Page 157 of Until the Stars Fall

My bottom lip quivered, and I had to pull it in between my teeth to control it. Hiding anything from this mage would be impossible, but if I let the tears start now, I feared they’d never stop.

Matthias laid a gentle, reassuring hand on my arm and said to Minerva, “He’s been infected by some unknown poison.”

“Unknown to you, perhaps,” she mused, her piercing eyes narrowing under her wrinkled brow. “It’s new, yes, but the prophecy behind it is ancient. And this is not the first time I’ve seen it at work.”

“The queen?” Matthias and I asked in unison. The mage nodded.

“If you couldn’t save her then, how can you—” Matthias started to challenge her, but she lifted a frail hand to quiet him.

“I didn’t save her, no, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t. Unfortunately for Keeva Durand, her husband refused to pay the price all magic requires.” Minerva lowered her eyes to Connor and almost appeared sad.

“What was the price?” I asked quietly.

Minerva didn’t look up as she answered, “The life of one of their sons.”

My eyes went wide, and I turned to Matthias, but he didn’t seem as scared as I was. Had he not pieced together what the price of healing Connor would be?

Matthias gave me a warm but sad smile. “And what is the price to save him?”

The mage laughed quietly. “The price is never the same twice, so no need to fear.”

“How can you say that?” I demanded. “He’s dying! Of course I’m afraid!”

“Understandable as his mate,” she said sympathetically, almost as if our bond itself saddened her. “His years have already been cut short by his bonding to a mortal. The world will lose a good fae much sooner now that your souls are intertwined. Your lives have been sewn together—one shortened, the other lengthened—forming a new life where there had once been two. If he dies now, you won’t be far behind him, so it’s understandable that you’d be afraid.”

“I’m not afraid of dying,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “But I can’t lose him. The world can’t lose him. Will you help or not?”

She ignored me, though, as she brushed a hair off Connor’s forehead. His breathing had slowed considerably, and my heart tensed, trying to draw me inside its protective walls where loss and grief and pain couldn’t hurt me.

“You know, I didn’t always look like this,” Minerva crooned. My impatience flared, and my hand twitched as if wanting to rise and strike her, but Matthias gently touched my arm, stopping me.

Instead, I muttered an annoyed, “Obviously.”

Minerva continued, seemingly unperturbed by my childish reaction. “I wasn’t born with these abilities like this prince here. I paid to inherit them. My sister and I both did—she with her voice and me with my beauty. But that wasn’t the only price for our powers. We were forced to be separated, destined to live and serve others in two different realms, kept apart not by mere oceans—but by time and space itself. So trust me, Lieke, when I say I know what it is to pay heavily for what we want, just as I know the pain of loss. I do not ask this of you lightly, nor do I take pleasure in making you choose.”

My breath stuck in my throat as sweat gathered in my palms.

“What is the price?” Matthias asked again before I could.

Minerva’s gaze continued to rest on me, as if I had been the one to speak. “There is a stone—the Starfire—that holds the incredible power to amplify one’s magic. That is my price.”

I shook my head, bewildered. “But he’s dying now! I can’t possibly find this rock in time. There has to be something else.”

“It is not far,” she said. When I shrugged and looked at her expectantly, she lifted a crooked, bony finger and pointed at my chest.

My hand lifted to my sternum, as if she were casting a spell on my heart that I needed to block, but then my fingers brushed the chain hanging around my neck. Mother’s pendant. I pulled it from underneath my shirt and held it out to inspect it.

“This?” I asked. When I pulled my attention away from the stone, I found the mage’s eyes alight with a devious hunger. The same voice from before whispered from the far recesses of my consciousness, warning me not to give it to her, but every nerve, every bone, every fiber of my being ached. Every second I stood here deciding, Connor’s breaths were weakening, his heart slowing. I couldn’t let him die. Even if our hearts and souls hadn’t been knit together by the bond, I would have done anything to protect him.

I lifted the chain over my head and offered it to Minerva. Her fingers trembled as they touched the stone, but she didn’t take it. Her eyes burned into mine.

“Do not make this decision lightly, Lieke,” she warned. “This stone in the wrong hands could have disastrous consequences for all worlds and realms and peoples.”

Without hesitation, I shoved it at her, pressing her fingers around it with both of my hands. “Then guard it,” I said, knowing full well that I might have just placed it into the very hands she had cautioned me about.

“Are you sure?” Matthias whispered harshly in my ear.

I gave him a sidelong look. “You said she was the only one who could help him. I can’t lose anyone else, Matthias.”

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