Page 70 of A Touch of Stars and Stones (Kirrian #1)

forty

. . .

Ever

I soften against him before kissing him back.

It feels like a lifetime ago that we were this close, at the waterfall, and I was excited to be kissed by the boy I liked.

The distance that’s wedged itself between us has let doubt and worry infect my mind with questions of pain and right or wrong.

His lips do a good job of silencing them.

They demand my surrender, and any thoughts evaporate.

He came for me. He saved me. And I do trust him.

My tongue presses against his, and I encourage the kiss to pull us closer together, deeper, and to weave a patch over the hole in my heart.

But my arms stay at my sides, locked in place by the will to limit his touch because while he might not care, I still do, and I can’t stand the idea of causing him more pain.

I press my thoughts towards him, imagining my hands running over him, but it’s met with a cool and foggy barrier, like he’s shielding me. “Let me in,” I speak around our kiss.

He just shakes his head and runs his hands up to my face, drawing me back from him. “I can’t kiss you and touch you and have you running riot in my mind, too.” He watches my eyes as he explains, and even in the gloom, I see.

“Because there’s more risk without the shield?” I finish the thought, and he nods.

“So—” He kisses me on the top of my nose, each cheek.

“We can have all the benefits of speaking, seeing and feeling, mind to mind when we’re not touching.

But when lips touch, or you want to run a hand over me, you have to shield too, outside of the new moon,” he says with a smirk tugging at his lips.

“You’ve been practising keeping me out.”

“Well, not just you, but yes, I’ve needed to train. Just like you.” He brushes my forehead with one more kiss. “Now, I really want us to leave.”

He gestures to the steps, and a boulder drops to my gut and kicks up all the panic and fear that Ten’s kiss pushed aside. Those two men came for me. And now my worry is focused on the dead body and what will happen to Ten.

Ten.

Who killed a man.

Killed. Him.

I step back and look at the body and the blood seeping onto the stone floor of the cell. My throat constricts at the memory as he pinned me down, grappling with me before he ripped my necklace from around my throat.

I’d forgotten how it felt not to have it on, its presence now a part of me, a silent force protecting me and focusing my power.

The very real fear of what would happen if it’s ever taken from me again burrows into my mind, flashing back to before my Transference and the episodes that brought me here.

Ten steps back into the cell. “Don’t look, Ever.” But how can I not? He bends down and tugs at something on the man’s shirt before righting himself. “Come on.” He takes my hand, but his grip is tense, betraying the cost of the touch, and he walks me past the cells and up the steps.

The familiar warmth of our touch sparks, and I lean into that as I search for my own inner well of power. It’s a little fractured since the gold pendant was ripped away, and my fingers brush against the now-warm metal as if checking it’s still there.

The idea that something so important, so vital, is only secured by a simple chain makes me want to reinforce it with steel.

“What happened to the other guy?” I ask.

“He escaped, hopefully, right into a Warrior or two. Come on.” He tugs and leads me across a room and into the same staircase they marched me down when we arrived.

“Kamari put you in here. But I want to speak to my father. Tell him about this and find some answers.” Ten’s voice is brisk and determined.

“Is it safe? You won’t get in trouble? They can’t put you in this cell like they did to me or anything?”

“Attacking a trainee with the intent to harm or kill is an offence that sanctions lethal force.” Ten’s voice is far too calm when discussing the repercussions of killing someone.

Okay then. “That’s pretty terrifying.” They never said they wanted to kill me.

“Your time as a trainee is pivotal to everything about your life in Kirrasia. So, great emphasis is put on it by every Kirrian. That and your Transference, are the two most important events in your life: the granting of your gift from our Goddess and then the decision as to how you’ll serve Kirrasia.

” Not the birth of a child, finding your partner, or falling in love.

It’s like the Kirrians put their service and duty to their country above everything else.

We emerge from the spiralling staircase into a hall within The Tower, and Ten, hand still clasped around mine, leads me in another direction, presumably navigating towards his father’s office.

“It’s quiet,” I state, the unease of it prickling my neck. Kyra told me they were under attack, but apart from my attack, nothing seems different.

“Outside is different. The halls of The Tower are different. They’ll have been emptied.”

“Then why are we here looking for your father?”

“He won’t have left his study.”

Ten ignores the protests of the guards stationed outside of his father’s office and throws the door open, sending it swinging on its hinges. Sure enough, Orion Ciro remains in his office, staring at the map on his desk as if it holds the answers to every question ever asked.

He startles as he looks at Ten first, but his face visibly contracts, scowling as he sees I’m next to him.

“Miss Hart. I am a little surprised to see you.”

Ten drops my hand and clenches his fist as he stalks into the room. “Who are they?” He discards something from his hand, and a small silver disc bounces over the map towards his father. He picks it up, scrutinising it before looking at his son.

“Where did you get this?” he asks.

“No. You first.”

“Aten. This is no time to play games. Tell me.” His voice hardens, reminding me of the first time in the hall when we met.

“Who the fuck are they, and why are they here?”

Still, Orion holds his tongue.

Ten takes a steadying breath. “Two of them were inside the cells. They attacked Ever.”

For a split second, I see concern when he looks at his son, but he masks it well, and it’s gone in an instant when he sweeps his attention to me. “Inside The Court. The Tower?” he clarifies.

“Two. One of them got away.”

“You let one escape?” The accusation explodes from him.

“How did they get inside her fucking cell in the first place?” Ten shouts right back, and the ferocity in his voice sends chills down my spine. He’s angry because they came to hurt me.

They stand off against each other, neither wanting to give an inch or any kind of answer.

And then Orion slumps, almost dropping into the winged-back chair next to the table. “This isn’t Sunatora. Nor Nehandun. Or at least, it isn’t them officially, not from our information.”

“Then who? Who would carry the mark of Novandia and attack?”

“Novandia?” I ask Ten.

“A sun etched onto the silver disk, which I took off his shirt. Any symbol of the sun links back to the God.”

I nod and then turn to look at the rest of the office as Orion debates what or how much information to divulge to us, and I see a different side to the Kirrasia that’s been presented to me so far.

Maps with positions, flags, arrows, and pinned papers cover the wall near the door, and Orion’s desk is scattered with further information.

All of it paints a very different picture to what the lessons have taught me about peace.

I asked Kyra about the army, and I see it now.

The Court and the people here might be peaceful, but what else is happening outside the borders?

I’m learning all of this for the first time—learning a whole entire history of a world I didn’t know existed—and I can’t make the information line up.

Are we being granted only the information provided at the discretion of the Orders to keep the peace?

Or am I reading far too much into everything, and this is just what the head of the Warrior Order’s office should look like?

“You emptied The Court and sent the Warriors to reinforce the western defence because that’s where the alarm came from. I saw the movements. But what if that was a distraction?” Ten asks his father.

“A distraction?”

“Two men were in Ever’s cell. They took her pendant, so clearly meant to do her harm or, at the very least, incapacitate her. One is now dead. The other fled.” Ten’s voice is icy calm.

“He’ll be captured.” Orion’s voice is confident, but I have to stifle my scoff.

“You need to reinforce The Chamber quarters and Tower,” Ten tells his father.

“You don’t give me orders?—”

“They had a key.” I stop what is sure to be another argument. “I didn’t know who they were when they came to the door. I don’t recognise anyone outside of training, really. Kyra came to tell me that there was an attack but seemed so at ease about it that I didn’t worry. She called it a skirmish.”

“She had confidence in us at least and thought you’d be safe locked away,” Ten reassures me. “You can’t say he’ll be captured, given he made it all the way to Ever without being stopped and that he had a fucking key. He had help.” Ten turns his attention back to his father.

“This is Warrior business, Aten. Go and check on your mother until it’s safe to go back to the training residence.”

“Don’t dismiss this. Stop keeping secrets. Why would they want Ever? What did they want with her?”

“Not everything is a conspiracy, Aten. We are an enviable force which many covet. Surely you understand that.”

“Of course I do. But you just said it wasn’t Sunatora or Nehandun. What else happened in the attack?” His father’s face reddens at the stream of questions.

“Enough!”

But Ten doesn’t listen. “I understand you’re preparing for something that you have feared for a long time. Kamari, too. She more or less told me, so stop pretending. This is connected to Ever or her parents.”

My eyes whip to Ten’s at his words.

“What?”