Page 45 of Born of Starlight
“Emmerick, put down the weapon!” My voice held more panic than intended.
During my unbinding from the woods, Van had ripped from my arm. In those moments, I had seen through his eyes. The moment Vangard obeyed the enchantress’ demand to return to me was disorienting. It shouldn’t have been possible—the fact that she was hiding it from me, well, that was just plain worrisome.
The boy reluctantly lowered his weapon before Van’s head protectively rested back into Asterie’s lap with ahrmph. I envied his closeness to her. My mind wandered to that look she’d given me last night.Desire.I had added that look to the short log of emotions she’d shown me. My new favorite, by far…
I am so fucked.This woman seemed to already have command of Vangard, and she definitely didn’t realize she was dual-sourced. Plus, she had shit allegiances in this new realm.
“You took the cuffs off him? Are you ins—”
Van’s low growl interrupted Emmerick’s outburst.
“Emmerick,” she said calmly. “It’s fine. I’ve seen that it will be fine.”
I had not seen her use her moonstone before freeing me of the cuffs. She was lying to appease the young brute.
In fact, I hadn’t seen her use the moonstone at all since I had met her.Interesting.I supposed that I wouldn’t like to know what would happen at every step of my life either.
She looked down at Van and gingerly touched one of the horns on his head, seeming to contemplate something. Seeing them together made me realize how idiotic it was to let her near him.
“Van—come.” A familiar gust of wind swept through the room as the ink returned to my arm.
“You’re impossible,” Emmerick muttered to her as he stomped out into the sunlight.
“He’s touchy this morning,” I murmured to her.
She lifted herself off the ground and dusted her breeches before gathering her pack. I admired the view of her bending over. Four hundred years had done horrible things to my already debaucherous mind. I shook that feeling off quickly—the enchantress was off-limits.
Off-limits.
Off-limits.
Maybe if I repeated that truth, it would make me want her less.
She answered finally, “He likes order and safety—like most Constables.”
“Have youknownmany Constables?” Insinuation slipped into my tone.
She leveled an unamused look in my direction but didn’t answer me.
“Isn’t order and safety your job too? Why not use that moonstone to see what unknowns lurk ahead today, Asterie?” I asked.
“Yes, it is my job. But I’m an Oracle. I exist in a thousand versions of chaos that could happen at any instant or simultaneously. I would go mad if I feared themall. I do not need a moonstone to lead my every decision.”
Strange, beautiful liar.Yet my heart warmed a bit at the fact she looked well rested and eager to carry on.
Good boy, Van,I thought, despite the dread that couldn’t be eased in my stomach over his reaction to her.
* * *
The momentwe arrived in Kullworth, a town three miles south of Belray, something felt eerie. Most of the shop windows were closed, and there was a heavy presence of Helos guards stopping people as they passed.Not good.
I’d visited Kullworth plenty while living in the northwest region of the Old World. Once a territory of Brennax, the town had a prosperous farming trade. They had grown crops on the hillside meadows surrounding the town.
Lord Kullworth had made it possible—his Source powers were derived from the Soil itself. But the people left here were without magic. Lord Kullworth likely had been exiled long ago. Turning my eyes up to the hillside beyond the town, all that was left of the farmers’ cottages were shack-like structures with busted windows and faulty roofs.
The hills no longer burst with green crops. Dead weeds and brown soil surrounded us in their stead. We’d stepped into a bleak township. No plants graced window sills, no flags flew, no children played. I turned to Emmerick quickly.
“The cuffs. You need to cuff us. Pretend you are passing through, taking us as prisoners to Luz,” I instructed.
