Page 99 of Born of Starlight
I got up to kiss the lips of the woman who would later rip my heart out and stomp on it. Then I lifted that gemstone necklace around her and clasped it. It was as though, with that moment, my magic strung around her and paved her path toward darkness.
Asterie’s voice rasped through that clouded, tormenting memory. “Show me what happened that night in Phynx.”
Chapter29
Asterie
As we entered the next conjuring, Fen’s emotions weighed heavily—regret laced with self-loathing that gave way to despair. It made me want to scream. I’d never taken another person into a vision with me. I hadn’t realized what it would feel like, that my feelings would mirror theirs.
Maybe this was a reckless idea…
Then, Fen pulled me into his next memory.
We were at the top of a castle’s highest tower. Fenris and Firose were alone there. The blue rooftops of the city below surrounded them, and limestone buildings spread for miles.
White flags were flying on every battlement.
The realization hit me. I hadn’t recognized Luz because it had never been the city the prophecy had shown me. The prophecy had recollected the fall of Phynx—then led me to him. It shared the past as a path to my future.
Phynx burned around us, and cries carried through the wind and up the castle walls like tortured spirits. The reality was worse. Those were no spirits. Those were people—women, children, innocent civilians dying below. A red glow was cast against the starless night sky clouded with smoke.
The putrid smell of dark magic lingered in the air and climbed the walls. Death exchanged for power.
Fen collapsed to his knees, his shoulders sunken, and his breath rasped. Firose faced Fenris with her chin held high and the tip of her broadsword pointed at his heart. He was at her mercy.
“What have you done?” He was bleeding from a large laceration spanning from his chin to his torso—a claw mark.
Firose rebutted, “No, Fen, what haveyoudone?”
His sword arm was exhausted at his side. “Firose, please…make him stop. We were here to help. We were here to prevent this battle, not fuel it.”
“Why? So that one side might rise above the other? So that this war might rage on? No, Fen—don’t be so naive. Both kingdoms will be buried in history as reminders of why a new realm is necessary. I’ve been chosen. I am the key, Fenris.”
“You’re not making sense, please…just think about this. Please.” Fen’s head dropped to rest against the sword’s blade as though willing it to end him.
“Think of the world we can create,” she hissed with wistfulness in those cold, calculating eyes. She seemed to look to another, but no one stood where her eyes rested.It made my blood run cold.
“You know it is not that simple. Any world created from this will be built on a foundation of darkness.”
“That’s the thing, Fenny. I do not fear the darkness.”
Fen shook his head. “Please, please, Firose. This isn’t you.”
“Open your eyes. All it took to edge Krait Darvanda’s fury was one beheaded princess. These kingdoms were bound to fail…He will rise and Death will reign. I feel it.”
The words of a fanatic.
“He will rise and Death will reign.”Those words—I’d seen them before. They were on the walls of the crypt, written by the dying Central King.
“Fucking listen to yourself—you leveled a city fornothing.You are not chosen—the Source of Death will not rise.”
Firose narrowed her gaze. “Will he not? He promised to help me siphon the other half of your power from you in death.” Firose played with the gemstone she wore around her neck.
There were footsteps rounding the tower stairs.
Firose’s sword lifted to Fen’s throat. She could have beheaded him, but she seemed to hesitate. Instead, she whispered the Tace enchantment—one often used on spies to ensure they never spoke their true intentions if captured.
Tears ran through the copper in Fen’s beard while she set history against him.
