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Fuck, she’s serious…
My entire life I’ve been fascinated with stars, but in the Seven Realms, we don’t have any. Our skies are filled with twinkling lights, sure, but they’re reflections of the crystals that line the ceiling of our world and the bottom of the three floating masses we refer to as our moons. Every three days, they block out the hell flame, a bright glowing fire that never goes out, embedded into the middle of the ceiling of our world, and we have a day of night.
The closest thing we have to stars is seeing those crystals catch on what little light there is. Only Earth, the world Alice comes from, has such a thing. My mother used to collect books fromother worlds and the moment I read about those lights, I fell in love.
Then, Alice came into my life, and she could tell me about them. She’dseenthem. And when she visits the mortal realm to check on her family, she makes an effort to bring back books for me so that I might experience what it’s like to see the stars through words and stories.
She’d hang that over my head?
Alice is still frozen, waiting for me to pour my heart out. “Well? What will it be? Books or secrets?”
“You’re one to talk. You knew exactly who Valeria was and didn’t say anything,” I snap quietly, not wanting to scare Maevie. As I finish the last braid, I tap my niece’s shoulder. “Why don’t you go downstairs with Lucian and Eva. Your mother and I will join you in a moment, all right?”
Maevie stares at me for a long moment in the reflection of the mirror, but she doesn’t argue. Instead, she gets to her feet and kisses my cheek. “Thank you for the braids. Don’t take too long.”
“We won’t,” I assure her, waiting for her to skip from the room.
Alice watches the door too, and the moment her daughter is through it and it clicks closed, she scowls right back at me. “What would you have had me do? You’d just found out her father massacred your people. If I’d told you when I saw her face yesterday, you might have sent her in pieces back to her father. It wouldn’t have been safe for her.”
My shoulders settle, the glare falling from my face like it’s been slapped off of it. “You think I’d do that to her? She’s not her father. If anyone in the Seven Realms understands that children are not responsible for their parent’s actions, it’s me.”
Alice drops the mascara in her hand onto the vanity, her chest concaving as her eyes flood with worry, with regret. Her manicured hand rests on my cheek, and it’s not until her thumbswipes a tear away that I realize one has fallen. “I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant.”
Her thumb hovers over the scar on my cheek, knowing damn well that my father was the one who put it there. He was blinded by his need for war and revenge. So much that he’d have carved the spellbinding my mother placed on me out if it were possible. All because his son couldn’t use his magic.
After years of being tortured by the man, determined to break the magic strings my mother tied around my soul, he finally got what wanted. The darkened shadows of people burned into various walls of this castle are proof of that. I am not my father. I would never harm my child—or any child, for that matter.
“You were furious,” Alice says, dropping her hand. “When people are that upset about something, they don’t think rationally. They’re not themselves. I couldn’t be sure that you wouldn’t break your deal, or that you wouldn’t kill her and suffer the consequences of coming back from the dead.”
“I’d hope you’d have more faith in me than that.” Trapping my lip between my teeth, I force myself to meet her eyes. “So, what do I do now?”
“I saw the way you look at her. It might not be love, but you’re definitely feeling something.” Watching her in the mirror, she reaches for her jewelry box and pulls out earrings and threads them on.
“She deserves better.” I fidget with the buttons of my shirt, popping one through the hole only to take it out again.
“Shewantsyou.“ A necklace clings against the vanity wood in front of me. It only takes me a moment to recognize it.
It’s one I’d given to Jade the day I learned we were mates—that she was the other half of my soul. The stone in the pendant has been enchanted, infused with a piece of my spirit, making it glow when it recognizes itself. It’s how I’d told her. And as if it was yesterday, I can remember the way it glowed around her neckthat moment the pendant touched her skin. I’d never seen her so happy before, and to this day, my heart has never been that full since.
“You should hang on to that,” she says, her heels clicking on the marble as she moves about behind me, scouring for something within the room. I’m not sure when she got up.
“I gave it to you to keep safe.” With trembling fingers, I pick up, watching that clear stone bloom into a bright white light.
“That’s because you were trying to be a nomad and travel the realms. You didn’t want to lose it. But you have a permanent home now and you’re putting down roots. It should go home with you.”
All I can do is give a curt nod. With a numbness I’m not sure how to describe, I unclasp it, bring it around my neck, and tuck the small pendant under my shirt. It’s only once I finish that I discover Alice watching me, a smile on her face, arms folded.
“Are you going to find Valeria?” Her question hangs in the air between us.
“Yeah. You’re right. She shouldn’t be unprotected, so for the reminder of our time here, I’ll ensure she’s not alone.”
“Did she mention if she wanted to go back or stay?”
I shake my head, hating the way my insides clench and tighten to the point of pain at the thought of her leaving Grim’s Keep for good.
“Well, then let’s keep her last name to ourselves, yes? The lords don’t need to know.” With that, Alice waves me over. “Now come on. Maevie will send a search party if we don’t join her for lunch soon.”
A smile pulls at my mouth, knowing it’s the truth. I’ve seen her send the entire castle guard after her father before, because she wanted to know if she could buy a dress. She’d told them it was life or death, and certainly got the response she wanted. The kinghad been tracked down and rushed to the village market within minutes.
