Light of Stars [2]

Chapter Fifty-Two

♕ Unasked Questions ♕

There was barely enough air coming into her lungs. Aubrette moved away, lifting one of her hands in surrender. Dorian stopped backing off with a smug smile on his face as he watched her sat down and place her head between her knees to avoid fainting.

"You're still breathing through your mouth" He said. "I'm amazed how long you can last that way though"

Aubrette looked up at him, almost cursing at him before laying down. "I didn't do that before" she said.

"Well, we all pick up bad habits do we not?" He said handing her a glass of water.

"I guess" Aubrette said, thankful for how the cold water felt as it travelled down her throat.

The choosing would be tomorrow, and she had not been able to think about anything else but getting a sword in her hand to make the unsettling pit at the bottom of her stomach go away. But even now, with her body aching, with her lungs begging for air, with her head buzzing, her mind felt like bleeding.

Too much had happened, too much was happening still and she could not remember how to separate herself from what needed to be done. Could not remember how to turn her emotions off to get through the next task, the next thing that would lead her forward, and not stuck in the same place over and over.

She had not allowed herself to dwell on Luna Bay further, had not felt as if her own grief for the city was fair when she'd never truly been to the moon city before. When she had seen the look behind Sybilla's eyes she could understand it could never compare. She mourned for what the action meant. Mourned for the people that'd lost their lives, people she was now trying to save. Sybilla had lost a part of herself along with the flames. The way she had lost a part of herself to Wood Sorrow. And that sort of grief was not something easily put in to words.

So she had pushed it away, along with the feeling of having a pair of eyes watching her back everywhere she went as soon as they'd stepped on Starhaven's territory, and the feeling and knowledge that Morte poured around somewhere within the walls of the mountain waiting for a chance to escape.

Stella had barely bothered to look at her, barely even managed to speak directly to any of them. The possibility of her being behind the attacks suddenly was more believable than before.

"I will see you later then? For dinner" Dorian said as both stepped back into the crystal bridge.

"Yes" Aubrette said before walking back to her bedroom, a bedroom that felt even more unfamiliar than before.

She walked into the bath and closed her eyes, letting the water warm with her skin.

☆

The room was so quiet the softest of her breaths could've been the loudest scream. Even Nevaeh who had refused to stop talking all day had suddenly lost the urge to come out with things to say. Stella sat with her eyes lost, barely touching her food. Aubrette had told her everything that'd happened, and Stella had acted perfectly surprised when she'd mentioned the attacks, how they'd been the same as the ones before. How they seemed to not want to hurt anyone but her.

And as they'd sat all at the dinner table, no one had know what to say, what anyone could say that did not involve talking about the choosing, or the shift, or anything that would give anyone's positions on it.

"I finally got Morte to speak to me" Stella said suddenly, the tips of her fingers tracing over the top of her cup of wine. Aubrette kept her eyes on her food, trying her best not to turn to Dorian, not to remember what had happened then. "Its interesting the things you learn"