Before me lay the stars.
An entire sea of them. They rolled softly like the sea as well. Some dim, some bright. Waves of them lapped just past my toes, glittering, twinkling. There was no air to breathe. Yet I could feel myself breathing anyway. Could taste it, smell it. A scent older than time, the fired embers of the stars. They tasted of ash and hidden truth. Dust and forgotten memories. Cinders and all the words ever left unsaid.
The mist that had fallen away regrouped, folding and sifting, burning softly until it became silver dust. It wound away from me, across the starlit sea, stretching to an island not far from where I stood. An island with silver beaches under the gently crashing waves. Lit and glowing by something within itself.
Something like home. Something like love.
I stared at it, knowing if I simply left the ledge, if I simply took a step, I couldn’t come back.
A small nudge pressed against my fingers.
A black and silver creature made of the same dust stared up at me. Its edges morphed and sharpened, as though it couldn’t quite retain its shape. It was soft. Not quite solid but not liquid or gas either. Like a sandcastle left baking under the sun, only to disintegrate the moment you touched it.
The creature leaned toward me with long legs and a slender snout, a shaggy coat of sparkling dust. It nudged me again, black eyes gleaming.
Go back.
I glanced back at the island. At the waves and waves of endless stars. At the way it hummed with warmth.
The creature nudged me a third time, forcing me to take a step away from the stars. His dust broke through my fingertips, but he lowered his head and pressed a gruff shoulder into me.
I stumbled backwards and fell.
My eyes opened to Thaan’s ceiling. Plaster and stone and fine wood grain across wide beams. The scent of burned skin tinged my nose. My fingers twitched where they lay across his table.
“Selena.”
I tried to shift, and someone held my leg down.
“Don’t let her move.” Thaan’s voice. “I’m closing her wound.”
A voice beside my neck. “Hold still, heiress.”
Across the room, Ceba stood, watching with red-rimmed eyes.
Someone pounded at the door. Thaan glanced up. “Wait, Deimos. Don’t answer it yet.”
“That will be the King’s men,” Pheolix said. “Reporting Emilius’s attack to his advisor.”
Thaanharrumphed. “Cebrinne, go to your apartment and lock all doors. If a human enters, sing to them and leave them for me. Deimos, clean this mess.” He wiped his hands on a cloth, staining it bright red, then leaned the flat of his fists against the table, gazing across my body at Pheolix. “Find the key in my top drawer and take Selena to the lowest level of the servants’ quarters, down to the last door. Do not leave. Wait until I come for you. After tonight, you’re relieved of your post.”
“No—”
The word was out of me before I could catch it. It was small. Quiet. But it was enough to make Thaan rock on his heels. Pheolix’s jaw hardened. He turned, leaving me. From another room, a drawer opened and closed.
Thaan looked coldly down at me. “It’s not up for discussion.”
I caught his hand before he passed, waiting for him to gaze fully at me. “He knows.” Each breath burned, as though the air in my lungs had turned acidic and stale in the moments I’d stopped breathing. “Emiliusknows.”
Thaan’s eyes flashed. His mouth thinned. He pushed my hand away, footsteps leaving the room.
Cebrinne had already turned back through the study. Deimos waited for me to move, a sudsy bucket in his hand. Pheolix gathered me up, tucking my legs and shoulders against his chest, lifting me away. He followed Cebrinne into our apartment, waiting for her to lock the door behind her.
“I need a clean dress for her,” he said. For the first time, I thought to look down at myself. My skin had been wiped clean, but my dress was destroyed. It had been cut down the center, all the way to my navel, any modesty I might have hoped for shredded along with the fabric. A pale pink line garnished my stomach where Emilius had planted his knife, freshly sewn shut by Thaan’s water calling. One more in my forearm, three along my thighs.
They’d almost claimed my life. Two days from now, they’d disappear.
Cebrinne dug an old garment from my wardrobe. Soft cotton, long-sleeved and warm. A dress I saved for cold evenings spent indoors. Eyes bloodshot, she laid it next to a woolen cloak on my bed then closed the door behind her, as though she couldn’t stand the sight of me. Pheolix peeled my ruined gown off, refusing to meet my eyes. I remembered that first day on the Venusian beach, right before we’d dived in to find Aegir’s colony, when he’d openly stared at my body and teased.
