Page 113 of The Stars are Dying

“Nor am I giving it. Because really, you need to get yourself together. Cassia’s life was already on borrowed time, and she wanted to use the last of it to bring an end to the evil that took both our mothers. She would be honored to see you doing the same.”

My brow furrowed, and suddenly the room was too cold with the same kind of ice as lingering death. I didn’t know if I’d survive the weight of whatever made confusion twitch Rose’s face as she watched my reaction.

“What do you mean ‘borrowed time’?”

Rose matched my expression as though I were playing her for a fool, but whatever she read on me turned her features to dread. “She never told you,” she barely murmured.

I was so close to crumbling. The ground didn’t feel so solid, and I didn’t care if it caved and swallowed me to hell when the pain building in my chest could kill.

“Tell me,” I pleaded, nearly a whimper. I thought I knew, but it didn’t make sense.

Accidents can happen if one has far less time than initially thought.

The king’s warning.

No. It couldn’t be true.

“Astraea, I’m so sorry.”

I believed her. I’d never seen such sadness sweep over her.

“I thought you knew—”

“Just tell me,” I snapped.

The blade was lodged, and I needed it pulled free—even if I bled and bled and never stopped.

“The only reason the Reigning Lord of Alisus agreed to his eldest heir eventryingfor the Libertatem was because Cassia wasn’t supposed to live to see her twenty-third year. Five years ago she got the confirmation from a healer, one with genuine magick, and only with their infused remedies was she given more time than everyone thought. More than anything, she wanted to make it here and have her legacy be for her mother.”

The world stopped spinning.

One year, Hektor had gifted me a small ornate globe that sent flurries to the stars when it was shaken. Then, when he caught me disobeying his order, he’d shattered it right in front of me, and never again would those stars dance and shine. Now I felt myself drifting with no direction, no place, only shaken through the skies without a care about where I would land. Just like a broken constellation in that globe. That was the impact I suffered at the news of the existence I was condemned to as Rose finally clarified her meaning.

“Cassia was dying.”

34

Time blurred while I remained anchored to the moment at hearing those three words that collapsed my world.

Cassia was dying.

I couldn’t remember what I’d said to dismiss Rose after that. Nor how I’d stealthily eluded the castle guards to cross the courtyard. Only when I broke through the darkness of the underground passage below the library did my senses return and I realized where my soul-shattering grief and anger had led me.

I stumbled to a halt in the massive cave as the resonating clank of chains trembled through me.

“What happened?” Nyte asked in a low and deadly growl.

Cool air breezed along my cheeks, but I didn’t sob over a single spilled tear. They just wouldn’t stopfalling. My teeth clenched with the bite of my nails into my palms. I walked toward the veil he stood in front of until no more than an arm’s distance remained between us. He studied every inch of me, and I wondered if he was looking for any signs of physical harm that could have caused my pale and ugly appearance.

“I will bind your bargain,” I said, not recognizing the ice-cold detachment of my own voice.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“I don’t need to.”

His eyes flexed, and for the first time it was like he didn’t know who he was staring at.

“I will free you, but in exchange I want to know everything about the prince—the one they call Nightsdeath.”

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