Page 93 of The Star's Sword

There was a knock on the door, but I just pulled my pillow over my ears, covering my head.

The knock sounded again, and I let out growl of frustration. “Go away!”

“It’s Cayne,” a low voice said.

I blinked. He hadn’t come to see me yet. I was about to yell at him, but then I put something together I hadn’t yet, because I was in too much personal pain.

Cayne had known. He’d known I would kill his brother, even if as a side-effect of saving the world.

Was that part of why he had attacked me in hell? He didn’t want to believe I was the Morningstar?

Is that why he said he wasn’t hurried with the prophecy?

My heart now burned for Cayne also. I understood that look in his eyes when he stared at me and Sam. The pain when we trained. His anger at me sometimes, that seemed unwarranted.

“I know you know now,” he said. “At least let me come in and explain why I kept it from you.”

I said nothing, tears streaming silently, because his pain didn’t undo mine. I simply felt terrible for both of us.

“I’m losing him too,” Cayne said, brokenly. Something in the way he said it finally broke through the barrier in me that wouldn’t let anyone in.

“Come in,” I said hoarsely, and the door was pushed open.

Cayne walked in, his hair loose around his shoulders, wearing a black robe over black pants. He looked like he’d had a couple of rough days also.

He stood by the bed, staring over me awkwardly. His eyes were rimmed like he’d been crying, and it was hard to picture. “Look, it wasn’t my choice. It wasn’t anyone’s but Samael’s.” He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “He is the one who might lose his life, so we were trying to respect his wishes.” Cayne’s hands were in fists at his side. “But we never wished to hurt you.”

“I know,” I said. “But when were you going to tell me?”

“Before ascension,” Cayne said. “Not everyone knows. Some suspect, having heard the prophecy. We still don’t know for certain. It’s up for interpretation.”

“But I could be a weapon that will wipe out Sam as well.”

Cayne was silent. “No one said saving the world came without sacrifice.”

“Sacrifice me, not him,” I said.

“It doesn’t work like that,” Cayne said, walking over to the bed to sit by me. He took my hand, more gently than he ever had, as I stayed stubbornly on my face, not looking at him. “Sam knows the power he was born with. He knows the danger of it in the wrong hands. He wants his kind gone, at all costs.” Cayne sighed. “Would you deprive him of that?”

I nodded, pushing myself up to sitting and glaring at Cayne as I jerked my hand away. “Of course I would. He’s everything to me. I can’t kill him. I can’t do anything that would cause him harm.” I waved a hand, even as shame moved through me at what I was even daring to say. “I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m calling it off.”

Cayne was quiet. “I guess I should tell you something else.”

“What?” I asked, looking up at him curiously.

He rubbed his neck. “I’m sorry, Cleo. You’re being blamed for my attack the night Vasara ran, because I’m your coach. You’re banned from the vampire trials for Morningstar.”

I blinked. “What does that mean?”

“It means they are standing behind Vasara.”

Bitterness moved through me, at never really being given a chance, but I realized with resignation that if they liked her, they were never really going to like me.

We were too opposite.

But then relief filled me as well, and a sense of resolution. “Well, that settles that,” I said, standing and straightening my mussed clothing. I suddenly felt well enough to have a shower, and go talk to my friends again.

“What do you mean?” Cayne asked, watching me as I walked toward my bathroom. “We have to challenge it.”

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