Page 71 of Born of Starlight
Amara glanced toward the atrium. “I couldn’t follow through. I couldn’t kill you, Fen.”
She looked down at her shaking hands, a frown cutting across her features.
“You were my dearest friend. If I put those powers to rest, I would lay you to rest with them. And I couldn’t do that.”
My heart broke as a tear slid down her umber cheek. She’d saved me.
“I let Firose think your power was destroyed, that you were dead. Let the whole realm think that. But you know I’m talented with binding spells. Instead, I bound the other half of your power to a star. It seemed the safest hiding place—out of reach even to me. Lost amongst billions, irretrievable in endless heavens.”
I drew a deep breath before reaching over and wiping away the tears streaking her cheek with my thumb.
“I deserved to die, Amara.” I shook my head. “I did not deserve the mercy you showed me.”
Glancing toward the atrium, I watched Asterie show the boy Commander how to correctly prune the botanicals they were crouching near.
“So, how did those powers end up within her?”
My voice was even, but everything inside me was cracking. I could understand Amara’s motivations for hiding my power in the stars, from Firose, from even me.
But I couldn’t understand why she would give that burden to Asterie. As Amara continued to tell me what had happened, I gripped the sofa cushion.
“A young mother in Ikanten wrote to me. She was weary and exhausted in the weeks that followed labor. She was sleepless, afraid, and she told me that Firose demanded her child for a debt…I am no Oracle, but at that moment, my intuition told me I needed to go to her. So I traveled to Ikanten, against the Order.”
Amara’s voice had lowered to a whisper. “When I got to Ikanten, I was too late to stop the woman. I watched her fall, take her own life and attempt to take her child’s with her. On impulse, I pleaded for a bargain with the Sun Origin to help rouse the Stars to help. By some miracle, my request was granted, but I was only able to send a single star. The chances of it working were one in billions. I’d never bargained with an Origin before—I didn’t even know that type of magic was stillpossible.”
I’d always been skeptical of whether that type of magic existed at all.
My mouth hung open at my friend’s admission.
“What did you bargain?” I asked as a pit grew in my stomach.
She combed her fingers through her curls. “No price was named. No debt has been collected.”
I shook my head.That didn’t sound good.My throat felt too dry. “Does she know we are bound?”
“Asterie or Firose?”
“Either of them,” I ground out.
“Neither. Firose always suspected there was somethingmoreto Asterie—she didn’t know about her mother writing to me. Or that it was me who sent the star, or that your magic was not destroyed. I don’t think she ever intended to call in the debt for Asterie, but once she realized themiracle child of Ikantenwas the very child she had claim over…well, she claimed her. Or so we thought—until Asterie left. Firose was livid—she began having her Lynx patrol the Corridors looking for her.”
Rage flooded me. “So you let her brainwash and imprison a child because…”
At least if Firose hadn’t been able to claim Asterie, then my powers weren’t at risk of falling into the wrong hands.Yet.
Amara’s pained gaze met mine. “She had Corric.”
Shit.“Had?” I asked.
“She’s killing him”—Amara’s eyes pooled—“but she stole his mind decades ago. She holds his life over me even now, telling me that if I can’t get Asterie back to her, she will end him and take full control of the North. He truly is a puppet for her now.”
King Corric Mattock, an immortal, dying.A chill ran down my spine.
What was Firose up to now?
I tapped my fingers on the armrest. “Why has no one else stopped her?”
“You know her, Fen. Until recently, she was a beloved figurehead of justice. Of peace and stability—something people were so eager to grasp after the Great Wars. But the people…they are starting to turn on her. It needed to happen before anything could be done. I’ve stuck around to fight her more aggressive policies, to be a voice of reason, but she’s snapped. I’m not sure when it happened.”
