A lie, I thought. When Malakai, Cypherion, and I exchanged a glance, it was clear they agreed. The question was, why?
“What did you spend your training years doing?” I asked. “Have you always been in Titus’s employment?”
“I spent most of my life at the Lumin Lake Temple, learning the art of reading the stars and communicating with the Angel and Celestial Goddess. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I fell into this position.”
“Can you—read as he does, then?” I fidgeted with my sword, working to keep that cool mask of Revered across my features.
Death.Darkness.Destruction.They echoed through my mind, chills peppering my skin.
“I’m practiced.” Vale ran a hand down the training leathers we’d loaned her and brushed her braid behind her shoulder. A few pieces slipped free.
“Do you think there’s any way his vision was…”Wrong, I wanted to say. But those softening olive eyes cut me off.
“I’m sorry, Ophelia.” She dropped her gaze. “I don’t know what it means, but I’m certain Titus’s vision was correct.”
As I kept myself from falling into the same pit of panic that tried to swallow me yesterday, I wondered what it could mean. There was a rare substance in my blood—that much I knew. There was also a vengeful queen at my back. For a moment, I felt the chill of Kakias’s dagger pressed against my throat, the blade thin and cold. Lethal. Sometimes, I swore the faint line it had imprinted on my skin looked back at me in the mirror, a bead of blood bubbling to the surface.
But when I blinked it was always gone—a figment of my nightmares or a premonition for my future, I wasn’t sure.
Our war with Kakias was far from over, but could that be the cause of Titus’s reading? Or was it something closer to home? Something within me?
At my back, Angelborn warmed, her pulse beating through me—a comfort and a promise.
“Did your family train at Lumin, too?” Malakai asked. In that moment, he and I were aligned. How had this seemingly ordinary girl come to the side of the leader of their clan?
“Oh, I’m afraid I don’t know my family. I haven’t seen them in nearly twenty years, since I was only four.” Though she said no more, her voice was crystal clear.
“And why is that?” Cypherion pushed gently, focusing on the sword he was polishing for her.
“That’s a very personal question.” Her brow furrowed. “Where is your family?”
“My father died many years ago.” The lie was smooth. For all we knew, his fatherhaddied. “And my mother didn’t handle it well.”
Vale’s shoulders sank. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to?—”
“It’s okay. You didn’t know.” Cyph extended the sword to her, pulling it back just before her fingers closed around the grip. “But it sounds like there’s more to your story.”
“Perhaps one day I’ll tell you.”
Cyph dropped his chin. “I’ll hold you to it, Starsearcher.”
Malakai and I exchanged a wide-eyed look, but before either of us could say anything, Cyph called for drills to start.
“Holy fucking Spirits,”Malakai panted as the tip of my spear landed above his heart, poised to pierce the Bind.
I smirked. “I know, I’m impressive.”
“Phel, you’ve always been talented.” He brushed his sweat-soaked hair out of his face. The morning sun caught the drops rolling down his forehead and carving a path around his scarred torso. Something below my stomach fluttered as one slipped down the column of his neck, over his collarbone and tattoo. “With that thing, you’re unstoppable.”
I looked for any hint of jealousy as he eyed Angelborn—the spear that had been his since birth but was recently passed to me when my right to Revered was exposed—but I found none. He leaned on the spear he’d borrowed from the palace’s armory, his eyes sweeping over me.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing.” Now his smirk matched my own.
We were both quiet, eyes locked, arguments past trying to pry their way in. The clashes of sparring around us bounced off the stone walls of the training arena. My workout leathers—cut like my officialgarb but less ornate—were hot against my skin, though the dawn air was cool. Or perhaps it was Malakai’s heated gaze that had my clothes feeling suddenly in the way.
I prowled forward slowly, placing a hand against his chest. And shoved him. “Back to work, warrior.”
