Page 78 of Born of Starlight
The story in the text was so different from the man that I thought I’d grown to know.He couldn’t have.Yet he’d told me the night we met that he had the blood of many on his hands.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.I’d been so naive. My mind raced further.
Amara knew about that night.
How could she stand in the same room as him without wringing his neck?She hadn’t been ill at ease with him the night prior. They had regarded each other as friends.
Can I truly trust Amara, or could the text be wrong?
I was so sick of cryptic half-truths and accepting the words of others at face value. My veins burned, and my heart pounded.
I stormed into my bathing chamber and tried to soak in the tub, but it didn’t ease my growing wrath. Instead, it made me think of Fenris’ hands on me. That feeling was burned into my memory in painful detail.
After deciding a bath wasn’t what I needed after all, I hurried to dress. A pair of supple leather pants and a dark linen tunic were quickly pulled on, and I didn’t bother with a braid.
There was only one place where my fury could be released without leaving the tower in a pile of rubble. I had to keep my hands clenched shut to curb the involuntary blue flames growing there as I rounded my way up to the arena.
“One of the most significant losses of civilian life in all of the Great Wars.”
The arena was a large square platform built on the tower’s upper level, open to the sky. The sunlight cascaded across it, and my eyes squinted against the abrasive light. I pulled a blade off the weapons wall, which had been built under a large awning. The morning dew darkened the smooth paved stone beneath my feet.
I began practicing movements with the broadsword. Each movement became more violent than the last, each strike more unhinged.
“White flags were flown. The beast continued to destroy the city.”
The anger burned through me like oil ignited with a match. Before long, the blade glowed an iridescent blue and trailed licking blue flames in the wake of its movement.Good.I needed to let some of that energy out.
I knew Fenristhe Destroyerhad entered the arena before I laid eyes on him. I knew it from the surge of power I felt in response to him.
Chapter21
Fenris
The door to Asterie’s bedchamber was cracked open. I approached it with an irrational desire to see how she looked well rested, with mussed hair and eyes softened with sleep.
I poked my head in only enough to see that history volumes littered her bedchamber and that she wasn’t there. A lump grew in the back of my throat as I pushed the door in further and stepped into the room.
The volume on her bed lay open, and my whole body stiffened to see my own name on the page.
I turned quickly back toward the door—I needed to find her.Had she left without me?
On my way out of the room, something else caught my eye on her desk. An old Brennac text. I stopped to peek at the section she had stopped at.Unbindings.A particular spell was circled—its roots in dark magic, the Lacero curse.
Did she truly intend to bargain with Death to unbind herself from me?
I hurried out of the room and hit the stairs at a run.
* * *
Asterie trackedme as though waiting for me to strike. Her irises were gone as soon as my boots hit the stone of the arena entrance. Black depths swirled in their place, threaded with an iridescent sparkle like stars orbiting.
The predator before me had long waves kicking up in the wind and sticking to her full lips. Those damned leather pants—I had half a mind to just lay down and let her torture me for the view alone. Seeing her look at me with such disdain was torture enough.
Underestimating this woman, or her Origin-gifted power, could be deadly—for both of us. She white-knuckled the hilt of a long blade that shined silver-blue, so bright it burned my eyes like staring into the sun.
Stepping into the middle of the arena unarmed was possibly the stupidest decision to make. But kissing the enchantress hadn’t been wise either. We were bound in more ways than she knew.She needed to know.
Fuck Amara for not telling Asterie where that power came from. My friend had many lovely qualities and talents, but she’d never been a direct communicator when it mattered most.
