The light ebbs, but still I pour myself into him until there is nothing more to give. Pressing my lips to his, I imagine I feel a soft waft of breath, but it’s only mine, feathering lightly against his mouth. I push until my heart slows—willing his to beat in its stead. And then I close my eyes, and everything becomes so quiet and still that I swear I can hear the whisper of his voice telling me he loves me.
But it’s only the sound of my breath being expelled for the last time.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The stars will shine eternal.
They burn because that is all they know to do.
Suspended in space, I stare at the glistening backdrop of the heavens, watching my sisters glimmering, their colors bursting in vibrant hues of red, yellow, blue, and green. And it is more beautiful than anything I have ever seen.
The crone stares at me, approval written all over her face. “You survived, Starkeeper,” she says. “You have become Setareh Framataram—the master of the star.”
“I mastered nothing,” I say. “I died.”
“In sacrifice lies true mastery of your gifts.”
I laugh. “You talk in riddles a lot, Vena, you know that?”
“You offered your magic to save another,” she says, and I feel something like sorrow settle upon me. “You sacrificed your life for someone you felt was more deserving.”
“It didn’t work.”
“Of course it did.”
My heart hitches. “Roshan is alive?”
Vena tilts her head to one side, studying me. “You care for him.” It’s not a question, but I still nod, and after a while she continues. “He sleeps. His future rests in the hands of the fates.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “Then why am I here?”
This time she is the one who laughs. “And byhere,do you mean in your dreams?”
She has a point—it’s not like our many conversations have been real. Then again, I can’t feel my body, so I must be dead, or doing whatever it is departed stars do. We float side by side in companionable silence, watching the constellations orbit overhead.
“What’s going to happen now, Vena?”
She shrugs. “There will always be those who covet power—those who pursue the lie to disable and disrupt. You will forever remain one of the champions of light and a beacon to those who are lost, those wandering few who seek the truth. But as far as you,Suraya Saab, daughter of Nasrin Saab,are concerned, you have a choice. You may stay here as one of us, guarding those who walk below.”
“Stay here as a Royal Star.”
“Of sorts,” she says. “You are part of us, after all.”
“Or?”
“Or you can return to the world from whence you came and live out your remaining years as a mortal woman and return to us when your time comes.”
I ignore the startled leap of joy in my heart. “And my gifts?”
“They are a part of you, Starkeeper, and you have proven that you are fit to wield their power even in the face of great fear. The fates will slumber sound, waiting until they are called. Until they are needed.”
She turns to face me, starbursts erupting in the apples of her cheeks, her eyes glistening like meteors. She takes my hands in between her own, tracing the five-pointed stars upon them. With a dawning smile, her fingers trail the path of the M shape on my palms along the heart, head, life, and fate lines, lingering on the last. Her thumb grazes over the narrow side of my palm beneath my little finger, and a small gasp leaves her lips.
“Soul-fated,” she whispers so softly that I barely hear her.
“Me?” I ask in shock. “What do you see?”
Vena smiles. “I see two incomplete souls finding their missing halves. I see a magical fated soul bond blessed by the gods.”
