She can’t tell him. She just can’t. Every time she opens her mouth, she chokes. It’s just not possible to say the words. She’s not built for this. She’s not strong enough to look a person in the eye and tell them they’re going to die.
Especially not someone she’s so close to loving.
What good would it even do? Why should he know? Does Claudia have any right to poison what’s left of Cassius’s short life?
No. Of course not. It would be cruel. It would be mad. It would be the worst thing she’s ever done in her life.
Cassius runs his hands through his hair and releases an exasperated sigh. “Honestly, Claudia, you were right. I won’t believe it, so I don’t care to hear it. Keep your star musings. Keep your secrets. Right now, I couldn’t care less.” He turns to leave, but Claudia catches his wrist.
“You’re not going to stay with me?”
“Not tonight.” He shakes his head and withdraws his arm from her grip.
“When will we talk about all this?”
“Detention,” he barks, slamming her door behind him.
Claudia is dreaming.
She is in a room she has never seen before. An estate, large and grand. It smells of citrus and wide-open air. Clean. She opens a large window and looks out at a glistening lake filled with starlight. The sun dances with the moon, both impossibly alive and bright in a soft-purple sky. She’s unable to discern the time. Maybe time doesn’t exist here, wherever she is.
The room turns to white mist around her as if she’s inside a cloud. She breathes it in and it tastes like lemonade. Higher and higher, she floats until morning stars blink around her. She swims through the sky and lets it heal her. The wound on her shoulder fades to a thin white scar.
“Star Girl.”
She turns to find Cassius stepping through the mist, reaching out his hand for hers. He’s glowing like he’s made of stars. A light lavender aura surrounds him. Here, he looks so holy. The sight of him makes her heart skip. She takes his hand and lets him guide her. They walk through the mist, down and down until their feet fight the dewy grass, soft as clouds. The edge of the starry lake comes into view. They lean over and see their reflections in the water. Here, Claudia herself looks like a god. A crown of stars glows around her head, light coiling in her brown curls.
“You are so beautiful.”
Her eyes meet his in the reflection. “So are you,” she says. Her voice doesn’t feel like her own. She doesn’t know what she’s saying. It’s like she’s split in two, half there holding his hand, half not, hovering above, watching it all from a Jupiter’s-eye view.
Cassius pulls her close and presses a kiss beneath her ear. This feels like they’re home, like they have always been here, dancing through dreams, belonging to no one and nothing but each other.
“Will you save me?” he whispers.
She doesn’t know the answer, but her lips move anyway, like some greater force is pulling the truth from her mouth. “Yes. I will save you a million times.”
She plucks one star from the sky and bites it like an apple. It stings her throat and makes her skin glow. He looks up at her, wide-eyed and awestruck and alive. So beautifully alive.
“I love you, Claudia,” he says.
“I love you, too, Dracoemagyl.”
He kisses her. It tastes like heaven and heat and truth, until something sharp pierces through her belly.
And his.
The taste of their kiss is poisoned. She looks down to find them speared together. The blade pokes out of his back. Black blood blooms on the bodice of her dress. Red blood spills from his mouth. Their blood mixes and pools purple beneath them. She watches the light and the life fade from his eyes and wonders why she doesn’t feel herself dying, too.
“Don’t go.” Her words are all fuzzy. She pulls herself along the spear to hold him, but he fades into the mist, leaving her to care for her wounds alone. In her periphery, a green light glows and blinks like a beacon.
“You’re never alone, Starling.”
She gasps. “Dorian?”
No answer.
“Are you here?” She turns, tugging too harshly at her wound. The pain brings her to her knees in her own blood. “Dorian, help. Help me help him. You made a bargain that changed my fate. Make another to change his.” Her eyes dart frantically around this strange world, but there is no one else.
