Page 98 of Born of Starlight
Fenris
Seeing Elsie brought me back to the night Phynx fell—she’d been just seventeen. I had seen her just before I met Firose on the roof. I’d been furious with her for following me and had told her to run. It had been too late. The chaos unfolded so soon after.How had she escaped that night?
Hours had passed since the palace was infiltrated by northern soldiers. I believed my little sister. Unfortunately, she’d always had a knack for being where she shouldn’t be at the most inconvenient times.
You’ll have to trust Asterie to clear Elsie of wrongdoing.
But there was no way Asterie could conjure it from a moonstone, so Elsie’s fate would be determined by the enchantress’ willingness to lie.
There was no knock at the door, only a creak in the wood frame before it swung open abruptly.
I sprung upright, and the covers fell into my lap as I dumbly watched Asterie cross the room, as if she’d been summoned by my thought of her. She moved so quickly that there was no time to swing my legs over the side of the bed before she climbed into it and knelt in front of me. It might have been an erotic sight if her glare didn’t threaten to level me.
Her hair was down and disheveled, and she wore only a white linen nightdress. She opened a leather-wrapped parcel to reveal a raw moonstone. Judging by her mussed appearance and the flush in her cheeks, she’d thrown herself out of bed.
“Take my hands,” she said.
I ignored her request and blurted out, “What fate will you condemn my sister to tomorrow if that moonstone does not answer you?”
“She will be proven innocent—Sybilla knows it was not her.”
My body slackened in relief. “Thank you, Asterie. Thank you.”
“Do not thank me yet. If you can’t tell me what happened that night in Phynx, then show me.” It was a cold demand. “Maybe your Source magic will help me through this conjuring drought.”
“Asterie,” I warned, but it was too late. She set the moonstone down before reaching to grab my hands with her long cool fingers. The moonstone rose between us and began to glow, leaving me wide-eyed and uneasy.
Her usually dark eyes grew opaque and shielded, ghostly.
And then I felt it—my mind yielding to hers. Before I could object, Asterie pulled me in and took us somewhere else…or maybe I took us there.
I was in Firose’s guest chamber at the Lamoreaux estate. She was at the vanity, combing her long golden hair.
Asterie let out a low growl.
“Is this really what you want me to see? I give you a chance to share the truth, and you take me to your lover’s bedroom?”
I couldn’t answer. I could only watch as a younger version of me entered the room to make the biggest mistake of his pathetic life.
That bright-eyed version of myself crossed the room to Firose and placed my arms around her shoulders. I looked at her in the mirror before she stood and turned to face me.
“I still have no answer for you,” she cooed in the way that had once made me putty in her fingers.
“It was a simple question—will you, or will you not marry me?” I grimaced to watch myself grovel.
Firose made her clear blue eyes so wide I almost believed her again. “It would be too much. Marriage, Fenny? Really? So soon?”
I asked, “You worry about my devotion to you?”
I watched as I got down on one knee with a short blade and opened my left palm, cutting into it. Then I pulled an heirloom teardrop gemstone of my mother’s from my pocket. I let my blood drop to the ground. The blood sizzled.
“With this proposal, I vow to give you half of my power. Half of everything I am—you shall wear it in this gem.”Half of me—the stupidest grand gesture to offer a woman.And Firose loved grand gestures.“All you need to say is yes.”
She looked down at me and glanced at the ink on my arm.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“Yes—I agree to marry you. To carry the burden of your power with you.”
