, to dress her in white to match him.
Aela nodded her thanks to the attendant who bowed themselves away once they reached the traveling rings.
Waiting for her were Tarek and Tala, who each looked brilliant, dressed in all white.
The shared cool ebony tone of their skin provided a striking contrast to their unblemished attire, accented with gold.
Aela’s own dress, though lovely, was more revealing than Tala’s ensemble, showcasing the golden leg jewelry from the high slits in the skirt and a scooping neckline that revealed the tops of her breasts.
Tala wore one of the flowing pantsuits she favored, and her perfectly coiled hair reached her waist, the lavender highlights interspersed throughout glimmering among the black curls.
A white cape draped from golden bull horns upon Tarek’s wide shoulders.
Aela pursed her lips and ran a hand down her abdomen.
Everything was a power play. And it was past time for her to enter the game.
Arche rushed from a hall branching from the junction with the traveling rings. “Sorry I’m late,” he called, his disheveled hair beyond any state of grooming. He ran his fingers through the auburn strands and gave Aela a tight smile.
Proxima arrived next, traveling from Theora in a flash of blue light to escort Tarek and his retinue into her city.
Arche, Fates bless him, had filled Aela in on what to expect in the Primary meeting before the failed heist—which still went largely unaddressed.
The rebellion had gone quiet in the wake of the sacrificed separatists.
Aela hadn’t heard much from Tabitha other than that she was alive and that she should not trust anyone while she was away from Avarice.
Zosma had been detained, and Aela hadn’t had the chance to get to him before she had to go to Theora.
Freeing him was the first order of business she’d see to when she got back to Avarice.
The Sagittarius Heir passed through the traveling rings first with Tarek and Tala. Arche and Aela waited with the Taureon’s honor guard of sentinels, then teleported through the traveling rings. A flash of blue light and a hum later, and Aela was once again in foreign territory.
A devious smile spread across Arche’s face as he glanced down at her. “Perk up, Starling.” He nudged her playfully with an elbow, then reached out to steady her. The stilted shoes Tarek insisted she wear pinched something awful and would be the death of her.
“You’re free of the city,” Arche supplicated, noting Aela’s void expression.
As she shared a look with her friend, his mirth faltered. “Does it count as freedom if you’re constantly under guard and traipsed from one prison to the next?”
Arche’s lips quirked in understanding. “Well, regardless of our shared imprisonment, I will aim to be by your side during all this nonsense,” he said.
Soft white walls and slate-gray stone welcomed them upon exiting the traveling rings in Theora.
Tarek and Proxima led the Taurus delegation with their heads close together, discussing the agenda and various House affairs other than the Primary meeting.
The curved walls lacked art and potted plants; the hollowed building served a solely utilitarian function.
Arche had said the Sagittarians were infamous for their social events, yet the sensible lack of decoration in their hovering outbuildings reserved for official matters fell short of their acclaimed fiery nature.
Arche winked at her before assuming his place in Tarek’s inner circle beside Tala.
That left Aela to trail with the approved number of sentinels—a reprimand in the form of an invisible boundary that divided the celestials in order of importance.
Only the distance Tarek placed between them had the opposite desired effect.
From what Aela had learned of the Senate and what general stardom had become during her time Set within the sky, everyone was a bit touchy about celestials roaming into other Houses.
It made them nervous, which Aela found preposterous.
By staying confined to their Houses and limiting contact through particle screens, Senate meetings, or rare permitted in-person neighboring, the Houses were far too isolated.
Over time, it had made them wary and distrusting of their fellow celestials, despite the brokered peace.
“Your guest quarters are being prepared,” Proxima said to Tarek.
“They’re not ready?” Tarek asked.
“We only prepared two rooms, so we are moving you to a different set of rooms to accommodate your Third,” Proxima explained.
“We’re not staying in Avarice?” Aela whispered to Arche, who shook his head, falling back to walk beside her.
“No, the Primary Stars will all stay here in the meeting place with their retinues. If the initial meeting goes well, the formality might relax a bit, and we can come and go as we please for however long we neighbor, but if it doesn’t…”
Arche trailed off, the rest of what he left unsaid hinging on how the meeting between the most powerful beings in the realm would go.
“That seems like a lot to trust Tarek with. You think he can keep his composure?” Aela muttered under her breath.
Arche nudged her, his eyes flaring in warning, though his lips forced back a smile. She rolled her eyes.
Aela studied Tarek’s towering form in front of her and the tightness between his shoulder blades.
She was na?ve if she thought Tarek wouldn’t revisit her disappearance to Prente.
After all these months at his side, she had learned his tells.
She knew his lack of reaction was the calm before the storm, his rage a tempest to rival her own just beneath his carefully curated mask.
She had exposed a weakness by temporarily leaving him.
If he couldn’t control his bonded, he couldn’t control his court, his House.
They arrived at the meeting room, and the Taurus Heirs paused before a set of open doors.
A pair of Sagittarian sentinels stood on either side, holding spears not unlike the one Zosma carried.
However, these spears had flames that danced on the tips of their crystalline blades.
Proxima entered first, then Tarek and Tala, followed by Arche, leaving Aela to enter last. She paused at the threshold of the room.
Primary Stars waited within, representing the other surviving constellations of the realm: Gemini, Virgo, Aries, and Sagittarius.
If they were in Avarice, Aela would have expected Tarek to pull her to his side, displaying her on his arm like the glamorous power source he wanted her to be.
But it seemed Tarek was content to dole out a silent punishment to her instead.
Tarek didn’t like things he couldn’t control, and Aela was proving to him with more frequency that she was not the lost, submissive star he once believed her to be.