Page 111 of The Stars are Dying

Ibalanced on the precarious edge of my balcony railing. I enjoyed the exhilarating view from this great height and the freedom that encased me, though the very real possibility I could plummet to my death in an attempt to leap across to Rose’s balcony kept my hand glued to the wall and my feet planted with reluctance.

My body believed it to be ridiculous that I’d been debating the jump for so long, but my mind taunted me, stretching the gap wider with the illusion it was too far. With a huff to myself, I firmed my stance, preparing to leap…

The shallow creak of the door bounced my heart up into my throat. My balance wobbled, and I clung to the wall as though it would save me.

“Shit,” I choked.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I think that’s rather obvious.”

Rose looked me over with disgruntled disapproval. “Get down before you make this Libertatem one person easier for those bastards.” She walked over to her railing, hauling herself up as I retreated to the safety of mine.

Rose leaped across as if it were as easy as a step. My mouth snapped shut at her smirk.

“I wasn’t hesitating for long,” I grumbled.

Her chuckle followed me inside. “If I’d had to wait any longer for you to try, I would have considered taking a nap.”

“You make it look easy.”

“I’ve trained my whole life. Itiseasy if you’ve leaped rooftops at least three times the distance like me.”

I turned to her, wracked with unease to be in front of such a skilled person. To be incompetitionagainst her, though I didn’t want to think about that.

Rose crossed her arms after closing my door. “Want to tell me what you thought was so important in the middle of the night to be intruding on me?”

“Did you find the first key piece?” I asked. It had been over a week since I’d retrieved mine.

Rose dipped a hand into her pocket, and I relaxed with relief at seeing the metal. She began a casual toss of it into the air. “Three days ago. You can call off your guard dog—he’s grating on my nerves.”

“Can’t you just accept help?”

“I didn’t ask for it.”

“You don’t need to.”

Rose curved a brow at me. “I didn’t pin you to be so assertive.” She paced to the firepit.

“Why did Cassia write to you?”

That was what had truly been on my mind since the first mention of it. I’d been trying to figure out what else Cassia might have kept from me and what she already knew of the Libertatem.

“I wrote to her first, actually.” Rose’s tone took on a somber edge as she sat in the armchair by the fire. I copied her, desperate to hear this tale. “When her mother passed, everyone heard about it as the Reigning Lord of Alisus’s wife. I lost my mother around the same time, and I guess you could say it was my weak child’s heart that was aching for someone to reach out to.”

“I think that’s brave,” I interjected quietly, but my clasped hands tightened when she seemed to reject my words.

Her jaw worked and she stared into the flames as though trying to deny I was here at all while she spoke of her past. “I was orphaned, and I had nothing to lose by writing that letter. I begged a border guard, offering what little coin I had left, and I guess he took pity on me. He became our way to pass letters from then on.”

Of course Cassia would answer her letter.My eyes watered, but I smiled, fighting the tears from falling when my chest clenched painfully with the memory of her.

“We decided we were going to win our trials and become our kingdoms’ Selecteds for this barbaric parade.”

“You didn’t come here to win it,” I said, my voice barely audible as my adrenaline raced even though I couldn’t figure out their alternate plan.

“Neither did she.”

My heart could have stopped with the revelation.

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