Page 48 of The Stars are Dying

Groaning, I pushed myself up. Rubbing my eyes, I could barely make out the figure by the far end of the bed. Until a choked sound raised every hair on my body and I discovered not one person, but two.

“Cassia.” I could barely whisper her name. I tried to lunge up toward her, but I swayed, and something caught me.

Someone.

“Impressive how fast you figured out that riddle.”

The hairs on my nape stood. I knew the voice, the locks of brown hair and hazel eyes I would see if I turned, but I only focused on one thing. Cassia.

Crying out, I strained, but his grip was iron. A heat crept over every inch of me, taking me away from that room—from myself. I didn’t know what I became next to escape him, only that desperation took over as I’d never seen Cassia so still, not fighting back.

“It will be over in a moment. Then I’ll collect my reward,” the man cooed in my ear.

When a cold lick of metal came to rest along my neck…

I would never know where my delirious instinct came from.

Reaching in front of me, my hand felt the familiar hilt, not even remembering where I’d last left it in my desperation, only that I’d done this before. My stormstone dagger emerged in my grip from a void of dark starlight, flipping as I drove it through his ribs behind me.

I met my mark.

The man’s loud cry rattled my senses, and my adrenaline coursed fast. He fell to his knees, and as I spun, the slick glide of my blade stunned me too late. Blood pooled over his hand where he clutched his neck, and I stumbled back in horror, dropping my dagger. The clamor of it didn’t register, only the man’s chokes. I couldn’t believe the precision of such an attack.

“Cass,” I breathed. That all-consuming fear seized me again, making me forget the gruesome way my victim coughed on his own blood in the final seconds of his life. When I turned, I didn’t advance, but the dagger I’d swiped soared.

This man gave off a shrill sound as I lodged the blade in his back. He let Cassia go, and only then did I see his pointed ears as he released my dearest friend from what I would forever remember as death’s kiss. Yet how had he known her name to take part of her soul?

Feral brown eyes spun to me, and in my utter shock and panic at watching Cassia’s body fall, my unexplainable fight instinct was lost. He managed to reach and pull the dagger free. When he held it, outrage hardened his expression.

“I can’t say I’m disappointed I get to kill you instead,” he said, tossing my dagger away.

Then he lunged for me.

I cried out at his vise grip on my arms. His sights snapped to my neck, and I became immobile in my panic. Sinful fingers traced over the unruly scar, and the soulless…helicked his lips.

He smiled, revealing two pointed teeth, and I believed I would die today. “Just a taste,” he breathed as if something had overcome him. Vacant eyes wouldn’t let go of the claim he’d made on my throat. His lips pulled back, head leaning in…

“I said aim for the heart.”

I stumbled back as the soulless gave a piecing wail. Releasing me, I watched him fall to his knees, body jerking, and as his face hit the ground I found my dagger protruding from his back—on the opposite side to my first strike. My rib cage came close to exploding. A high-pitched ringing filled my ears, and I searched frantically for Nyte, whose voice held such rage and malice I trembled with its echo.

He wasn’t here.

Real time crawled back to me, settling the worst dread of my existence. I stayed rooted to the spot, unable to turn around. Until I heard her voice croak.

“Astraea…”

My eyes filled when I saw her. My steps were weightless until I gave in to gravity to fall by Cassia’s side, the elation of hearing her snuffed out cruelly when I beheld the weak sight. I had never seen her soscared.“You’ll be all right,” I said, trying to be the brave one, but that had never been me. It was always Cassia who made the monsters seem small as long as she was bigger. Her skin was too pale, her breathing labored in short, wheezing gasps.

“I don’t— I— I don’t feel good.”

Cradling her upper body, I tucked her hair away with trembling fingers. “You’re just in shock, but he let you go. You’re going to survive it.”

There would be no telling how much time the soulless had stolen from her, but my mind reeled that it was too much. Far too much.

“It doesn’t hurt,” she said, her voice barely a croak as if it had aged a century. “I’m just tired.”

“You can’t sleep,” I begged.

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