Page 71 of Fallen Star

Hopefully when I see him, I can talk some sense into him.

“Thanks for the help,” I say to Elijah, since clearly, there’s nothing more he can do for me. “When Matt comes back, tell him I need to talk to him.”

He shrugs noncommittally and closes the door, leaving me standing there in the hall with Sophia.

“Do you still want to go to the courtyard?” she asks. “To see Jake?”

I hesitate. Because after everything with Matt, I’m not sure I’m in the mood for company.

Then again, maybe that’s exactly what I need right now. Something to take my mind off all of this.

Well, more like someone.

“Yes,” I decide. “Show me the way?”

She brightens immediately. “Come on. It’s through here.”

We wind through more halls until we reach a set of glass doors that lead outside.

The courtyard beyond is beautiful, but in an eerie way. It’s all black and red flowers and twisted trees, with paths made of black stone, marble picnic tables scattered throughout, and blood-tinged water flowing from the multi-tiered fountains.

But, most noticeably of all is the tall, solid, concrete fence lining it on all sides. The one I saw from my original guest room.

The walls of our prison. It feels like it’s buzzing with magic, which I suppose makes it more of an electric fence.

Second most noticeable is that Jake isn’t here.

I recognize a few of the others, though. Nathanial—Princess Mirena’s sole pet—who’s writing in what looks to be a journal. All three of Prince Malakai’s are playing a card game at one of the far tables. They whisper something to each other, look up at me, give me small glares, then return to their game. Lastly, there’s Aurora, whose head is buried in a book.

I also can’t help but notice that it’s warmer out here.

Maybe from the fence?

I have no idea, but I have no complaints about it.

“I have to head back,” Sophia says, giving me a knowing smile. “Don’t worry. He’ll be here.”

“What do you have to do?” I ask.

“Oh, you know.” She waves vaguely. “Things.”

Then she’s gone, leaving me alone with the others, who clearly don’t want to be sociable.

But I don’t want to leave without giving Jake a fair chance.

So, needing something to do in the meantime, I walk to the far end of the path where it meets the fence, since there are some small sparkly rocks along the side of it. When I wasyounger, I loved hunting for interesting stones. Their shapes, their textures… there’s something grounding about them.

I also really enjoyed that moment in the third trial when I made that awful woman in the forest stop screaming by throwing a rock at her throat.

Her scream was so shrill that I swear it’ll haunt me until the end of time.

I kneel and pick up one of the rocks, turning it over in my hands. It looks normal on the outside, but given that this is another realm, maybe there could be something different about it. Something hidden beneath the surface.

“What are you doing?”

I jump at Jake’s voice, nearly dropping the stone.

“Sorry,” he says quickly. “Didn’t mean to startle you while you’re…”

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