Page 68 of Starchaser
I hesitate. “You don’t even know me.”
“I know you well enough,” she says. “I know you’re here because you had no other choice. So am I.” She wiggles her fingers, quirks a brow. “Care to form an alliance?”
The ghost of a smile tugs at my lips. If the princess is this trusting with someone she’s only just met—this eager for my friendship, for my help—then it shouldn’t prove difficult to persuade her to join the fight.
I take her hand, shake it once. “You’re going to get me into trouble.”
Leo smiles broadly. “And you’re going to have a grand time, I guarantee it.” She extinguishes her pipe, tucking it back inside her coat pocket. “So,” she says, suddenly serious. “You didn’t know about the Coopers?”
I know I must choose my words carefully. “What about them?”
“Let’s walk and talk.” She opens the lighter, sparking a flame. “There’s something I want you to see.”
I can’t see down the passage but for a few feet beyond Leo’s flickering light. She could be taking me anywhere—she could be leading me into a trap. But this is what I came here to do, and if Leo is offering to share her secrets with me, I have no choice but to follow.
“I’ve heard rumors that Flynn Cooper is a Changeling,” Leo says. “It’s said that when they turned sixteen, he persuaded his brother to join the Guild of Shadows and help him kill their mother and father. They massacred the entire household, but it was Eliza, their little sister, who covered it up. To protect her brothers, she made it look like they were attacked by a local gang. It’s said that Eliza made a deal with the Guild of Shadows to free them from service to Morana, but some believe the three of them stillwork for the Sylk queen. Spies, the lot of them, trading information for their freedom.”
An uneasy feeling prickles the hair at the nape of my neck as the passageway ends and we begin our descent down what appears to be an ancient, spiraling staircase.
Killian mentioned there was a spy in the Order, and I know now that my assailant is a Changeling.
Flynn could be both.
“Of course, I don’t believe a word of it,” Leo says, “but the rumors alone have made others wary of befriending Eliza.”
The staircase seems to go on forever, but we take our time, careful to avoid broken steps. Stone crumbles beneath my foot, but Leo catches my arm just in time to steady me, and I watch as the pieces tumble into the vast, unknown darkness below.
“If you need help, why not ask Titus? He told me the two of you were best friends.”
“Were,” she echoes. “Not anymore. Not since our parents decided we were to be wed. Ever since I arrived, he’s acted… strange. It’s like I don’t even know him. Like… like he’s beeninfluenced, somehow.”
I bite my lip to keep from speaking, waiting for her to elaborate.
“I sound crazy, don’t I?” She half-laughs, half-sighs. “I didn’t expect him to be happy about it. The True King knows I’m not thrilled about the prospect of producing heirs with the boy I used to tease for wetting the bed.”
I wipe the sweat from my palms on my gown and chalk up the weird feeling in my stomach to the fear of falling to my death in this hidden stairwell.
“But he said you were excited about the wedding,” I press. “He said you seemed like you couldn’t wait to be married.”
“As opposed to what?” she asks. “If Titus had even an inkling of how miserable I am about the whole thing, he’d do something reckless, and I can’t let him tear our two kingdoms apart just because I’m unhappy.”
My chest aches, my heart breaking for this girl I’ve only just met. In this moment, I know her. I know her better than anyone might ever know her. Because if there’s one thing I understand, it’s making an impossible choice to help the ones you love, even if it destroys you in the process.
“So you’re going to go through with the wedding anyway?”
“I will do what I have to do to serve my kingdom,” she says, and I recognize the determination in her voice, firm and steady and believable.
I pity her, but I respect her even more. And I think now might be the perfect opportunity to share what the Order has planned. It could be so easy. After only a few minutes of speaking with Leo, I’m convinced she would gladly assist in the Order’s scheme.
“But, Aster,” she whispers, halting abruptly. “That’s not why I need your help.” She closes the lighter, extinguishing the flame and plunging us into darkness once more. “I think the Guild might be using Titus. I don’t know how, but… I think he might have been compelled.”
My heart skips a beat.
I whisper, “Because he doesn’t want to marry you?”
She stifles a laugh with her hand, the muffled sound bouncing off the stone walls like the tinkling of tiny bells. “I don’t think so highly of myself, Aster, but I can always appreciate an opportunity to be humbled.”
Warmth bleeds into my cheeks. “That’s not what I meant.”
