Page 35 of Starchaser
He tightens his grip on my arm, guiding me up the steps. When we reach the landing, he bows deeply, and I do the same, dipping low in a curtsy just as Bellaflor showed me earlier today.
The king raises his hands, and the crowd falls silent. Will gives my arm a squeeze before releasing me and taking his place with the rest of the nobility.
My chest constricts as the king and queen step forward.
“Welcome,” the king’s voice carries over the assembly, and I’m shocked to find that he sounds not at all monstrous, but rather… kind. He smiles at the people. “Queen Calantha and I are pleased that so many of you have decided to join us on this very special occasion.”
The crowd breaks into deafening applause, quieted only by the mere nod of the king.
“The human you see before you defied the rebel pirate, Malachi Shade, during an attack on the noble House Castor, risking her own life to save that of Lady Annie Castor,” he continues. “When I first heard the tales of her bravery and loyalty to the Crown, I insisted she not only be rescued from the clutches of the vile criminal—who has since met his fate at the hands of Lord Castor—”
He pauses as the applause swells, and out of the corner of my eye, I note Will bowing graciously, smiling at the people as ifhewere their prince rather than Titus.
“But that,” the king goes on, “she be brought here, to Castle Grim, so that I could bestow on her the illustrious honor of knighthood.” He raises his hands once more to attempt to quiet the crowd, but they can no longer be contained, their excitement reaching a dizzying crescendo. “A reformed pirate and servant to the Crown, Lady Aster Oberon will serve the kingdom of the Eerie with dignity and courage, fighting for justice, peace, and prosperity. But first,” he adds, motioning toward the group of Bloodknights gathered at the base of the steps.
Flynn and Gabriel emerge, dragging between them a boy about my own age—no more than seventeen—his chained body so broken and bloodied I can hardly determine his features.
“Upon Lady Aster’s rescue, she had only one request,” theking goes on, cutting a glance at me, his deceptively kind smile now nothing more than a sardonic smirk. “Acting as a spy for the Crown, even without having been given orders to do so, she discovered that Shade and his rebels planned to overtake the township of Thorn. I’ve been told that Lady Aster wasted no time after her rescue, informing my soldiers of this plot just in time for my Bloodknights to intervene. I must admit, I found her request to be rather self-indulgent, but when Lady Aster asked that she be the one to execute one of these rebels upon her arrival here at Castle Grim, my wife urged me to oblige. After all, what better way to get my son’s wedding festivities under way than with a proper beheading?”
Gabriel draws one of his swords, presenting it to me without hesitation.
If I thought the crowd was ecstatic before, I couldn’t have realized just how frenzied they would become at the proposition of an execution.
Their delight roils my stomach even as I take the sword from Gabriel. The weapon is heavier than the cutlass I favored during my life at sea, and with the months of disuse, my muscles strain to lift the blade.
My heart sinks as I read the words inscribed on the metal surface.
The True King Sees. Rage threatens to overwhelm me, and the words that used to bring me peace now boil my blood. The True King watched my father drive a blade through his own heart. He watched as Dorothy died in Henry’s arms. Or did he look away? Has he ever looked down on me? Does he see me now, a sword in my grasp, ready to spill blood? Or has he abandoned me, just as he abandoned my people six hundred years ago?
“Please,” the boy sputters, “I have a family—a little sister who needs me—”
Flynn’s boot connects with his spine with a sickening crack, and he sprawls at my feet. The two Bloodknights lift him back onto his knees, holding him upright. If he’s still conscious, he’s too battered to utter another plea for mercy, his head hanging limp.
I cannot bring myself to look at Henry, or Killian, or even Lady Isabelle, but I risk a glance at Will, who watches the exchange with idle interest.I can’t do this, I will my eyes to say. If I do, and the spray of his blood on my face brings my power to the surface… there’ll be no denying my Nightweaver heritage when the entire kingdom sees my golden eyes glow.
I can’t refuse the king. If I don’t do this, what will happen to my family? But if Ido… what happens then?
I lift the sword, my shoulders crying out in pain, my heart crying out in defiance—
At a speed my eyes can hardly detect, Titus stands behind the boy, the rebel’s still-beating heart in his black-gloved hand. Before I can even lower the sword, Titus brings the heart to his mouth and—and—
Bile rushes into my throat as Titus takes a bite.
No—not Titus.
This beast standing before me, blood dripping from his chin, is not the same man who gifted me a wardrobe full of pajamas. This is the legendary prince of the Eerie—the creature from my darkest nightmares.
The Reaper.
Titus’s gold eyes never leavemine as he chews—swallows.
Bile burns the back of my throat like acid.Everything about my life is an act, he said. All this time, I wanted to believe that the wicked prince of legend was his true mask and that beneath it was the kind, selfless pirate who risks his life to save children from cannibal ships—the pirate who saved me from certain death. But what if I’m wrong? What ifthis—what if the Reaper—is who he truly is, and Captain Shade is the facade?
I try to find some trace of the heroic pirate captain in his cold, cruel stare, but when his tongue swipes out, licking the blood from his lips, I see only a monster.
“It was a long journey,” Titus says with an indolent shrug, tossing the heart to the ground where the rebel’s body lies at my feet, a gaping hole in his back. “I was starving.”
Horror sluices through my veins as he smiles, his lips, coated in innocent blood, like two sadistic slashes of crimson. My whole life, I heard tales of the ruthless prince of the Eerie, but after finding out he was Captain Shade, some part of me wanted to believe there was little truth to the stories—that the Titus I know couldn’t be capable of something this depraved.
