ShatterStar

by Krista Rose

  She muttered a curse under her breath and turned her back, kneeing her mount forward.

  Dariel grinned at me. “Friendly, isn’t she?” He spurred his horse after her.

  Reyce shook his head. Tanner and I exchanged looks, then followed after them.

  We reached the Manor within the hour. Sunshine gleamed off the magnificent stone walls, though the boarded windows gave the house a sad, abandoned appearance.

  Dariel whistled tunelessly as we rode up to the hitching post. “These Vampyres were a serious threat, weren’t they?”

  “Whatever gave you that idea?” Tanner asked sarcastically as he dismounted.

  Dariel pointed toward the top windows, where long, and definitely not human, fingers had gouged deeply into the stone.

  Lanya merely looked at him before hobbling her horse to the post and hurrying inside. We followed.

  She rushed down the hall and stuck her head in the great room. After a moment, she closed the door and shook her head. “She’s not in there.”

  “She’s probably in her office then,” I said, pointing. “This way.” I led them down the hall and knocked on the door of Amandine’s study. There was a muffled, “come in,” and I pushed the door open.

  Amandine looked tired, but her eyes lit up when she saw us. “Vitric! Tanner! And-” Her breath caught. “Lanya!” She stood and rushed around the desk to scoop her neice into a hug. “Elias told me you were back, and Tanner and Vitric told me again last night, but I’ve been so worried-”

  “Amandine,” I interrupted, “can I use the moonflower again?”

  “Again?” She frowned at me, though she kept her arms protectively around Lanya. “Are you becoming addicted already?”

  “Addicted?” Tanner murmured. Dariel was watching me curiously.

  I gave them both a look. “Hush.”

  “We need to find Kylee,” Reyce spoke up, saving me from having to answer Amandine’s question. “She left this morning, and we want to make sure she’s alright.”

  “She left?” Amandine blinked at me. “Why would she do such a thing?”

  “The moonflower?” I asked again.

  She waved a hand.

  “It’s my fault,” Lanya began. “I yelled at her.”

  I let their voices wash over me as I moved behind the desk to the jar of moonflower, taking a small spoonful. It melted on my tongue, sweet and light with the promise of dreams. I laid down on the couch and closed my eyes. I knew I needed to look for Kylee, but I had a moment to look in on Kryssa first.

  I took a deep breath, and sank into dreams.

  VITRIC

  The golden sands of Surak passed beneath me as I rushed toward the night-black temple. My heart was bursting through my chest; though I knew it was a dream, I also knew now that it was real. I had found the Vampyres where I had dreamed of them, and what little I had managed to pry out of Tanner convinced me that my dreams about the others had been real as well.

  Kryssa was in Surak, and that was where my heart wanted to be.

  I sank through the obsidian walls until I was once again in the infirmary. Kryssa remained strapped to the bed, her eyes closed in sleep. If she was dreaming, could I reach her? I had talked to Reyce in dreams in Cedralysone. Would it work here as well?

  I swallowed, and stretched out my hand to touch her face.

  “She won’t wake up like that, stupid boy.”

  I spun. The shriveled form of the Crone stood behind me, her eyes like blackened buttons buried in the lines of her face. “You? But I thought Brannyn said you were dead.”

  “Mostly.” Her smile was strange, maniacal. “Except for this piece she carries around.”

  I glanced back down at Kryssa. “But- but how can I talk to you, if she’s not-”

  “It’s a dream, stupid boy. You’re not real. And neither am I.”

  I shook my head. “What are you even doing here? Why are you talking to me?”

  “Because this is the only part of me left alive, and it’s tied to this fool girl.” She gestured, her expression disgusted. “She nearly killed us both the other day. I’d rather not have that happen again.”

  “And you think I can stop it?”

  She stared at me, her eyes gleaming. “I think you’re the only one who can.”

  “What do you want me to do?” I asked. “I’m more than a thousand miles away.”

  “Then you had better get started.”

  I glanced back down at Kryssa. She stirred in her sleep, her brows drawing together anxiously.

  “Alright.” I nodded. “I’ll come.”

  “Then why are you still here?”

  “I’m not.” I closed my eyes, and thought of Kylee. The world tilted beneath my feet.

  “Finally,” the Crone muttered. “I thought he would never leave.”

  Wind whistled in my ears. I opened my eyes, found myself staring at a fertile green valley and listening to the sound of hoofbeats. My boots rested on a dusty dirt road.

  Kylee and Lyrel rode side-by-side at an ambling walk, silent and obviously comfortable with it. I frowned at them. Lyrel had a map sticking out of her saddlebag, but though I tried to get close enough read it, I could only make out one corner.

  I growled, frustrated. If they wouldn’t talk, how was I supposed to know where they were going?

  The earth moved, the world compressing rapidly until a grand, walled city rose before me. Golden spires speared toward the sky from a massive palace at the city’s center.

  Val Estus.

  “So that’s where she’s going,” I murmured, and forced myself from the dream. My eyes opened-

  Felice’s face hovered inches from my own, her glowing white eyes paralyzing me before I could react. “Well, well,” she murmured, and trailed a grey, dying finger down my cheek. “Look who decided to wake up.”

  I struggled against the power of her gaze, but it was useless. I could not move, could not even look around for the others. I prayed fervently that they were alright, that this monster we were trying to save hadn’t already killed them.

  “I should probably be angry that you destroyed my nest,” she continued, her fingertips cold as she rested them against my cheek. “But they were boring me anyway. I would have killed them all myself if you hadn’t done it for me.”

  My words were choking me. All I could do was stare at her, frozen and helpless as I cursed my craving for the moonflower and the dreams that had left me defenseless.

  “Maybe I should turn you into a Vampyre, too.” She pursed her lips, considering. “The rites aren’t that bad, after all, and a soul is a useless thing to have. Wouldn’t you rather be immortal, like me?” She chuckled, but there was no humor in it as her fingers slid to my throat. Her gaze followed them hungrily, releasing me for a moment from the paralysis.

  “Where are the others?” I demanded. “Where is Tanner? What have you done with them?”

  “Tanner?” she repeated. “Tanner’s here?” The light faded from her eyes, leaving them blue and vulnerable.

  “Yes.” Her fingertips were like ice against my throat, and I prayed she would squeeze. “He came back for you.”

  Her breath shuddered out, and she dropped her head as her shoulders began to shake. I thought she was crying, until she lifted her head. Her eyes were white once more, and her smile was vicious as she laughed. I tried to crawl away from her, only to find myself frozen once more.

  “Tanner came back for me.” She leaned forward until her lips were a breath away from mine. She stank of death. “Well, well. Let’s welcome him home, shall we?”

  TANNER

  I sat on a divan in the abandoned great hall, watching Dariel as he basked in the attention given to him by Amandine. On his insistence, I hadn’t told her or Lanya who he was, and he sipped from a glass of Valorian red as they fussed over him, talking quietly among themselves. Reyce slept on a chair nearby, a blanket tucked over his legs.

  A movement at the corner of my eye pulled my attention to the door as Vit
ric staggered through it. His face was pale, his feet moving in an odd, shuffling gait.

  “Vitric?” I stood, wincing when my knees popped. “What’s wrong?”

  He staggered forward as if pushed from behind, and dropped to his knees, revealing the woman standing behind him.

  My heart stopped in my chest. “Felice,” I whispered.

  “Tanner.” Her white silk gown was shredded, her hair tousled and dirty. Blood-stained diamonds hung forgotten around her neck, and her eyes burned like white fire as she smirked at me. “So good of you to at last return. Did you find a way to save me?”

  “Felice…”

  “Tell me!” Her face was pale, fear and rage alternating on her features. “What have you done, or was it all a lie? Another lie, another way to hurt me?”

  “No.” I took the jar from my pocket with shaking hands. The light inside it was fragile and faint beneath her gaze. “I would never hurt you.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What is that? You think you can impress me with a jar?”

  “It’s your soul,” I whispered.

  She froze. Her eyes flickered, the white of them fading. “No. No, that- that’s not possible.”

  “It is.” I swallowed, and took a hesitant step forward. “I went to the Temple of the Burned. I found the Pool of the Damned. I found you. The real you.”

  “No.” She shook her head, but the white light faded from her eyes, leaving them blue and human and frightened. “No, you can’t.”

  “You have a choice, Felice.” I took another step, passing Vitric where he still knelt on the floor, his eyes glazed and unfocused. “You don’t have to be this.”

  “You don’t understand.” She stared at the jar in my hand, her eyes wide and terrified. “He’ll find me.”

  “Who, Eoct?” I shook my head when she flinched. “Don’t you understand, Felice? I was willing to face down an Elder God for you. I still will.”

  “You can’t save me, Tanner.” She looked so frightened, so lost. “No one can.”

  “No.” I took a deep breath. “But I can give you the chance to save yourself.”

  Her eyes flashed white, as if sensing my intent, her teeth gleaming as I opened the jar and lunged forward. Pain exploded in my shoulder as we fell to the ground, Lanya’s screams echoing in my ears.

  LANYA

  “Tanner!” I rushed forward, shoving Dariel aside as he tried to hold me back. Tanner lay on top of Felice, tangled in her dress and unmoving. The empty jar rolled toward me, coming to a stop at our feet.

  I dropped to my knees beside them, my concern for Tanner outweighing my fear of Felice. I gently rolled him over onto his back.

  “Oh,” he groaned, and my heart nearly burst. He was alive. “Oh, gods, she bit me.”

  “Where?” I began checking his arms and chest.

  “My shoulder.” He smiled faintly. “Is it too early to say I liked it?”

  I ripped the buttons from his shirt as I struggled to find the wound beneath. Instead, I found a rapidly forming bruise on his left shoulder just beneath the collarbone. The skin was unbroken, and I sighed in relief. “It’s alright, Tanner. She didn’t poison you.”

  “Really?” He opened his eyes, took a deep breath. “Well, that’s good. Would have been strange to like it if it was killing me.” He grunted, and rolled to his side, propping himself on an elbow to look at Felice. “What about her?”

  I leaned over my cousin. Her eyes were closed, color returning to her pale cheeks. Her fingertips were changing from grey to white, slowly, as if returning to life. I pressed my hand to her forehead, but her skin still felt cool to the touch. “I don’t know. I think-”

  Her eyes opened, brilliant white and glowing. I shrieked, shoving myself backward so quickly that I fell.

  Felice moaned, pressing her hands to her chest as her eyes fluttered shut again. Her chest heaved, and she curled onto her side in a ball and wept.

  Tanner grinned, his happiness pouring into me along with her pain. “It worked.”

  I swallowed several times trying to find my voice, then simply nodded. The world around me seemed to move in slow motion as Tanner put his arm around Felice, stroking her hair as she sobbed. Amandine approached them and sank to her knees, hesitantly taking Felice’s hand. Reyce was checking on Vitric, trying to get him to take a drink of water.

  And I- I was terrified, overwhelmed by Felice’s agony. It tore at something inside of me, and I crawled away from it, backing up as fast as possible until I slammed into Dariel’s shins.

  “Are you alright?” His voice was concerned, and seemed to come from far away. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Too much,” I managed, and realized I was trembling. “It’s too much. Too much pain.”

  I do not know if he understood me, but he immediately scooped me up in his arms and carried me out of the room. I clung to him as he brought me to Amandine’s study and gently laid me on the couch. “Better?”

  I was still shaking, but the pressure of it had dimmed. I took a deep breath, and shielded myself from the enormity of Felice’s pain down the hall. “Yes. Yes, it’s better. Thank you.” I rubbed my face with my hands, wondered why I desperately wanted to weep. “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  I blinked at him, confused and dazed. “What?”

  “Why are you apologizing?” He nudged my legs aside so he could sit beside me on the couch. “You said sorry like you’d done something wrong.”

  “Did I?” Why was it so hard to focus? What was it about Felice’s pain that felt like a hole had been ripped through my chest? I shook my head. “I don’t know, I’m sorry.”

  “Stop apologizing.”

  “Sorry.”

  He snorted a laugh. “Lanya.”

  “I know, I know. It’s just-” I gestured. “I wasn’t ready. All my shields were down.”

  “Shields?” he repeated. “That sounds like empath magic.”

  “Empath?”

  “I had a suspicion when you were healing Quarius, but it seemed like the wrong time to ask. We have an empath at the palace in the capital.”

  “Palace?”

  His eyes shifted, almost guilty. “Ah, tell me, has it always been this bad?”

  “No. Yes. I don’t know. It seems like there’s suffering everywhere recently.” I pressed my hand to my chest, where Felice’s pain lingered. “It’s suffocating.”

  “Have you ever been trained?”

  “Formally? No.” I shook my head. “I’m a commoner. There’s never been time, or anyone to teach me. I don’t even know what it is, really.”

  “You know, if you’re interested, I could introduce you to the mage in Val Estus. I don’t think he’s as strong as you are, but he might be able to show you some things, maybe make it easier.”

  I bit my lip. A teacher, one who could train me to control my emotions, perhaps teach me to protect myself better against someone else’s? But what about my sister? “I-”

  Vitric appeared in the doorway, his face haggard and his shirt damp. “Lanya. You alright?”

  “Fine.” I swallowed. “Did you find Kylee?”

  “Yes. Her and Lyrel are on their way to Val Estus.” He glanced back down the hall. “Listen, Tanner and I have to get Felice out of here. If Chanach finds out that we gave her soul back to her, he’s going to hang us, too.”

  “You’re leaving?” I sat up. “Now?”

  “You and Reyce are more than welcome to come with us.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Surak, to find Kryssa.”

  Kryssa. I wanted her so badly my bones ached. But I needed to find Kylee and apologize, and she was going to Val Estus, where there was the offer of a teacher who could help me control my emotions…

  I took a deep breath. “I’m going to find Kylee.”

  Vitric’s brow raised, and he looked at Dariel. “You going to take her?”

  He nodded.

  Vitric jerked his head. “Can I talk to yo
u outside when you have a moment?” He left without waiting for a response, his footsteps retreating down the hallway.

  Dariel nodded again anyway. “I’ll help you find your sister,” he offered, turning back to me. His face was bright and earnest.

  “You don’t even know me.”

  “You mean there’s more to you than angry threats and fainting spells?” I made a face at him, and he laughed. “It’s alright, you can thank me later.” He stood. “Come on. Let’s see them off before we start planning our return to Val Estus.”

  I rolled my eyes, but took his hand and allowed him to pull me to my feet.

  VITRIC

  It was after midnight when we emerged from the Manor. Tanner still held Felice, as if worried she might disappear without the contact, and she shook violently as he led her to a horse, who spooked and bucked until Reyce calmed it. She hadn’t spoken since her soul had been returned, though she seemed to hear us when we spoke. Her eyes continued to glow, white and eerie in the darkness. Amandine stood in the doorway, wringing her hands in worry.

  Lanya and Dariel finally joined us outside, and I crooked a finger at him, dragging him away from the others. He stared at me, his face carefully blank as I took a breath.

  “Look,” I began, “Lanya is like a sister to me, understand? I know you’re a prince and I barely know you, but protect her for me. Please. She’s more fragile than she looks.

  He glanced over his shoulder at her, then looked back at me. “I was planning on it.”

  My eyes narrowed as suspicion crept through my lingering shock. “If you hurt her,” I murmured, pitching my voice so only he could hear it, “if you so much as think about anything other than what is in her best interest, I will forget you’re a prince. I will personally drag you to Enevai, where my Lady Hetarielle will turn you into a pleasant garden hedge.”

  He blinked. “A hedge?”

  “Then I’ll be able to trim little pieces off of you every week. It will be very enjoyable.” I grinned, wide and mirthless. “Snip, snip.”