After a long while of careful observation, I deduced that I was located in the jail located in Alfemir’s military headquarters. My father had once given me a tour of the deep, dank cells, probably in an effort to scare me. It hadn’t worked at the time…but now? Well, I wouldn’t lie,nowI felt more than a bit of fear.
I looked at the cells on either side of me and found them empty, the entire jail seeming suspiciously quiet, void even of guards. Then again, if my memory served me correctly, this wasn’t the actual dungeon they kept criminals in. I was in what I recognized to be more of a holding cell than anything.
That was a positive at least.
Focusing on calming my breathing, I took stock of myself and realized that despite the pain I felt, I could bear it. Sure, it hurt to breathe, my ribs feeling bruised and cracked, and my wing pulsed with pain, but I had enough energy to stay alert. As long as that damn bag was kept away from me, I’d be fine. Whatever it was soaked in was enough to render me useless for minutes evenafterits removal. Looking at my tied hands and feet, I wondered if it was worth the effort to stand but decided against it.
Besides, if my hunch on how this had happened was correct, I knew I wouldn’t be alone for long. No need to waste my energy. So instead, I awaited my fate in silence. Hunched uncomfortably on the ground.
It couldn’t have been more than an hour, but in that time my fear disappeared and transformed into red-hot anger. I tilted my head up as I stared at the cell door in front of me, almost willing my captor to appear. My true captor—not the guards who had brought me in. Grinding my jaw together, I summoned an image of him to the forefront of my mind, allowing myself to get momentarily lost in thoughts of vengeance.
As if summoning him by thought alone, a door opened and slammed shut again in the distance. The sound of boots echoed through the hall outside my cell, and my jaw clenched tightly in annoyed anticipation. I narrowed my eyes on the front of my cell where the hallway bended on a curve, waiting to seehimturn the corner. He didn’t disappoint.
“Father.”
I didn’t give him the chance to speak first, trying to hide my brief surprise at his physical appearance. His hair was unkempt and dull and his eyes roamed over me with disgust. Even with an ugly sneer on his face, I couldn’t stop myself from glancing down the length of him, noticing how his uniform hung from his body as if he had lost weight. I didn’t know if the changes were obvious to anyone other than me, but it was clear that something was different about him. Something waswrong.
“Kieran.” He greeted me stiffly, dark eyes scouring my face from beyond the cell door. “I’m disappointed in you.”
A bark of ironic laughter left my lips as they pulled into a cynical smirk. After everything,thatwas what he had to say to me?
“I see you haven’t changed,” I bit back before clamping my mouth shut. I drew in a deep breath, calming my thundering heart, trying to convey indifference before I slowly continued, “I don’t really care if you’re disappointed in me. In fact, I don’t care much for your opinion at all.”
The way his face twisted in anger made me feel significantly better, bolstering my confidence over the fact that, for once, I was able to get under his skin and rattle him. That tiny bit of control over him also helped to ease any of the fear I had left.
My father did his best to ignore my commentary, continuing, “To be caught soeasily,Kieran. To walk right into the trap I set, returning to the sight of the incident from yesterday. I hadn’t believed the soldiers when they described what they had seen from a distance…My own daughter saving a wyvern and a unit of male fallen taking down a unit ofourmen in a swift effort. I thought there was no way you would return, that you would be so stupid...”
He chuckled, his eyes lighting with joy as my stomach dropped, a sour taste in my mouth at his patronizing tone. “But youwere—you were that stupid, Kieran. And here I thought that for once you would actually be successful at something, even if it was just at escaping Alfemir.”
My father’s words cut open the old wound that had always festered in his presence.
“I’m more than successful at something,” I hissed before tilting my chin up confidently. Honestly,fuck him.I was so much stronger than he could ever begin to fathom. “In fact, I am essential to something so much larger than you can comprehend.”
His brow arched as he smirked cruelly, seemingly unimpressed. “Essential? You have never been essential to anything, including our family. All you ever proved to be was auseless waste of resources. On top of that, you became a traitor to your own people by joining the filthy fallen rebellion.”
I felt my anger stir at the way he referred to the Rebellion but I kept silent. He could never hope to understand the family I had found within the Rebellion. Not managing to raise my ire, he huffed before he continued, “You don’t deny it? Good. You will die just like one of them then. This will simply be one last loose end that I get to tie up before we launch our full attack on fallen.”
“You would kill your own daughter?” I asked before shaking my head in disgust. “I don’t know why I ask—of course you would. But I won’t let you—I won’t let you kill me. I have far more value than you could ever imagine.Iam the answer to saving this entire world. A world that I won’t allow you to be a part of—Iwillensure that you won’t reap the benefits of my hard work.”
Even if it meant removing him myself. I understood the heavy implications of my words, but I could see clearly—in his actions and words—that there was no saving this man.
“I have already scheduled your execution, girl. It is set for tonight at sunset.” He watched as the color no doubt leached from my face at his words. My heart beat thunderously in my chest, my scalp prickled with heat, and my stomach clenched painfully—I hadn’t considered that he would take such quick, decisive action against me. “Besides, the world doesn’t need you. It never has?—”
“It does.” I snapped, pushing past the panic, my anger rising up as I bared my teeth at him. “Iamthe only one who can save it.”
“And why is that?” he mused, eyes flashing with a clinical interest I didn’t like. And deep down, I knew that if he had already planned my execution, there was no changing his mind. So why bother holding back? There wasn’t a point to it. I mightas well help him understand that he was damning the entire world with his careless, gutless actions.
“As I said, I am far from useless,” I whispered, feeling pride radiating through me at finally knowing my place in this universe. “I am the last Star Keeper. The only one who can counter the prophecy of the stars dying and falling to Earth, obliterating everything in their path.Everyoneneeds me—I am the only one who can evenhopeto save them. Your pride, your need to exterminate me, cannot be the reason that doesn’t happen.”
It was clear my father was surprised by my words, his brow furrowing. “A Star Keeper? Who told you about such a ridiculous, made-up affinity?—”
“I know everything.” I whispered, my voice taking on a serious enough note that he went quiet. He narrowed his eyes, lips pressing into a thin line, but he tilted his chin down at me, mocking me into continuing. “Everything.From the dead affinities and how they were extinguished by Alfemir’s leaders, to how memories of the war were erased, leaving only the Archangels with the knowledge of what occurred.
“I know what I am. I also know that if I had stayed, you would have killed me. I know what place I now hold in this universe, and nothing you say can place doubt in my mind. You are a very, very small man when compared to any of this, and when the time comes, I will not go out of my way to save you.”
I could see my words hit home when a cruel, calculating light filtered through his hard-eyed gaze. “Then I supposed that’s all the more reason for you to die. Your execution will take place in mere hours. Prepare yourself, girl. The stars don’t need a useless girl and neither do I.”
He turned from where he stood at the front of my cell door, but my lack of a response caused his shoulders to go tense. I took great joy in the rigid line of his shoulders. Then he paused fora long second before looking at me over his shoulder, a grimace slipping onto his face. “Your mother won’t be at your execution.”
