Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

I didn’t want Mark to wear that crown. I didn’t want him to be considered an Order. I didn’t want him to carry that burden, to be locked into a contract with Evanora, but if he did go to that castle, eventually that’s where it would lead.

He had a good heart now, would that remain after seven years of living there?

He did deserve the good bed, the clothes, the food, but he didn’t deserve living with those people.

He didn’t deserve the life I had either.

I didn’t want to let him go, but I couldn’t condemn him. I felt like there was no good option here.

“Trick?” I called out into the abyss. I felt so stupid, so humiliated, but this was for Mark not my pride. “Hello?”

Nothing.

I rolled my eyes, sanding my hands together. “You’vebeen stalking me for a year and now that I actually need you, you’re going to ignore me?”

Silence.

I frowned deeply. “I just need to ask you a question.” Several seconds of silence ticked by. I rolled my eyes again, releasing a huff. “Please.”

Nothing but my own heartbeat answered back.

I half-laughed, only out of frustration. “So what? You only come when you want to torture me? Which means that you truly are just using me. That’s great. You’re a real prick, you know that? I just…” I closed my eyes and groaned. “Gods, I need to know if you’re going to kill me or not. It’s important. Please.”

A soft step in the snow had my heart slamming against my ribs.

I turned towards the sound and searched those shadows, eyes straining, heart picking up. “Trick?”

Silence.

“Trick, come on, I know it’s you. I’m not in the mood to play games, can you just…can you please just come out?”

Nothing once again.

Gods, he infuriated me. “I hope you know that I willneversay please ever again. I won’t sit here and beg for your help again. So if this is just a game, it’ll end tonight.”

I stared into the abyss, heart slamming in my throat.

“Tr—” but the shout died on my lips when a pair of glowing red eyes appeared within the darkness.

Fuck, not Trick. Definitely not Trick.

It was a gods-damneddemon.

Its eyes were five feet off the ground. There were only a handful of demons that stood that tall, and with my luck, it was a tycron that stood before me.

Oh, for the love of all that was death and darkness, please don’t let that be a gods-damned tycron.

A beak appeared, ashy gray feathers, the front two feet of a bird.

I straightened, my panic lessening only slightly. “Zalin?” I whispered as it lowered its head, stalking forward slowly, tail flicking behind it.

It wasn’t as big as the full-grown ones I had seen not two months ago just a few miles outside my cottage. A teenager, I would guess, but they grew up fast. Going from hatchlings to kits to full-grown in less than six months.

It stepped into a ray of moonlight, lifting its head, its beak opening and closing, its head twitching to one side. A very bird-like movement.

I watched it for a long time before I allowed myself to relax completely. Maybe not completely, but I couldn’t have it smelling any sort of stress or fear. It would only incite it. “Why are you alone?” I asked it, trying to look behind it without moving too much. “Where is your family?” Zalins weren’t violent creatures, and I had been around enough of them to know that they did remember me. They knew who I was and where I lived. I had even seen some in my clearing before, but I had never seen one without many more behind it.

They were pack animals, they needed each other.