Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

I inhaled deeply and leaned back in my chair, balancing the pencil between my fingers, part of me wondering if Trick had that rock on him now, the other part of me falling deeper into my own rhythm. “The Staff technically isn’t a weapon either, but it can be used as one because of the power of the gods being stored within it from when they all touched it to create us.”

I waved my hand aimlessly. “That’s not the point. No one has ever asked where they came from. No one knows exactly how this world came to be, right? They all just assumed the gods and goddesses were always here and suddenly just wanted some more fun, creating us with the Staff.”

I hoped that wasn’t completely true, because if it was, then there were a lot of uneducated people in this world, but from the questions I had asked on the street, no one had ever truly cared to learn how this world came to be. They knew of the Obelisk, just not what it had done for us.

“But this world started before they ever came to be,” I went on, finding Trick’s eyes again. “Something older than the gods, older than the world we stand on, older than the stars.”

His shadows drifted towards me slowly, and I wasn’t irritated about it. I was actually interested in learning more about them too. About how they worked. Clearly, they were sentient to some degree, I just didn’t know how far that went.

So, when his shadows met mine before drifting over my hands, up my arms, I didn’t do anything to shoo them away, especially when I caught that bit of shock in his eyes. There and gone before anybody who wasn’t paying attention could see it.

“The Obelisk,” I continued, letting them do their thing. They weren’t harming me. They weren’t teasing me. They almost reminded me of cats just doing what cats did best. “A tower of pure magic that stood in the center of everything, gifted to us by the Goddess of Stars, the very first gift she ever gave us.”

My eyes lifted to the ceiling, drifting across the map I had created, tracing the stars as they had been before Caduto had shattered into the nine continents there were now. “The Staff of Elder is a conductor, which few people have actually put together, but the Obelisk? It’s the power. And not just power, butthepower. The be all and end all of everything.”

I stood then, setting my things down to follow the stars all the way to Mark’s room. “’Here is a gift for the children of my children, the lord of my lords, the gods of my gods. May it bring you light in the darkness and darkness in the light’,” I quoted. It was a poem I loved. Something about it just made my skin tingle with excitement.

“Everyone believes it’s one thing. A tower that reaches far into the sky, pointing to where she now resides,” I went on, stopping less than a foot from Mark’s closed bedroom door. “Lost when the gods were born, or so the stories go. Stolen, given, hidden away. Lost in the memories of memories of memories. Andso the knowledge becomes stories, becomes legends, becomes knowledge.”

I stopped, staring up at those perfect constellations I had spent years on. “No one ever pays attention to the words,” I went on, more to myself than anyone else. “The Obelisk disappeared when the gods were born. What else could that mean besides what it states?” Stars. I loved them. I had a strange, deep sort of obsession with them. More than I did the dragons or knowledge. If I had the time, I could spend nights just staring up at them, trying to understand what they were trying to tell us. Because they were always trying to tell us something, we were just too loud to listen.

“It broke apart,” I heard a voice say almost distantly.

I looked over, taking in the God of Nightmares with ease, too relaxed to care about what he had done not hours before. “It became something better,” I explained, turning back to that spot. “Every world contains equal parts of the same things. Darkness and light. Good and evil.Balance. You cannot have one without the other. Shadows desperately need stars and stars? They cannot shine without the darkness of the night.

“The Obelisk was a physical representation of that until it wasn’t. Until it became the Archangels, the Keepers, the Hellions, the Goddess of the Moon, the Five Goddesses, the Fates, the Priests, the Knights of Oblivion, and Khaleesi. Until it became the shield, the sword, the bow, the Veil, the Eye. Until it became the stars, the sun, and the night sky.”

I could feel him suddenly beside me. Feel his heartbeat, his breath. I couldhearhis life, and I had no ideawhat that meant, but I found peace in it.

I stood up on my tiptoes and pointed above me, still too short to touch the ceiling. “Third star to the right,” I said. “The brightest star in the night sky. What people fail to realize,” I went on, falling back on my heels, “is that nothing ever goes away, not really. The Goddess of the Stars simply said ‘see you later’.” Something Ket and I used to say to each other. Something I cherished.

I shrugged and turned back to them. “I’m not sure why it chose there. It fell a long time ago but before the War of Ruin, that star wasn’t above Sarivos, it was above—”

“The Night Flowers,” Trick stated, something sparking in his eyes.

I frowned, irritated that he had the audacity to interrupt me and then answerwrongabout the layout of his own court. “No, it was above what was the Fallen Territory before the Fall. You’re the High King, shouldn’t you know the layout of your own Court?”

He offered the barest of smiles and turned to Cole. “I need to go.”

“I’d like to stay,” Cole stated.

Much to my shock, Trick nodded and Jumped, disappearing from view with far less theatrics than last time.

I folded my arms across my chest and turned to Cole, irritated. Not even a thank you? “Ungrateful little pr—”

Trick reappeared, my chin already in his hand, causing my heart to stutter.

He lifted my chin and leaned in.

My entire body melted in less than a second, only for his lips to grace my forehead. “Thank you,” he mumbledand disappeared again.

My entire face burned hot, my heart thundering in my ears. Godsdammit. How does hedothat?

Cole rose a brow at me.

I shot a glare at him and stalked over to the table, gathering my papers just to make it seem like I was busy with something.

I could feel his eyes on me, burning through my skin. After several seconds, he leaned over the table, trying to catch my gaze. “You like him.”