A Court of Three Stars

7: Starlight

Eternal Palace, Pangera

Ruhn

Night.

Stranded on a raft of darkness, whatever was left of me drifted across a sea of pain. The last thing I could remember was the sound and sight of something being plunged into my stomach, blood splattering on the ground, some kind of curved knife ripping my organs out of my body. Exactly how I had survived any of it, if I had simply died and been resurrected by the cruel twists of fate, I didn't know.

Whatever had happened today, whatever all the sirens and explosions were, it had resulted in something far, far worse than what Pollux had been doing. It had taken nearly everything I had not to say anything, not to fall for the deception that revealing my secrets would result in anything but more pain. Rigelus and the Asteri already knew where I came from, what I really was, who I really was- admitting that I knew it too would only cause more problems.

It was the only thing that held my tongue, a vision in my mind of Leur or Azriel hanging in that dungeon alongside me, the echoing memory of those horrible screams I had once heard from Leur. That and the reprieve that came when my mind finally went into shock and everything went numb, the sweet release of unconsciousness.

Night.

I honestly couldn't tell if she was here to torture me more or because she genuinely cared. That flaming vision next to me of gold and red and orange, the female that I had loved, that I had shared my soul with.

There was no peace, not even in oblivion, not when she haunted my mind.

Night.

The voice echoed across the starlit sea, a lighthouse somewhere in the distance and a hand on my shoulder all at once. She sounded like salvation, like hope.

Like love.

It was crueler than anything they could ever stab me with.

Gods, what did he do to you?

I found my voice somewhere within the grief in my body, Nothing you haven't done a thousand times yourself.

A hand brushed across my cheek, soft and warm, a mask over the rot inside of her, I'm so sorry.

Somehow, I found the strength to roll away from her, to recoil from that deceiving touch. I could not bear it, that false vision, the lies. The shatter of my heart was too painful, not on top of everything else.

Ruhn, she pleaded, Please, just listen to me.

I'm done with your games. I found the energy to sneer, I'm done with all of it.

A pause, and then she spoke again, Something happened today. Something bad.

In case you haven't noticed, I can't be your contact anymore. I'm a bit occupied with the whole being tortured to death thing. I snarled.

I heard her take a breath, Something is coming for us. Something worse than the Asteri.

Not us. I corrected her, Just you and your masters.

She was silent for a long while, and I hated that I knew what it meant. I hated that I knew it meant she was thinking, hated that I knew how her mind worked well enough to know that she would see right through it.

I realized then that I had admitted that I knew something.

Perhaps this was the most effective method of torture for me, this pain, this heartbreak.