Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

I gasped for air that wouldn’t come. He had failed. I was going to die.

He inhaled deeply and straightened. “Kyra, I promise you. Rose and their mom were the best healers in all of Oridian. Lora, his older sister, was pretty good too, but the healing gene took well in Trick and Rose. Their parents died during the Fall. He took the crown in respect for them. He and Rose were close up until the last decade before she died.” He was acting as if he didn’t want to speak of them, of Trick’s family. “He left after she died, for four years he had gone missing. The first time we saw him after that was just over a year ago. About the same time, I learned, that he started following you.”

I wondered why.

“Can I wash the muck off?” Cole asked, gesturingto my hands.

I looked down, staring at those shadows carefully. “No,” I finally said, my heart slowing, my ragged breathing evening out.

Trick had lost most of his family. I wondered if he had been there when they died, his parents. Or maybe he had been gone. Why would he stay away if he had known?

I detached my hand from my chest and studied the tendrils as they drifted. They were carefully keeping their distance from Cole.

One tendril in particular made its way up, caressing my cheek, my neck. I’d like to believe it was mine. “Why don’t they let you touch them?” I finally asked when Cole didn’t respond.

He glanced down at the shadows, his body still tense as if he were waiting for me to collapse, which could very well happen at any second. “They burn me,” he answered with a slight bitterness in his voice.

My brows furrowed, but I remembered how it had felt the first time they had wrapped around my wrists. They had seared my skin but hadn’t left any markings. “He can control that,” I noted.

Cole shrugged, leaning a hip against the counter. “If he does, he doesn’t stop them from hurting us. Trick’s magic is…different. Those shadows, they weren’t there when he was a kid. Rose said that when he came back after the Fall, they had just appeared. Like a shield. They wouldn’t let anyone near him. He claims he doesn’t control them, but he has to.”

Yeah, he did. I refused to believe that these things justenjoyedpushing me to the edge like they did.

Even so, they were beautiful, elegant. I wondered where they had come from.

My eyes found Mark’s bedroom door again. I believed Cole when he said that Mark was sound asleep. He needed rest, there was no reason for me to wake him just because I was scared. “I’m going to take a bath,” I decided, looking down at my legs. Could they make it to my bathroom?

They had to.

“Do you need help?”

I shook my head and eased myself away from the counter, testing each leg individually before I finally decided to let go. My entire body shook, everything sore and screaming in pain. “I’m okay,” I said through my teeth. I wasn’t, this was the worst pain I had ever been in, but I was fine, I could handle it.

Once I took a searing hot bath, I would feel better, I was sure of it. After several pain-filled seconds, I forced myself to step away from the table. I could make it to the bathroom. “Just come get me if he wakes up.”

“Okay.”

I flexed my hands at my side and took another step. It wasn’t going to be the shortest bath I ever had but I knew I would feel better. “Thanks,” I mumbled and started for my room.

~~~

When I finally walked out of the bathroom, I felt physically better.

The soreness had dulled, although my bones still ached. It would take a few days for me to heal completely, but for now, I would just deal with the pain.

I let my damp hair fall in strands around my face, wearing a fresh set of clothes, leaving the others on my bed to be washed and sewn up later.

I had discarded the bandages, brushed my teeth, dug out the blood and grime from under my fingernails until nothing of the encounter remained save for spotty memories, sore bones, and the images that haunted my mind.

I finally pushed open the door, limping into the living area only to slow when I found Trick standing in front of that wall again, hands in his pockets, sleeves pushed up his forearms, revealing black markings all over them. Not in any particular design it looked like, but my vision was still slightly fuzzy.

Mom had always said only the worst types of people got markings like that. Some were just random designs, others pictures. From what I could tell, it almost just looked like his tendrils of shadows had been replicated on his flesh.

He looked over, expression unreadable, eyes glowing as he took me in.

If anything, seeing me like this should discourage him. No fight, no game, just a weak little human, fresh from being beaten.

I didn’t know if it was humiliation or hatred I felt, either way, my stomach turned.