Page 37

“I think about that night all the time.” He reached for the bottle and the glass he’d deposited earlier. Arianna inclined her head to listen. “I’ve run it through my head a thousand times over. All the things I could have done differently, that I should have done differently.” He didn’t look at her. “If I’d simply gone with you …” He shook his head.

Arianna opened her mouth and closed it again. “None of it was your fault. I don’t blame you for anything that happened to me.”

Talon tightened his grip on the glass and for a moment Arianna thought it might shatter. Then he poured from the bottle and knocked back the liquid. His face pinched together.

“Does it still taste as bad as I remember?”

“Worse,” he said. “Though I think you stole a cheap bottle when we were kids.”

She was fifteen and feeling rebellious. She’d hated the foul liquid on her tongue and Talon had visibly shuddered from a single drink. She’d felt so guilty afterward that she’d returned the bottle and no one had ever found out.

“Do the stars still keep our secrets?” he asked, his voice so low she barely heard it.

Arianna’s chest tightened. Talon remembered this moment and this place. How they’d shared their dreams beneath the dimly lit sky and how, sometimes, they’d stayed until dawn, hoping to escape the responsibilities to come. Talon probably knew her better than anyone else in the world.

“Yes, always,” she whispered. She tried to keep from fidgeting and failed.

Talon laid back and draped an arm over his eyes. She heard his heart pounding and he inhaled deeply before saying, “I’m in love with a queen I can’t have.”

Arianna froze, her breath hitched, and the world around her shifted to ice. One wrong move and it would shatter into a million pieces.

“I’ve loved her since we were children. I don’t even remember when it started but I knew, at one point, that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.” He didn’t move and she wasn’t sure she was breathing. Her heart ached, breaking for things she couldn’t fix or control.

“But I was a coward. I was too afraid of ruining our friendship and decided to bottle my feelings up instead of sharing them.” Silence stretched in the darkness and Arianna’s heart wouldn’t stop racing. She didn’t know how to respond. What could she say that wouldn’t hurt him further?

Arianna opened her mouth to explain, but Talon beat her to it. “Don’t,” he said simply, keeping his arm over his face. “It’s for the stars.”

Right. When they were younger, they’d whispered their secrets to the stars. Wishes and dreams that could never be. Some were impossible, others insignificant, but this—this was so much more.

“Are you sure you want it to stay there?”

His racing heart was the only indication Talon hadn’t fallen asleep.

“Yes,” he whispered, “though I’ll probably regret telling even them in the morning.”

“But right now?”

He sat up slowly and met her gaze. So many emotions swam across his face. “Now I need that queen to give me time. I’m with her, through everything.” He offered her a half-hearted smile. “But I—”

He cut himself short, unable to finish his sentence, but Arianna didn’t need him to. She understood, and time was something she could give.

“All right.”

He chuckled. “I wish Ellie complied that easily.”

Arianna gave a bitter laugh, then Talon pressed the glass into her hand. She raised a brow at him, eying the half empty bottle. “You’ve had a lot, haven’t you?”

“I’m not going to answer that.” He poured her a small bit and she sniffed it before taking a sip, only to cough from the burning in her throat.

Arianna’s body shuddered and she pushed the glass back to him. “That is foul.”

Talon chuckled, the sound fuller than she’d heard in weeks. “It tastes better the more you drink.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” She eyed the bottle again. “You realize you’re going to have a monster of a headache tomorrow.”

Talon raised the bottle. “If it’s the price I must pay, then so be it.” Comfortable silence enveloped them only a moment before he said, “Obligated, really? You know me better than that.”

“You’ve been so distant, I didn’t know what else to think.”