Page 12 of Oath-Maker

Long after Lucius, still exhausted despite being healed, fell asleep, I lay staring up at the magical nighttime sky above his bed. It still mesmerized me as much as it had the first time I’d looked up at it. But, unlike the real sky, there were no shooting stars to wish on. What I wouldn’t give for a real one that’d solve all our problems.

But wishing stars weren’t real. They may have fallen through the sky to be wished upon, but that didn’t change reality. A wish just made you feel better. And I’d had enough of that for now.

Lucius had a day’s reprieve from the light sickness. But a representative from the Guardian would be here by morning to ask for my surrender or to start a war. We needed action, not fluffy reassurances.

I slipped out of bed and pulled on something a little more comfortable in which to move around the castle than a dress. I managed to find a pair of leggings and a loose top and then grabbed my celestial sword just in case. Merek had already managed to somehow get inside Alastia’s palace once. I wouldn’t put it past him to show up again. I tucked the sword’s hilt into the waistband of the leggings at my back. The blade wouldn’t appear without me summoning magic to it, so it should be safe for now.

I longed for my Order uniform. But even if castle seamstresses had repaired damages to the outfit from the attack yesterday, I wouldn’t be wearing it again. Not until the Order no longer had ties to the Guardian.

Besides, I’d broken my oath. I may still have been a paladin at heart, but that was it.

I silently opened the door and slipped through it, only to come face-to-face with Commander Garnet. He let me get the door closed again before speaking.

“Some might find it strange, you leaving your king on your wedding night.” Garnet spoke with a smile, but a crease of concern still grew on his forehead.

“Lucius is fine,” I assured the Commander. “I wanted to go to the palace’s library and do research.” On a cure, although they’d likely have found any information about a cure by now. I also wanted to look into the Fallen on Earth before the demon and celestial war had cut through the human world. “Do you think that’d be possible tonight?”

Garnet glanced from me to the door to Lucius’s quarters behind me. “I can’t be in two places at once.”

“I’ll take her,” a small but familiar voice said. Jessa poked her head around the corridor’s corner. Her black curls fell over her forehead in the same shade as the obsidian inlaid designs on the walls.

WhydidLucius love black and stars so much? His bedroom ceiling. The entire palace’s motif. My wings now, with the same color as his—our—shared power.

The demon world, I realized. Or maybe even the world they shared with the celestials on the other side of the Veil. Maybe the sky was always like this, dark and full of silvery stars that twinkled and shone through the deepest night.

The prospect of that was beautiful. Until I remembered the celestials and demons had gone to war. I wondered what their world looked like now, and if they’d torn it apart so fully that they’d beenforcedto come to Earth rather than choosing to.

I smiled at Jessa as Commander Garnet turned to face her. “What are you doing up?” It wasn’t too late now, about eight o’clock at night. But it’d been a long day of activities following yesterday’s battle inside the city’s walls.

Jessa shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep.” She was petite but only a few years younger than I was and built like a lithe cage fighter. For so long now, she’d been like a sister to me. That seemed even truer now that we knew we were both celestial-kin. Her magic, dark and feeding on pain, had always presented demonically before we’d known about the Fallen.

It seemed the Order was wrong about both of us. Maybe we were “evil,” but any potential evil within us didn’t come from demons.

Now, she stood before me with dark circles under her eyes and tension stiffening her form. The suffering outside. The worry here inside the castle.Shit. It was all probably getting to her.

“Jessa…”

She shook her head, which only led me to realize her hands were shaking, too. “I’m-I’m okay. It’s a lot, but I’m okay. Kind of weird. It’s a lot of power, which is kind of exciting, really, but I can feel their pain too.” She frowned and looked to the ground before lifting her gaze to me again. “I can go with you to the library so Commander Garnet can stay with the Angel of Death.”

“Is that okay with you, Commander?” I asked him. I knew Jessa and I could fight off pretty much anything that came our way. And even if the Guardian did visit again, other guards wouldn’t be far away. We’d be okay.

Commander Garnet didn’t look so sure about it, but he did finally nod. “Yes. Please return before midnight, though, just so we can keep track of you, my queen.”

Queen. Right. I might’ve finally had the okay to roam around Alastia’s palace at my heart’s desire, but I’d likely never walk these halls alone ever again.

“Sure thing,” I said. “We’ll be back before midnight. We won’t be far.” I gestured toward the door to Lucius’s chambers. “He’s asleep anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if he sleeps through until morning.”

Or until we had to wake him because the Guardian’s messenger arrived.

Garnet nodded once more. “Stay safe, my queen.”

“I’ll make sure of it,” Jessa said with a tight smile.

Jessa always had my back.

* * *

I couldn’t even rememberthe last time Jessa and I had been alone and one of us hadn’t been in immediate danger. We’d had a short time together after the bridge incident in which two of our paladin friends had died. But we’d been consoling each other, not spending actual time together in a positive way. And sure, there was a lot of weight to what we were doing now. But as Jessa and I walked the palace’s library stacks, it was almost like with a little twist of imagination, we were back at the Order’s headquarters. Intheirlibrary.

---