Page 87 of A Clash of Stars

“I’m sorry. What did you just ask me?” I questioned him intensely.

“I asked you, what do you know about Darthium?” he asked again with more urgency.

“How did you know— Ah. I—”

“Just answer the question, Clara,” he spoke softly as his eyes glazed over me as if he was detecting whether I’d tell the truth of what I knew.

I nodded and sat down the wine on the table in front of us before speaking. “When we were in Sefida, I came across a book that had handwritten stories, the book I told you about when we were trapped together. It held a lot of stories about different species, a set of curses, and a prophecy.”

He nodded, reaching over to take a sip of his wine. I watched his throat swallow the red wine as his eyes flickered over to mine. “What species did it mention?”

“Um. It talked about witches, shapeshifters, fae, vampyres, angels, werewolves…”

I noticed he was smiling wildly at me as I was talking. “Oh, so you’re going to make fun of me now?”

“No. No, I just love that these words are coming out of your mouth,” he whispered.

I grunted in aggravation, “It’s just a book. It doesn’t make it real, so don’t laugh at me.”

“Clara, I promise you. I am not laughing at you. I’m just surprised you read it. Any stories you thought were interesting?” he asked, watching me intently.

I sat with my thoughts, remembering all of the stories I had read and gone over mentally millions of times. The witch, the child born of dark and light, the warrior, and the lies.

“Hello? You gonna answer my question?” he asked me again.

I gave him a somber look, “No. I don’t really remember a lot of the stories.”

A lie. A total lie. I knew he could sense that too, but he got revenge on me for lying, though. The next question he asked almost took me out.

“Did Madok take your virginity after his coronation?”

What a fucking question. Shouldn’t he already know the all-great and mighty Evander? “Is that really any of your business?” I scoffed at him.

“Anything about my wife is my business,” he stated matter of factly.

I scoffed, “All right then, yes. He did. It was the one and only time that I ever did. The next morning, he left to go on a trip with his father, and we didn’t talk again until we went to Sefida to train.”

Evander’s eyes were burning into mine, and I felt the swirl of anxiousness from him as his words reached my delicate ears. “And you still chose to love him?”

I tilted my head towards him, taking a deep breath as I sighed, “I’ll never not love him, Evander. He will always be a part of me. Mostly, I was angry with him for a long time, and… I guess I still am to a certain degree. When he left me that morning after, I felt dirty and hollow. It was a feeling that I don’t ever want to feel again.”

His hand reached out and grasped my chin, turning my face to make me look at him. “There is nothing to be embarrassed about. You loved him, trusted him, and he broke you. That’s not your fault.” His eyes darkened and he sighed, “It was so difficult to allow you to be hurt by him when I knew that this tie between us was inevitable.”

He looked towards the large cottage painting on the wall, sighing before turning his attention back to me.

“I never wanted to force your affections on me. I wanted you to choose based on how you felt. Not because we were supposed to be together. Look, Madok has messed up a lot, and I can tell you that he does love you…” I interrupted him.

“He doesn’t truly love me. He only wanted to own me, possess me, keep me. He did not truly love me. If he did, he wouldn’t have left me.” I stood up and started to pick up the empty plate when he grabbed my hand.

“Please sit. We need to finish this conversation.” I followed his command not because I had to but because I knew it was the right thing to do. He swirled his thumbs together as he spoke.

“I have another confession… When you were pulled from our training, it was because of me. I kept making remarks to Madok to piss him off. He didn’t want you near me, which is why he requested your removal.”

I knew it.

“Tomorrow, we will see him. I want you to have full control of how you would like the day to play out, so please tell me what you would like me to do. He will be angry with me for having him captured outside the castle, and he will most likely be upset with you for marrying me.”

“You think he will be upset with me? Marrying you? Even though it saved both of our lives?” I scoffed.

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