Astral Lands

✧ CHAPTER FOUR ✧

"We need to see the Queen." Dakel flashed his badge at the head of the Royal Guard, one of the few members of society besides her majesty that knew of Etorus.

"Sorry Dakel, Her Majesty is meeting with the Senate. She'll be done in a couple of hours. I'll get someone to get you all when she's done." And with that he turned to resume guard over the entrance to the throne room, which was currently blocked.

Astor went to talk to the guard, but I put a hand on his chest to hold him back.

"Nothing about the case is going to change in the hours it takes for Queen Corsia to finish." I then went to address the group. "Let's get settled in and meet in one hour to review the case before we present it." Dakel, Emil, and Nyla nodded their heads in agreement.

I faced Astor, who looked like that was the last thing that he wanted to do, but after a beat slowly nodded as well.

"Good." I sighed, before removing my hand and starting down the hall towards our wing.

Being as close to the Queen as we were, Etorus had the whole wing next to Her Majesty. While we were in the Capitol in between assignments, we acted as her personal guard to maintain the cover of our real status in the military.

I didn't relax my shoulders until I closed the door to my room, finally let out an exhausting sigh before walking to my bed, jumping face-first into the thick covers and luxurious pillows. Even though I had been officially a part of Etorus for two years now, the palace still didn't feel like home. Maybe it was because we were never not on a case, or because the living standards of the elite were high above my own, but it wasn't until recently that I was able to truly sleep while here at the castle.

Without caring if the others heard me, I let out a scream into the pillow, almost silencing my emotion.

I continued to scream until I ran out of breath and physically couldn't anymore. I just needed this, to let out all of my emotions at once and only once. This way I could shove it all aside on duty and not let my own life cloud the life I lived on assignments. The calm and calculated huntress I exuded to the people I met, even to the people of my team, was the opposite of who I really was when no one was watching.

There was really only one other person that knew me like this. And as I could say that I didn't really plan it to be that way, Astor was able to see right through my facade, just like how I could see through his.

What we did, what happened the night before we were called to Kås, happened in a moment of weakness on my part.

It was obvious what Astor's intentions were towards me, everyone could see it. I was just hoping that I wasn't as easy of a tell in that I was slowly cracking under his constant pressure.

I knew why he was acting how he did when we were on the desert planet. The morning we left, I looked him in the eyes and said that there was no 'us' . What had happened was a fluke in fate and that it wasn't going to happen again.

Sitting up, I went to take off my weapons. I sling off the meteor hammer and set in on the nightstand. I made quick work of the clothes and toiletries I had packed, putting everything away where it was meant to be.

Finishing up, I went to wash my face with cold water before heading out the door and to the library. Almost all of the knowledge had been digitized with the tech founded in Domhnall. That meant that rarely anyone used the library nowadays, which made it the perfect place to talk through cases Etorus had.

Astor was already there when I opened the door. I schooled my features as I walked in and went to a random shelf nearby. Going to pull a book that I couldn't even read the title of on the spine. The ancient Vaylian language from the planet next to Kås was extremely foreign and harsh to the tongue.