Page 82 of This Shattered Star

There were two choices. I could either continue pacing up and down the corridor until the beginning of Wit like a madwoman, or face my allies.

The last thing I wanted to do was lie to their faces. But I knew that if I kept stewing in my thoughts, I was going to jump out of my skin. And so I scrubbed a hand down my face, and retraced my steps, pausing when I noticed Brannon’s door had been left slightly ajar.

Strange.They always kept them closed.

I palmed Kodhan’s dagger and advanced slowly. Muffled shouting greeted my ears.

“—still in there, andyou know it!” Theia’s voice became clearer as I stopped a few feet from the threshold. She sounded livid. She was nearly screaming.

Kodhan’s answering shout made me flinch. “When will you swallow the fact you’re wrong?Let it go!”

“When I will actually be wrong!”Her words rang out. A faint sniffle followed. “And I’ll never let go. Not like you,” she growled. “Unlike you, I will never abandon—”

The scuffing of boots made it to my ears, and then a gasp—

“I would think very wisely about finishing that sentence.”

The tiny hairs on my arms stood on end at the unspoken promise of violence behind those words. He hadn’t yelled them, but he hadn’t needed to. He could have whispered them and the effect would have been the same.

A terrible thought had me wondering what he was capable of whispering with a similar tone. I shook my head viciously, clearing it immediately.

Gideon would have my head if he knew that I was eavesdropping. It was an easy way for one to get killed if they weren’t careful. But this was my only chance to learn more about what they weren’t telling me outright.

Theia scoffed. I could imagine her looking down her nose at him, arms crossed, jaw locked tighter than any bolt. “And you say I’m pathetic.”

“Because you are. You’ve always been the most naïve out of all of us,” Kodhan sneered.

“Don’t be an ass, Kodhan,” Brannon cut in, sharp steel coating the warning. “That’s enough. We’re all on the same side.”

“And you’ve always been the one to ignore what’s right in front of you,” Theia hissed. Her voice dropped several octaves then, making her nearly unrecognizable as she said, “Tell me, fieryone, do you remain blind by choice? Or is it the ashes that float in the wake of your self-destruction that cast your world dark? You are many things, but a liar is not one of them. And it would be alieto say you don’t see it.Brannonhas seen it.I’veseen it.”

There was a heavy beat of silence before Kodhan sighed deeply. He murmured a reply I couldn’t discern. Only the wordsfaultandafraidwere loud enough for me to understand.

Theia answered just as quietly. Then, “The shadows beckon to her, just as she seeks out the light. And you weren’t there, but—” The rest of her words were muffled, hushed once again.

I drew a startled intake of breath as the door suddenly opened wider, Brannon’s frame filling the gap like he was about to step out into the corridor. He spotted me immediately.

His eyes widened, darting to Kodhan and Theia. They were still fighting. I took a step back, realizing what kind of impression I must’ve been giving, hiding by the door with a blade in hand.

I sheathed it quickly and lifted my hands placatingly. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

Brannon pressed a finger to his lips. Ushered me back so that we were completely out of earshot. “How much did you hear?” he whispered.

“I just got here,” I replied, also in a whisper. It wasn’t like I heard anything incriminating. The argument, along with who it was about, meant nothing to me.

Brannon didn’t buy it. His brows rose in question.

I worried my bottom lip between my teeth. One shred of honesty. That, I could do. “My meal with the king ended… abruptly. And I didn’t know what to do with myself. So I decided coming here was the better alternative.”

“What was the other alternative?”

“Pacing holes into the floor.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Did he want anything in particular from you?”

More shouts rose from inside Brannon’s room, but this time I pointedly ignored them. “He said that he wouldn’t give me any hints for Wit. That I wouldn’t need them.” Another shred of truth, slightly warped. It tasted sour.

He shifted on his feet, then settled on leaning his weight against the wall. Crossing his arms over his chest, he asked, “That’s it?” I nodded in confirmation. “Then I suppose we should be on high alert. We knew when Strength and Courage would start. But Wit could begin at any moment.”