A figure stood in the middle of the footpath that led to the beach. Adara schooled her features into a soft smile as she approached Dominic, where he waited for her.
“Shall we?” Dominic swept a hand toward the trail that led toward the West Coast. Adara nodded, disinclined to follow him.
They were alone here. It would have been so easy to stick a knife in his back and demand he confess.
It would betooeasy.
Adara wanted to toy with him like he’d done to her. She wanted him to know every ounce of betrayal that racked herbones. She wanted to watch all that was bright and joyful inside him wither away. Adara had not taken his hand in hers as they walked to the beach out of her desire to touch him, to be in his hold, but out of a need to manipulate him. To let him believe she had fallen for him.
Everything in her ached with a pain that had been dulled for so long, now brought back. A piercing stab with every thought, every memory of him.Was any of it real?Somewhere along the way in this war, she had opened her heart to Dominic, praying he wouldn’t break it. And he didn’t. Dominic had placed a nail over her heart, but it was Adara who hammered it in, piercing her own vital organ. It was her own cunning mind that had discovered the truth. Dominic would have succeeded if it weren’t for a few carefully crafted words that she had heard before. Thathehad told her before.
He must have forgotten. Dominic Nite—the King of Keys—would not make such a foolish mistake to reveal himself. Those words filled with faith were as insignificant to him as Kairos, God of Time. A god he didn’t believe in, of something that didn’t matter to someone who was practically immortal.
Those words had meant nothing to him. But Adara? Oh, Adara had meant a whole deal greater to Dominic than she had ever imagined.
And now she planned to use it against him.
It might break her own heart, but she’d be damn sure it would leave his shattered beyond repair. It didn’t matter that his heart was at the bottom of the Plagued Sea. He’d feel the agony of her wrath wherever he went. She wouldn’t let him escape the pain this time.
Adara breathed as steadily as she could, walking hand in hand with the Thief of Hearts toward the beach, praying he couldn’t hear her pounding heart. She still had absolutely no clue what the Andreilians had planned for tonight, but she wanted to tryher best to enjoy it. To appear genuine before Dominic figured out that she kneweverything.
A warm breeze ruffled her hair as she took in the sound of rustling leaves and sand spraying. The Andreilians raced after one another on the beach, attempting to tackle each other into the water. Adara and Dominic stood beneath the trees, watching from a distance. Although it was well into the night, the sky was far from a void of darkness. A veil of deep blue enveloped them. Bright and brilliant, like viewing the world through a cerulean stained glass window. Strange magic simmered in the air, its gentle caress sending tingles over her skin.
Every now and then, Dominic’s gaze shifted to her. Every time she turned to face him, his head snapped in the other direction, as if he hadn’t been eyeing her.
She side-eyed him, catching a glimpse of exhilaration in his irises. “Stop looking at me like that,” she finally said after catching him again, a ghost of a smile on his face.
“Why?” he said. “Am I making you nervous?”
“Yes. I’ve grown used to the Dominic Nite that steals keys, is a murderer, never shows a glimpse of emotion, and the only ‘surprises’ are when he sticks a knife in your back.” It felt as if Dominic had stuck a blade inside her and twisted it deeper and deeper every second she spent next to him.
He chuckled. “Oh, love, if you think that’s a surprise, you don’t know me at all.”
“True,” Adara agreed with a shrug. “Okay, the only surprise is when hedoesn’tstick a knife in your back.”
Dominic merely shook his head. He placed a hand on her lower back, gently guiding her forward. Her skin burned in anticipation at his touch. Adara had to suppress the urge to let it scorch him as he led her out onto the beach.
Suddenly, the world went quiet. Adara’s jaw dropped as she tilted her face to the stars to see the clear night sky dotted withwondrous magic. The full moon glistened, hanging high in the sky, surrounded by a web of electric blue stars, twinkling and dancing through the night that tethered it to the heavens. It was bigger and brighter than ever before, coated with a layer of vivid cerulean. It was as if a magnificent painting had been dusted with magic and brought to life. Stars shot through the sky, streaming through the dark. Trails of stardust in their wake sprinkled into the sea. Hovering on the surface of the water, the dust glimmered, a bright, glowing invitation to dive right in and hold a fallen star. Constellations tilted and twirled, stories of the gods coming to life before her widened eyes.
Elysian and Belor’s constellations waltzed together in the sky, sapphire stars in the shapes of humans coming to life to tell the story of how Life fell in love with Death, and even though it ended in tragedy, it also created the beauty of a world like this, filled with magic and hopes and dreams in a vast void of destruction.
The world came crashing back. The Andreilians laughed in the distance, waves breaking on the shore.
“Wow, I actually made you speechless,” Dominic said.
Adara now knew what he’d been watching her for. He didn’t want to miss her reaction. She couldn’t peel her eyes away from the constellations moving across the sky.
“This should occur more often. I finally don’t have to hear your snarky voice,” he teased.
She snapped her mouth closed, suddenly aware of his presence, and turned to him. “Youdidn’t make me speechless. The stars did,” she said.
“And she’s back.” He reached for her hand, warm fingers twining with hers as he started toward the ocean where the rest of the Andreilians dove into the water, splashing each other with stardust.
“What is all this?” Adara asked in awe, still gazing up at the sky as she let Dominic pull her toward the others. With the way Dominic touched her—so delicately, as if he was afraid he might break her—and the way the constellations glistened and roamed with the light of a thousand lifetimes of stories, it was too easy for Adara to forget what she had found. She wondered if Silas was one of those stars up there, darting around, buzzing with magic and life in Sengui.
“Konstelaria,” Dominic responded.
She glanced at him, awaiting an explanation.
