Page 32 of The Breaker of Stars

A bead of hope tried to bloom in my chest.

“And when this mysterious task is over, where will you go?” Harlen challenged. For the sake of my Spirit, why did he care? Couldn’t he let her go?

“I’ll go…home.” Vale sighed as she said it, and that bead of hope in my chest extinguished with the breath.

To Valyn. She’d leave when we were done, but she’d return to Valyn.

Harlen pushed to his feet, and we both followed. He rushed toward Vale, and my hand twitched to my knife.

A million questions burned in the Starsearcher’s stare. A million things he wanted to say.

But he didn’t.

Spirits, did I know how that felt. I dropped my hand, but held my stance.

Harlen’s eyes flicked between us accusingly, but instead of arguing, he stepped back. “Well, I guess this is goodbye, then. I see you’re in good hands, and I won’t keep you.”

With that, he was through the trees and gone.

And Vale didn’t follow him. She stood there with her hands fisted at her sides and her chin lifted in the determination she wore so fiercely. But her expressive face told me the truth. The tremble of her lips, the quick blinks.

“Vale, I?—”

Whirling, she stepped right up to me. “Thank you for the intervention, but in the future, I can handle those matters myself.”

“Pardon?” My brows shot up, tugging at the fresh stitches.

“I wouldn’t have told Harlen anything confidential.” She crossed her arms, tilting her chin up. Her waves tumbled around her shoulders, and a breeze wrapped her scent through the grove. I tried to focus on what she was saying rather than the alluring way her slender throat worked as she swallowed and glared at me. “He may have been my closest friend many years ago, but I knew better than to reveal Ophelia’s secrets to someone we don’t know.”

“I didn’t think you were going to,” I said quickly. “I only thought it might be less questionable coming from someone he didn’t know.”

And she’d seemed uncomfortable under his interrogation. But I didn’t think she’d pour out our secrets so easily.

“Vale, I…” I sighed, shoving my hands into my pockets. “I’ve come to trust you with the information we’ve gathered.” Not as I once had, but since the Seawatcher trial on those platforms in the ocean—since she’d helped me during the alpheous attack, all the way until last night when she’d confided in me—Vale had been steadily winning back my trust, despite my wishes.

She blinked those large eyes at me, chin pulling back, a bit affronted, I thought, but I wasn’t sure why.

“Fine,” she finally said, storming through the trees.

Her skirt swished as she disappeared among the fronds, and it took me a moment to catch up.

“What about the second half of our deal?” I asked, taking long strides to reach her. I tried to keep my voice as light as possible. “You can’t avoid it. We need to figure out what the searcher meant last night. About the ninth level.”

“We don’t need to figure anything out,” Vale growled, swiping vines out of her way as the jungle grew denser. I thought she was walking aimlessly, just getting out whatever tension the interaction with Harlen had sprouted, but I followed regardless.

“Yes, we do.” I gripped her shoulder, tugging her to a stop and spinning her to face me. “I know this is all a sensitive topic and your magic is betraying you. I know you hate being here, Vale, and trust me, I understand.” She watched her feet, toying with a large frond that draped across the path. The dullness in her eyes sliced through my heart like a hot blade.

Curse myself and that side of me that didn’t want her to hurt. Tilting her chin up to me, I waited for her to meet my eyes.

“Maybe I don’t understand it because I can’t feel it the way you do, but I can see it. And I know that I’m enraged every time I see that damn temple and think about what happened to you within it. And I’m scared about the way your magic is threatening you. But we have to fight past those fears, because we need answers.”

She froze, blinking up at me. And I was taken back to nights in Damenal when she looked at me like I was the first truth she’d ever learned in her life. Like I was more than just a warrior, but someone to trust. Someone to believe in.

“I wasn’t going to give Harlen confidential information,” she repeated. “I appreciate your defense. I think I just wanted to see him again to see if…any of home remained.”

It was a peace offering. A thought in exchange for the reassurance I’d offered.

“I understand,” I agreed. Vale longed for home and the innocence that had been ripped from her too soon. Harlen was a vital piece of that.

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