Asteria The seven Relics

ouldn't

air cascaded over slender shoulders. Emerald-green eyes, filled with the same confusion twisting through A

Ariana w

e girl in the mirr

ing hand. The refle

d backward until her legs struck t

e opened them again, nothing had ch

ragged. "This is a

immediate and real. She crossed to the silver basin beside the mirror an

ll

st ribs that felt, somehow,

finish the sentence, becaus

Princess Ar

th well-read spines rather than decorative volumes no one had ever opened. Fresh lavender sat in a vase by the window, its scent faint but constant. A violin rested in one corner, strings slightl

is this? " Ariana murmured, and stepped

ed the stars. She reac

exploded be

ah

mind, too fast and too vivid . A little girl running through a rose garden, laughing at no

own to nothing while she waited for guests who never came. Whispers threa

y from Lad

's cu

good fol

sank to one knee, breathing hard, one hand still brace

.. was

ly she

were my

uiet. Barely lo

as in the room. She spun around,

e chamber

ho's

. Then,

m he

come from behind her, or

e from

wide. "No. No, I'

was gentle. Tired and f

ng to wake up.B

est, as if she could feel where the voice was

are

hed out before the

name is

ed to grow im

lene." She let the name set

es

tered. "Where am I? W

ment I was asleep, then I felt physicians visiting my bedside

ed before she could even process them. "I never wan

ness. Your memories. They're visible to me - as though we're standing o

thing she'd believed about life, death, and the shape of the world s

etly, almost to hersel

said

y kingdom. My-" Her voice crac

y, Selene spoke, and there was no envy i

we have to fi

entence carri

e bar of moonlight spilled a

r w

g, here, in

d - softer this time, b

echoed through

voice, warm with conc

hot to h

ed urgent. "Don't a

y n

ce, i never answer too

ousehold, people here knew her - expected her, in all her particular habits and silences. One

he physician will be here

d. "I don't know what t

I also don't know what happened but we will figure t

andle bega

for the first time in either of her lives - that sh