Chapter 40
LYRA
“He’ll go through if they don’t return,” Terran said as I walked into the antechamber, a circular room, its walls lined with floor-to-ceiling arched windows that revealed the breathtaking landscape of Aethralis.
I sat after finding Terran on one of the three plush cream couches, so named by the humans who’d come through so many years ago.
Throughout the years, they—along with much of the furniture in this chamber and items in Estmere—had been called many things.
It was the ever-evolving nature of their language, their ways, that those who valued permanence most cared for. And stability.
Like the Gyorians.
“I suspect you’re right.”
“And then?” I asked, not having been able to voice the question to the king.
“And then Aetheria holds a Trial of the Tempest to find your next leader.”
“Just”—I snapped my fingers in the air—“as easy as that? Will we replace him?”
“If you have no king, aye.”
I shook my head. “We said no more quips, but it does seem to me at times Gyorians are truly made of stone.”
“And you.” He moved closer. “Of starlight. Elusive. Beautiful. As opposite of me as possible.”
“I would like to think if I vanished, you might pause for a wisp of time before replacing me.”
He took my hand, making circular motions on my wrist with his thumb.
“You cannot be replaced.”
He said it with the same matter-of-fact stoicism as he spoke of getting a new king. To Terran, they were more than merely words. He said very little, if anything, he did not mean.
“I found it difficult, when you left,” I admitted, Galfrid’s advice fresh in my mind.
“I found it intolerable.”
Terran pulled me into him, his arm wrapping around me. Laying my head on his chest, I stared out the window, watching the night sky and marveling at how easy it was to sit in silence with him. Thoughts of our future swirled in my head, but for a time, I left them unasked.
The Gate was open. Our world was about to change once again.
Yet, for the first time since my parents left Aetheria, a calm—a safety—enveloped me. I could stay this way forever. As to that…
I sat up. “Can a Gyorian king partner with an Aetherian so soon after—”
“You ask the wrong question,” he said, cutting me off.
“What is the right question, pray tell?”
“Questions. Many of them. When should we partner? Do you wish to reside in my quarters or would you prefer a new palace be built? What will your role with Galfrid be, as I assume you will still have one? How many times a day can I take you and still fulfill my duties?”
I was still focused on the first one.
“You wish to partner?” I asked, the answer in front of me. The way he touched me, looked at me, held me… I had no doubt. Yet I asked because the turn of events seemed even more unlikely than Kael partnering with Mev.
“I do. I love you, Lyra. Surely you know that.”
I didn’t mean to laugh. “Only you could make an admission of love sound as if it may be a declaration of battle, if the words were different.”
“Oh, there will be one, for certain. If I tell you to get on your hands and knees for me, and you fail to do it quick enough.”
Oh dear.
I’d stirred the other side of him, and wasn’t sorry for it.
“The sweetest battle I could have ever anticipated,” he said, his eyes dipping down to the front of my gown.
“Outside the bedchamber,” I warned him, “if you order me—”
He grasped my chin, forcing my eyes to him.
“I would not dare. You are equal to me in every way, Lyra. Those are games we play, but not who we are as partners. I will be your king as much as you will be my queen. If you can accept living in a land very different”—he swept his hands out to the growing darkness, but I knew what lay beyond—“than this.”
I lay my hand over his fingers.
“I can accept anything except being separated again from the stubborn Gyorian prince turned king with whom I’ve fallen in love.”
His eyes softened, hinting of the Terran I’d come to know.
That he showed so few another side of him made it all the more to relish.
As he kissed me, Terran’s lips covering mine in a caress that was equal parts sweet and promising, I scooted closer to him.
Soon, I’d be sitting on his lap, but did not care.
So much would change after this day. Everything, really.
But not this.
Not our love for each other.
But then I remembered.
Pulling back, I looked into the eyes of one who had lost his father and now, potentially, his brother.
“How long will you wait?”
Sighing, Terran looked out into the night, only the stars, and not the mountains below them, now visible.
“Decades. Centuries, I suspect.”
He was being deliberately coy.
“Shall we join Galfrid? Ensure it remains open?”
“If it had not, he’d be here already, with us.”
Terran made no move to get up, so I took my cue from him.
“Galfrid mentioned being a bridge between our clans,” I said. “In answer to another of your questions.”
“Dell has been received much better than I anticipated,” he said. “Though as my queen, if any thought to disrespect you—”
“I would not win your clan over in such a way.” This would be like whispering to the dead, attempting to convince them of as much.
“You will do so, I’ve no doubt. But that does not preclude—”
The Gate.
Terran and I jumped up and ran toward it, the sound of voices unmistakable. Mev and Kael had returned, the former already in her father’s arms. Kael embraced his brother as well while I stood back, watching the scene unfold.
They were dressed differently than when they’d left, their clothing more similar to when Mev had first come through the Gate. Though it was jarring to see Kael in such attire, Mev appeared less conspicuous.
“How long has it been?” Terran asked.
Mev looked at her partner. “A week perhaps.”
“Where is she?”
That, from Galfrid.
“We tried to get her to come,” Mev said.
“Jon Harrow helped us get back to the States. Clara had just returned and told my mother what had happened, but thankfully, it had only been a few days earlier. Not that Mom wasn’t freaking out.
I won’t say she didn’t believe Clara, or me, especially after meeting Kael.
But she was definitely freaked out.” Mev looked up at the king, sadness etched in every line of her face. “She just doesn’t remember.”
Terran winced.
Of all the tragedies Balthor caused, this was one of the worst. Stealing someone’s memories was an atrocity.
“Mom begged us not to come back. She traveled as far as York with us, even met Jon. But in the end, she was just too scared. Not that I blame her. Being back made me realize how insane the whole thing is, almost like it was a dream.”
My heart broke for the king. To come so close to being reunited with the woman he loved…
“We told Jon not to allow anyone else through if the Gate stayed open,” Mev said. “Which it seems to be doing. So that’s good news, right? Maybe we can convince her…”
Galfrid wasn’t listening any longer. He walked toward the antechamber, leaving the four of us alone.
“I’m glad you got to see her,” I said to Mev. “And your friends.”
“Thank God Clara didn’t tell anyone besides my mom. The worst was trying to explain why I went MIA to my boss. I told him I got sick in England and lost my phone. I’m pretty sure he thought I’d lost it. But at least I was able to tie up loose ends and not leave him totally hanging.”
Tie up loose ends.
Mev had never talked about what she would do, permanently, if the Gate reopened. Getting back to make sure her mother didn’t worry had been her only concern.
“Does that mean—”
“We’re staying here,” she said, looking up at Kael, who was clearly pleased. “This is my home. When I went back, I felt like a visitor. Like this is where I was meant to be.”
“If she wanted to stay, we would have,” Kael said. “Maybe if the Gate stabilizes, remains open like it was, we could go between our worlds.”
But in the meantime, she was staying. I was so pleased, I hugged her and Mev squeezed me back, whispering, “Thank you,” into my ear. She’d already thanked me more times than was necessary.
“We’re glad to have you,” I said, pulling back and glancing toward the antechamber.
Mev’s shoulders sank. “We tried. She came so close, but in the end… just couldn’t do it.”
“What will he do?” Terran asked.
It was well known kings, or queens, did not go through the Gate. Even when it had been open for centuries, there had been a fear something could happen to make the portal impassable. Especially now, when it was still considered unstable…
“I don’t know,” Mev said. “But Mom is going to stay in York for a bit, just in case.”
The rest of her words were unspoken but we understood the implication.
Would he do it? Galfrid loved Mev’s mother dearly, but he loved his clan and kingdom too. It was much to risk, leaving Aetheria without a leader.
Without warning, the king re-entered the chamber.
“Terran,” Galfrid said, his tone grim. “One of my men just brought a message from Dell. Word of the Gate’s opening has begun to spread already. Loyalists to your father are gathering in the lower quarter. They claim the Gate is proof of Aetherian meddling… that your rule is illegitimate.”
Lyra felt Terran stiffen beside her. His hand brushed hers, only briefly, but she read the vow in his eyes: he would have kept his promise to her tonight if he could.
But his duties, for now, lay elsewhere.