Page 83 of This Shattered Star

His eyes went distant, like he was lost in thought. Then he shook his head solemnly. “Best not disturb either of them right now. They can get pretty… intense.” I tried to peer over his shoulder, just to make sure the two of them weren’t resorting to punches, but he pushed off the wall, blocking my view completely. “I can walk with you, if you’d like?”

The offer sounded genuine, but I knew the signs of dismissal well enough. It stung nevertheless. More than I cared to admit. “Thank you. But I’d prefer to not accidentally wander into another competitor. Or worse, into one of their traps. I’ll head to my room and keep my thoughts to myself until then.” I pivoted on my heel and stalked back down the corridor towards my own room.

There was nowhere else for me to go.

Brannon didn’t want me around to hear their argument. And I deserved it. Deserved that distrust. I had no right to be disappointed, in any sense of the word.

I kept secrets of my own. Secrets that all but pointed to their blood on my hands if Maverick spoke the truth.

“Hypocrite,” I huffed under my breath. I was an untrustworthy, rotten hypocrite. The only thing keeping mefrom vomiting the full truth onto Brannon’s feet was my right iris.

I had to win.Even if the cost meant turning what was left of my heart into stone.

I’d throw it into the Phantom Rivers and watch it sink.

“I’ll come and get you,” Brannon called out, as loudly as he dared.As soon as Kodhan and Theia are done talking about things we don’t want you to hear,he left unsaid.

Waving a dismissive hand over my shoulder, I rounded back into my room, shoulders deflating from where they’d bunched up so high they nearly reached my ears. Stretched my stiff fingers out of the white-knuckled fists they’d wound up in.

The three of them weren’t being unfair—they were just being careful. They’d known each other for years and had a history that I wasn’t privy to.

“Not that any of it matters, anyway,” I murmured, chucking the chair underneath the doorhandle. We were all competing in the trials. And only two of us would make it out alive.

Exhaustion weighed so heavily on my bones that I feared they might crack.

Proper sleep was far out of reach. But it was better than drowning.

Because Iwasdrowning. In sorrow, in anger, indecisiveness. Guilt. Regret. All of it was pulling me under.

The lone sconce choked, its tiny flame waving a final goodbye before dying out completely. Plunging me in shadow.

Taking with it the last thing that could pull me back to the surface.

You belong here,the shadows whispered.You belong with us.

And I believed them.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Time slid through my fingers like grains of dirt. And Brannon still hadn’t come to retrieve me.

Then it wasn’t just wariness that kept my consciousness partially alert throughout my dreamless sleep.

Beads of sweat began to form under my clothes, dampening my skin with an uncomfortable clamminess. I shifted against the coarse bedsheets, the back of my neck prickling from strands of hair stuck to my skin. The temperature of the room climbed until it was almost suffocating.

Eyes snapping open, I bit back a scream, scrambling into a sitting position.

My room was on fire.

Real, scorching fire rapidly devoured all surfaces, seeking purchase along the walls, floors, and ceiling. The small chair, now blackened with soot, rained ash from its four legs. It would collapse at this rate.

I knew only one person who could wield fire this masterfully at a distance.

Message received.

Furiously blinking the remaining sleep out of my eyes, I hopped off the mattress, careful to avoid the growing flames eating away at the frame. Each breath proved more difficult than the next, heat and smoke shoving down my throat instead of air. If I didn’t hurry, I was sure to lose consciousness again.

A good kick sent what was left of the chair tumbling away from the door.