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With that, I re-folded the parchment and threw them at him like a dagger, watching with glee as he flinched when they landed in his lap. Then I pulled up my hood and put on my mask.
“I promise you will not live much longer either way, and you’ll suffer far worse than they did.” I turned, heading towards the long hall that led out of the dungeons, wishing more than anything that he was dead already.
“Tershetta,” he called, his voice a slight plea. I stilled, not turning around, but unable to resist hearing what he could possibly have to say. “Sometimes, what we’re taught triumphs over everything else. It sits in our mind, poisoning all new thoughts until they’re rotten too. Those things can corrupt and ruin even the most pure feelings. Usually, it’s the love that becomes the most tainted.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is that it’s the people we trust the most that often betray us.” I turned, thankful that my mask hid my startled expression. “This isn’t the end of the beginning, Tershetta. It’s the beginning of the end.”
Holding my breath, I darted through the hall, not looking back.
That night, Altair disappeared from his cell. From Dajahim itself.
Chapter Forty-Four
Nova
“When I become an elite and save my family, the first thing I’ll spend my new wealth on will be a paint studio for Celeste. No, scratch that, maybe I’ll fix up the house first. Either way, I’ll have time. All four of us will.”
-From the journal of Nova Tershetta, 9277 AS
One week after the attack on Castle Zade, funerals were held on the grounds.
Despite being eadi, my family was buried in the sacred lands on the far end of the property. Talon, who had healed well after a nearly fatal stab wound to the chest, was at my side as six shiny redwood coffins were lowered into the ground. Our parents and sisters, gone forever.
When they began the slow process of pouring dirt, Talon grabbed my hand, lacing our fingers together as he tugged me along.
“Core families follow the old traditions,” he whispered, a morose tone making his words drawl. “We take a handful of dirt and sprinkle it onto the coffins, saying a prayer to the stars that our loved ones are welcomed into the sky.”
Nodding, I bent down next to him and grabbed some of the loose, grainy dirt. It was hot against my skin, the sun beating down almost painfully, my black dress attracting the rays.
It was the same one I had thrown on just before finding them all. I didn’t have any others, so I was forced to scrub the blood from it and don it once more. Beneath the fabric, my skin itched.
We slowly went to each coffin, Talon throwing dirt for his parents and sister first. Then it was my turn.
Each grave had a stone just above where their heads would be. The dark grey block had been etched with their birthdays along with the day of their deaths. Someone had asked me the day before what I would like to add. All I could think was, “Unconditionally loved, never forgotten.”
It was pathetic.
Tossing the dirt was easier. I threw it gently in time with the sound of the stars’ giggles.
When the service was over, I burned my dress.
I hadn’t eaten. I knew that, but I just wasn’t hungry enough to get up. At first I had been, but over time, the need ebbed. Zura still brought me dinner, her eyes full of tears as she tried to speak to me. But what could I say? Yes, her dad was gone, but she wasn’t alone. Not like me. Zura had her mom and her brothers. She’d have them for centuries.
After a few minutes of staring at my catatonic state, Zura would nod and leave.
I lay in my parents’ bed most days, tucked beneath their blankets with Death by my side. Every morning and night whenI fed her, she would walk to the door, meowing as if asking when they’d be home.
“They’re never coming back, Death. We’ve lost them forever.” She didn’t seem to understand, because she would continue, the sound becoming so infuriating that I had to take a vial of sleepless tonic.
In my dreams, the stars whispered, the words impossible to decipher, yet the haunting tone evident. When I awoke, it’d be to their only discernible words.
“Give us our chaos.”
After another week, any sympathy for me had faded quickly. Zura was sent to my home to retrieve me, reluctantly forcing me out of my bed and to the Star District, where I was to begin my work as an elite and my shadowing of General Altair, the father of my family’s murderer.
Things were fairly simple. I’d start my day with morning physical training, similar to both my grunt work and my days in the academy. We began with a ten mile run, followed by time spent on the range doing field exercises to enhance our magical battle skills. After lunch we’d break into our divisions, always readying for another conquest.
