Chapter 39 Astraea
Astraea
We flew to Zephyr’s province, hoping we could track down Drystan’s movements from there. After our escape from Volanis, my concern for him, and the others still risking themselves to find key pieces, plagued me.
Arriving in the Luna province, I marched right to Zephyr’s stronghold while Nyte had to find clearance, landing farther away with Eltanin.
Zephyr’s guards stopped me before I could ascend the stairs into his castle.
“I don’t think I have to announce who I am. Zephyr wouldn’t be pleased to have my arrival questioned,” I said to them.
They considered me for a moment, debating if they should yield.
“She’s right; let the Maiden pass,” said a voice I didn’t recognize.
He appeared through the doors, a striking celestial far younger than Zephyr, but his double in appearance of blond hair and ocean-blue eyes. The conclusion seemed obvious but … how had I not known he had a son?
“Judging by your surprise, I’m going to assume my father neglected to tell you about me or my sister. He’s particularly overprotective these days.”
A daughter too?
A young woman around the same youthful age—the early teens, I would guess—strolled up beside him. It was easy to see her mother, Katerina, in her features, so stunning a resemblance that it squeezed a fist in my chest.
“At least you get to go help at the sanctuary. I’m practically a prisoner in this castle,” she whined.
“I’m Raider Luna, and this is my brat sister, Antila Luna.” His sister whacked his arm because of the comment.
“I’m so glad we get to meet,” I said, walking up to them.
Raider and Antila were perfect depictions of a prince and princess, in their finery of white and turquoise.
“Me too!” Antila said in a chirp as she looped her arm around mine, guiding me inside. “Our father told us many stories about you while we were growing up. You’re like a fairytale come to life,” she gushed.
My cheeks warmed at that, but to know Zephyr treasured our friendship enough to tell his children about me also bloomed pride.
“I wouldn’t believe everything he’s told you,” I said lightheartedly.
“You mean you didn’t accidentally free a pen of chickens in Notus’s castle?” Raider inquired.
“Of course not,” I said, grinning with the memory. “It was entirely purposeful.”
Antila giggled. “Oh, please say you’ll come by often. I need to hear more about your adventures, and it’s so dull around here.”
“I don’t remember them all very clearly, I’m afraid.”
I enjoyed some fond kernels of the past, but with everything that was threatening my present, I didn’t want to keep feeling torn between two lives. One of failure and one with an uncertain end.
Antila pouted. “Can you try to convince my father to let me go out on adventures with you? Or him? Please, I swear I’ve been training and can handle myself. I want to help, just like mother.”
The young celestial was so innocent and precious; she harbored a bright new candle I couldn’t be the first to extinguish. So I smiled and her eyes lit up.
“I’ll try my best, but you know how stubborn he is.”
Antila squealed. “He admires you very much; he’ll listen to you!”
“I’m here to see him, in fact; could you take me to him?”
“Father’s not here. Mother says he’s been so busy with the sanctuary lately.”
My feet rooted into the ground on my next step, breaking Antila’s arm from mine. When she looked at me with concern, I quickly plastered a smile over my fear.
“Where is your mother?” I asked.
Antila glanced down the hall, and my entire body stiffened, but Katerina—or rather, Dawn—wasn’t there.
“She braided my hair this morning, then said she had a meeting with some lords,” Antila informed. She looped her arm through mine again, tugging me to walk. “Maybe she’s still in the throne room.”
She wasn’t.
Zephyr’s throne room was much different from Auster’s in the Nova province or mine in Vesitire.
His throne itself was made of glass like hundreds of icicles had forged together, jutting out at different angles.
The hall was empty, but I lost myself in the beauty of his stained glass windows depicting scenes of power and love.
Such as the one of a celestial with wings splayed and their sword drawn, or the one that resembled Zephyr and Katerina, joined hands clasped between their chests.
My heart squeezed at the thought of them. If Dawn had successfully taken on Katerina’s life, Zephyr still didn’t know about the impostor in his wife’s body.
I should have come sooner.
There were so many threads of this war pulling me in so many directions I couldn’t tend to them all at once.
The familiar blond hair and passive face of my friend entered the hall not long after I arrived, but in those eyes … I saw the Goddess of Dawn in all her wicked gloating.
“How lovely for you to come by, Astraea,” she greeted kindly.
I didn’t know if it was my grip or Antila’s that tightened. Raider hovered close to my other side, and though he was nearly a man, I wanted to grab both of them and run.
“Likewise,” I lied. “If Zephyr isn’t here, I must be going though.”
“Maybe I can help in his stead?”
My heart pounded as I tried to calculate how to get Zephyr’s kids to safety in case Dawn thought to use them.
“It’s nothing urgent. While he’s not here, I was thinking of taking Antila and Raider for a while.”
“Where?” Dawn asked.
I couldn’t raise any alarm with the fragile hearts beside me, unaware of the goddess who’d killed their mother and stolen her face. Zephyr would be able to explain it to them; I just had to find him.
Antila gasped, gripping me excitedly. “Yes, where?!”
I didn’t want Dawn to know where I was heading.
“To Vesitire for a while,” I decided quickly. I could leave them in the protection of Nadir’s home.
“Have you found all your key pieces yet?” Dawn asked. So deceptively innocent it sickened me.
That was another reason to get back to Nadir’s and reunite with the others. Perhaps the fates would be in their favor and the others would have all the key pieces. If I had my key right now, along with knowing Dawn’s true name, I could kill the goddess.
“No,” I had to admit.
“A shame. Time is running out.”
Suspicion started to reel in my thoughts. This was the second time I’d stood before Dawn and she hadn’t tried to kill me. That was her objective, wasn’t it? Did she need the key to do it?
“Best not waste any of it then,” I said carefully.
As I began to back away, the tension in my body only grew. Dawn was unpredictable. Her power in a mortal body unknown.
“Take care of my children,” she said in farewell.
My jaw worked at the blatant mockery she was of my friend. A protective flare for Zephyr’s children made me want to attack and figure out exactly what Dawn was or wasn’t capable of against me. But to spare Antila and Raider grief, I had to let her go for now.
My steps hurried though the halls, like Dawn might follow on our heels any moment.
“I’m not going to Vesitire,” Raider said. He stopped walking, and I glanced over his shoulder, antsy to be out of here. Raider crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes on me. “Something’s going on.”
Antila said, “This is an adventure! Stop ruining the mood.”
I crossed the few steps to him, begging with my eyes. “It’s not safe here for you two. Trust me as a friend of your father’s, please.”
“Then how is it safe for mother?”
My lips pursed as I tried to come up with some reasonable excuse to take them away from her.
I lowered my voice. “We won’t go to Vesitire. I’ll take you to your father at the sanctuary.”
Antila whined. “That’s not as exciting!”
I turned to her, mustering an enticing smile. “What if I said you can ride by dragon with Nyte?”
Her eyes flew wide. “Nightsdeath?” she whispered conspiratorially, checking the corners of the hall like he might emerge from the shadows.
Raider’s gaze swept around nervously too. “Is he as scary as people say?”
My mouth quirked at that. “He’s scarier.”
“Saying nice things about me, Starlight?” Nyte’s silvery voice caressed my skin.
A wave of relief soothed me as I saw him strolling toward us. If Dawn came back, these two youths now had more protection.
Nyte sensed my distress immediately. His smile slowly fell and he scanned the hall.
I said through our bond, “Dawn is here. These are Zephyr’s children, and they don’t know she’s not their mother.”
Nyte’s tension wasn’t subtle. “She’s just letting you leave with them?”
“I don’t think she has power in this form.”
“Then how does she expect to kill you?”
I was beginning to realize there were more nefarious plans that required the key than we were prepared for.
“The key,” I said.
Raider said, “So uh … are we going?”
Realizing how odd our silence was to them, I nodded, pulling Antila along this time, but she followed with a chipper step.
We made it out the front castle doors when we saw the most unexpected person walking across the courtyard toward us.
Drystan beamed when he saw us.
“Look who’s alive,” Drystan sang. “I mean me, by the way. A far more impressive feat when you see what I have.”
He wiggled a pouch that rattled with metal inside.
“We need to get away from here,” I said under my breath.
Nyte’s firm nod agreed. He said to Drystan, “Tell us on the way.”
We passed him in quick strides. Drystan gave a disgruntled sound before following.
“Good to see you, Drystan. How heroic you are, Drystan. Thank you for risking your life multiple times, Drystan,” he ranted to himself.
“It is good to see you,” Nyte said once they were through the woodland and heading toward Eltanin. Athebyne was here too. “How many temples did you manage to cover?”
“All of them,” Drystan answered with a gleaming smugness.
“That’s near impossible,” I accused.
Excluding the one in the Sterling Mountains we couldn’t reach after failing to secure the trident, there had been six more temples in Althenia for us to reach.
“Count them,” he said, tossing the pouch to Nyte. “And please, for the love of stars, tell me there’s at least one true piece for the shit I went through. There’s only one temple left in Althenia, which is why I came here. I’m glad I get to hand that last trial over to you two.”
Nyte pulled the strings loose, and I felt the pulse of the key as he did. “There’s one for sure.”
“Thank fuck,” Drystan muttered.
“Father told us about your key,” Raider said, his curiosity pulling him closer. “How many pieces are left?”
“We’re not sure,” I said.
I held my hands together to hold the pieces while Nyte pulled them out one by one. Drystan indeed had five pieces. It didn’t take long to distinguish the real one. It glimmered faintly and hummed against my palm.
“How the hell did you travel across Althenia and achieve all the trials in the time we were gone?” Nyte said.
It hadn’t been that long, had it? My hand hovered over my growingly fatal wound. Dawn was right: I was running out of time.
Drystan shrugged. “They weren’t that hard, but your key is a menace. I got tested with resilience, loyalty, truth, among other things. I am a saint at the end of this.”
“Of course you are, brother,” Nyte said.
“How was the underwater trial?” Drystan inquired.
Nyte and I shared a shameful look. “The trident was gone from Volanis. We think Auster got to that one first.”
Drystan swore. “Damn bastard. We just have to hope it was a fake piece and if not … how are we to know where he hid it now that he’s dead?”
I was awash with dread over the possibility that Auster could have acquired a key piece that would now be lost since I killed him. Nyte’s hand touched my back in consolation.
“We don’t need to stress about that unless it comes to it,” he said calmly.
Drystan asked, “Why do you have Zephyr’s spawn with you?”
My brow furrowed. “How do you know they’re Zephyr’s children?”
“He came by the castle a few days ago,” Antila said cheerfully.
Nyte and I whipped our gazes to Drystan, who looked at us, confused and defensive.
“You said Zephyr could help me, and he did. I wouldn’t have made it through Notus’s land to the temple without his help for a disguise and escort.”
“Was Katerina there?” I asked.
“I don’t think I would have made it out if she was. I thought I’d have to tell Zephyr, but he already knew—”
“We should get going,” I cut in.
Antila looked confused by Drystan’s words, but Raider’s eyes turned hard and accusatory.
“What is it you’re not telling us?” he demanded.
My mind was spinning. Zephyr knows about Katerina. Then how could he leave his children in that castle with the Goddess of Dawn?
“He wouldn’t if he had a choice,” I muttered aloud. Horror doused me.
“What’s wrong?” Nyte asked.
“We need to get to the sanctuary. Now.”