Anwen
Three days later-four, if you count the fact Estrella and I didn't go back to her palace until morning-I lean over the bow of The Lady Suniva and watch the towers of Solberg Castle rise over the horizon.
Baz claps me on the shoulder. "Someday, I'll get you back for only staying a day in that place."
I snort. "You can visit by yourself, you know."
"Ah, but then I don't get to say I'm the sole retainer of the crown prince." He smirks. "That opens a lot of doors."
I shake my head. To hear Baz tell it, he fucked half the kingdom on a single overnight. But I know from a drowsy mind-link he sent me as Estrella and I were stumbling back in that he loved the color, music, and culture at least as much as the women. There's something honest behind his party-boy desire to stick around.
"You're the Beta of the crown prince when we return," I say.
"The fine shores of home do offer their own pleasures." Baz waggles his eyebrows.
Home. It's a weird word now. If-when Estrella's plan works out, Dun's Crossing won't be my home for long. She needs an Alpha in Sundrop Gem, not a three-day trip across the Lonely Sea. I'll have a whole new palace to learn.
Every time I think that, it feels like knocking on a false wall. Something echoes, hollow and not quite right.
I stare down at my hands on the wood of the bow instead. Barely visible against my pale skin, a white tattoo rings my pinkie finger. It's a Sundrop tradition for married, but not yet mated couples, so we had to get them in secret.
'He's eyeballing you again,' Baz says through the mind-link.
I don't need to look over my shoulder. I know who he's talking about. When we wandered back into the palace that morning, Estrella insisted we have breakfast with her family. I sat through the whole thing awkwardly, picking at the fruit they still have at this time of year and trying to seem like the sort of man they should trust. But since her plan relies so much on tightly controlled information, I couldn't just tell the truth. No, we had to convince a grieving wife and son I came to Sundrop because I was pretty sure Kieran was being framed, which meant the real bad guy was walking free, and I couldn't allow that. Dowager Suniva came around sometime after the food had been cleared away, but while we were still drinking coffee. Castor... fuck, I don't think Castor has come around yet. Every time I see him, he puts his hand on his sword and glares at me like I'm two seconds from snapping and murdering everyone on the boat.
'Leave him,' I tell Baz.
'Fuck that,' Baz replies. 'He's got two hours before he finds out he's the jackass, and I think he could do that just as well with his teeth halfway down his throat.'
'That's my mate's brother you're talking about,' I say with a flare of protective anger.
Baz rolls his eyes. 'I still think he's a dick.'
Before I can agree, Estrella's smell blots out the sea air. I turn.
Apparently, she doesn't believe in wearing her finery while traveling. Called it a "ridiculous vanity" when I suggested we should look like royalty getting off this boat. So the fabric wrapped around her body is a thicker, rougher maroon without any other decorations, and she tucks it up between her legs, like a pair of pants, when she needs to help one of the sailors with a task. It's tucked like that now, and her hair is braided so tightly back from her face that her skin is pulled taught. Every time I see her in something new, I expect to feel differently, to find a way she's less beautiful.
It hasn't happened yet.
Even better, she's staring at me just like I'm staring at her. Like maybe the sun will go out, and this'll be the last chance we get to look.
"I say this with the utmost respect, Your Majesty." Baz bows. "But yuck. I don't think I'll hang out with the two of you until some of this sexual tension burns off." He hurries away.
Estrella laughs throatily. Since I said yes to our plan, she's been a little more back to herself. Well, back to the woman I met before her father's death.
"Is he always like that?" she asks.
"Or worse." I smile. "Hope that's not a dealbreaker."
"I think it may be a bit late for dealbreakers." She leans against the bow next to me, looks at the horizon and the approaching coast. "There isn't long left now."
I wish I could touch her. Yet another flaw in her plan. We haven't even been able to share a room, and sneaking through the tiny hallways of a ship is much harder than those of Castle Solberg.
"No, there isn't." I lean my shoulder against hers. The rocking of the boat might've pushed us together. "Are you ready?"
She chuckles nervously. "It may be a bit late for that as well."
The tattoo on my finger catches the light. "We hid our marks for weeks."
"No." She shakes her head resolutely. "I am not going to delay this any further because of something as simple as nerves."
"What's making you nervous?" I ask.
She clenches her jaw. "The reactions."
"So you think Castor's going to kill me too?" I smile, trying to lighten the mood.
I earn myself a faint laugh.
"I certainly haven't discounted the possibility," she murmurs. "But...."
"But you're more worried about my side." My mark aches, but it's the barest echo of what it was only a few days ago that I barely notice. Like smacking an old bruise against something. "I promised you could trust them."
"I know this."
I study her. The waves turn her gray eyes stormy, her shoulders bunch with tension, and a tiny wrinkle appears between her brows. Subtle indicators that she's losing her Goddess-damned mind in there.
"Is it the Nessa stuff?" I ask quietly. Now would be a great time for the mind-link, but we must have to actually go through with the wedding for that because it isn't working yet.
"Partially." She squeezes the side of the boat and doesn't elaborate.
Again, I wish her plan didn't rely on us going back to Dun's Crossing. I keep wondering if putting her back there, where Nessa can influence her again, is such a bright idea.
"I thought you trusted me," I say in the least judgmental tone I've got.
"I do!" she snaps.
Not non-judgmental enough.
"Then trust me when I tell you we can trust them." I bump her shoulder and burn to wrap my arms around her.
"I believe they have nothing to do with Father," she says like it's a mantra.
I'll take it. I have to.
***
The ship docks under the bright, noon-day sun. A flotilla of soldiers stands at the end of the dock. No sign of Kieran, Raven, or any of my siblings. Estrella visibly tenses.
"Not exactly the welcome we received last time," Castor mutters.
"Hush," Dowager Suniva says. "Your sister declared us enemies. It's only reasonable."
But she has enough of her daughter's tells that I can see the worry in her face too.
'Dammit, Kieran, couldn't you send Candace or Finn?' I ask across mind-link.
'Are you with the ship?' He demands in return.
Motherfucker. I forgot I was keeping that quiet too.
'I'll answer everything,' I say. 'Meet us in the throne room. Bring Raven.'
'You'd better.' The connection goes dead.
It's not the welcome I was hoping for either, but nothing in Estrella's plan accounted for the fact that I've technically been missing for a week, and I didn't give Kieran any kind of clue I was coming back, with Sundrop Gem or at all.
"King Kieran and Queen Raven have matters keeping them inside the castle," I say with a smile. "They would be honored to meet you in the throne room."
Estrella nods. "Then meet them we shall."
And with her head held high, she takes the first step onto the gangplank.
Heading down into the city is never easy. Hooded cloaks have been Baz and I's friends for years. But I don't remember getting this many looks or whispers when I come down without a disguise at all. Every stall, every pub, every group of people walking down the street breaks out in conversation the second we pass. I have to order the soldiers not to surround us like we're prisoners being escorted to the dungeons twice. And the more they talk, the more Estrella becomes the Luna Queen. Her posture stiffens, her chin juts up, her warm face becomes icy. It's like I can see the thoughts in her head. She can't let them see her look vulnerable, but with every 'I thought they fled' or 'takes some balls to return,' sentiment from the people watching us, her defenses weaken, and she has to shore them up again. By the time we actually arrive at the castle, it's like walking next to a statue. At least they lead us into the throne room without making a fuss.
Kieran and Raven already wait inside, sitting on their thrones in their royal robes. Overkill. They're showing off just as much as Estrella is. Castor's hand goes to the hilt of his sword again, and he glares bloody murder.
"I'll admit an amount of surprise at your return, Luna Queen Estrella," Kieran says. "What brings you back to our shores?"
Estrella takes a deep breath. I step up next to her and hold her hand. There's a tiny, bright spark in my mark as I line up our matching tattoos.
The whole room seems to freeze.