Page 99 of Starchaser
“Leo,” I say slowly, reaching out to take the lighter from her. “You can talk to me. Tell me what’s the matter? Is it the queen? Did she—”
“No, no.” Leo shuts her eyes tight, shaking her head. “I’m just…” When she opens her eyes again, her expression is pleading. “I can’t do this. I can’t hurt him.”
My shoulders sag with relief as the lighter ignites.
“That’s what I’ve come to tell you.” I light the end of the pipe tucked between her lips, and she puffs a cloud of smoke. “Titus isn’t compelled.”
A wrinkle deepens between her brows. “How do you know?”
I glance over my shoulder to where the queen exited only moments before. There isn’t time to explain everything that’s happened, and I feel strange at the prospect of revealing the torture Titus has endured at the hands of his stepmother.
“I’ll explain everything,” I tell Leo. “But for now, I need you to trust me. There is…” I hesitate, thinking about Flynn, lying dead under the bridge, and Eliza and Gabriel, still missing.Your mother has kept us all in the dark, Will said. “There’s a plan. We need your help.”
“We?” Leo’s voice is small, but some of that familiar steely determination returns to her gaze. “What plan?”
I tug at my glove, revealing the tattoo of the winged dagger. “We want the same things, Leo. If you help us—if you helpme—we can make a difference. For humans and for Nightweavers.”
She nods slowly, her brow furrowed. “What do you need me to do?”
The throne room looks nothinglike it did the day I swore an oath to become a Bloodknight.
Once, I thought the size and opulence of Bludgrave Manor’s ballroom was beyond compare. But as I enter the massive, domed room, its floor-to-ceiling windows and open double doors leading out onto terraces that overlook both the city of Jade and the ocean beyond, I realize the Castors’ ballroom could fit inside Castle Grim’s throne room at least a dozen times.
As Will escorts me through the open double doors, down the plush ivory carpet that separates the hundreds of pews brought in for the occasion, I note the elaborate vases overflowing with white roses and hundreds of cream-colored candelabras scattered about the room. Aside from the crimson flag bearing the crest of House Anteres, the black flag bearing the scarlet sun of the Eerie, and theorange flag of Hellion, adorned with a golden stag hanging above the dais, the décor is as white as pure snow, colored only by the soft coral light of the setting sun.
Annie waves at me from the front row, alongside her parents and Killian in his formal military uniform. I meet Henry’s gaze across the room, and he offers me a pained, somewhat apologetic smile.
I smile back. I’m convinced what he said to me the other night was a direct result of the sorrowsnap in his system. After this is all over, I’ll find a way to walk with him through his grief, whatever it takes. If there’s ever a time he feels as if he’s stumbling through the dark shadows of his past, then I will meet him in that darkness. We’ll escape theDeathwailtogether, this time, even if only in our minds.
Somehow, that thought gives me the courage I need to hold my head high as Will escorts me down the aisle. This time, when every head turns to find me, I don’t cower. I meet the stares of the wedding guests, made up mostly of nobility, with a confidence I wasn’t sure I possessed before today.
I’m not giving up.Will seemed convinced this wasn’t the end—that we could still find a cure. That whatever my mother has planned for today, we are going to make it out of this alive. We can have a future.
Together.
I just have to make it through the next few hours.
“… missing,” a woman whispers, and I catch the word as I pass. “Probably fled just after their sister murdered Lady Mercer.”
My stomach sours, and I slow my pace.
“Shame,” another woman replies. “The Cooper men were rather…”
“Hattie!” A third woman swats her friend’s arm. “It’s bad enough they didn’t cancel the wedding.”
“Did you really think they would?” the first woman asks.“Murder is hardly a reason to postpone an alliance between the kingdoms.”
We’re almost out of earshot when the third woman adds, “Well, if that wasn’t a reason, I heard Eva’s daughters went missing last night, as well.” She adds excitedly, “I think those two Bloodknights have them somewhere. Suppose they’re going to ransom—”
A trumpet sounds, signaling for everyone to take their seats. We reach the front row, and I find my place between Will and Annie just as the orchestra begins to play.
I survey the throne room, overflowing with Bloodknights, League soldiers, and palace guards stationed in clusters at every exit. Dispersed among them are human servants, and I scan their faces, searching for Margaret, or Jack, or—
Mother stands near the terrace on the far side of the room. She whispers something in Sybil’s ear, and the maid dips her head once in acknowledgment. I will Mother to look at me, but she never even glances my way. Instead, I follow her gaze to the entrance, where Titus stands in the open doorway, wearing a suit that gives him the appearance of the night sky incarnate.
The scarlet embroidery of his lapels shimmers like rubies as he saunters down the aisle with feline grace, his tousled blond hair tumbling into his eyes when he lifts his chin, staring straight ahead, as if there is no one else in this room.
Except for me.
