Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Vale

Harlen guided me through a curtain into a back room lit by candlelight, my cloak falling to the floor.

My senses and mind were assaulted by cloying incense. Not the soothing herbal embrace my magic used to provide.

"No—no, not here." I staggered against a shelf, sending vials to the floor. They shattered, and more oils wafted around us. My muscles stiffened, vision swimming in a haze of the soft shades of purples and blues draped along the walls.

"What are you doing in here?" A feminine voice sliced through the air, mingling with a clinking sound I couldn't place. My knees cracked to the tile.

"Vale." Harlen cupped my cheeks, forcing my gaze up. The room was getting dimmer, and my vision spotted. All I could make out were his dark eyes, laced with worry, maybe? "Vale, I need you to tell me what's going on."

I opened my mouth but gasped as pain split my skull, a collision of stars cleaving through my head. The Fates tightened in my chest, those starlight voices yelling, yelling, yelling . The fiery tails their readings waited in burned through me, ready to explode.

"Lay her here," that female voice said, and I was moved, jostled quickly until there were soft pillows under my body, one bracing my cheek.

I tried to organize my thoughts.

The rings were rigged.

They placed a warrior fierce enough in the center so that no one would question when he won repeatedly, but he was using magic to predict what would happen. The regular attendees all knew it—it was clear now who was involved by the way they'd lined the back walls, relaxed with drinks in hand, not a care in the fated realm aside from waiting for their winnings.

Was there something in the drinks to stop other Starsearchers from picking up on what the fighter could read? It was possible. Illegal, but possible. Stifle their magic so they were none the wiser.

"Vale!" a voice I recognized shouted, and it was honey over my aching mind. Sweet and warm and comforting, but it took me a moment to place it beyond that bone-deep level of rightness.

"What the fuck did you do to her?" he growled.

Concern. Always concern, even when he tried to hide it. That was how I knew it was Cypherion. My warrior.

"I didn't do anything," Harlen argued. "She got weak and sick and asked me to bring her somewhere."

A hand brushed across my forehead; Cypherion's voice was soft now. "Stargirl," he said, and I loved that he was using that name again. "Is it the sessions? Whatever's in the air?"

I nodded, squeezing my eyes tighter. I couldn't let the reading take over. But those voices pressed against my mind again, tendrils of starfire begging to show me all its secrets. My chest was full—it was hard to draw breath.

"Give her space," Harlen started.

But Cypherion whirled on him. "Who the fuck are you anyway?"

"Me? Who are you? You're not a Starsearcher, that's for damn sure, no matter what clothes you wear."

My disguise for him was not as good as I thought. Pity.

A swarm of stars swirled behind my eyes, luring me in.

"It doesn't matter who I am," Cypherion spat, and all I could focus on was the rough tone of his voice. He really thinks that. He truly thinks he does not matter . My thoughts were jumbled—I was forgetting what was important right now beyond remembering that.

I blinked against my shattering vision, wanting to tell him he was wrong.

"You're right, it doesn't," Harlen spat. No , my mind echoed. "I'm her best friend. Or," he stuttered, "or I was."

Regret and defense twisted his words.

"Not anymore," Cypherion argued. "Make yourself useful and get her water."

That tinkling sound again. Beads. The curtain leading to the back room. That piece of understanding about where I was calmed my racing breath.

"Cypherion," I exhaled, finally stealing back control of my muscles enough to wrap my hand around his wrist. He hadn't moved from cradling my head, and I pried my eyes open to find him kneeling beside me. The shadows were too dim and the incense too thick for me to properly see his face.

"You're here?"

"I'm here." It was relief deepening his voice, tangled with fear. "I'm here, Stargirl."

Strong arms swept beneath my legs and back, and I was cradled against a warm, bare chest. It was gentler than when I'd been moved before.

"Did you win?" I forced out to distract myself from the swarm of incense again. The once-alluring scents tangled around me, coaxing me to succumb to the pressure in my chest and head.

Cypherion huffed a laugh. "I sure did, Stargirl. Promised you I would." A shiver shot down my body, uncontrollable and violent. "Fight it," he whispered. "Fight it off, Vale, and we'll get out of here. I'll get you out of here. Just stay with me."

He started to stand, but we couldn't?—

"We need," I gasped. "We need the reading. You won it."

"Doesn't matter. I'll come back for it." I could practically hear the grinding of his jaw.

Summoning every bit of control I could, I forced my hand up. My fingers skated along his chest and landed on his cheek. Sticky.

Blood .

It was drying, but in the dim light, I could just make out a nasty slice above his eyebrow. Deep. He'd probably lost so much blood already. It would scar.

Wait—what had he said? I'll come back for it .

No. No, he couldn't leave me alone.

Cypherion's arms tightened around me, and in my weak state, shrouded by that comfort, my tongue loosened. "Don't leave me behind," I whispered.

Not as so many people had before. Not as Titus was trying to.

I couldn't see his face when he whispered, "Never."

Harlen tore back into the room, a glass of water in hand. Cypherion set me on the cushions, retrieving my cloak and wrapping me, then helped me drink some of the water. Each swallow was brutal, but the soft velvet he'd gifted me was an unrivaled warmth.

When he was certain I wasn't going to choke, he said to Harlen without looking away from me, "Thank you. My winnings. Find them."

"No need," that feminine voice returned. The beads clinked as I let my eyes slip shut again. "I can perform the session."

So, it was her. I didn't know why Harlen brought me to the private chambers of the ring's prized Starsearcher, the one we'd gambled to win a reading from, but I didn't have the energy to question it now.

"She should not stay," the woman said.

"She stays," Cypherion commanded before I could muster up the energy. He cradled me in his lap again.

Thank Valyrie.

Settling into Cypherion's arms, I listened as Harlen left. As the Starsearcher settled her herbs and incense, as a match hissed with flame and the light shifted outside of my lids. As silence cascaded over the room with a warm rush, and I fought off the mounting pressure in my chest.

Each time burning starfire tried to steal my mind, with each shiver that racked my body, Cypherion held on. He dragged a gentle hand down my arm and watched me, counting beneath his breath. At one point, he tightened his grip, then reluctantly shifted me to the cushions beside him, like he wanted me to lay flat, just in case.

Cypherion's eyes and hands remained on me, searing and soothing all at once. The incense struck at the walls I'd formed around my mind, and indeterminable images flashed behind my eyelids.

I clung to Cypherion's hand. Fight it , he'd asked of me.

Fight it, like I'd told myself I'd fight for him. This was another test. Hold on to him as I wanted to cling to the future we had not had a chance to explore.

Shapeless things flashed in my mind, all cloaked in shadows. Indiscernible and ghostly. Bursts of light pushed through.

Sweat beaded on my brow.

"Hurry up," Cypherion mumbled beneath his breath.

But it was fruitless. We couldn't rush the Fates.

Finally, a huge pair of feathered wings flared behind my eyes, iridescent before a setting sun. I cried out as the reading tugged and tugged at me.

Just in time for the searcher to break from her trance.

And she said words that sank to the core of myself, cold and terrified. "The ninth floor beneath the archives holds what you seek."

Panic gripped my chest, tearing away what little resolve I held against the reading. And it took me.