Chapter 1

"Mommy, will Daddy come cut the cake with me tonight?"

Noah lay across my lap and looked up at me. He was five years old, with a pretty little face that never had much color in it.

He had Izael's eyes — that deep purple only dark elves have. But he also had my blood in him, the blood of a "lowly human," so his ears were round. No points.

That alone was enough. In Nightfall Court, everyone looked at him like he was something that shouldn't be there.

I ran my fingers through his hair and kept my voice soft. "Go to sleep, Noah. Tomorrow's your birthday. I promise you, after tomorrow everything is going to be better."

He closed his eyes without another word.

Even asleep, his little hand held on to my sleeve, like he thought I'd disappear if he let go.

I leaned down and kissed his forehead. Nobody in this place had ever been kind to him, not once since the day he was born. And all I could give him was myself, sitting there beside him.

That was the moment my left wrist started to burn.

I yanked my sleeve up.

A golden mark was surfacing on my skin, slow and bright, where a second ago there had been nothing. The warmth of it spread through me, and it didn't ask permission.

Then a voice came, old and enormous, right inside my head.

"Lady Aria. Last blood of the stars. The Celestial Sanctum has felt your awakening. Your throne has stood empty for ten thousand years. When will you return to it?"

I stared at the mark as it faded back under my skin. My heart was pounding.

I had no idea what any of it meant. But the power rising up out of my bones was real, and it felt like it was telling me something: this is what you actually are.

For five years I had believed I was an ordinary human with no magic at all. That belief was the reason I swallowed every insult in Nightfall Court, every look, every whisper. I thought Izael's love was the only thing standing between me and the rest of the world.

Turns out I was the one holding my own eyes shut.

"Herald," I answered, in my head, and my voice there was perfectly calm. "Give me one more day. Let me spend my son's fifth birthday with him. Then I'll come to the Sanctum myself."

"As you wish, Your Radiance."

The voice went quiet. The mark sank away completely.

I sat on the edge of the bed and watched Noah sleep. There was no rush of joy, nothing like that. Just a very clear feeling, the kind you get when you finally wake up from a long dream.

The bedroom door opened.

Izael walked in wearing his court robes, silver hair loose over his shoulders. He was still beautiful enough to stop your breath.

But he brought the smell in with him — lilac, thick and sweet, and so strong it turned my stomach.

That was Lilith's scent. Everyone in Nightfall Court knew it. The moon elf priestess always smelled like lilac.

What he didn't know was that I was awake for every single night he slipped out to the back garden with her.

"Aria. Still up?"

He came around behind me and reached to put his arms around my waist, the way he always did. There was a kind of warmth in his voice, the kind you'd give to something you owned.

"Court business ran long. I was with the elders." He bent his head, aiming for my neck.

The second his mouth touched my skin, I felt sick.

I stood up fast and stepped out of reach.

His hands hung there in the air. Something flickered in those purple eyes — surprise first, then annoyance.

"What are you sulking about now?" He frowned. It was the tone a man uses on someone beneath him. "Humans don't live long. You should be grateful for whatever time I give you."

I turned around and looked at him.

I had loved this man once. Now all I saw was something dirty.

There was silver glitter on his collar. Hers.

The old me would have stood there with tears in my eyes and asked him about it, and he would have shut me down with one line: What would a lowly human like you understand?

But now? I was done waiting.

"Go wash," I said, looking right at him. My voice didn't move at all. "You stink."

Izael froze. He couldn't seem to process it — that his human wife, the one who never raised her voice, the one who agreed to everything, had just said that to him.

"Aria, have you lost your mind?" His face went dark.

"Tomorrow is Noah's birthday." I ignored the anger completely and pointed at the door. "If you still remember that you're his father, be in the garden at three. Now get out."

He stared at me for a long moment. He was looking for jealousy, I think. Something he could recognize.

He didn't find any of it.

"Fine. Wonderful." He gave a short laugh and turned away. "I'd think twice about speaking to me like that again. You know as well as I do — nobody else in this world would take in a human with no magic."

Then he walked out and slammed the door behind him.