Page 3 of Blood of the Stars

Clouds threatened rain in the distance, but for now, the Stars were out. She leaned farther back to take in the Stars’ dance, their movement and brightness distinguishing them from the plain static stars they darted between. They shot through the sky, spinning in patterns that held a rhythm desperate for a melody.

“Move it,” Arvid muttered, pulling her past the Stargazer.

“But I thought?—”

“Not yet,” Vera said.

They kept to the dirt path that wound west of the property. Eventually, they stopped to settle against the boundary wall between two large oak trees, the roots rising like a nest of snakes.

They waited for what felt like hours, the task of walking so much in one day taking a toll on Aeliana. Her eyelids drooped, and her head listed to the left. Hardly anyone came from this direction, but each time someone did, Arvid and Vera tensed, studying the stranger before leaning against the wall once more.

As the clouds rolled in and blocked their view of the Stars, they all donned cloaks. The wall did little to protect them from the rain, and Aeliana wasn’t about to huddle with her guardians for body warmth.

Finally, a girl approached, maybe a year or two younger than Aeliana’s seventeen years. Arvid and Vera stood, pulling Aeliana to her feet with them. The girl hesitated, her eyes widening as she took in three strangers blocking her path. Without warning, Arvid snatched Aeliana’s hand and took a knife to her palm, reopening and extending her wound.

The girl screamed, but Aeliana only sucked in a breath, too shocked to notice the pain, then too overwhelmed by the mix of fear and euphoria that always came with a larger loss of blood. It pooled in Arvid’s hands and with it, her magic—magic Arvid would harness.

Aeliana’s mind dimly registered that the girl’s scream had cut off, blocked by Vera’s hand. Not that anyone was out here to hear her anyway.

“No,” Aeliana murmured, her focus hazy with the internal shift. She tried pulling her hand from Arvid’s grasp, but he tightened his fingers around her.

“You want to get back home, don’t you?” Vera dragged the girl closer. “Be with your own kind?”

Aeliana’s vision swam, and she reached for a branch from one of the oak trees to steady herself. “Not… not like this.”

Arvid scoffed. “You think these humans matter? The Stars separated them from us for a reason.”

He stepped away from Aeliana, bringing himself closer to Vera and the girl.

The whites of the girl’s eyes flashed in the moonlight as she screamed against Vera’s hand and thrashed to get out of the older woman’s grip.

“We’re human too,” Aeliana said.

Or she thought she did. Her words came back to her muffled. Maybe she’d only said them in her mind. She let go of the tree and instinctively pressed against her palm to staunch the flow of blood. Blinking rapidly, she tried catching up with Arvid’s intentions.

When he reached a bloody hand toward the girl’s throat, Aeliana lunged for his back, pawing at his arm to pull him away. His arm was like a rock, fueled by her blood, and her efforts were like clawing through sludge. In moments, the girl went limp in Vera’s arms, eyes just as wide but absent of life.

Arvid shrugged Aeliana off with a glare. “Be grateful I kept it painless. Next time you interfere, I won’t be so kind.”

Aeliana’s shock pulled her from her stupor as they lowered the girl to the ground. Rain splattered on the still, pale face, tears twinkling in the moonlight. Arvid placed bloody hands on the tree roots, which came to life, slithering around the girl like the snakes they’d resembled. They wrapped around the body and drew it down into the rain-soaked earth. Despite the hard, icy ground, the body was buried in moments, the leather satchel the girl had been holding the only proof of her existence.

Aeliana wanted to ask why, but even if they answered her, she couldn’t trust it to be the truth.

Arvid ran his thumb over her right palm, healing her wound with her magic. A faint pink scar remained, one of many on her palms. Arvid frowned, using his cloak to wipe away the smudges of blood that remained on her skin. She jerked her palm away.

“You need to look presentable.” He nodded toward the Stargazer.

Aeliana scratched at her scar, then ran her thumb across the tear-shaped patch of skin that was raised and deep red on her left palm. It was more like her other scars than the permanent ink she’d seen others use for tattoos. They’d never cut over that mark, and she’d had it as long as she could remember.

A cold rush of blackness swept across her arm, even through her cloak. She shuddered, wrapping the fabric more tightly around her, glancing around for the shadows that might be the dark spirits drawn to her tainted blood. Arvid and Vera would welcome them like old friends, which was reason enough to hate them. She begged the Stars to protect her, to keep the dark spirits from fusing with her guardians. She couldn’t bear another night of that.

Vera rifled through the girl’s bag, pulling out a set of papers. “Looks like you’re Celeste now.” She held the papers and the bag out to Aeliana. “Celeste, the future priestess-in-training.”

Understanding dawned, and Aeliana swallowed hard. “You knew she was coming. You planned this.”

It wasn’t the first time her guardians had killed using her blood. But it was the first time they’d done it for her. Her stomach churned, the broth she’d had earlier threatening to surface.

“You get in, you find the golden arrow, and you get out,” Arvid said.

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