Page 63 of Star Bringer
“Shhh,” he interrupts, flattening himself against the dark blue roof.
I clamp my lips together and lie very still as I stare up at the rapidly darkening sky. The moon is rising. My heart slams against my chest loudly enough that I’m sure our pursuers can hear.
Below us, footsteps enter the alley. They get about halfway into it before they slow down, and my stomach churns sickly. They’re going to find us and kill us, and…I don’t want to die.
It’s not the first time I’ve had that thought tonight—all for different reasons. Which is bizarre. Four days ago, the most dangerous thing I’d ever done was help my mother host a conciliatory dinner while the Council was feuding and threatening to implode at any second.
The murmur of voices floats up from below, but they’re talking so quietly that I can’t make out the words.
Beside me, Ian is breathing slowly and evenly, and I try to match my breaths to his. But waiting on them feels like an eternity.
Finally, the footsteps move away. They’re leaving.
I’m shaking with relief and pain as I start to sit up, but Ian stops me with a hand on my arm that has me lying still. We wait just like that for another five minutes or so, maybe seven, until he’s sure they’re gone. Then he sits up.
I can see his face in the dim light, the sharp angles of his cheekbones. His dark eyes are gleaming. “You’re a hell of a lot of trouble, Princess.”
I know. And I don’t really understand why he keeps helping me. I’m just glad he does.
Tears prick at my eyes at the thought, but I blink them away. I’m fed up with feeling pathetic. I sit and hug my knees to my chest.
“Why the fuck did you run?” he asks.
For a moment, I don’t know what he means. I’d somehow forgotten about the men he killed. Now it all floods back. “You gouged that man’s eyes out. It was horrible.”
“He would have done the same to me. And probably worse to you.”
I shudder at that. After the last half hour, I believe him. “That final man was running away. You killed him anyway.”
“He wasn’t running away. He was trying to find you.” He gives me a look, but I’m not sure what he’s trying to convey. Pity, maybe. “You’re not in the palace anymore, Princess. You’re out in the real world, and it’s not a nice place. You adapt or you die.”
I consider his words. After everything I’ve seen, I know he’s right. But how can someone who’s lived her whole life in the darkness adapt overnight to the light?
“Ian. If we get back to theStarlight,will you teach me to fight?”
Shock flashes across his face. “You want to be able to fight?”
“I do. And maybe Gage can teach me a few things about computers?”
He rolls his eyes at that. “That man may be a genius, but a teacher he is not.”
“Look,” I continue. “I obviously can’t rely on you being there every time I get into trouble. Those men would have killed me with pleasure, and there was nothing I could do to stop them, even though I tried.”
He looks like he wants to say no, but in the end he just shrugs. “I guess I could have a go at it. But my training won’t come cheap.”
“Well, you’ve taken all my valuables already. Consider yourself paid.”
“Nah. That money was for all of us. Don’t worry; I’ll think of something.” He blows out his breath and runs a hand through his hair. “We’ll wait five more minutes and then make a move. What shall we do in the meantime?”
I try to lean back on my arms but wince at the pain.
“Are you hurt?” He reaches out and gently touches a finger to my lower lip. A shiver runs through me. “There’s blood on your mouth.”
“I banged it into the ground.” Not for the first time, it occurs to me just how few people have actually touched me in my life. And never like this.
I feel strange—weepy and weird—totally unlike myself. Maybe that’s because I don’t know who I am anymore—if I ever did.
Ian brushes his thumb over my cheek, and I try not to flinch. I like the gentle way he’s touching me, like even more the way his hand makes me feel as it softly strokes over my skin. But it’s scary, too, to be touched when I almost never am. Scarier still for it to feel so good.
