Page 19 of The Breaker of Stars

Where the fuck was Vale?

“I guess you play by different rules here,” I said, lunging left to dodge a hit. “Reading my moves during a fight?”

Disgraceful, but how much of what went on in any ring was truly innocent? It was just another way to prove myself.

“Is it in the air?” I asked. Making a last-minute decision, I swung out and caught his ribs again. He hadn’t been able to block that one, hadn’t seen it coming with the little readings he was obviously conducting to cheat these fights. Ledger hunched over sideways.

His grin told me I was correct, though.

And Vale—fuck. Memories of her readings battered my mind.

Dread made it hard to breathe, my throat dry as Vale fell too still within that cloud of incense. Angellight burned through the room, Ophelia gone to it, her blood staining those emblems, and Tolek in a panic.

A growl rumbled in my chest, and Vale toppled to the floor.

“Vale?” I whispered, dropping to my knees beside her. Her eyes rolled back, mouth slightly ajar. “Vale!”

But her body seized uncontrollably.

I’d seen her read so deeply she exhausted herself. I’d seen her completely taken by a session during the Battle of Damenal, so far gone she didn’t hear the fight around her. But this…

This was something else entirely.

Santorina was on Vale’s other side. “Don’t try to restrain her,” she instructed me, placing a cushion under the Starsearcher’s head and rolling her onto her side. “Just count.”

So, I began a vigil at her side—Jezebel and Tolek shouting to Ophelia in the background—and fisted my hands against the cool tile to stop their shaking, counting the breaths.

Come on, Stargirl, I thought, slamming my hand against the ground. Fight those fucking Fates.

This wasn’t Vale. I may have barely been able to speak to her lately, but Vale was powerful—she was formidable with her magic.

But as she finally stopped seizing, and her heartbeat slowed to a horrifying pause, I worried that the Fates might kill her.

I had to end this fight. Had to get to her before her own readings pummeled her. She might already be weak. Images of her strewn on the ground, vulnerable and alone, dragged nausea through my gut.

I didn’t stop to consider how Ledger was doing it. Just focused on Vale, so she was all anyone reading my fate would see. The desperation I pretended to ignore replaced any anticipation of my next move.

Then, I charged the warrior, shoulder slamming into the bruise on his ribs and taking him to the ground.

And I evened the score.

Chapter Nine

Vale

Harlen guided me through a curtain into a back room lit by candlelight, my cloak falling to the floor.

My senses and mind were assaulted by cloying incense. Not the soothing herbal embrace my magic used to provide.

“No—no, not here.” I staggered against a shelf, sending vials to the floor. They shattered, and more oils wafted around us. My muscles stiffened, vision swimming in a haze of the soft shades of purples and blues draped along the walls.

“What are you doing in here?” A feminine voice sliced through the air, mingling with a clinking sound I couldn’t place. My knees cracked to the tile.

“Vale.” Harlen cupped my cheeks, forcing my gaze up. The room was getting dimmer, and my vision spotted. All I could make out were his dark eyes, laced with worry, maybe? “Vale, I need you to tell me what’s going on.”

I opened my mouth but gasped as pain split my skull, a collision of stars cleaving through my head. The Fates tightened in my chest, those starlight voices yelling, yelling, yelling. The fiery tails their readings waited in burned through me, ready to explode.

“Lay her here,” that female voice said, and I was moved, jostled quickly until there were soft pillows under my body, one bracing my cheek.

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