Page 65 of Stars May Burn

As he smoothly stepped between me and the shadowed street, I looked down and noticed he held the glowing pyramidal tracking device. I’d completely forgotten about it and how it made me easy to find. Right now, I couldn’t be more grateful that the Red Man had set it to track me.

Kasten slipped the device into the pocket of his canvas cloak, then quickly pulled out a long knife. I looked around his arm for the men who’d been following me. They had already turned and were heading back up the hill, half concealed by shadows and rain.

I exhaled in relief, expecting Kasten to let them go, but he set off at a sprint. I gasped as he moved faster than a man of his size should have been capable of, let alone with injuries. Did this have something to do with Callum’s illegal kryalcomy?

Through the rain, I could barely make out the details of the fight as he caught the first man, yanking him backward by his coat collar and punching him in the face. He fell down and lay limp from the single blow. The other men were already out of sight, but Kasten moved again, his dark cloak a blur of shadow and rain. Seconds later, after one strangled shout, Kasten came back into sight, dragging three unconscious bodies through the puddles. His shadowed face was furious and his jaw clenched. He looked even more dangerous and brutal than normal, but I realized, strangely, I wasn’t scared of him.

I shifted on my feet, but he said nothing, dragging the men past me onto the main street. He shouted over to a patrolman on the other side and gave him quick, hard orders, pointing back to the castle and then back to the unconscious men. The patrol man looked stunned and responded with quick nods under his smart blue hat, before he dragged the men one at a time into a nearby guard house. Each man was heavy enough to redden the patrol man’s face, yet Kasten was not even out of breath. Was that kryalcomy too?

I reached out and tentatively touched my husband’s arm, adrenaline still racing through me. “Thank you, Kasten. I’m?—”

He grabbed me by the shoulders and lowered his head to mine, rain dripping from his hood onto my face. “What is wrong with you tonight! Why did you go running off alone like that? What possessed you?”

His anger both terrified me and enraged me. My mind screamed at me to back down and beg for his forgiveness, but my wounded heart only hurt more at his tone and cried out louder with pain and rage. I shoved him off me. “You did! You told me to go!” I pushed my rain-slicked hair back from my face.

“To your room! Not to the city in the middle of the night!” He punctuated his words with his outstretched hands. I had never seen his face so animated, his hood falling back so trickles of rain poured over his features.

“Well, maybe you should have specified that you wanted to treat me like a naughty child!” I was so angry, so tired, my hands started to tremble violently.

He gaped and pushed right up to me, forcing me to step backward until the wall was flat against my back and its wetness soaking through my clothes. He hissed. “Do you have any idea what would have happened if that woman had reached you earlier? Because I tell you, she was a whole lot worse than these men!”

Nerves shuddered up my spine, but I refused to be cowed, and shouted right back into his face. “No, I don’t know because you haven’t told me anything! How am I meant to know what to do and how to behave if you keep me completely in the dark? I don’t understand the dangers you have put me in!”

He jerked back as if I had slapped him, his long narrow eyes blinking rapidly in the rain. He looked down, his voice becoming quiet, but still laced with anger. “I never meant for you to be in danger.” He started to tug off his oiled cloak, spraying water droplets.

I struggled to catch my breath, my strength ebbing from my limbs as the adrenaline disappeared. The shaking in my hands had grown worse. Black dots appeared around the corners of my vision. I was vaguely aware of him wrapping his waterproof cloak around my shoulders and placing the hood over my hair.

I would not faint. I would not faint. I was so sick and tired of being weak.

The blackness only grew, and the world swayed.

Stupid, stupid, weak…

“Sophie?” Kasten’s voice was disembodied now. Suddenly gentle and concerned. “Sophie, speak to me?” It had an edge of panic to it. But that made no sense. He was furious with me.

The world went utterly black, and I felt the strange sensation of falling but never landing.

“Sophie, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken like that. Sophie, can you hear me?”

Something about Kasten’s voice was strange. The tone was off. I couldn’t grasp onto it to figure it out. I could only hear boots pounding against cobblestones. But I was still falling through blackness.

The world lurched and sensation slowly returned. Strong hands gripped me, handing me over. “I think she just fainted. I’m not sure. Take her to her room. I’ll get the physician.”

Meena’s voice. “What on earth happened?”

“I’ll tell you later. It’s my fault. I’ll…keep my distance. I think I’m the last person she wants to see right now. I’m just not…completely in control right now.”

I could feel gentle arms around me, and my vision slowly returned to reveal Meena carrying me up the stairs. She noticed me blinking up at her in confusion as I tried to piece together what I’d just heard.

She smiled. “Well, you certainly gave us all a fright.”

I looked around, but Kasten was gone. Panic started to rise in me. “Did Kasten just carry me all the way back to the castle? His arm is still injured. He shouldn’t have used it.”

If Kasten’s surgery failed, it would be my fault.

Meena gave me a stern look. “The general is fine, and he’s already done far worse things tonight as far as his arm is concerned. He deserves to have it dislocated with how little he listens to the physician. Now we need to concentrate on you. How are you feeling?”

I blinked in surprise at her assessment of Kasten’s behavior. What had happened earlier with that woman? How many people had he fought tonight when I hadn’t even taken his stitches out yet?

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