What was wrong with me?
Death Mages were thescourgeof Lunaterra. Everyone knew that. They were the villains in every bedtime story. The cursed knights who made pacts with the demons on the other side of the Veil. The darkest of monsters. The horrors that mothers used to threaten misbehaving children. They were cruel, cold, unnatural. Heartless. Walking darkness.
And yet… when I said I’d rather marry an Orc, I’d seen something flicker in his eyes. Not rage. Not offense.Hurt.
Was that why I let him kiss me? Or was it because, deep down, Iwantedthat kiss? Wanted more than a gods damned kiss. I’d had a few half-hearted romances with local boys. Nothing serious. Nothing that lasted more than a few weeks. None of their clumsy, fumbling attempts to touch me made meburn.Made mewant.Every cell in my body felt like it was on fire. For him.
Was he coming back? Of course. He must. If what he said was true, he didn’t have a choice any more than it appeared I did. Assassins hunting me? Every Death Mage and Necromancer I ever encountered would try to claim me. Control me. Use me.
The idea fueled a boiling rage in my veins. Wild and hot.
Rage? Or need? Not for any random dark magician I might meet in an imaginary future. Forhim.
I shook myself and turned back to the camp. The fire had died to embers, but the pan still held warmth. I cleaned up in silence, folding the remains of our breakfast into a cloth bundle and tossing the scraps far enough into the forest to keep animals away from camp.
My fingers trembled. Not from fear. From something else.
Awakening.
There was heat in my chest now. A coil of fire beneath my ribs that pulsed in time with my heartbeat. It wasn’t painful—not exactly—but it made me restless. Uncomfortable in my own skin. Like something had shifted inside me, and now I didn’t quitefitinside my own body anymore.
Was I truly Starborn?
He’d called me that with such certainty. Like it was carved into my bones.
I’d scoffed at the idea. The Starborn were a myth, the stuff of legends told by candlelight. Children of starlight and fire, blessed by the goddess of light to protect Lunaterra from the creeping dark beyond the Veil.
They’d all died long ago. Become little more than a fairy tale in a world filled with wondrous and magical creatures. I was raised human. I had no power, no gifts. I’d been told the old stories many times about how humanity had stepped through the Void, chased from our home world, a place called Earth, by the very monsters The Spire was built to cage. We still needed the Death Mages and all the other dark magic users to seal the Rift, keep those monsters away from life in Lunaterra. Until today, there had been literally nothing different or special about me.
And yet… when Jarrik had hurt me, I’d burned his skin. Not with rage. Not with willpower. Withmagic.Something that should have been impossible. Devin claimed I healed myself. I’d assumed, when I woke, that he’d done it. But if Death Mages weren’t healers, then…what?
Who was I? Who were my parents? Why had they left me—alone and nameless—on the steps of an orphanage in the capital? Were they dead? Slaughtered by assassins? Or had they abandoned me, knowing what I was?
The questions were too big, too tangled. I had no answers. Just this strange fire inside me and a new obsession with a dark eyed Death Mage with hair the color of deep, blue midnight and eyes that burned into me like divine flame.
When Devin returned, he was damp and freshly dressed, his skin dewed with water and his dark cloak clinging to his shoulders. His blue hair was slicked back, the silver strands near his temples catching the light like threads of moonlight. How old did a Death Mage have to be before even a single strand of hair turned moon-kissed silver?
“How old are you?” I’d heard rumors, but I had no idea if they were true or myth.
His lips twisted in a grin. “You first.”
“I’ve seen twenty summers.”
His grin fled as his gaze locked onto my lips. I forgot to breathe. “One hundred and eighty-seven summers.”
Then the whispers were true. He wasold.He was also—infuriatingly—gorgeous. And I wanted him. Worse, I believed him. About everything. Believed he would protect me or die trying. Believed him when he said we belonged together, that whatever power I had would help save the world. Believed that if I let him touch me, kiss me, fuck me, I’d know pleasure I couldn’t even imagine.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?” Oh, I knew. Iknew.Like I wanted him to strip me naked and make me his, burn me with magic and dark flames, kiss me everywhere…
“Not now, woman. We have to move. It’s not safe to stay here. Jarrick could return, with company.”
“I’ll just burn him again.” I meant it. I wasn’t surehow,exactly. Just knew Icould.
He didn’t speak, just helped me onto the horse and mounted behind me, settling me between his legs. And that’s when the real torture began.
His body was all hard lines and restrained power. Every muscle pressed against my back. His arm wrapped around my waist, holding the reins, close enough that I could feel the steadyrhythm of his breath. His scent wrapped around me—clean water, magic, and something darker. Shadow and heat. It did things to me I didn’t want to name.
