Page 5 of Fading Sun

She glances at Lucas’s ashes again.

“Like Lucas?” I ask, since I’m pretty sure Lucas was just a barrier between me and Astrophel that needed to be torn down.

“If the Shadow Lord wants you to join him, it makes sense,” she says, apparently having the same thought process. “Take out your enemy, gain your trust, and form a new alliance.”

“Never,” I say, although the token hums in my pocket.

Its presence is a reminder of Astrophel’s kiss, his touch, and his words.

On this planet, there’s only one star that matters. Only one star that keeps us alive. Only one star whose light I can’t get out of my head, no matter how hard I try. That star is the sun. It’s you.

The memory of what Astrophel said to me sends a shiver down my spine, affecting me far more than they should.

Everything he told me about Ambrogio spins in my mind, too. But here—on this small island where we could possibly still be in danger—isn’t the time to share everything I’ve learned.

I can do that later, at the Fairmont, after things calm down.

And now, as I look at Cassandra, I realize that what I’m seeing in her eyes probably isn’t suspicion.

It’s pain.

“I’m sorry about what happened to Yannick,” I tell her, and guilt coils around my heart for not mentioning it until now. “If I’d just let Lucas drink from me when he first asked, then he wouldn’t have…”

My voice catches in my throat, unable to continue.

He wouldn’t have killed Yannick.

Cassandra’s eyes harden, her jaw clenching. “No,” she says firmly. “Lucas was a monster. You didn’t know what he was about to do.”

I appreciate her words, even though they’re not true. Because Lucas was holding Yannick and Abigail hostage. He was dangling their lives in front of our eyes. It was clear what he intended to do if I refused to do what he asked.

I just didn’t think he would act so swiftly.

“I wish I could go back and do things differently,” I finally say.

I wish I could go back and do a lot of things differently. Not drink the potion, not trust Viktor, not eat the duskberry…

The list goes on and on.

Cassandra shakes her head, her eyes distant, although she quickly whips herself back into focus. “Yannick’s gone, and nothing’s going to bring him back.” Her voice is laced with unmistakable pain, and she continues, “I just wish I could have killed Lucas myself. Made him suffer for what he did.”

“Trust me—he suffered.” I glance back at where the shadow souls descended on him and sucked out his soul. “It was quick, but from the way he screamed… if definitely wasn’t painless.”

“Good. I’m glad.” Her eyes harden, and she jumps back into business. “And now that he’s gone, our focus needs to be on killing the Shadow Lord. You said you’re going to need a stronger weapon to kill him. Did he give any hint about what that weapon might be?”

“The Shadow Lord is a lot of things, but he’s not stupid,” I say, surprising myself by how quickly I jumped to his defense. “He’s not going to hand me a map that shows me where to find the weapon capable of killing him.”

He might not think I want to kill him anymore at all, I think, hating that I’m not sure how I feel about it, either.

After that kiss, I’m not sure what I feel.

“You’re right,” Cassandra says. “He wouldn’t have said anything if he thought you—or any of us—could track it down.”

At the reminder of tracking things down, I reach into my pocket for my phone. Morgan’s been trying to track down an answer for how to get the potion out of my body, and my phone’s been on do not disturb mode from the moment Cassandra and I entered the taxi to come to this island.

When I check my messages, there’s nothing from Morgan.

Instead, my screen is flooded with missed calls from Damien. His name appears again and again, like a frantic SOS signal, and his panic hits me like a punch to the gut.

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