Nyx had not moved.
Her hands were still pressed to her mouth, her eyes the size of small moons, and the sound that had come out of her five seconds ago was still echoing in the cathedral because nobody had spoken since.
"Nyx?" Aria tried.
"That's Scarlet!!" Nyx repeated, as if saying it a second time would make it more real. "That's Scarlet the Flame Monarch. At our dungeon. Standing next to Mother. At our dungeon!!!"
"You said that already!" Luna scoffed.
"At our dungeon, Luna!"
Kaiden watched his space babe spiral from the throne and felt a memory surface, old enough to belong to a different life.
A warm summer day. Ice cream cones. A nervous pink-haired girl walking beside him before her first adult shoot, trying to distract herself from the fact that a film crew was about to see her naked.
'Who's your favorite awakened?' he'd asked her. A throwaway question to keep her talking.
'Mine is Scarlet.'
