Page 15 of The Stars are Dying

“What if you were found?”

“I was.” I tried a smile, which earned a scowl from him. “By you.”

Calix grumbled as he steered me to continue walking. “I would not have been able to get you out of detainment had someone else discovered your brazen infiltration.”

“Reihan would have come.”

“You can’t refer to the reigning lord without title around here,” he scolded. “Cassia’s the most important person in the kingdom right now. You’d do best to remember that.”

I winced at that. As Cassia’s personal guard, Calix was highly protective of her. He tolerated me for her sake, helping her sneak out to meet me, which she was only permitted to do once a month or less with how scarcely Hektor left his manor. While Calix’s presence wasn’t nearly as bright and yearned-for as the reigning lord’s daughter, I considered him a reluctant friend.

“You really know how to bring down the mood—” My steps stumbled at the squeal from across the new open courtyard. I knew that voice in any pitch, any tone.

Every negative aura dissipated when I saw Cassia. Her black hair was tied in a braid, the loose strands around her face indicating she’d been training with the bow she held for some time.

I tried to advance, but Calix’s arm extended in front of me. Cassia gave a quick scan around to the person I assumed was her swordplay mentor, then to their surroundings, before deeming it safe to come over. I relaxed my scowl at her guard.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” she said, throwing her arms around my neck. “Stars, I worried you wouldn’t visit before I left.”

My arms tightened. “I would never have let you go without a last goodbye,” I said.

When we pulled apart, the words I wanted to blurt became lodged in my throat. My mouth floundered, and Cassia seemed to notice, maybe even reading what I wanted to say by the hopeful widening of her eyes. She waited patiently, but I couldn’t speak with the lingering presence around us. There would be no taking it back, and I knew once I’d planted the notion in Cassia’s mind she would do everything she could to seal it as she had tried to over so many months.

“We need another bow,” Cassia said to Calix behind me.

“I’ll get Fenson to retrieve—”

“You’ll be far faster. And a quiver of new arrows, please.”

I couldn’t see them, but I imagined the soft plea she used was accompanied by the widening of her blue doe eyes. Unlike the silver-blue of mine, Cassia’s were a deep sapphire shade that could entrance a person.

The soft crunching of grass signaled he’d obliged.

“I’ll continue on my own,” she said to her mentor, Fenson.

“Your father insisted—”

“One more hour isn’t going to change me now,” she interjected.

After the reluctant dismissal, Fenson left too. Cassia took my arm, leading me into the center of the small courtyard. I gleaned the five targets that had been set out over the far side. Some hung over the stone arches, others were propped on the ground, and people could pass under the walkway behind them, but it remained deserted.

“Did something happen?” Cassia asked as we sat on a bench. Her gloved hands took mine, hope and attentiveness clear in her shining irises.

Five years ago, before we met, Cassia had won the kingdom trials that decided the best candidate to be put forth for the Libertatem. For the prize of immortality and the honor of bestowing safety from the vampires upon the kingdom.

“I—” Once again my words were choked as if my mind were taunting me that this course of action was ludicrous to take. The world had always called to be ventured, and I remained too afraid to answer it. With a squeeze of assurance from Cassia’s hands, I said quietly, “I don’t want this to be the last goodbye.”

Cassia’s smile stretched wide as if she’d been waiting so long for me to come to this decision and had lost all hope that I would. “You want to come with me?” she clarified.

I nodded, and she gave an excitable squeal.

“Oh, Astraea, I’m so relieved! I knew you would come to your senses. This is an opportunity of a lifetime!”

My smile faltered. I was unable to match her thrill since the reality wasn’t an adventure between two friends getting to leave their humble kingdom, the one chance in a hundred years. Cassia would be competing in a set of trials for which there would be only one victor.

“This year will be different.” Cassia spoke to my turmoil. “I can feel it. The vampire attacks have been growing more than ever. Something’s not right. I think he’s slipping.”

“The king?”

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