“If I wanted you dead,” he said, sheathing his sword, “you would be.”
The wind shifted, lifting strands of her hair as silence stretched between them. Her bond hummed against her skin—Sacrifice pulsing low and warning. Not because he’d hurt her. But because hecould.
She crossed her arms. “What do you want?”
He stepped closer. “To keep you breathing. Until I’m paid what I’m owed.”
Her jaw clenched. “You’re a bounty hunter.”
“No,” he said, tone dry. “I’mthebounty hunter.”
She hated that her heart still pounded—not from fear, but fury. From the sting of helplessness. “I don’t need your protection,” she snapped. “And next time, don’t bother saving me.”
“I won’t.”
She moved past him, brushing his shoulder. He didn’t stop her—but he didn’t step aside either.
“You’re bleeding.”
“Not anymore,” Astraia coldly replied over her shoulder.
He was exactly as she remembered him from the alley. His hair was golden and ash, tousled from the fight. Rough stubble covering his angled jaw, some specks of blood visible on his golden skin. And those eyes of molten amber pierced her fortitude.
A flicker of light flashed in her periphery, her hands responding to the calming sensation of the bond before she tightened her tether, stuffing her hands beneath her cloak to hide the light.
Val was still lying where he had fallen, a huge gash in his side that no longer had blood to spill. She knelt beside him, letting out a breath.
His eyes were still open. His chest no longer rose and fell. His pipe was in his tunic pocket. Astraia closed his eyes with trembling fingers.
“I'm so sorry, Val,” she whispered. The ache of another failure gnawed at her bones. Sacrifice, her so-called bond, was silent once again.
She hurried to build a pyre as was the Astradeon custom. The mysterious man simply watched from a distance, not interfering, a look of indifference on his face as the fire burned.
“May the Stars carry you to Solrend,” Astraia whispered as the flames grew taller. Her eyes blurred with tears, but she refused to let any fall. She would not give the Stars the satisfaction of making her resolution falter.
“You believe they still hear you?” That same low, husky voice sounded from beside her, a hint of surprise in his tone.
“No,” she countered. The Stars had shattered before she was even born, in the great Celestial War against Dominion. After the Shattering, only strands of their presence whispered to the bonded. But when she had needed Sacrifice the most, the Constellation remained silent. No, the Stars had abandoned her long ago.
Anger darkened her mind, thinking of the betrayal she felt not just from Delphi, but from the Stars themselves. She had been double-crossed more times than she could count, constantly deserted in the world. Trust was no longer part of her vernacular. It had been unraveled first by her father, then by almost every person she had allowed a glimpse into her heart.
No more.
Not ever.
Trust was a fool’s gamble—and Astraia Solenne refused to lose again.
Astraia rose from the ground resolutely, turning to face the mysterious man who hunted her, only to help her instead. The silence between them snapped like a frayed cord as she stepped away, boots crunching over blood-slick leaves.
“I told you—I don’t need your help,” she said.
“That wasn’t help. I’m protecting my asset.”
Astraia stopped cold, pulse hammering in her ears with fury. “Asset?”
“The king is very eager for your capture,TraiaStarborne.” He drew out her name, careful to accentuate every syllable.
Astraia blinked, stunned. “What…what did you just say?”
