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“More,” I whispered as he turned the diamond in his hand. The sharp angles glimmered silver. “It looks like a star.”
“That is what it is called,” he said. “The Star.”
“Oh.” I feigned surprise. “It’s a fitting name.”
“That it is.”
The heat of his chest bore down on my back as I turned slightly. “How was such a diamond created?” I asked, already knowing the answer, but I was interested to see how Kolis would respond.
“From what I understand, it was created by dragon fire.” As he spoke, he drew his thumb over the diamond, and I could’ve sworn the sheen of silver retracted from his touch. “Long before Primals could shed tears of joy. I came upon it by pure chance.”
That was exactly how Delfai had said it was created, but I knew Kolis hadn’t stumbled upon it. “It truly is beautiful.” I watched the milky light ripple through the diamond as he turned it once more. “Why would you change its appearance and keep it here, where it’s hidden?”
“Because where else would I place such a beautiful stone than where I keep what I cherish the most?”
My stomach churned at his response, but I managed a smile. “May I hold it?”
“Of course,” Kolis purred.
I swallowed the sourness gathering in my mouth as he moved the diamond closer. My fingers folded around it—
A jolt danced across my fingertips the moment my skin came into contact with The Star. The rush of energy flowed over my hand and up my arm as the embers in my chest immediately thrummed to life, humming and buzzing so fast I couldn’t stifle the gasp or hide how my entire body jerked.
The intense current bordered on painful as it pumped through me, forcing my hand to tighten around the surprisingly warm stone. A tremor started in my arm as the diamond heated. I tried to force my grip to loosen, but I couldn’t let go of the stone, couldn’t look away as its sheen intensified. The light I’d seen hadn’t been a reflection. The streaks of milky, silvery-white light were inside the diamond. They now expanded, filling the entire stone—
Images appeared in my mind without warning, rapidly forming and flipping as if a tome of paintings. I saw a lush forest—a heavily wooded area atop a mountain—and a man caught in a windstorm with long, whipping strands of dark hair around features partially covered in russet-hued ink. And his eyes…
His eyes.
They were the color of the realms—blue, green, and brown, with stars filling his pupils. He yelled at the sky, his words lost to the wind.
Hot, violent air came from the open jaws of a massive, winged beast. A dragon the color of the ground and the pines its breath toppled.
Red sparked from inside the dragon’s mouth, along the sides. Bright flames erupted from the majestic being, a funnel of fire that swamped the man on the mountain. And the flames kept coming, obliterating the entire crest of the peak until nothing remained where the man had stood.
Nothing but scorched earth and a diamond that sank deep into the ground, burying itself—
The images rapidly changed again. The mountain and the dragon were gone, replaced by another man, a black-haired one this time, who held the diamond just as I did, tightly, his knuckles bleached white. His arm shook as mine did. His entire body trembled as he lifted his head, shock filling his silver eyes and flickering across his broad cheekbones, slackening his wide mouth and strong jaw, paling his golden-bronze skin. He stared at the man across from him, one with golden hair who shared his features.
I knew who I saw now.
“Nothing can erase the past,” Eythos rasped.
A hand the same shade as Eythos’s closed over his. “I have no interest in erasing the past. I will change the future,” Kolis swore.
Their stares locked as lightning erupted above them. “Not the way you think you will,” Eythos pleaded, his large body trembling as he struggled to lift his other arm and clasp the back of Kolis’s neck. “Listen to me, brother. It won’t bring anything but pain to the realms—to you.”
“As if I don’t already live with nothing but pain!” Kolis shouted. “That is all there has ever been for me.”
Tears filled Eythos’s eyes. “I wish nothing more than for your life to have been different. If I could change it for you, I would. I would do anything—”
“But you had your chance to make me happy. You had a choice to do anything for me, yet you refused,” Kolis snarled. “And now look at us. Look at where we are!”
“I’m sorry.” Eather crackled from Eythos’s skin. “I am. But it’s not too late to stop this. I swear to you. I can forgive you. We can start anew—”
“Forgive me?” Kolis laughed roughly as thunder roared. “Come now. You speak as if you’re still capable of looking upon me as your brother. As if you could after Mycella. You’ve never forgiven me for her loving me.”
Eythos drew back. “Never forgiven…? Brother, she once held a tender spot for you—”
