Everson began to climb the stairs, his unwavering gaze embracing every detail of the waiting princess. He could see the gentle rise and fall of her bosom. The blush beneath her luminous eyes. He was now almost close enough to touch her. Instead, she reached for him.

Her alabaster hand floated in the air like an invitation to dance. Everson took it, and the touch was like a pure and perfect chord of music, harmony melding with melody in a vibration felt as much as heard. He ascended the final step and they were face-to-face. Their heads inclined together to kiss.

The magic of the moment was shattered by a strident scream. Everson looked over Allegra’s shoulder at a maniacal man hurtling toward them. Murderous eyes blazed in their hollowed, darkened sockets. A spray of wild hair jutted out at lunatic angles beneath a golden crown. Judging by his crown, this rampaging man could be none other than King Xander the Firm.

“Never!” bellowed Xander, nearly upon them. The king raised a blood-coated sword high above his head, his face twisted by rage. Everson instinctively pushed Allegra out of harm’s way as the blade came down.

* * *

Allegra gasped. She was shocked and chilled as if a monstrous wave had swept her into the icy depths of the Ocean of Manorain. She stood in the center of her room, her chest heaving to regain the breath that had so abruptly abandoned her. Her eyes were wide, the pupils mere specks as she stared intently at nothing.

Geneva flew to her side. “Allegra, is something wrong?” she asked. “You look flushed.”

Allegra groped blindly for Geneva’s hand with both of hers, desperately in need of an anchor to keep her from slipping further a-sea. After a moment, she regained enough composure to speak.

“What happens when Femera and Amali align?” Allegra asked. “When they eclipse one another?”

Geneva stared at her, dumbfounded. Allegra realized that she probably appeared unhinged, her tone frazzled and insistent for no apparent reason. All that she had ever reaped from the stars was cruelty, yet here she was, randomly contemplating the heavens.

“Geneva,” Allegra said, undeterred.

“They become star-crossed,” Geneva replied quickly. “There is intense light and darkness at the same time. I’ve only seen it once. Why?”

Allegra nodded. Star-crossed. That was it exactly. Two celestial bodies destined not to collide but to simply pass at a point in their opposite trajectories, so aligned that they might appear as one.

“That is the only way I can describe what I just felt inside,” Allegra said.

“Did you have a vision?”

“No. I saw nothing. Just a feeling. A very intense feeling.”

Allegra continued to stare straight ahead, as if searching for something she had glimpsed and then lost, as one might peripherally sense a comet or the ground shadow of something in flight. Geneva watched her with concern.