She wet her lips as she took a deep inhale. “Yes, that’s the part of the prophecy I didn’t want you to have to hear in front of everyone.”
My voice trembled slightly as my eyes began to burn with unshed tears, making my vision blurry, “So if I fail, everyone dies, but if I succeed, I will still die? There’s no version of this in which I live?”
Her voice was equally rough as she croaked, “I’m so sorry, Kieran.”
My head hung down as the tears began to flow down my cheeks in hot trails, a wave of hopelessness and despair rising up in front of me, threatening to topple me over and drown me. “All Ieverwanted was to have a life full of happiness and love. To find my place in the world and not feel like a disappointment to those around me. Now I’m finding out I won’t even have a chance at that. Death is coming for me.”
How was this my fate?
She gently pulled the Thermos from my hand, and I heard it clunk onto the porch as she set it down. Gentle hands pulled me against a warm chest, and the kindness and tenderness she showed me in that moment unleashed the dam. Full-body sobs wracked me as I gasped for breath, my chest feeling like it was being pulverized by the realization that…
I was going to die no matter what.
Her arms tightened around me as I felt fingers brushing through my hair and a gentle hum floated in the air around me. I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that, but by the time my eyes were dry and ached from crying, she was still humming a soft tune and rocking us.
I sniffled and brushed my sleeve along my runny nose, realizing how disgusting I probably looked right now.
“I know it doesn’t feel fair,” she murmured, continuing to run her fingers through my hair as I bushed strands out of my face, “and it isn’t. No one deserves to carry this weight around on their shoulders. If I could change it for you, sweet girl, I would.”
I swallowed down the slime coating my throat from crying and nodded. “Who else knows about the full prophecy?”
“The council, Noah, Steele, and Gabe. The others do know that we’ve been searching desperately for a Star Keeper, but they don’t know why.”
A heavy sigh fell from me as I pushed to sit back up, wiping my cheeks of any residual wetness. “So that’s why Steele and Gabe seemed to know something but wouldn’t tell me.”
I could see why Gabe wouldn’t want to tell me of the dire scenario, especially not without it being confirmed that I was the Star Keeper in question. But Steele? What did he have to lose from dropping that truth bomb on me?
“Gabe wasn’t supposed to know,” Amelia tacked on with a laugh. “At this point, I should know better. If Steele knows something, Gabe knows it. Those two are as thick as thieves.”
My brain was desperate to latch onto anything other than my own impending death, and after a hiccup passed, I asked, “How did the two of them grow so close? Steele doesn’t seem to be the type to let anyone in.”
“You aren’t wrong,” she agreed before shifting in the swing until she was angled toward me. “I want to tell you a story, but please don’t let Steele know I told you. I’m sharing because I think it will open your eyes, and it’s imperative that you two come to an understanding.”
The seriousness in her tone caught me off guard, but I quickly agreed, leaning back against the swing as I dropped my foot down to rock us back and forth slowly.
“Steele’s parents were killed in a scouting mission to Alfemir when he was young,” she began, voice tight. “They gave up their lives to get their entire team out. We never sent another team after we lost them.”
My mouth opened in surprise but no words came out.What could I say?
She continued, “It was in search of the key within the archives. The same mission that Gabe took on when he came to us and we found out about his dead affinity. Steele tried to forbid the council from allowing Gabe to do it, despite wanting to help, but we couldn’t give in. Gabe was the perfect option tolimit casualties and succeed in a mission that was too important to deny.”
I was beginning to see the threads of how their friendship was formed and let my mind immerse in her story, happy for the reprieve from my reality.
She smiled, shaking her head as she recalled, “Steele demanded that Gabe room with him from that point forward. He said he wanted to be the one to drill the plan and any possible complications into his head. It was personal for him, even without really knowing Gabe yet. He couldn’t lose another person to the same mission he lost his parents to.”
I bit down on my bottom lip, feeling my heart actually resonating with the anxiety and pain that Steele must have felt in that situation. I felt myself softening to him, unable to help the sympathy and understanding I felt with the discovery of the emotional wounds from his past. What stood out to me even more was the extent he went to in protecting Gabe, even when they weren’t super close.Thatwas something that spoke strongly of his character. Clearly therewereredeeming qualities to Steele.
“When we got the report from Gabe after his first failed attempt, I knew Steele was going to give him so much hell for it that we didn’t even bother stressing the importance of it again. Going back again was the only option.”
My eyes fell, feeling a bit of shame in knowing that I was his distraction the first time. Hell, I was his distraction the second time, but at least I’d helped the mission that time. A small gasp escaped me as dots connected in my brain. If Steele was so worried about Gabe’s life and that mission, if he’d gotten Gabe to admit that he’d been sidetracked by me…I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Steele’s fury toward me stemmed from that. While it took two to tango and Gabe knew the risk when he’d given in, I could see where some of the misplaced anger from Steele began.
“Amelia, why is it so imperative that Steele and I get along?” I questioned, finding myself confused on that small part after her story. “I don’t think we’re ever going to see eye to eye.”
“Steele has a dead affinity as well,” she admitted before pausing. Her brow pinched together as she seemed to consider her next words. “If Noah is correct, I think Steele’s power might be the only way to potentially save your life in the end.”
KIERAN
My mind was a mess of anxiety and confusion as I fell into my warm-up routine. Mindlessly, I stretched and ran like Steele had conditioned me to before I could start sparring. Steele was theonlyone who didn’t ask how I was doing once I arrived, and for some reason it pissed me the hell off. I stewed over Amelia’s words as I increased my pace, loving the burn I felt in my chest as my legs ate up the distance of the mile-long indoor track.
