I swallowed, turning in his arms so my back pressed to his chest. “War.”
It was much worse than that. Bloodied bodies across sandy dunes, unseeing eyes still open as if waiting for absolution. Bones singed to nothing more than ash, and gold-tinged feathers raining down from storm-clouded skies.
It was carnage and ruin. It was an upset balance and hungry gods leaving us to fight their battles.
It was our future, but no clear path to it, only certainty that it would come one day. But because of the unknowns and how I knew Cypherion’s worries were coiled tightly within his muscles already, I didn’t elaborate on the gruesome details.
“I think that’s an unavoidable future for us,” Cypherion muttered, holding me closer.
That word again.Unavoidable.
“It’s confusing,” I confessed, changing the subject but leaning my head against his chest. “I’ve been gifted this new array of power—a direct link to a dead goddess and the Starsearcher Angel—because I’d always been so in touch with and accepting of my magic. But now, I feel like I could drown in it.”
It wouldn’t be the same soft sinking beneath a wave as Cypherion’s arms were around me. It would be a total eclipse of myself. Guilt twisted my chest at the disjointed feelings.
Loving my magic all my life. Fearing it could crush me now.
I sighed, and Cypherion’s hand skimmed across my collarbone with the sound.
“Do you wish you didn’t have it?” he asked, his chest stilling as if he held his breath.
“No,” I said adamantly, and he exhaled. I almost laughed at the notion that he’d been worried I had a problem he couldn’t fix. Spirits, I loved him.
I went on, tipping my head back against his shoulder, “I’ve cherished my magic all my life because for so long, it was all I had. Even if it isolated me from others, it was comforting.” I considered that sentence. “Maybe that’s a twisted way to view it, since it was the reason I was kept so alone.”
“You clung to it because it was all you knew, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I’d even wager that since it’s rooted in you—not Titus or a temple or whoever tried to take advantage of it—that power is the most natural source of comfort you could have found.”
“Thank you.” I exhaled. “I don’t wish I didn’t have this new Fatecatcher power. I’m honored to have been chosen, not burdened by it. I only wish I understood it better.”
“We’ll figure it out together, Stargirl,” he promised, kissing my temple. Alleviating all my worries in that effortless way only Cypherion Kastroff seemed to have the power to do. “We always do.”
And that assurance gave me the strength to settle. I had conquered my own prison, Cypherion had come back for me, and he had helped me find the light again after my soul bond broke. We may be fighting the unknowns of fate, but we were together.
“Should we find the others?” Cypherion asked, his arms squeezing around me.
I nodded. “I’d told Harlen I owed him a dance before the night ended, and last I saw, he was cornered by a pair of much older Soulguiders that looked like they were about to have their way with him.”
Cypherion’s answering chuckle rumbled through my back. “Maybe we shouldn’t find him then.”
I rolled my eyes but pulled him toward the door. “He looked like a field mouse about to be swallowed whole by a nemaxese. Come along.”
We found him quickly, and—emphatically grateful—Harlen whirled me away into a very informal dance, him never having learned proper routines after growing up an orphan in the temple.
“Stop stepping on my toes!” he mocked when it happened for the fifth time.
“Perhaps if you led correctly,” I teased.
Harlen gripped my waist and lifted me, spinning with my hands on his shoulders. “Problem solved,” he said. Setting me back down, we continued twirling among the other couples. “My steps are much more fun than thecorrectones, anyway.”
“They make it rather difficult when you’re the only one whoknowsthem,” I challenged.
“Well perhaps others should take a bit of a lesson from me, Interim Chancellor and all.”
I couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled out of me. “I’m happy you’re here, Harls,” I told him as the music came to a close.
“Me, too,” he said, spinning me one final time.
“It feels right,” I emphasized as he draped an arm over my shoulder and surveyed the room. “We can’t thank you enough for coming to our aid. And for everything with Titus.” I shivered,and Harlen wrapped his arm tighter around me. Not in a romantic way, but as a protective sibling might. As Cypherion would for Ophelia or Santorina. It almost shocked me to realize that I had a similar bond with Harlen, even if our past looked different.
