chapter nine
PHILLIP
Luna hovered in the air above her bed. Gone was the peaceful sleep I first found her in. Today she thrashed and fought against something, her chest heaving, teeth gritted, and her cheeks puffing with every exhalation. “Stay away from him,” she growled.
She’d been so desperate outside, afraid for me. The dove she’d warned me about had seen me, and like Ember, the fowl’s eyes were intelligent, calculating.
But Luna was so weak she couldn’t stand. She couldn’t even crawl toward the house. She tried, but was too exhausted. This strange cycle she was stuck in drained most of the life and energy from her. Her sister was stuck in a similar, but opposite cycle, if I understood it correctly.
While Luna slept, I read, pausing occasionally to digest the information. Aura was ruled by the day and Luna by the night, opposites that needed one another to survive. In the day, Aura thrived while Luna ruled in the darkness, each sleeping during the opposite times of day and in opposite seasons, Aura hibernating in winter while Luna slept in summer.
I moved one of the kitchen chairs into her room to watch over her.
Something must have happened last night.
Her lips were black and a dark crescent moon had been painted on her cheek. I knew she’d left to find the dark fae from reading her diary, but what did he do to cause these marks and make her fall off her broom when she came near the ground?
She didn’t look injured, just exhausted. But if he hurt her...
Luna whimpered and a sheen of sweat broke out on her forehead. I held her hand, rubbing soothing circles onto the back of it. She finally calmed and slept less fitfully, but the day was long, the longest I’d experienced, while waiting for night to bring her back to life.
When she finally calmed down, Ember did, too, although she refused to leave Luna’s side. “Are you hungry?” I asked.
She meowed, but didn’t move.
“I’ll bring you something.”
There was nothing in the kitchen, so I eased open the door to Luna’s secret room. She hadn’t locked it for some reason. I wondered in that moment, with my hand positioned on the doorframe, if she meant to leave it open. If she meant for me to find her diary and read it so she wouldn’t have to tell me about William.
I got Ember’s bowl and took it to her. It was full of some sort of shredded meat. Ember glanced toward the food, but she stayed near Luna. “Eat, Ember, and then sleep. You have to rest, too.”
She looked at me and I could’ve sworn she was telling me she was watching me, too.
“It’s daylight. I’m fine. Eat and then sleep, Ember. I’ll watch her.”
When Ember fell asleep, I sat in the doorway so I could have enough light to read by. I opened Luna’s diary.
I’m evil. If I’m Aura’s twin, and she’s evil, I must be, too. I’ve decided to leave the castle and go somewhere far away where I can be isolated. Where no one will stumble upon me.
Except me, apparently.
And where everyone will be safe from me. There are vast forests all over this land. I’ll choose one and call the heart of it my home.
I know I’ll never be able to get far enough away from Aura. She comes to me when I sleep, invading my dreams and bringing a vision of William along with her to torture me with. Seeing him makes it difficult to breathe. I just want her to stop.
There has to be a way to make her stop.
Is that what happened this morning? Her sister invaded her dreams?
AURA
Luna always ruins our visits. Without our dreams, I would never get to see her, and yet she continued to push me away, like I was a bother. I’d only ever had her best interests in mind, only ever cared for her and for our Kingdom. And that was what I saw it as: ours, not mine. We could both rule. In fact, I needed her to rule at my side. Dual queens. One of the light, and one of the darkness. One of the summer, and one of the winter. We would split duties during the spring and fall, or each choose the season we liked best and halve the year.
We didn’t need a King; a man to rule over us, or even stand beside us. We had each other. William tried to tear us apart once, but I turned it around on him.
Our bravery and beauty would be spoken about throughout all the lands. Every Kingdom would speak of the fierce and terrible twin Queens of Virosa. I just needed Luna to understand her importance in my plan for us.
But she was so stubborn.
I’d forgiven her for refusing to hear me out about William and his games. After all, sisters fought. Sometimes it was over petty things, like men. We’d been so enamored by the young prince that we forgot who we were together. Sisters. Friends. The most powerful creatures in the land. Even more powerful together than apart.
But now there was a new man at her house. Always a man...
Always cleaving us in two.
We. Are. Sisters.
Blowing out a tense breath, I knew what would clear my head.
I needed to walk in my garden. Using William wasn’t working with Luna anymore. She’d barely reacted to him during last night’s sleep walk. But Phillip? Phillip was a tool I needed to think about how to wield more efficiently.
He was a useful puppet. Seeing through his eyes had given me insight into my sister’s innermost thoughts. The nosy man read her diary and told me all her important secrets. She was actually planning to try and sever our bond? I sniffed. I could only imagine why...
Pursing my lips, I thought about the young prince. She considered him a friend, at the very least, but maybe we needed to ramp up her feelings; warm things up a bit and speed them along.
Luna was a romantic at heart, in love with the idea of love, and had believed the sweet nothings William spouted to her without thinking twice. And that was all they were. Nothing. Empty promises.
William didn’t want her any more than he wanted me. He tried to fool us both, to trick us into thinking he cared about us, but neither of us was what he was really hunting for.
After I was helped into my newest gown, as red as the bushes of roses beneath my window, and my hair was styled, I smiled as I passed the servants in the hall, each curtseying and bowing before their soon-to-be Queen.
Two crowns were being made. One of sunshine gold for me, and one of moonlit silver for my sister. I would be damned if another man tried to drive a wedge further between us, keeping those crowns from being placed on our heads.
Two guards swung open the front doors and as I strode through them, I hit a force so powerful, I fell on my backside. The marble was smooth under my palms as I pushed my upper body up, gasping for the air that had been knocked out of me.
What was it that stopped me? I couldn’t see anything there, but it felt as though I’d walked into a stone wall. The guards helped me up. “Thank you.” I brushed myself off and stepped toward the open door, one arm extended. My hand found the invisible barrier.
My nose tingled with a familiar scent. My sister’s.