“I live to serve.”
The fire crackled, sending sparks up toward the silver threads. Where they met, tiny explosions of color bloomed—memories given form. I saw glimpses of other times, other places. Elle in my arms, both of us covered in blood. Elle with silver hair, ancient and terrible. Elle dead at my feet while I screamed at uncaring stars.
“Did you see—” she started.
“Echoes,” I said quickly. “The Veil shows what might be. Don’t trust it.”
“Alright, enough of this doom and gloom!” Bryx said suddenly, his usual cheer forced but welcome. Kevin buzzed anxiously from his perch on Bryx’s shoulder—even at pocket-size, the bee’s distress was palpable. “We need a story. Something fun, something dramatic, something with at least one questionable life choice. Anyone? Please? Before I start spiraling about how Nimor might be dying and we’re trapped and—”
“I’ll go,” Vashael said, surprising everyone despite Bryx’s prompting. She rarely shared anything personal. “How about I tell our lovely Elle how I ended up in this rowdy group of misfits.”
She settled into storyteller posture, the firelight making her gold-dusted skin shimmer. “I was a courtesan in the Petal Courts. Trained from childhood in the arts of pleasure and poison. I had a lover—a noble who thought he owned me.”
The fire dimmed as she spoke, responding to her voice.
“He was beautiful the way weapons are beautiful—all sharp edges and deadly purpose. He said he loved me, but what he loved was possession. Theidea that something as dangerous as me could be contained.”
Elle shifted beside me, and I wondered if she was thinking of her ex-fiancé. The one who’d betrayed her. The one I’d kill if I ever met him.
“One night,” Vashael continued, “he brought another to our bed. Said I should be honored to share him. Said I should be grateful.” Her smile was sharp as her throwing knives. “I poisoned them both. Slowly. Made him watch her die first, so he’d know how betrayal felt. Then I watched him follow, and I felt… nothing. No satisfaction. No regret. Just empty.”
“That’s horrible,” Elle said softly.
“That’s survival,” Vashael corrected. “The Petal Courts don’t forgive that kind of defiance, even when it’s justified. They would have executed me—made an example of the courtesan who dared strike back. But I’d heard stories about a disgraced prince who’d disappeared into the Thornwood. One who understood what it meant to be cast out for refusing to be what others demanded.”
She glanced at me, and I kept my expression neutral.
“I knew Kaelren from court functions. Knew he was the kind of monster who had rules. Who protected his people.” Her smile turned softer, almost fond. “So I ran. Tracked him through half the realm until he finally stopped trying to lose me and let me join his crew of outcasts.”
“And now you’re stuck with us,” Bryx added cheerfully.
“And now I’m stuck with you,” she agreed. Then her amber eyes fixed on Elle. “We all have our befores. Our reasons for being here, outcasts in the deep woods. What’s yours, little human? What broke you enough that falling into another world seemed like escape?”
Elle was quiet for a moment. Then: “I wasn’t broken. I was… bent. Bent trying to fit into spaces too small for me. My ex, Julian—he needed me smaller. Quieter. Less. And for two years, I tried. Tried to be the supporting character in his story instead of the lead in mine.”
My marks flared with possessive rage. This Julian had tried to diminish her. Tried to contain something meant to be wild.
“Then I caught him with my best friend,” Elle continued. “In our bed. And you know what he said? ‘You’re too much, Elle. She’s easier.’” Shelaughed, bitter. “Easier. Like I was some kind of challenge to overcome instead of a person to love.”
“I would kill him,” I said, the words escaping before I could stop them.
Everyone turned to look at me.
“Slowly,” I clarified, not backing down. “I would kill him very slowly.”
Elle stared at me, something shifting in her expression. “That’s… weirdly sweet. In a psychotic way.”
“I don’t do sweet.”
“No,” she agreed. “You do vengeful protection. It’s different but… not unwelcome.”
The moment stretched between us, the Star Veil making everything feel more intense, more real. Through the connection we both pretended wasn’t there—that pull I refused to call a bond—I felt her pulse quicken, felt her lean slightly toward me—
“I should check on Nimor,” I said abruptly, standing.
“Right,” she said, and I caught disappointment in her voice. “Of course.”
I retreated to where Nimor lay—or existed, or whatever state he was in. But I could still feel Elle’s presence, her warmth, her want mixing with mine until I couldn’t tell where I ended and she began.
