Estrella
"What more is there to do, truly?" I ask. "I am dressed, my hair is done, my shoes are chosen."
"Jewelry!" Candace lifts a glittering box with a grin. The sleeves of her pure-white dress still droop so low they nearly drag on the floor.
"There's nothing to decide." I slump in the chair in front of the mirror. "I am going to wear my mother's lucky earrings and the bracelet Queen Raven gave me a few days ago."
Tess rubs my shoulder. "No necklaces? And you don't have to wear only one bracelet."
I glance at the armful of bangles she added during the brief break in fluttering over me they took to put on their dresses. "Is that so?"
She laughs and rattles them on her bare arm. Despite the weather here, she wears the traditional simple, sleeveless white robe from home. "I understand you chose all three of us to be your moon maids, but surely, I need something to make me stand out. The other two are new!"
Candace nods seriously. "Yeah, I'm honored, but Tess has seniority."
"Then shouldn't I get something above Candace?" Nessa fluffs the elaborate skirt of her white dress, nearly twice the circumference of her natural waist. "I've got, what, a month on her?"
My stomach twists. "A month in which you lied to me and worked with your father to assassinate mine."
The mood in the room dies a slow, painful death.
"I said I was sorry," Nessa mumbles.
"She still has the right to be upset," Candace says immediately.
"I would be." Tess winces. She hates conflict.
"Candace is just looking for a chance to be upset," Nessa spits. "You-"
I stand. "This is my wedding"-as much as any wedding of mine could ever be-"and I have chosen each of you because you are important to me. Tess, you are my oldest and best friend, but you're also the woman who sprinted away from her mate as soon as you woke up after the Haze to celebrate with me." I smile. "I almost didn't even mind that I hadn't found someone."
Tess bumps me with her hip. "You most certainly did. But I couldn't have done anything else. There's no part of my life I won't share with you."
Tears sting my eyes.
"Candace, I may not know you as well as I'd like yet, but you are hard at work on fixing that. I want you by my side because of how easily you cut through the formalities and open yourself to people. My father had the same skill." I blink quickly to catch my tears. "I would like to develop it someday."
She grins. "I'd love to help."
"And Nessa-" I look at her.
Her gaze burns into mine, begging me to say something that will change Candace's mind. Maybe change everyone's mind.
"When I arrived here and found myself alone, you promised I didn't have to be." I take a deep breath as the truth spills from my lips. "While I bind myself to this place permanently, I want to remember that promise. No matter what secret intent it held at the time."
Nessa raises her eyebrows. "Okay."
I look at each of the three of them in turn. "Promise me, at least for today, that you will see these things in each other. We are ending a centuries-old feud. I wouldn't like to start another."
"I can do that," Tess says slowly.
Candace nods. "Me too."
"Yeah, of course." Nessa shrugs.
"Good." I sit back down. "Now, if someone really believes I should wear a necklace, make your arguments."
"Yes!" Candace grabs the jewelry box again.
Someone knocks on the door. Tess wrinkles her nose, shoots the jewelry a longing look, then walks over to open it.
"Sorry," a voice I don't recognize says, "but I was sent here for Tesandra Solis, and I don't actually know what she looks like."
"She looks like me," Tess replies. "What do you need?"
Tentatively, Candace shares the jewelry box with Nessa. Good.
"Dowager Suniva and Prince Castor sent one of their guards back with a message." Paper crinkles.
A few beats of silence pass. Candace holds up a necklace, and Nessa shakes her head.
Tess sighs. "All right. Give me a moment."
She steps back into the room. I catch a glimpse of a man in green and gray at the door. Snowcrest Canyon?
"Your mother and Castor forgot the ritual candle," Tess says.
Without it, they cannot complete the final blessing. I would have to marry without full permission from the Moon Goddess.
"I can ask someone else?" she says uncertainly.
I shake my head. "I don't trust anyone else. Go."
She leaves with the guard. Nessa and Candace join me at the dressing table.
"I like the silver with your eyes," Candace says. "Nessa thinks something simple is just going to disappear in your gown. So what do you think about these?"
She offers three necklaces. Unsubtly, Nessa gestures to the leftmost one, with a nearly fist-sized red pendant. It would completely suit her and look terrible with my dress. Perhaps I'll choose it anyway. The longer I wear the dress, the less I like it.
I point to the middle necklace, a silver chain with a smaller, blue stone pendant. "That one. If I must."
"Fantastic." Candace grins as she plucks it out.
Another knock on the door. I frown. Candace hands me the necklace and goes to answer it.
A woman's voice, almost familiar. "I thought we were going to-"
"Oh! Right." Candace glances over her shoulder. "Do you need me, or can I steal half an hour?"
I chuckle. "I cannot say no after complimenting you like I did."
"I've got this," Nessa says.
Candace whisks out the door.
Nessa lifts my hair and places the necklace around my neck. "You're so lucky. This is the part I was looking forward to the most for my wedding."
I hold the chain so she can fasten it. "Which?"
"The getting ready part." Her smile is soft in the mirror. "Everyone around, laughing, talking, helping."
"I suppose yours would have been a bit less overwhelming."
"Barely." The clasp clicks into place. "Kieran was crown prince, and the first of the Solbergs to mate. Father was talking to King Gavin about inviting people from all over."
"I do not believe you missed much, in that regard." I smooth my hair down. "This morning was awful. Just an endless stream of strangers who hold unknown amounts of power."
"All trying to impress you." She leans against the table. "It's hard not to enjoy being the center of attention like that a little."
The dull lack of excitement in my chest throbs. "Not for me."
"No?" She shakes her head. "I can't imagine that. I still have dreams about my wedding."
"To Kieran?"
"Sometimes." Her smile is bittersweet. "We'd set a date, you know? Bright just finished making my dress, and it wasn't perfect, but it was mine. I loved it."
"You can love it still," I say. "A dress is a dress, and I am certain you'll find your mate soon."
She laughs sharply. "I don't know if I could wear it for someone else."
"I'm sorry." I offer her a comforting smile. "If your time comes, and you discover you cannot, I will bring my personal dressmaker to you wherever you are."
"You really are sweet." She looks at me for a long moment then shakes her head. "But I don't have your hope."
I frown.
"I don't think there is someone else." Her eyes grow bright with unshed tears. "Or, if there is, that they'll want anything to do with me. I mean, you said it yourself, right? There's no one who's more willing to make friends than Candace, and even she can't stand me."
The secret Candace confessed to me burns my lips. But I won't tell someone else's story.
"The Goddess chooses people She knows will love each other. Nothing else matters."
"See? Lucky." Nessa shoves off the desk and starts pacing. "I guess you're going to remind me what happened with you and Anwen now, right? How you fought for a while, but it all worked out?"
Goose bumps pimple my skin. Nessa isn't just upset, wishing for a different path in life. There's no mistaking the tension in her stance, the jaggedness of her movements. She is furious.
I stand. "I-"
"No, sorry, you're too smart for that." She waves my words away sarcastically.
Twenty paces to the door. Ten to the window on my left, but we're at least thirty feet off the ground. Even if I shifted the drop might still kill me.
"Did your father have some words of wisdom you think I should know instead?"
Hot anger sears through me.
Father would rather let someone insult him than risk my life.
I turn for the door.
The temperature in the room drops. Ice climbs out of the stones around my feet, encircles my ankles, and freezes me there. I try to yank them out, but the frost is already too thick. I can't move.
But she was foolish enough to use ice.
Nessa laughs cruelly. "When I realized Anwen suspected something, I thought the jig was up. But Father was right. You fell for every word, even after I told you I lied."
I twist back to her. She grabs the necklace she liked best, the red pendant, and fastens it around her own neck like I'm not even here.
The moment of distraction should be enough. I reach for the weak sparks at the center of my chest, where the heat magic came from.
There is nothing there.
I haven't tried using it since I understood my healing. I don't even know if it's still there.
Nessa glances at me. "I'm kind of disappointed. I thought you were going to figure it out a couple times. Father said I'd get to kill you if you did."
Tess! I scream. My heart hammers against my ribcage. Mother and Castor are out of range of the mind-link, but Tess just left. Come back!
Complete and utter silence greets me.
Fuck.
Nessa pulls a pair of gloves out of a drawer in my dressing table then saunters over to the nearest window while pulling them on. "Nothing to say for yourself? You haven't shut up since you got here."
"You are making a mistake," I say. "You can still change your mind."
"After the only good thing you could say about me was that you really liked a lie I told?" She scoffs. "Yeah, right."
She unhooks a strange metal mesh over the window and opens the pane. Floyd leaps inside instantly, a wickedly sharp knife in his hand. My stomach plummets.
"Finally," he says. "I was getting tired of holding onto the fucking roof."
"Be quick. Somebody else pulled Candace away before Wil could, and she said she'd be back in half an hour." Nessa kisses him on the cheek, then leaves.
Metal groans. I glance over my shoulder and see shards of ice jutting through the lock and around the outside of the door. I am frozen in with him.
Floyd lifts the blade. "It's like I told Nessa. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."