She uncorked a vial, tipping liquid into my mouth that seemed to reignite the fire in my throat. My chest shot up, my back arching and my body shaking.
“Hold him down!” Hands gripped me, the pain making bile rise up my throat. It came out in choppy spurts, choking me. “Get him on his side! Az, it’s going to be okay. Sleep. Let me fix you.”
When they turned me, I had the perfect view of Nova. She lay there, her skin bubbling and hair singed. Despite the horrible state of her, I watched as her chest rose and fell. It was those movements that soothed me to sleep.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Nova
“No matter how many fairytales I read, none of those love stories could ever come close to Mama and Dad.”
-From the journal of Nova Tershetta, 9246 AS
Someone was humming.
Was it the stars? Did they hum in the sky? When did they get so deep and raspy?
All I saw was darkness, but perhaps that was what it was like in the sky. Did I have a body here? It felt like it. I moved what I thought were my fingers, startling when they skimmed againstfabric.
Slowly, I opened my eyes, blinking rapidly as the harsh light flooded my vision.
Where am I?
“Nova?” His voice was hoarse, brittle even. Looking over, I saw he’d already been sitting up, his eyes trained on me. Bandages littered his body, his bare chest covered in dry blood and what looked like raw skin. I shot up, feeling an immense amount of pain in my side, back, and chest. No one else seemed to be in the cottage, even Death noticeably absent. I had no clothes on, but I was too tired to hide as my brain worked to catch up.
“What happened to you? How did I get here?”
“I pulled you out of a fire that I’m nearly positiveyoustarted.”
Oh.
Still groggy and exhausted from what I imagined was rather intense healing, I let my face fall into my waiting palms. “Why would you do that, Az? You could have died.”
“Youwouldhave died, Nova! What were you thinking? Did you think at all?”
“Of course I thought! I do nothing but think! I’m trapped in a mind that tortures me every day. There apparently is no limit to just how much I can think androtwithin my head.” I looked up again, feeling tears beginning to pool in my eyes and not caring. “So, yes, Ithought.I thought of how much better this world would be if there was no magic. I thought of how much harm I’ve done. I thought of each person who died because of me!”
Though I’d quite literally yelled at him, Az only stared at me with wide eyes and parted lips, as if stunned. I glared at him, trying to understand what angle he was taking. When his hands reached up and cupped either side of my face, I froze.
“Your eyes.”
“What about them?”
“They’re…” he trailed off, shaking his head and smiling softly. “Nova, they’re golden brown again.”
That was when I heard it. Heard the lack. The emptiness. My mind was void of whispers or a floating consciousness that didn’t belong to me. I pressed my palm into his, my head blissfully, wonderfully vacant.
“The stars, they’re gone,” I whispered, disbelief making my voice more breathy.
“Were they angry?” he asked, his tone bordering on panicked as he rushed out the words and pulled his hands away. “Did they punish you?”
“No, they understood. They helped me light the fire,” I mumbled, pressing my hand into my chest. They weregone.
“You’re telling me that the same stars that led me straight to you, also helped you with your ridiculous, selfish, dangerous plan to burn down the cathedral?”
“Those traitors.” I couldn’t believe they told him where I was. “They swore they’d let me go. They even said they’d welcome me into the sky. What a load of garbage.”
Az shifted, his entire aura changing. Suddenly, there was the man I knew a year ago. His face was tight, his jaw ticking like a clock. He looked…murderous.
