Dylan climbed ashore on the other side of the lake, blinking water out of his eyes. His swim across it hadn’t taken that long, but the guards had moved quickly. Everyone was boiling out of the palace, armed and angry. He didn’t understand what was going on, but this… seemed unnecessary.

“Dylan?” another familiar voice gasped.

He turned to look for Bella as he staggered to his feet. The pixie darted close, circled him, then stopped in front of his face. She looked… horrified.

“Bella. What’s going on? They said I died! They… they said there’s another Astralitar?”

Looking toward the guards that were rushing across the bridge toward him, Bella turned back to face him. “This way.” She darted off.

With no choice, Dylan chased after her. She led him into the hedge maze where a statue with a shield stood.

“Uzrukt,” Bella said. “Say that word! Quickly now.”

“Urzuk?”

“Uz-ruk-t!”

Correcting his pronunciation, Dylan was shocked when the shield melted off the statue and wrapped around his wrist. “What—Bella! Is this a core? I’m not—”

“Dylan!” Bella snapped. “Do you know about those kites that people can hang onto and fly?”

“Hang glider?” Dylan asked in shock.

“Yes! This way!” Bella darted off again.

Lost, confused, and terrified now, Dylan chased Bella again. “Bella!” he howled. She was barely letting him keep up. But even if she didn’t, he knew the direction she was leading him, and it suddenly hit him why she’d asked about hang gliders.

“Oh no-no-no-I can’t do that!” Dylan started to balk, skidding to a stop.

Bella slammed into the side of his head. “Dylan if you do not, they’re going to put you in the dungeon until you choose Saffron. I will explain the situation, but not here! Fucking jump!” She shoved.

He wasn’t near the edge, but feeling that he really had no choice, Dylan started running again and launched himself over the cliff. Flailing, he desperately grabbed the core around his wrist and shouted the keyword.

It suddenly snapped open, ripping him upward. Bella caught up and gripped his shoulder. “North, Dylan.”

“But—”

She pinched his neck.

“I’m tired of being forced to make choices!” he shouted back.

Bella wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry,” she said, gently hugging. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Please explain what’s going on?”

The pixie was silent for a moment. “You did die. The Demon Lord killed you. They summoned a new Astralitar, but the gods are angry… So what they summoned wasn’t meant to help them.”

Horrified, Dylan stared into the wind until his eyes went dry. He blinked hard and shook his head. "So there really are two Astralitars? But what about the Di'alletta?"

"I honestly don't know," Bella admitted. "I don't know how that will work out, whether you can still do the ceremony and choose, but right now... you shouldn't choose anyone at all."

"But—"

“No, Dylan. Please. You trust me, right?” Bella asked.

“Yes…” Though he was beginning to wonder if maybe he’d trusted too easily. However, Bella had never pressured him to do anything. Not the way the princesses had. She was literally the only person who hadn’t wanted something from him. “I trust you, Bella. But please tell me what’s going on?”

“I’m not fully sure myself,” Bella admitted. "But we should meet up with Reed."

"Is that the other Astralitar?"

"Yes."

"But you said he's not here to help this world."

"He's a good person, and while we didn't summon him to be helpful to the princesses, he's still decided he likes this place. He's just going to do it his way."

"But what about the Demon Lord?" Dylan tilted his head to look down at the ground, then back toward the Astralitar's palace.

"She's not a problem for the time being," Bella assured. "She's busy with Reed."

**

Reed wasn’t used to drinking wine. And he really wasn’t used to using a glass to do it.

He’d been given a room to take a bath, new clothes, and now, he sat at dinner with the vampire and Kar’un. The former sat at the head of the table with only a glass of blood, the latter sat pressed against his side, having pulled her chair as close as atomically possible. There were four others in the room, two guards, two servants who were setting plates in front of Kar’un and Reed.

“To start from the beginning, I’m Reed,” he said to the Vampire.

“King Alu’rak,” the vampire said. He was still uncomfortable with the situation. Everyone was except Kar’un. Reed did his best to act like the Demon Lord’s behavior wasn’t bothering him. Her title did confuse Reed a bit on the hierarchy of the place. Was the king below the Demon Lord, or what?

Shaking his head, he decided to instead focus on clearing up the situation. “As I said before, the princesses pissed off the gods. After Kar’un killed their last Astralitar, they didn’t wait a week before getting some trash together and summoned me.”

Alu’rak flinched in shock. Whether that was at the disrespect the princesses had shown or Reed’s bluntness, it wasn’t clear.

However, Reed’s steak smelled delicious, he was hungry, and if they were planning on killing him, there was an entire mortal enemy currently rubbing her cheek on his shoulder. Reed picked up his fork and knife and started eating. “I’m sure you’ve noticed but I ain’t what they usually pull in. For one, I’m not a dumb kid whose gonna annihilate a whole ass kingdom because some dumb bitches put their tiddies in my face.”

Alu’rak choked. One of the servants dropped her tray with a clatter.

“That said,” Reed continued as if he’d not been incredibly crass, “I’d like to hear y’alls side.”

“Why did you kiss her?” Alu’rak asked, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

“I didn’t kiss her,” Reed clarified. “I’d dragged her into the water and turned out she couldn’t swim. I was resuscitating her.”

“You were… saving her?” Alu’rak asked. “She’s supposed to kill you.”

“And I just told you the reason,” Reed gestured with his fork. “Those princesses didn’t explain a damn thing to me before demanding I pick a wife. That blonde one is a snob and I sure as fuck wasn’t going to pick her. The Giantess just wants to punch things and I’m not into domestic violence. Cat-girl, I don’t know what her deal is, but she looks ten. Hell no. The shrine maiden seemed decent, but again… looks eighteen and has the spine of a sea cucumber. I’m not interested.”

The vampire king stared down at his wineglass full of blood and chewed his lower lip. “And you’re going to choose Kar’un?”

“I’m sure you’ve gotten a good sense of my personality.” He took a bite of steak.

Man to man, Reed knew he’d gotten his point across to Alu’rak.

“Then what do you intend to do?” His ruby gaze flicked to Kar’un.

“We’ll burn that bridge when we get there. But first, what’s this whole conflict about? Why hasn’t it been resolved?”

The vampire king sighed, setting his glass aside. He gestured and the servant hurried over with a couple glasses of something that looked much stiffer than blood or wine.

Reed grinned and took the glass. “I like you. You actually know how to treat a guest.”

Alu’rak snorted and took a sip from his glass. “Thousands of years ago, this world was created by the twin gods Freya and Freyr. They wanted to create a paradise. But Loki didn’t think that would be any fun. He sent down a seed; the first Demon Lord. And from her, we were born.” He gestured at himself and everyone else in the room. Reed glanced around at the current population. There was a minotaur guard, a guy that looked like slenderman was the butler. A pink demon girl was the one who had brought the brandy to the table. The others Reed had seen were various mythological monsters and creatures of darkness.

“Kar’un isn’t my daughter by blood. I raised the last four Demon Lords as my children,” Alu’rak explained. “They’re special. They’re born directly from the first Demon Lord.”

“So… they’re still alive?” Reed asked.

“Yes… I will show you once you’re finished.”

Reed considered scarfing the rest of his dinner, but a steak this good didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. He continued enjoying it. “Aite. So Freya and Freyr made the Astralitar a thing to fight the Demon Lord,” Reed guessed.

“Yes. The Astralitar is meant to serve as a bridge between the Di'alletta and one of the rulers of the southern lands,” Alu’rak explained.

“So what is it?” Reed asked, mouth full.

The vampire king stared at him. “What—the Di'alletta?”

Reed swallowed. “They never told me.”

“It’s essentially a golem core.” Alu’rak pointed at Reed’s wrist. “But we, being people of this world, cannot use it directly. It’s made of materials we can’t touch. But the ceremony of binding fuses the soul of your wife with yours. Her will becomes yours, allowing her to use the Di'alletta.”

**

“You can’t do this!” Snow’s father, Pyro shouted. Guards blocked him from approaching.

Saffron had forced the guards to drag Snow to the Astralitar's throne room after Dylan's successful escape.

Calm and unmoved by the commotion, Snow stood with her hands linked in front of her as she stared up at the two empty thrones at the top of the dias. Two guards stood on either side with their spears lowered in front of her, but they were clearly confused and nervous about the situation. The other monarchs and princesses had gathered, standing at the foot of the stairs to the Astralitar's throne. Pyro was so angry he was about to break his oath of pacifism and punch someone. Me'ello looked like he'd eaten something sour. Gra'kalla was talking quietly to her daughter off to the side with furtive glances toward the others.

"She allowed the Astralitar to escape," Saffron said coldly to Snow's father, pointing her folded fan at the shrine maiden.

"You said he was an impostor!" Ti'llono shouted, tail poofed. "That's why everyone went running after him!"

Caught in her lie, Saffron scowled.

"That was Dylan," Snow reported. "The gods brought him back, but I do not know for what purpose."

"Then why did you tell him to run!?" Saffron screamed. "We could have had an end to this whole mess if he’d just chosen someone!"

"Chose you, you mean," Meg'ante cut in, looking away from her mother. "Honestly, after how you treated him, I'm not even mad he ran off."

"Me?" Saffron rounded on her. "What about you?"

Meg'ante folded her arms. "Alright. WE," she shouted. "We treated him like shit."

Furious, but unable to refute the accusation, Saffron turned and started pacing, her flip-flops slapping the floor with every step. Unlike the others, she'd not had the chance to change. She was freezing and annoyed. Admittedly, she didn’t like Dylan, but she wasn’t going to let anyone else have him. Same with Reed. She was going to be the Di’alletta. "I want her confined to her room," she pointed at Snow. She wanted Snow jailed, but that wasn't going to happen. No one would agree to that, regardless of what the Shaman Princess had done.

Gra'kalla stiffly got everyone's attention by snatching a spear from one of the guards holding Snow captive. "Our problem is not that Dylan left, but that we have two Astralitars. If the Gods are still punishing us, then Dylan isn't here to help us."

Saffron doubted that Dylan would get far on his own. He'd been fifteen when he’d arrived in Oria. He'd been confined to this place for two years with excuses like "you're not ready yet" and "it's too dangerous out there." It had been to protect the boy, but also to force him to choose one of the four princesses. Despite their security measures, he'd still been killed by the Demon Lord. Right in the garden.

In fact, Dylan had died not far from where Reed had kissed the Demon Lord.

Saffron sighed softly at that memory. That had been her first kiss…

Turning away from the others, Saffron touched her lips, remembering the way he'd gripped her jaw with tight fingers. The way he'd fit his mouth to hers... firm, but with a pliability that created the slightest suction. It was a move that told her with certainty that this was not an innocent boy. She'd been kissed by a man. One who had experience and knew what he wanted and how to get it.

She hated that she wanted to kiss Reed again. She hated that she'd stayed up hours into the night afterward, thinking about the way it had felt to be manhandled like that. No one had ever dared. Even in dances, Saffron led. Everyone else was too frightened to cross her.

She wondered if those thick arms would be warm around her. What would he do if she lay her head against his chest? What did his heartbeat sound like? What would it feel like to be held down by him? On that front, she could understand Meg'ante's growing infatuation with the man. He was violent in a way that would easily fit in with Giant society.

"So what do we do? Get the army and go to war against the demons without the Di'alletta?" Me'ello demanded, breaking Saffron's thoughts. She fanned herself, feeling her ears burning, and hoped no one had noticed her distraction.

"We should appease the Gods," Pyro snapped.

Feeling that she'd gotten herself under control, Saffron turned to face them again. "If we just get Dylan back, he can choose a Di'alletta, and we'll just go destroy the other Astralitar. He was a mistake anyway."

"Or, we can go get Reed," Meg'ante said. "At least we can easily find him. Who knows where Dylan went."

Abruptly, Snow turned on her heel and started walking to the doors.

"Hey! Where are you going!? No one dismissed you." Saffron shouted.

"It's time for prayer," Snow said softly, though her voice carried in the large room. She continued out as if none of this mattered to her. Her father hurried after.

"Better that they do that," Meg'ante said. "Maybe they'll get some answers about how to fix this."

Saffron scowled. She had no real hope that prayers would fix the situation. They’d gotten their first Astralitar killed after toying with him for two years, then used random things that were lying around to summon Reed. None of that mattered. The gods were a lost cause. Saffron just needed to get rid of one Astralitar and marry the other.

Admittedly... killing Reed was not going to be easy in either a physical or emotional sense, but getting him to agree to the ceremony was also unlikely. Dylan was also an option, but... performing the ceremony with him meant she wouldn't get Reed. Appealing to Reed's baser instincts wasn't going to work. She needed a better trap.

Furious over her stupid feelings, Saffron decided she wasn't going to achieve anything further by arguing with the others. Slapping her fan closed against her palm, she left the throne room.