Page 47 of Voices in the Stars
Atlas nodded, muttering a quick goodbye before leaving. The fork scraped across the plate as I pushed the remaining food around, all hunger evaporated. I closed my eyes, listening to the music. Everything was so different here. Back home, I would’ve been planning a wedding, getting ready to play wife for Adrian. I smirked; he would’ve been hopeless here. The first sign of danger would have had him running, crying to his mother.
Unlike Atlas. He’d stood in front of everything that’d happened so far, an unwavering picture of strength and bravery. Which happened to look incredible shirtless.
I was ripped from my thoughts by the sound of a chair scraping in front of me. Opening my eyes, I saw the same girl who was dancing before now sitting in front of me. Her brown hair clung to the sweat on her forehead. She kept glancing around us before leaning toward me.
“Are you okay?” she whispered, barely loud enough to be heard over all the noise.
“Yes?” I questioned, her nerves rubbing off as I glancedaround the tavern. Nothing around us had changed in the few moments I wasn’t looking at it. Only a few people around us even spared us a sideways look.
She leaned back with a sigh, her shoulders dropping. There were bells hanging from her antlers that I had missed earlier. They chimed now as she fidgeted in her seat.
“You’re brave to be traveling with that monster,” she commented so calmly.
“Monster?” I echoed back. The noise from the tavern felt like it was slowly dying out as all my attention was trained on her.
“I’m surprised they let him stay here. Last time a Saeva was in town, they slaughtered half the village,” she explained, snatching one of the berries off my plate.
Her words bounced around my head. I could feel the color drain from my face as a heavy weight settled into my stomach.
“Was it him?” I choked out, barely able to bring myself to ask the question.
The girl shrugged before answering. “Sure looked a lot like him. Doesn’t matter if it was, though. They’re only capable of murder. How long have you been with him?”
“A couple days,” I answered, feeling like I was in a daze.
She said something in response, but I stopped listening. My hands wrapped around my waist as the regret finally started to set in. Her words confirmed the thoughts I had just gotten rid of. I should’ve trusted my instincts. No, not them, because even now there was a voice raging, calling her a liar. I shut my eyes, fighting with myself. So what if he’d been acting differently toward me the past couple of days? This just showed that I was his exception. The way he first acted was the rule. He was a murderer. A kidnapper. I let myself forget that for too long.
A string of curses left the girl as the chair scraped against the floor. The table was pushed closer to me right before her footsteps ran away from me.
“Who was that?” Atlas asked.
I glanced up at where he stood next to the table, eyebrows drawn as he watched her run away.
“No one,” I choked out, a lump forming in my throat.
My hands shook as I placed them on the table, bracing myself as I stood. Everything was going to be fine. I forced myself to take a deep breath. I knew the truth now. The debate in my mind was over. My life was at risk in this world, and I wasn’t going to jeopardize it for some feelings I’d developed. Atlas’ face hardened as he looked over mine, his eyes burning as he looked through the crowd again.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen while I was gone?” he asked, a hand reaching out to grab my arm.
I jerked away from his touch, just as he did before. The hurt look on his face felt like someone pierced my heart. Immediately, I wanted to take it back. Instead, I forced myself to walk past him, shoving through the crowd as I made my way outside.
I suckedin the fresh air with several deep breaths as I shoved open the heavy door. It wasn’t apparent how suffocating that packed place had been until I was out in the open again. There were very few people walking around with a single, clear path that led straight through the center of the very few buildings that existed. Escaping didn’t seem like an option. There was no good place to hide. Even if there was, I had no plan from there. I might have been born here, but I knew nothing of this world. Especially not how to survive it. I clenched my hands at my sides. If only I could learn how to control whatever powers I had. I could do it, but I needed someone who knew this world to give me the time to do that. I truly only had one choice.
Giggles echoed from above me as something dropped to the ground next to me. A handstitched dragon lay on the dirt in front of me. One of the wings was barely attached with the beads for eyes sticking out of the head. The stitches were worn by hands tugging on them. I looked up and gasped.
There were houses in the trees, round buildings that were built around the tree’s base. The trees themselves shot out of the middle of each house. Bridges connected each one. I was underneath one of them. Kids were leaning over the rope railing, looking down at me with smiles. I wiggled my fingers in a little wave at them. One waved back with a smile before another elbowed her. The tavern door creaked open behind me. The smile dropped from the children’s faces. Two of them took offrunning, the bridge swinging wildly with them. The girl kept staring at me, tears running down her face as her eyes shifted down to where the toy was still laying. She stayed like that for a moment before turning and running toward the others.
Atlas was talking behind me. I could hear the questions about what had happened while he was gone, but I kept ignoring them. Unsure of where I would even start. How did you confront someone about being a murderer? Instead, I grabbed the toy from the ground, wiping the dirt off it. There was a name stitched along its back.
Still ignoring Atlas, I walked back into the tavern. The air felt heavy as I walked up to the man behind the counter. Atlas stayed close to me, his chest practically pressed against my back when I came to a stop. The man’s gaze darted between us as I set the toy on the counter, sliding it toward him.
“Can you bring this back to the little girl in the trees?” I asked, trying to ignore the way the man still shook as he watched us.
His hand trembled as he grabbed the toy. His eyes trained on Atlas the entire time. I cleared my throat, stepping away from the towering above me.
“I would really appreciate it if you would,” I tried again, hoping a smile would settle his nerves some.
It seemed to partially work as he lifted the toy up to his eyes, shifting to me before moving to the object in his hands. The dragon flopped around in his hands as he turned it around before finding the name. He lifted it to his face, squinting as he read it before dropping it into his apron with a nod. Some of the tension seemed to drain from his shoulders.
