“Look around, Kel. This is your realm. The vastness, the wildness…your father saw it as a vulnerability. But what do you see?”
I take a shuddering breath, letting the cold air cleanse me. “Strength. We are not meant to hide. Winter is wild.”
The hand that isn’t clutching my arm comes to my face, and Rosalina brushes a gloved fingertip across my jaw. “You’re not your father, Kel. You don’t need to inherit his fears.”
I am not my father.The words that once felt like a condemnation now feel like…words. A simple truth. Hiding within Castletree. Hiding behind Wolfhelm’s walls. Hiding from her.
“Rosalina,” I say lowly, holding her gaze, “after we kill Sira, I will break my curse. I promise you.”
She smiles, then nods. I know she wishes I would do this before we make our move against Sira, but this is as much of a compromise as I can allow.I am not my father, and Caspian is not his mother. Perhaps our fates will change upon her death. With Sira’s demise, the vision I was shown in the labyrinth may never come to pass.
It is as close to trust as I can offer Caspian.
“Whenever you’re ready, Kel,” Rosalina says, “I’ll be wait—oh!” She jerks away from me, nearly losing grip on my arm.
“What is it?”
Her eyes are wide, and her mouth drops into an O. “The sky…”
A smile crooks up the side of my face, and I wrap my arms around her, never losing contact, so I’m at her back and she’s facing outward. I lean down and whisper in her ear, “This is why I wanted you here tonight. It only happens once a decade.”
Brilliant streaks of white flash against the ink-blue sky. First there’s one here, then another there. Then a cascade of light follows.
The stars are falling.
They’re spiraling, spinning, ribbons of light, each one brighter than the last. Clouds of air puff out in front of Rosalina, her breathing rapid. “They’re dancing,” she whispers and holds out her hand, trying to trace the patterns of molten silver.
This is what I wanted to show her. Many times, I have sat under the falling sky, but never have I shared it. Does she like it? Does she feel it was worth it to be dragged out into the cold? Myheart pounds against my ribs, as if it too wants to rise and join the falling stars.
Rosalina tilts her head back, eyes wide and bright, the shooting stars reflecting in her gaze. The chill flushes her cheeks. She puts her hands over mine, wrapped around her, and leans into me. “The stars are alive.”
“They are,” I whisper. “For the briefest moment. Just long enough to matter.”
She turns in my arms, gaze looking up at me, lips slightly parted, as though she’s about to say something. But then another star streaks across the sky, brighter than the rest, and her attention shifts back upward. I follow her gaze, though I know what I’ll see. I’ve seen it a hundred times before.
But tonight, it feels different.
“It’s so beautiful,” she says, her voice catching on the last word, like it’s too much to hold.
“They always are,” I say, softer now, “but I’ve never seen them as radiant as this before.”
She looks at me then, really looks, and for a moment, the stars seem to pause, caught between their descent and her gaze. The light of the heavens reflects in her eyes, and I wonder if the universe itself might envy her.
A laugh bubbles up in her chest as she looks back to the sky. “My father used to tell me that stars were lanterns hung by a giant. Imagine my embarrassment when I said that out loud in school and it turns out they’re just giant balls of gas.”
I chuckle. “Balls of gas? That’s even stranger than a giant’s lanterns.”
She raises a brow. “What do you think they are?”
“The stars are great, glowing masses of rock, covered in ice. They orbit the Above, way up high in the cosmos. Every so often, one of the stars will fall to the Vale. Within the stone, there can sometimes be found a powerful ore, known in the ancientlanguage as mythkarite. It is said to be so infused with the magic of the Above that it can be crafted into relics of incredible power.”
“Like the weapons wielded by the high rulers,” she breathes.
“Yes, our weapons are infused with it. In fact, it’s said your mother took her most trusted advisors, those destined to be the first high rulers, and searched the Vale for ore that had fallen to the earth. Rafael of Spring was able to combine the mythkarite with steel to forge the divine weapons.”
“Amazing.” Her face is full of wonder, and a smile appears on her lips. “So in the Vale, you can really touch the stars.” She reaches up, as if she could pluck one of the stars from the sky.
I squeeze her, making her laugh, then kiss the cold skin below her ear. “Which one do you like? I’ll bring it down for you.”
