The trees thinned as we reached a clearing. The moon spilled silver over a patch of moss and rock, and Jarrik dismounted with a whisper of movement, graceful as a snake.
He pulled me down none-too-gently and walked me to a flat stone, where he lit a small fire with a flick of his fingers. No tinder. No sparkstone. Just magic—cold and eerie, blue-tinged flames licking hungrily at the air.
I sat because I didn’t have a choice.
He said nothing as he took out dried meat and handed me a strip. I didn’t take it.
“You said I’m your betrothed,” I said instead. “But I’ve never heard of you. Why me?”
He didn’t answer right away. The flames made his face look more skull than man.
“I need you,” he said finally. “There is a shadow rising from the Veil. The Tower is not as stable as it once was. A double eclipse is coming, and the old seals are cracking. Without the Starbound, we will not be able to hold it.”
My pulse stopped.
“You think I’m Starbound?”
“You are. Your blood sings with it. My magic recognized you instantly.”
“Then why not tell me the truth back at the orphanage?”
“You would not have come willingly.”
“You’re damn right I wouldn’t.”
He offered no apology. No justification.
“I won’t hurt you,” he said instead. “I need your power, not your suffering.”
That didn’t comfort me.
I stared into the blue flames, trying not to shiver. The night smelled of smoke and damp pine, cold earth and the faintest tang of sulfur from his spells. The meat he offered smelled dry and bitter, like old leather and dust. I turned my face away.
And I thought of him.
The other one. The mage with the blue hair and eyes like silver lightning.
The one who had looked at me like I was fire and salvation.
Why couldn’t I stop thinking abouthim?
If he had been the one to take me—would I have run?
The thought made my stomach twist.
Void take me, what was wrong with me?
“Your parents,” Jarrik said suddenly. “What do you know of them?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I was abandoned as a baby on the orphanage steps.”
“No name? No trinket?”
“Just a blanket with stars stitched into it. That’s it.”
He nodded once, as if that confirmed something. “The mark of the Starborn.”
I curled my hands into fists, the rope biting into my skin. “I want to leave.”
