“Lie her flat,” the Creator demanded softly. She stepped closer, light swirling in her wake like galaxies followed her footsteps.
Steele’s grip didn’t loosen. His eyes found mine as he whispered hoarsely. “She needs her rune maker—I can’t…”
“It’s okay,”I told him through the bond, the words fragile but certain.“We have to trust her. You have done everything you can, Steele.”
His eyes burned into mine, wide and stricken, but he nodded. Slowly, reluctantly, as if every muscle in his body rebelled against the motion.
The Creator knelt at the top of my head, her gaze falling to my chest where his rune burned brightly. Her expression shifted from curious to admiration as she lifted her hand and her fingers hovered above it.
“This,” she murmured, seemingly more to herself than anyone else, “is a beautiful rune. So expertly crafted. I can hardly believe it’s managed to shield her soul from the stars for even this long, yet it has.”
The words struck as divine acknowledgment of something extraordinary.
My eyes found Steele’s once more and he was already looking at me with disbelief, as if somewhere deep inside, he stilldoubted that what he’d done was enough. Like I was going to slip away any moment.
Even through the pain and fire still clawing through my chest, I felt the truth of what he’d done—how he had held on, forged something utterly new from love and desperation and all the broken, beautiful pieces of himself. Of our love. How he had believed in me, even when he hadn’t believed in himself.
I reached for him through the bond.
“I always knew you could do it,”I whispered, and the golden weight of truth rang in every syllable.“You just needed to believe in yourself.”
His throat worked like he was trying not to cry, and then slowly he lifted my hand and pressed his lips to my knuckles. The kiss lingered. It was gentle and reverent and full of a thousand unsaid things.
As I focused on the love from all of my mates pouring into me, the Creator’s hand passed into my chest with a gentleness that defied logic. There was no tearing or broken bones, just the sensation of something ancient brushing against the soul-deep ache I was carrying within.
I arched with a choked breath, every nerve sparking to life as her fingers curled around the core of the magic clinging to me. There was no pain, just the weight of something immense being lifted from within that had begun to devour me.
And then suddenly it was gone.
My lungs expanded fully for the first time since the stars had entered me, the breath trembling as it passed through lips parted in awe. My ribs no longer screamed with pressure, no longer ached like a cage trying to contain a sun.
In her hand hovering above my body, all of the energy of the stars shimmered.
A swirling orb of starlight alive with movement, pulsing like a heart that belonged to the cosmos itself. It spun in slow spirals,silver and indigo and gold folding around each other. Tendrils of energy curled from it, reaching in soft, fluid arcs.
I couldn’t look away. I didn’t want to, because outside of my body, there was no pain with it. Just beauty.
My mind couldn’t comprehend that something that had nearly torn me apart could also be this breathtaking. We were seeing a piece of something so vast now sitting weightless in the Creator’s palm. The power that had given me enough energy to be considered a deity for just a brief moment.
Gabe’s breath caught. “Kieran…” His voice was low and shocked. “Your right wing. It’s white.”
I turned my head enough to see out of my peripheral vision at the wings cushioning my body and there it was: pure white feathers I thought I’d never see on myself again.
My past and future were shown in the duality of my wings now. The truth of what I’d carried and survived. Of who I’d become.
The Creator drew my attention once more just as her gaze turned toward the sky, her fingers still curled around the swirling mass of light she’d drawn from my chest. The wind stilled around us as if the world itself paused to bear witness. Then, with a motion that was somehow both effortless and commanding, she flung the light upward into the heavens. Released to its rightful place.
The energy soared, trailing a ribbon of gold and silver that shimmered. A hush fell over the battlefield as the stars began to return to their rightful place. Even the ones that were still descending toward us reverted. One after another they claimed their rightful place, until dozens more joined the twinkling expanse, blinking into existence. They spread across the sky in radiant blooms, threading back into constellations.
The color of the sky deepened into rich indigo, a velvet backdrop to the glittering cascade of stars that now dancedabove us. They pulsed with life, each one thrumming softly in the back of my throat, as if their reawakening spoke to all of the Star Keepers I carried within me.
It was a beauty that made my soul ache in recognition of this astronomical moment. There was a peaceful stillness to my being. All of the restlessness that had been persistent, even when I didn’t know what the energy in me was, was now gone.
Light spilled across Alfemir from the moon and stars now, illuminating the broken stones, the ash, the blood still wet on the ground. But in that glow, none of it looked ruined. The city didn’t feel like a battlefield anymore. It felt like a fresh start for us to rebuild something beautiful in the aftermath of this battle.
“Now all is as it should be,” the Creator said, her voice low and melodic.
She turned to me, eyes glowing as they swept over me. “I healed your body as I stripped the stars from you, but one stubborn star remained within you. Your true star to tend to. It is up to you to place it back in the sky where it belongs and seal it with the rune and your dagger.”
