Page 32 of Fallen Star

Did he actually see me earlier at all? Or was it in my imagination?

I don’t know. But, since I seem to have returned from my little field trip without getting caught, I close my eyes and pull my cloak tighter around me, letting exhaustion take hold.

I don’t know how long I can keep this secret. How long I can stretch out my time between meals.

But I hope that for the next few days, what I had just now will be enough.

Zoey

We’ve been walkingfor hours.

Well, Riven and Sapphire have. I’ve been riding Ghost because, let’s face it, there’s no way I’d keep up otherwise.

Not without slowing them down even more than I already do.

I hate this feeling. Helplessness. One I barely experienced back home, if I’m being honest.

Everyone in Presque Isle knows me as the girl who can do anything she tries. The one who excels at every hobby she picks up.

Now look at me. Being carried through a magical forest like an invalid.

A breeze swirls around us, and I glance at Sapphire, her white-blonde hair shimmering with streaks of silver and blue in the dim light as she gazes up at the stars. She’s like a celestial goddess, walking beside Riven as if she belongs in this magical, deadly wilderness.

Because shedoesbelong here. She has magic—actual, real magic.

And what do I have?

Guilt about how I’m a burden weighing them down.

“My parents probably think I ran away and dragged you with me,” I say to Sapphire, since talking is the best way to get myself out of my head. “They must be calling everyone we know, putting up missing person posters...”

“The police are probably involved by now,” she agrees. “Aunt Martha’s probably made a home for herself at that station.”

“Patrick’s probably helping, too,” I say before I can stop myself. “He always said he’d be there if I needed him.”

“Patrick’s an idiot who didn’t deserve you the first time around.” She scoffs. “You can do so much better.”

Easy for you to say when you have an actual prince who can’t take his eyes off you,I think, although I stop myself from saying it.

No need to cause conflict. Not when I’m causing so much trouble for them already.

“Maybe.” I try to shrug it off, but the memory of Patrick’s smile—the way his eyes would crinkle at the corners when he laughed at my random stories—makes my chest ache. “But he was starting to come around again. The week before winter break, he asked about the pottery class I was taking.”

“Is this the same Patrick who dumped you because you ditched soccer for tennis?” Her voice hardens. “Who said he didn’t think you’d have enough in common if you didn’t play the same sport?”

“He wasn’t that bad,” I say, although it’s not totally true.

Good thing that unlike Sapphire, I can lie.

Bonus points for the human.

“There’s a waterfall up ahead,” Riven says, uninterested in my human relationship drama. “We should rest there for a moment. Hydrate. Get our bearings.”

The sound of rushing water grows louder as we approach, and soon we break through the trees into a clearing.

We’re at the top of gigantic falls—the water as black as ink in the night, glittering in the starlight as it crashes into a pool below. And something about the way the water moves… it’s soothing. Calming. Like a symphony played just for us, to help us unwind after a long day of trudging through a frozen forest.

Sapphire and Riven must hear it, too, because they relax, and quietly, we make our way to the riverbank.

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