Page 29 of The Stars are Dying

Time slowed when I entered and matched it to the face.

I blinked several times, hoping it wasn’t true, that perhaps I’d fallen asleep waiting for Zath. Still nothing changed. Cassia’s expression lit up at finding me.

“Ah, there she is,” Hektor drawled.

My skin crawled. His tone was cheerful to the room, but I heard the cover-up of fury. I dared to look and found the mask he wore fit true to that. His smile looked pleasant, but those green irises blazed.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Cassia. It came out as barely more than a whisper past the hands gripping my throat, and I nearly raised my own to be sure they weren’t real.

“Returning this to you,” Hektor answered before the words could slip from her parted mouth.

When I beheld the purple metal of the dagger he offered out, the room tilted, my situation turning worse. I shifted a step, floundering for how to respond since nothing would open the ground and save me from this confrontation.

“Thank you,” I said, sliding a look to Cassia, whose bright face started to fall. I tried to wipe my horror, forcing a smile to erase the concern that pinched her brow as she studied Hektor and me. Even Calix shifted his weight, his hand resting on his sword with careful observation.

The tension in the room could be cut with a knife.

“I’ll give you a moment to say goodbye to our esteemedSelected.” Hektor made to leave, stopping by my shoulder. His gaze, though unmet, turned me to ice. He slipped from the room, and still I couldn’t relax when the three of us stood alone. The click behind us jolted the first movement through me.

“Why did you come here?” I asked vacantly, staring as if I could still deny it.

“To bring your dagger and give you the plans for tomorrow. I was around the town anyway and thought to come myself—”

“You could have given it to me tomorrow,” I said, blank with fading hope. It was over. “Just one more day.”

Cassia took steps toward me, and I tried not to break as she didn’t know what she’d done. All she’d exposed. “Astraea.” Her eyes scanned me, and only then did I relax, realizing I had to stop her observations from running wild—that I was somethingweak,something to besaved, when I didn’t want to be either.

“Sorry,” I muttered, reaching out to hold her arms as she did mine. “I’m just surprised to see you.”

With her slow nod she didn’t seem fully convinced. I pulled her in for an embrace. Calix kept his expression firm, though I didn’t believe it was fully out of concern for me. As he watched our interaction his focus remained on Cassia.

“Now I’ve seen the profiles, I don’t know, Cass. The woman from Pyxstia might give you at least a worthy match,” I said lightheartedly.

Pulling away, Cassia chuckled, and I started to relax into the knowledge that at least in these moments with her I could find a gift no matter what came next.

“I think so too.”

“We should be getting back,” Calix interrupted.

A wave of grief washed over me, but I would not cry. Would not give her that last image before she left.

“The send-off will be full of commotion. We’ll pick you up on the road outside the city,” she said. “Tomorrow afternoon.”

How could I tell her it was over? There would be no escaping Hektor’s leash that would be reduced to nothing once they left for this.

“If I’m not there—”

“You will be.”

My teeth ground at her damn persistence. Her brow began to knit. Cassia would storm off to Hektor himself right now if she suspected anything, and I couldn’t risk that. So I put on a smile and embraced her again, meeting eyes with Calix and hoping he understood my pleading look: that if I didn’t arrive, hehadto force her to go without me.

For the first time, he looked back at me with something like sadness and understanding, giving one single nod. It was all I needed.

Cassia and Calix left, and I remained looking over Hektor’s desk.

Don’t let him see you weak.

I didn’t turn when I felt him enter with a gust of cold that seeped to my bones.

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