Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

A friend who had no correlation with the High Court. With the Fallen Court in general. It would be nice to just have a friend. No politics, no job, just…just a friend.

It had been a little bit of a game to me until Trick had trapped her against that wall. Until I couldn’t get to her, keep him from touching her.

Kyra was defensive, but defensive didn’t mean that her heart wasn’t good.

Tomorrow was a new day and I wanted to start over. Treat her the way I would have before my heart had left this world.

Lora was right about that, I supposed. I needed to figure out who I was without her. It was just…I was struggling and Trick playing these stupid games wasn’t helping.

“Why are you here, Lor?” I asked, crouching down, searching for any small little shimmer of Forbidden Magic. How had they cleaned up so well?

Lora remained where she was, still concealed by shadows. “Trick’s changing paths. He’s still going after ‘the Congregation’, but he wants to focus on what’s goingon here too.”

I stood, turning to her. “You still don’t believe it’s real?”

“No, Cole, and neither should you. All he is is a cold-blooded killer. He just needs an excuse to torture people and I’m done fighting him on it. I can’t stop him, but that’s not the point. He wants you to actually study the witches. So, have at it,” she shrugged, nonchalant.

My anger grew. “You’ve agreed to this?”

Lora sighed. “Yeah, I have. Why?”

I lifted and dropped my hands. “Because every single one of you refused to believe me when I told youyearsago what was happening here.”

She rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t our deal, Cole.”

My eyes widened. “It wasn’tourdeal? They killed us too!” I hissed. “They slaughtered the Fallen right alongside everyone else! We felt the effects of the last two warsjust like everyone else!”

Her eyes flicked to the castle and back. “Keep your voice down,” she warned.

I huffed, shaking my head. “I can’t believe you. I’ve wanted, for years, to take care of this, but Trick had to wait, why? Because he wanted them to grow enough in power for it to be a real fight?”

She shook her head, clearly over the conversation. “I’ve tried my entire life to understand him, Cole, I’m giving up. He did what he did. Now we’re here and he wants us to look into it, so look into it. That’s your job here anyway, right? Just do it. We have to take what we can when he gives it to us, or we should just leave.”

I released a breath in disbelief and stalked up to her. “Just leaving is sounding pretty good right about now.”I brushed by her, heading back towards the cottage. I was exhausted and there was nothing here. There was no point in staying.

“This girl he’s claimed,” Lora called after me. “What’s so special about her?”

“Nothing,” I answered back. “She’s just an ordinary human who decided to show some kindness to me. That’s it.”

“Well, if she has any information on the Book of Silence, get it. Trick wants us to find that too.”

My lip curled. Perfect. He wants us to find a book that some human had supposedly taken before the Fall and used to start the war. No one had seen it since.

No one was even sure if Colby had actually gotten his hands on it, but if anyone knew the truth, it’d be Kyra.

~~~

Kyra

I wasn’t sure which bruises on my body were from what happened yesterday and what Mom had done this morning, but everything hurt.

I tried to catalog everything so that I knew how to cover it up. Two black eyes, a bruise around my wrist, my scraped-up hands, another bruise around my upper arm, a large bruise on my right side over my ribs, a medium sized bruise on my left hip, and one on my lower back.

Along with the scraps I had gotten on my hands from falling yesterday and my sprained ankle, I was shocked I hadn’t just collapsed.

Everything could be covered up though. I wouldn’t let Cole touch me because my body was sore from the crowd, and someone had kicked me in the face during the attack yesterday, the bruise showed up this morning. He should believe that no problem.

Perfect.