Page 131 of This Shattered Star

Through all the anger and confusion weighing heavy on my shoulders, relief flowed through my lips in a long sigh. It carried away the constant, throbbing ache that had buried itself in my chest since the moment I’d fallen from that watchtower. Until I no longer felt it at all.

Before I could say anything, Theia shot forward, gathering me in a hug so tight that my bones creaked. And I let her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “For all of it.”

I could only nod against her shoulder. Battle against the overwhelming sting behind my eyelids.

Brannon’s hand found the crown of my head, ruffling my hair as he said, “Stay angry for as long as you like. We’ll do our best to make it up to you in the meantime.”

Theia pulled back, allowing me to search them one last time for wounds. Scars. A limp. Anything that would point back to what I’d seen when I fell from the watchtower. Nothing. The puppet dragon had never touched them.

“Angry is a light way to describe how I feel.” My brows narrowed at him. He nodded slowly, shifting on his feet. “But,” I added, carefully, “I’m glad you’re both alive.”

A slow, growing smile graced his mouth. “We’re glad you’re alive, too.”

Theia gestured to the castle. “Are you ready to go inside? You’ll love it, I think.” She crossed, then uncrossed her arms. Then settled for picking at the hem of her sleeve. “It’s not as cold as that other castle. Far livelier, I mean.”

Scanning the colorful pillars, and the trees surrounding it, I asked, “Is it yours?”

“In a way. Well, it isn’tonlymine.” She waved her hands as she corrected herself. “We all live here. Many other people, too. And it is used for all sorts of different events.”

“It is also yours.”

My eyes snapped to Kodhan, who was staring at me with an odd look I couldn’t place.

“Impossible. I’ve never seen this place.”

“The hundreds of dresses tailored to your size might not bear any wrinkles, courtesy of their disuse. Dust might cover every painting, every chair and dresser. Ghosts might waltz across the wing that houses it all at night. But it doesn’t make itimpossible.It doesn’t mean they aren’t yours.”

There was a rawness to his voice. One that, despite the stony mask he’d placed upon his features, betrayed the extent of his pain. The pain I would not allow myself to dwell upon.

But it was that rawness that had me desperately sorting through every facet of my mind. That had me trying toremember.

I flipped through memories like scattered pages in a never-ending archive, and still, the elements of the castle remained foreign. I didn’t have a single idea of what it looked like on the inside. Not an inkling of what those paintings could depict, nor any sense of how large or small that wing was.

Theia cleared her throat and shot him a quick glare. “Alright, point made.” She turned to me. “None of that matters right now. We can start by taking a walk, yeah?”

I hid my clenched fists behind my back. “Fine.”

Not a lick of familiarity. Even when my temples began to throb once again, I couldn’t remember anything of value.

We passed through a courtyard filled with hundreds of poppies and orange marigolds so vibrant it almost hurt to look at them. Their beauty was a blessing, distracting me from my rising frustration.

Our surroundings were quiet, save for a choir of birds somewhere high in the trees, and the rush of a fountain to our right.

So quiet that I startled when Kodhan suddenly spoke behind me. “You don’t need to shout, Theia. I’m right here.”

She scoffed to my right. “How else am I supposed to get through your thick skull?”

A beat of silence. Then Theia whirled.

And punched Kodhan square in the shoulder.

His brows lowered. Though he said nothing at all out loud, the quirk of his lips as they tilted into a smirk spoke for him.

Theia’s eyes rolled.

While they remained that way, fighting inaudibly, Brannon nudged me with his elbow.