Chapter 26 Astraea—Past
Astraea—Past
Today she would tell Auster about her bond to Nyte.
Astraea flew to the Nova province with nerves eating away at her insides the whole way.
She didn’t expect him to take it well at first, and she was ready to do what it took to heal the pain the news would cause.
It was inevitable. But Astraea remained dedicated to him as a dear friend.
She couldn’t lose him over this, and that was what had kept it a terrible secret to harbor for weeks.
Auster wasn’t in his castle, and Astraea followed the direction of a few guards informing her he was in the heart of the city at a small orphanage. It was unexpected to hear he was there.
Inside, she was guided to a room laid out for the children’s school hours.
The sight of Auster sitting in the middle of a reading area with the attention of over a dozen young celestials on him stole her heart.
He read to them with the voice of a compelling storyteller.
She didn’t know how she’d never seen this side to him before.
He was a natural with children, making them laugh and marvel.
The room went delicately silent to hear his tale as he flipped pages, but it was bright with the imagination he pulled from the texts.
When his eyes flicked up to her, he faltered his next page turn.
“Don’t stop on my account,” she mused. “You’re getting to the best part.”
But story time was over when the children caught sight of her.
“It’s the star-maiden!” one gushed, scrambling to their feet, which set off the rest. They bounded over, some more timid while others approached confidently.
She cast a wince at Auster as she stole the attention, but he grinned brightly, setting his book aside and joining them.
“Can you make it rain stars?” A young boy asked her.
“Hmm, let me see,” she said, reaching for the key staff that was transformed to a compact baton strapped at her hip. “You’ll need to make a little space.”
They pushed their small circle around her back a few giddy steps, giving her room to twist the key between her hands as it became its legendary staff form.
The children ooo’d and ahhh’d, but when she tapped the staff to the ground, their joy erupted as a silver flare shot high toward the roof before exploding into a shower of stardust. The children ran toward the center, giggling and trying to catch the dissolving glitter.
“Sorry to steal the show,” she said as Auster came up beside her.
He chuckled. “I’m used to it. Your performances always outshine the rest of us.”
Astraea sent up another flare of stardust for the children, which kept them happily occupied.
“I didn’t expect to find you here,” she said.
“I visit from time to time, making sure they have what they need,” he answered.
“That’s generous of you.”
“It’s the least I can do. These children have no parents, some by tragic circumstances. They don’t deserve to suffer any more hardship.”
As she watched the precious children, her heart ached for them. While she appreciated Auster’s efforts, she couldn’t help but wonder how many were orphaned because their parents had been outcasted by Auster for losing their wings.
Just then a woman came bounding in, carrying a toddler.
She looked flustered, searching for another adult, and her eyes bulged when they landed on Astraea.
She came over, attempting to bow, but Astraea insisted against it, instinctively reaching her arms out, like the toddler might slip from the cradle against the woman’s hip.
Somehow, the tiny celestial ended up in Astraea’s arms, and she was stunned still, realizing she’d never held a baby before.
“Oh, thank you. I just need a moment; Zadkiel and Jack are going to be the death of me!” the woman screeched. Then she was gone as quickly as she’d arrived.
Bemused, Astraea didn’t know what to do with the baby that began grabbing at her. Clothing, hair, jewelry. Auster’s chuckle as she held the babe at arm’s length made her snap her eyes to him in a plea for help.
“Just relax,” he said, his voice coated in mirth as he watched her struggle.
Astraea held the child like the woman had, using her other hand to play with the tiny pincers that constantly wanted to grab.
After a moment, the feeling was quite special.
The small bundle had big blue eyes and soft blond hair, and her silver wings were so small Astraea’s heart squeezed.
She wouldn’t be able to fly until she was into her teens.
She bounced the child in her arms, feeling an infectious joy spread within her, the likes of which she’d never experienced. When she glanced toward Auster, he was staring at her fondly, and Astraea stopped moving.
“You would make the most amazing mother,” he said.
Her sparks of warmth cooled as her eyes searched the room, eager for the woman to return to take the child back.
“What’s wrong?” Auster asked, reading her shift of mood.
“I need to talk to you about something.”
“I’m all yours.”
She swallowed hard.
“Can we go somewhere private?”
To her immense relief the woman came rushing back, taking the child from her. The way Auster had looked at her moments ago churned the guilt she harbored over her bond with Nyte.
His expression slowly firmed, and she could hardly bear her racing anxiety.
The woman rambled to Auster while Astraea was antsy to leave. “Will you speak with him again? Zadkiel has been having a hard time here lately.”
Auster promised to visit again soon, and they left.
He pulled her to a stop by her elbow when they’d only gotten a street away.
“You’re going to wring your hands dry; tell me what’s wrong.”
“You’re my best friend and I can’t bear to lose that,” she blurted.
His expression turned guarded. Shit, how was she supposed to tell him?
There was no sequence of words that formed right in her mind. Every delivery was a bomb she would have to throw between them and hope they could survive the explosion.
“What have you done?” he asked, but it was like he already knew.
His features darkened in the way she’d seen his loathing at the mere mention of Nyte. He stared at her now as though the imprint of Nyte unveiled before his very eyes.
“I didn’t have a choice,” she scrambled, but that was a lie. Nyte might have forged their bond to save her but she’d known … long before then she’d chosen him.
Astraea shook her head, trying again. “I need you to listen to all I have to say. To try to understand.”
She gasped when he crossed the few steps between them and grabbed her arms. Auster pulled them through the void, taking them to an edge of a cliff overlooking his province as the sun was beginning to set.
“You’re not about to humiliate me where my people can hear,” he said sourly.
Astraea blinked. Her heart pounded wildly.
“You already know?” she asked in disbelief.
His eyes cut into her. “You haven’t done a very good job of concealing that vile mark on your neck.”
Astraea recoiled, backing a step toward the ledge. She didn’t know why. Auster would never hurt her … would he? She didn’t believe in her heart he was capable of it, but the hatred in his stare that lingered on her neck displayed a frightening side of him she’d never seen aimed at herself.
“Just let me explain—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” he cut her off. Then his expression completely softened as he took a step toward her. “We can fix this. Let’s go to the temple of Dusk and Dawn in Vesitire; they’ll know of a way to sever your bond.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you knew of it before?”
He avoided answering. “He’s a master manipulator with an ability of the mind. He’s brainwashed you and taken you against your will to spite me. I knew if I mentioned it you would defend it, but I’ve been trying to find a way to help you. The marriage bargain might—”
“Stop,” she said harshly. She couldn’t stand to hear another word, in complete disbelief over Auster’s conclusions.
Still, he approached her tentatively. His face held nothing but sympathy now.
“I’m going to make this right,” he said gently.
“Everything is exactly the way I chose.”
Auster winced as though she’d slapped him.
“We’ll go to the temple now.”
He reached for her and she jerked back before he could pull her through the void. Astraea’s parents were the last entities she wanted to confront with this. She had no doubt they had been seething since the bond with Nyte happened.
“If you still regarded me as dearly as you say, you would trust me. Once the bond is broken you’ll see it was all a villainous lie to corrupt you onto his side.”
Her bond to Nyte physically tugged at the mere thought of being broken.
She couldn’t retreat any farther as her heels slipped off the edge of the cliff.
“You’re wrong about him. If you were still my friend, you would let me explain it all to you. He hasn’t harmed or manipulated me. If that were his intention you know he could have caused far more destruction by now.”
“I am more than your damned friend, Astraea, I’m your bonded!”
Everything in her rattled at his tone spiked in anger. Did she truly fear Auster right now?
“Please,” she croaked.
This had gone so horribly wrong. She knew it wouldn’t be easy, but the fact that Auster had known about her bond to Nyte for some time changed everything.
“This is for your own good.”
When he reached for her again, she fell back, letting gravity have her instead.
Astraea didn’t fall for long, and it wasn’t her own wings that came out to catch her. The embrace she was cradled in was both an immense comfort and a terrible dread.
Nyte shot high with her, swooping around before landing across the cliff. Auster whirled to them with rage twisted over his face.
“I believe your problem is with me, not her,” Nyte said, darkly but calmly.
“Get away from her,” Auster snarled.
Astraea was torn. Auster truly believed he was protecting her, and that only tightened her guilt toward suffocation.
“It’s long overdue that we met, Auster Nova.”
“I’m going to fucking kill you.”
“Good luck with that.”
“You need to go,” she said to Nyte.
He glanced at her, his cold stare softening just for a moment. “I’m not leaving you here when he’s like this. I could feel your terror.”
“You’re the terror of these lands,” Auster spat. She’d never seen him so angry that he was shaking with hatred.
“I am. But never to her.”
“Lies.”
“I can see your denial spinning into madness. Just accept it, Nova: she chose me.”
Nyte reached to slip an arm around her, but a flash of blue accompanied Auster’s sound of rage and warning. The key quickly became a staff in her hand to repel Auster’s lightning, but Nyte’s starry darkness engulfed it first.
Then before she could intervene, Nyte and Auster became engaged in a vicious power struggle of lightning against darkness.
This had gone from bad to much fucking worse.
She had to stop them, but stepping into the middle of their storm would be deadly. Astraea growled under her breath, angry at the both of them for this display of dominance. Using her as the catalyst to unleash the feud between them.
Unglamouring her wings and conjuring a sphere of light around herself, Astraea flew between them before she dropped down, bracing to take full force of their magick battering into both sides of her shield.
The darkness swiftly eased, but the lightning grew stronger.
Astraea had to shift her legs, twisting her full focus to ward off the violent blue currents that snapped over her gale of light.
She didn’t want to hurt him, but he wasn’t stopping. Was he so lost in his determined hatred that he didn’t see her? Didn’t notice he battled light, not dark, now?
Astraea saw only one way to snap him out of it. She let go of her shield, taking the impact of Auster’s lightning, which slammed into her chest, projecting her through the air.
Nyte caught her, but Astraea could hardly feel him while her body seized tightly with the remnants of electricity sparking through her. It felt as though she’d held her breath for minutes, so when the shocks finally eased she swallowed air greedily, choking on it.
Nyte was muttering assurances to her, smoothing back her hair as she came around.
“Astraea, I didn’t mean to…” Auster sounded sincere, and she didn’t blame him.
She pushed up to sit and accepted Nyte’s help to stand. The wrath from him was palpable, and she feared they’d break into a fight again.
“You need to leave,” Astraea said.
Auster’s eyes turned desolate, but Astraea shifted her gaze, meaning those words for Nyte.
A muscle in his jaw worked. He said, through their bond, “I don’t think I’m physically capable of it if he’s still breathing.”
“I must speak with him. To try to make this right. He won’t hurt me.”
“He already has.”
“I let him.”
Astraea’s chest hurt with Nyte’s resistance.
Nyte let her go. Though he didn’t leave without pinning Auster with a lethal warning look.
“If you harm a single hair on her, I’ll burn this province to the ground before I throw you into it.”
He wasn’t helping Astraea’s case to acquit him of villainy.
Nyte lifted a tender hand to her face, barely grazing her skin as the void opened up for him to step back into.
“If I don’t see you in the bell tower in an hour, or if I feel even a note of fear from you again, I’m coming back for you.”
With that, the darkness took him away. Her heart strained to go after him, but it was also yearning to mend her shaken relationship with Auster.
Alone with him, she turned to Auster and it was like gravity demanded their embrace. Relief relaxed her. They could get through this. She believed their bond of friendship forged over many decades could survive.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he muttered into her hair.
“I know,” she whispered.
But as the words left her … she didn’t know if she believed them.
She’d felt his power amplify when it switched from colliding with Nyte’s darkness to contending with her light.
Astraea wanted to push the most horrible thoughts away, but it was like they fought for her to truly consider …
could Auster, the man she loved and respected, who’d been her close friend for most of her adult life … intend to cause her great harm?