Page 78 of All the Pain of Promises
“Stay away from my wife,” he warned. “If you so much as look at her, I’ll?—”
“You’llwhat?” Trysta countered, baring her teeth, morphing into the monster she hid beneath a veneer of excess and opulence.
There was the female he didn’t trust, the one who couldn’t possibly be his mother.
Power boiled to the surface, and his magic simmered in his blood. “I will make you regret it for the rest of your days.”
She scoffed, a vicious sneer tugging at the corners of her mouth. “I’d like to see you try.”
It was the only caustic remark he needed, the one he’d been waiting for without even knowing. The opening he craved to release the dormant power of his bloodline.
Solarius unleashed the potent strength of the lunarstorm. Beams of violent moonlight exploded around him in a sphere of stellar energy. Shards of moon-dipped silver forged by the night ripped from the tips of his fingers as the air circulated in a violent frenzy. His blood churned, magic funneling from him like a maelstrom of archaic force. For generations, the magical starstorm coursing through his blood and that of his siblings had been thought to be extinct. But instead it was lying in wait, morphing, changing with each of them, revealing the truth of its greatness—a storm of celestial awakening.
“You are a poison to this family. You bleed us from the inside, you drain our soul with your lies. With your bullshit star readings and toxic nature.” Solarius’s chest expanded on a breath, his power building so the frosted windowpanes rattled and the ground beneath his feet quaked. “You lied about the starstorm and the truth of our bloodline. You lied abouteverything.”
He stretched one arm back, ready to strike his mother down.
Something heavy and solid rocked him off his feet, slamming him into the nearest wall.
“Not like this.” Ariesian’s calm, controlled voice cut through the fog of fury clouding Solarius’s mind. His brother’s steel eyes bore into his own. “Not. Like. This.”
“Her very existence is a plague,” Solarius spat, glaring at Trysta from behind Ariesian’s broad frame. There was something unnatural about the way she stared at him, likeshe was seeing past him, her eyes glazed with distance. She didn’t look in fear of her life, she wasn’t visibly shaken by his outburst, or angry beyond measure at the insults he hurled her direction. Instead, there was an eerie sort of tranquility about her expression, like she’d expected his reaction, like she’d been prepared for it. Prepared to fight back.
“Be that as it may.” Ariesian spoke in clipped, measured words. He released the lapel of Solarius’s coat and stepped back, flicking his wrists in annoyance. “The stars define our fate. Not ourselves.”
“Yes,” Solarius muttered, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants to quell the urge to strangle his mother. “But even the stars keep secrets.”
Ariesian said nothing. He turned slowly, quietly, and faced Trysta. Her sharp gaze slashed across them like a hot blade. Ariesian rolled his shoulders back, his chin lifting to an angle of distinction. When met head-on with the silent command of her eldest son,theLord Starstorm Celestine, Trysta shriveled like a rotten berry, shrinking into herself before spinning on one heel, and stalking off in the opposite direction.
“Come with me.” Ariesian led the way to his office, his pace quick, each click of his boots made with cold precision.
Solarius knew the way to his brother’s office like the back of his hand, could find his way blindfolded in the dark. Yet the air thickening in the decadent halls of House Celestine was different now. It was charged with restless energy. With trepidation.
Ariesian shoved open the door, stepped aside to allow Solarius entry, then closed it behind them, twisting the lock into place.
The moment the lock clicked, Ariesian’s wall of carefully built composure cracked and crumbled. He shoved both of his hands through his silver hair, mussing the perfectly coiffed style. Hestormed over toward a cupboard along the far wall, grabbing two crystal glasses and a decanter of spiced whiskey.
“She must be hiding something.” Ariesian poured three fingers’ worth of the golden liquid and offered Solarius the drink.
“I need a clear head.” Solarius waved him off, not wanting to indulge in anything that could prevent him from protecting Narissa. “What do you suppose she’s hiding?”
“I wish I knew.” Ariesian knocked back the alcohol in one gulp, then stared at the empty glass as though debating whether to refill it. He twirled it between his fingers, dropping into the chair behind his desk. “Distractions are popping up everywhere. Things meant to deter me from meddling with her doings. Intentional slips of information mean to divert my attention away from her dealings with Prince Aspen and Queen Elowyn.”
Solarius rubbed the ache forming at his temples. Leave it to Trysta to misguide and mislead. She was literally quite good at nothing else in her miserable life save for fabricating truths and embellishing lies.
“What sorts of distractions?” Solarius asked, pressing his thumb between pinched brows.
Ariesian leaned back, the chair groaning beneath his weight, and gestured vaguely through the air. “The sudden demand to force Nyxian into a marriage with Lady Aria Skyhelm. The relative quiet we’ve experienced to give us some hope for peace. Oh, and then there was the sly mention of a witch queen.”
Solarius’s brows shot up, his headache suddenly forgotten. “I beg your pardon, did you say a witch queen?”
“Exactly that.” Ariesian clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Apparently some witch proclaimed herself queen in Brackroth. As of now, she poses no threat to Aeramere, but I sent Creslyn and Drake to investigate, just in case.”
“Creslyn,” Solarius repeated, his tongue thick. “You sent our baby sister to go investigate some witch queen’s rise to power?”
Ariesian rolled his eyes to the exposed beams of the ceiling. “In case you’ve forgotten, our sister is perfectly capable of handling herself against witches and bastard rulers alike. Not to mention the fact that she now has a dragon and is married to agod.”
He hated to admit that Ariesian was right. But out of all of them, Creslyn was the only one who’d taken a life—multiple if memory served him—and was quite possibly the most fearsome of all the siblings. At least Solarius would think twice before crossing his youngest sister.
