didn't leave the Prelius Chateau immediately like I had planned. Instead, I found myself having dinner with Rhia as Leon worked through what Father had given him.

As though I had felt bad for leaving him to work by his own, Rhia was fast to make me laugh myself hoarse. We had talked as we ate, and talked after that for more than an hour, not feeling the time pass.

She went as far as telling me about how stubborn and energetic both her and Leon were as children, and just how many troubles they kept creating, and I found myself talking about my life on Earth, as uneventful as it was.

So we ended up talking and joking and laughing until time was almost over and the meeting was to start. Excusing myself, I left, but not before warning them about what I'd discovered as far as knowing who our traitor could be. I didn't divulge details, fearing who could see through their thoughts at the meeting even when I suspected he wouldn't be invited.

But until I knew for sure, I wouldn't risk it.

I had then vanished from their home and back into mine, arriving straight into the throne room.

And now one third of an hour before the meeting ended, curled in the third throne and still wrapped in my cloak, I cherished the silence. I had extinguished all light when I arrived, savoring the darkness, the part of me that was night and mysteries overtaking me. Even moonlight was rare, sweeping every now and then over the marble floor and glass statues only when the clouds weren't thick anymore.

I felt like I was a part of that blackness that ruled the skies, like I was night and secrets and nothing more than the whispers of sleeping souls. I felt at peace.

I was still curled up in my seat, the one closest to the windows out of the three, when I heard distant footsteps. They weren't of a maid or a guard, no. Their pattern was familiar, belonging to a young man of strong built and a soul that was calm yet powerful, just like the sea's waves.

I smiled, feeling him approach, and leaned my head on my shoulder, keeping my eyes closed, hood draped over my face. A whisper of magic unlocked the enormous, double doors I'd made sure to seal so this silence wouldn't be interrupted by nosy maids. But his magic was welcomed, and forever it would be.

Few minutes passed, nothing but the symphony of those footsteps accompanied by the rush of wind through trees and foliages filling the room. And then, Carter was here, a few meters away from me.

And then closer, closer, closer, until he stopped.

I peered with lazy eyes as he stood in the darkness of the shadows swallowing the chamber, cape wrapped around his shoulder and sword hanging from his waist.

I couldn't see the glowing bronze of his eye and it was either because he was too swallowed in darkness away from the lights seeping from the open doors or because he just savored, eyes closed, the calmness as much as I did.

Neither of us spoke for a good while, my body still curled and numb, his still standing a few meters away from me. Finally, I shifted in my seat, eyes merely open and staring to the gardens behind the windows and said, "Got out early?"

"You can say that. Father was absent for the biggest half, having to attend to a messenger. When he came back, I was free to leave." I could feel the smile in his voice as he added, "I thought to seek you out. Not seeing you for a day is getting more tedious as time goes."

My lips curled upwards.

"And what about those long hours were we did nothing less than staring at each other's faces?"

"Those don't count. We are not the same when we are on duties, all of us wearing masks of power. I wanted to see this Celestia, the one who I had been with when we saw life and death this past summer."

My smiled grew bigger and I stretched in my seat, turning to stare at him. Soft, hurried footsteps echoed outside, most likely a bunch of maids trying to walk past as fast as they could to not be charged of eavesdropping.

My eyes ran over Carter's tall structure and spoke with a clear smirk, "Since you miss me quite this much, you shouldn't be standing this far."

The rumble of a laugh, that sound I'd loved ever since the days at the Norm, echoed around us as he tilted his head and turned to stare at the agape doors. And the maids that passed like fleeing shadows.

Servants were never tortured or mistreated here, they worked by will and not force, and had rooms and wages and everything they needed. They only bowed to two conditions, the first to never eavesdrop on any conversation under the risk of being strictly punished, the second to be charmed as to never divulge secrets to the outside world.

Only when they were gone did Carter come closer until he was leaning against the throne, one hand on the gold sculpting it, the other in his pocket.

And I glanced at his handsome face with tired eyes, feeling warmth spreading in my heart. Soft moonlight glided through the clouds and into the throne room, washing his face with a dim brightness.

And I leisurely stared at him, at those eyes that seemed to glow like the bronze of them was liquid metal poured in his irises flecked with silver.

They seemed to glow with a vibrancy I'd never seen before, and even when my eyelids were half close, I could feel the power radiating from them.

And then, something shot straight through my mind.

Silver.

There wasn't silver in the warm eyes I'd stared at for so long. In the eyes I loved watching glint with light as he smiled and laughed and just stared at me.

I straightened in my throne so fast my muscles ached from the sudden jerking.

How?

I reached with my hands to him, propelling myself on the large armrest of the throne, legs tucked beneath me. Carter stepped closer the moment I did so, one arm snaking around my waist as though fearing I might fall.

The throne gave me more leverage and I ended taller than him, my head lowered until I could stare through his eyes. We were so close I could feel the heat coming from him, so close I could feel each breath he took.

My magic slammed the doors shut, not needing any prying eyes, especially when our position was rather intimate. He held my gaze and I saw the worry in those captivating eyes.

"It started a while ago, a week at most," he whispered, answering a question I was seconds away from asking. "I was with Mother when she had noted the silver. It was fainter, merely a streak in my right eye, that if you weren't staring, it couldn't be perceived."

I held his face tighter in my hands.

"She was so shocked she almost fell to her knees. And the silver kept growing each day a bit more, appearing in the other eye as well. She made me hide it with illusion as she and Father looked through books and studies as to what might have caused this change. They found nothing."

"Yesterday," I started, trying hard to bring out words, "at the ball, and today through the gatherings, you hid them."

He merely breathed an affirmation.

"I kept it hidden even as it became harder each time. Father sent me out of the meeting because he sensed how hard I was struggling with it. By the time I was away from curious eyes, my magic could do nothing to hide it anymore."

There was worry in his voice as he added, "Mother went back to Arelesia, partially because the twins shouldn't be left alone more than this, and partially to go through her ancient tomes in hope of finding anything."

"No answer yet?''

He shook his head. "Nothing, not even a hint. She fears it might be a curse because of the sudden appearance and change in powers."

"Change in powers?'' my voice was merely out, breaking halfway.

"They aren't weakening like she feared." I stared hard into his eyes as he continued, "They are growing, Celestia. Gifts and magic that I shouldn't even own are whispering in my blood."

"Can you use them?'' Maybe if he did, if he displayed them, I could tell from where they originated.

"Not yet. They are still waking up from a sort of slumber. The more the silver grows the more they rise."

My heart sank. He couldn't be cursed, not him. Luthian and Rhia and Perdiel were enough, even when I had found, during our last time with Siltheres, a solution to Luthian's dilemma. I only wished I had the time to try it out yet.

But Carter, I couldn't lose him, couldn't imagine him being slowly killed from the inside from a power we didn't know.

He averted his gaze from mine and I gently tugged at him, urging him to stare at me straight in the eyes. This time, even as moonlight died and darkness filled everything again, I could still see them stark in his orbs.

And that color, gently spreading and glimmering, was familiar. Smooth silver that was like light running through the darkness of his bronze.

I knew that color, knew from where it came. I searched through his soul for those new powers and felt that familiar magic, felt the grace and confidence in which they sang out.

The color, it was a blessing from one soul to the other. And that gift was given by will from a power I myself held in my heart and soul.

And suddenly, light flared around us, the chandeliers hissing back to life, fire shining in them. And then, I became aware of the other presences in the room. But I didn't flinch, didn't turn, didn't move an inch from our position even as Father and Ramos and Leon were watching us.

And so did Carter.

"A blessing," I murmured, the shock hitting me with full strength.

A gift from the moon.

"Celestia, what is happening—"

I didn't allow my father to finish his sentence, not caring about the hint of displeasure in it. Or tiredness, I couldn't tell. Nor care.

And when he beheld in how shocked I was, when they all saw how my hands were gently trembling as they still held Carter's head in them, when they saw Carter's eyes, they went stiff.

"A blessing," I said again, staring at the king, thought after thought raging in my mind. He stepped closer to the thrones, closer to us, and only stopped when I half cried out, "From the moon."

He went taut, even more than before, face almost bleached from all colors. Carter's muscles were even tighter, and I could feel how tense he was as I placed a hand on his nape, gently holding to him as he pulled me down to the ground.

I stared at each of them before I focused on the king. "And I am not the one who blessed him.''

What had remained of colors were drained as he observed the heir of Arelesia's Second Crown, knowing just well what it meant.

His voice was rough and hoarse and broken as he merely let out, "She blessed you.'' A shaky breath. "Elena blessed you through her moon."

Suddenly, the silence became suffocating, knocking the air out of me.

Mother had blessed him through a gift that was as precious as life itself, had given him a piece of strength and power and light and forged it into his soul.

The king's eyebrows furrowed and he stepped closer, eyes roaming over all of Carter, studying and weighting, picking something I didn't see.

"The gift, the weight of it rising in your blood, it doesn't hum like hers. She did gift you, but from power that were not hers." His attention turned to me and I wondered if more colors could possibly be drained from his face. "It hums like yours."

And then, another wave of silence.

Even the wind outside seemed to stop, like the world had stopped for a moment. And I was afraid. Afraid not because of the gift or how it was given, but because the powers were a fragment reflecting mines. Like a shard of a mirror, similar but smaller to accommodate what pressure his body could bear.

My heart skipped a beat. I was to die by the end of that war. Siltheres and Téors, tied to my soul and magic, were to die alongside. If Carter beheld even as little as a drop of my strength, would it—

I didn't dare finish the thought, didn't have it in myself to contemplate the possibilities.

"Who knows of this?" was the first thing Ramos had said upon entering this room.

"My parents only," answered Carter with a voice that was little from breaking from under control.

"And can you keep it hidden?''

"Not anymore."

The Court Leader ran his fingers through his beard in long, slow movements. Assessing. "I fear I know nothing of this," he finally admitted, "but until we find anything, I would advise limiting the number of people who aware of this."

"I know this.''

Leon hadn't said a thing yet, his eyes sharply going from me to his friend again and again. Father was still standing stiff and wordless.

Another silence.

And then, a bell chimed, signaling midnight. The time we had agreed on meeting Siltheres.

Finally, finally, Father spoke, "Stay careful, Carter." One hand fell on the young lord's shoulder, squeezing it hard. "All we know is still too little and raw." His eyes averted to mine, holding the same ideas that tortured my soul. "I will see through this as much as I can and tell you as fast as possible, even when I fear that most answers have already died with Elena."

And there it was, the ache that came with anything barely related to her.

Carter nodded, stared at us all and turned to leave. But not before I'd held his hand and hugged him tight, fear gnawing within me. He held me perhaps as tight and then vanished out of the room.

We didn't speak as we turned to the thrones and walked into Siltheres's realm.