Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

My mind spun as my hand tightened around Cole’s, my balance unstable, my stomach twisting, threatening to eject what little I had consumed.

“Youdick.”

I grabbed my head, trying to breathe through the nausea. Trying to force those dead eyes out of my head. Unseeing, missing some vital shred of light that told the world of a lifetime of stories.

Gone.

My eyes lifted, the bile creeping up my throat once again only to find myself frozen in place at what—who—stood before me.

He was a god.

A god with bright green eyes and charcoal black hair, just barely curling around his pointed ears.

He had a sharp jawline, angled up, a look of cold, dry anger reflected in his features, his lips turned down, although that could have been from the pale white scar that stretched from the corner of his left eye, through the center of his lips, stopping just at his right jaw, almost the exact same one that Cole had, and now looking at the him I had an uneasy feeling that Cole may havedone it on purpose.

His hands were at his sides, shoulders tense, wearing a black suit that had to have been half a size too small with the way his muscles pulled at it.

But what caught my attention the most, besides those eyes I swore I had seen that morning in my room, were the tendrils of shadows that drifted around him almost lovingly.

Beautiful and elegant and most likely deadly.

But what thefuckwere his eyes doing in my head yesterday? In my nightmares last night? In mybedroomthis morning?

“Such foul language,” he said, his voice like midnight oceans and snow-capped mountains in the depths of winter. “I did save you.” A low and sultry voice, as if nightmares and demons had fucked and made a love child. That’s what his voice sounded like, and it crept over my skin like hot tar.

Cole scoffed, pulling his hand out of mine so he could shove his sword back into its sheath. “There were marks on their necks, just like last time. Something youchoseto ignore. None were successful as far as I could tell, but I wasn’t there long enough to get a better read on the situation, thanks to you.”

And the anger I felt building under my skin tasted bitter. All of that fear, that adrenaline shifting into a rage I could burn down worlds with.

Why had he been inmy room?

Why had I been brought back here when my brother could still be missing?

“I’m sure you gathered enoughinformation. How many died?”

“Too many to count,” Cole replied icily. “I saw half a dozen witches in white robes, clearly direct followers. I saw Evanora disappear into the castle right before it started. They also hung people this morning, plastering a warning to the city of a war to come. It’s almost as if I had predicted this years ago.”

“Bitter resentment is an ugly beast, isn’t it?” the male mused, and I wondered if the burning in my skull was from the building headache or the fact that he was staring at me while he spoke to Cole. “Satarmore must be proud.”

I wasn’t going to do it, challenge a High King, but what the actual fuck was his problem?

I lifted my eyes to his.

Hehadbeen staring at me and now I was staring right back. Looking into the depths of a nightmare come to life. Of Death reborn. How dare he blame Satarmore for what Evanora had done. Howdarehe.

An idea formed in my mind, and it took everything I had not to smile. It was going to be the worst decision I had ever made but fuck it. There was too much shit rolling around in my mind to be making rational decisions right now.

I turned away from him, searching the ground for that rock I dropped days ago. It didn’t take me long to find it.

“Satarmore had nothing to do with this,” Cole said, defending the High King of the Warlocks. “The witches haven’t lived in Sarivos in centuries, which is something I told you years ago.”

The hatred in the General’s voice was clear, and I couldn’t help but wonder why he remained working under such a man if he hated him that much. Maybe he was as afraid of Trick Michael as the rest of the world was.

“They can all use magic, and you can’t,” the High King stated as I picked up that rock.

Oh, this had to be the most idiotic thing I was ever going to do, but I needed to do it. I had to dosomething. I felt too much anger in my blood to just sit here and listen to these men talk.

“You can’t deny what you’ve already admitted to, Trick,” Cole told him. “You know why the magic isn’t working here. Why won’t you tell me?”