Page 28 of Between These Broken Hearts (Cursed Stars #2)

Between the ball, retrieving the stone, and having the palace healer mend me, last night was a blur. I only got enough rest

to retake Jasalyn’s form before nightmares pulled me from sleep. Nightmares of my own again, where I plunged my blade into

Erith’s heart only to have him transform into Kendrick while I watched blood bubble from his lips.

At Abriella’s request, I spent the day in the form of the princess, awaiting Ezra’s possible visit. He never came, and now

the sun has long since set and I need sleep, but I’m avoiding going to bed.

The princess is beautiful, and maybe I should feel lucky that I get to pose as her yet again tomorrow. It’s not like it’s

safe to take my own form when my brother is likely hunting me.

But when I stare in the mirror, I resent that the reflection isn’t mine, resent the dark thread of hair waiting to magically

keep me in this body when I wake up.

“Quit staring at that pretty face and come with me,” someone says behind me. I don’t even startle. Maybe because Skylar doesn’t scare me or maybe because my mind and body are too tired. “Hale wants to talk to us.”

“I’m dressed for bed,” I mutter. I’m cranky and just want to complain. The truth is I’m grateful for the excuse to avoid sleep

for another hour or two.

She opens my armoire, grabs something from inside, then tosses a silky dressing gown to me. “Put this on.”

With a sigh, I shove my arms into the sleeves as I follow her out of my chambers and down the hall toward a starlit terrace

that overlooks the capital. Natan and Remme are already there, sitting at a glass-topped dining table. Natan has a pipe between

his lips and Remme has a bottle of wine in his hand.

“Hope you’re planning to share,” Skylar says, dropping into the chair across from them.

Remme shrugs and offers her the bottle. “Help yourself.”

Skylar is chugging straight from the bottle when Hale steps onto the terrace.

“I suppose I should’ve specified that this was a meeting and not a party,” he says. The chair squeals against the stone as

he pulls it away from the table, a sound as unpleasant as his apparent mood.

Must be something in the air.

“How’s Jasalyn?” Remme asks when Hale sits.

“She’s better. Awake but a little weak still. The ring’s off and her fever is gone. The poison seems to have cleared her system,

but we should know for sure if she’s stronger tomorrow.”

“Well, regardless of what happens,” Skylar says, “we got the queen her sister, and it’s time for her to pay up.”

I gape at her. “Skylar!”

I didn’t need to say a word because Hale’s withering glare speaks volumes, and Skylar holds up both hands. “I apologize. That sounded heartless. I’m glad the princess is okay, believe it or not.”

“We see this through,” Hale says. “We will offer our assistance to the queen however we must to protect this court. Ridding

Jas of that ring isn’t the end.”

“But after ,” Skylar says, “right? Don’t we still have our own mission? Our own realm to save?”

“The fate of Elora might be more intertwined with the fate of the shadow court than we realized,” Hale says. “We have confirmation

that Erith and Mordeus are working together.”

“So let’s do this,” Skylar says. She slaps the table twice. “Everybody take notes. We’re making plans to kill Erith—for the

sake of both realms!”

“There is no we ,” I whisper. “I’m fine with asking Abriella for access to her Hall in exchange for retrieving the stone, but I’m not going

to the Eloran Palace—at least not to kill my father.”

“This again?” Skylar groans.

Hale turns his tortured eyes on me. “We still need you, Lis. Now more than ever.”

Natan sighs. “If you get the queen to take us to her portal, we can try it without you, but you know the odds aren’t in our

favor. No one has been successful in killing him, and it’s not for lack of attempts on his life.”

Skylar’s glare used to intimidate me, but today I ignore it. If she were in my shoes, she’d make the same choices I have.

“Fine,” she says. “Once the princess is feeling better, we’ll take her .”

“Jasalyn can’t do it,” Hale says, eyes on the table.

“We’ll protect her, Hale,” Remme says. “We won’t let anything happen to Jas. If Felicity won’t do this, then Jasalyn is our

only—”

“That prophecy already came to pass.” His words are clipped and his face is hard. This is the Hale who will take no arguments.

This is the male who the oracle chose as our king. “Jas saw Erith when she went to kill Mordeus. She stabbed him in the heart

with an iron blade.”

Skylar shakes her head, confused.

Natan and Remme watch Hale cautiously, and my stomach feels like it’s sunk to somewhere deep beneath the earth. They can see

it as clearly on his face as I can. Nothing is over. Nothing is better. Everything just got a hell of a lot more complicated.

“What happened?” Natan asks.

“It didn’t kill him, didn’t even hurt him,” Hale says. “She plunged that blade in his heart and he didn’t even bleed.”

“How?” Remme asks. “Is she sure he was there? Could it have been some kind of illusion?”

“She’s sure. And when the blade failed to kill him, he told her to tell me about it. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the

bastard found a way to have godlike immortality, and he wants us to know it.”

The blood drains from Remme’s face.

“No,” Skylar breathes. “But the oracle showed you the princess slaying him. Was she wrong? Have we been tricked into chasing

a fate that can’t come to pass?”

“What exactly did the oracle show you, Hale?” Natan asks. “Did you see him die by Jasalyn’s hand?”

“Fate can change,” Remme says. “This doesn’t mean she’s wrong about anything, just that—”

“ I’m the one who was wrong,” Hale barks through gritted teeth. “I went to the oracle feeling hopeless, like we were fighting a

losing battle. I asked her who could help us tip the scales in this revolution, and she showed me Jasalyn’s face. Then she

showed me Jasalyn plunging the blade into Erith’s heart.”

“And he died?” Remme asks. “In that vision? Did he die?”

His expression is so bleak, it makes my heart ache. “You know how the oracle works. The visions aren’t complete. They’re snippets.

Moments in time. When I saw her sink the blade into his chest, I believed the oracle was telling me she could kill him for

us.”

Remme mutters a curse.

“We need to find out more about the original prophecy,” Natan says. His expression is distant, and I already know he’s thinking

through a plan—where and how to gather the information he needs. “Erith has survived every attempt on his life and come out

unscathed. That’s why the prophecy led us to believe that perhaps no one could take Erith down but his daughter. And even

when the oracle gave Hale the vision of Jasalyn, we all knew it could have been Felicity in Jasalyn’s form.” He drums his

fingers on the table, thinking. “Which means if Felicity still can’t bring herself to kill Erith, our only option is—”

“We need the sword,” Remme says. “Even if an iron blade can’t kill him, he can’t survive the Sword of Fire. I’ll wield it

myself.”

“Erith has it.” Hale tips his face to the sky, as if he can find a solution to this mess written in the stars. “He took it

from Jasalyn when he found her trying to kill Mordeus.”

The group goes silent and the weight of all we’ve lost hangs in the air.

“You’re up, kid,” Skylar says, and they all turn their attention to me. “We tried everything we could to let you off the hook,

but here we are.”

“How do we know the same thing won’t happen when Felicity tries to kill him?” Remme asks. “How do we know that the oracle

didn’t show the same thing in that original prophecy as she did with the princess?”

“We have to try, though, right?” Skylar says. “We can’t just sit on our asses and—”

“I can’t,” I whisper, and everyone looks at me. The weight of their stares might as well be the weight of all of Elora on

my shoulders. “You don’t understand.”

“Then make us understand,” Remme says. “Please.”

Even if this future she foretold comes to pass, it won’t be because of you , Misha said.

I need to trust that my brother and his friends will feel the same .

“The oracle said I would kill my father, yes, but when I visited the oracle, she showed me plunging the blade into his heart and then running and...” My eyes burn and my vision

goes cloudy with tears. I’ve held this secret for too long.

I meet my brother’s gaze. “In that version of the future, you’re bleeding out on the floor, Hale. In that version of the future,

you’re dying.”

Skylar’s face goes as white as the moon.

“What?” Remme says. “By whose hand?”

Natan’s eyes are sad as he studies me.

“I don’t know. She didn’t show me that.” I bite the inside of my cheek, then force myself to look at my brother again.

He’s stoic, and I can’t read a single emotion on his face.

“I never wanted to tell you. I knew you’d say it was a necessary sacrifice.

I’ve always known you believed this cause is bigger than you, and I wanted to find a way around that prophecy.

” I press my palm to my chest; my heart races beneath my fingers.

“Call me selfish, but I won’t do it if you are the cost. Elora needs you.

Our future queen needs you. I need you.” Tears prick my eyes.

“I wasn’t born into a loving family like you.

I had to get lucky and be given one. I don’t take that gift for granted and I won’t squander it.

So, no. The destiny I was shown is not one I’m willing to fulfill.

Not at that price. I will help you in any other way I can, but if you intend to kill Erith, you will have to find someone else to do it. ”

I tear my gaze away from Hale’s and stand. The eyes of the other three are trained on me, different levels of shock in each

pair, but for the first time they all hold something I never anticipated: understanding.

When I turn my back on the stars and the night sky and head back into the palace, no one tries to stop me.

Misha’s leaning against my chamber door, arms crossed over his chest.

“What do you need?” I snap. I just want to bathe and fall into bed and forget the look on my brother’s face when I told him

the prophecy that’s haunted me for years.

Misha frowns as he looks me over. “You finally told them.”

“Isn’t that what you said I should do?” Then it registers what he said and why he would know. Storm. I didn’t look for the hawk while we were on the terrace, but he could’ve easily been close enough to take in the scene without us noticing. “Really, Misha? You’re spying on me and my friends now?”

He lifts a shoulder in a completely unapologetic shrug. “You and your friends are still outsiders who currently have easy

access to the shadow queen. It would be negligent of me not to observe when I have the opportunity.”

I shake my head and reach for my doorknob. I don’t have the energy for this. “Well, I hope you saw what you wanted,” I say,

storming past him and into my room. I peel off my robe and toss it on the bed.

“Not really,” he says, and because he’s apparently determined to make me lose my temper, he follows me into my room. “But

I think I understand you better now.” He scans my face. “You said you were afraid that Kendrick would ask you to kill your

father anyway, said you thought he would be dismissive of any personal consequence.”

I huff. “Of course. Have you met him?”

He shakes his head. “But that’s not the real reason you’ve kept this from him for four years. That can’t be it because just

like they wouldn’t force you before, they won’t after learning what the oracle showed you. Telling them doesn’t change that

at all.”

“Maybe I wanted to wait so I could find a way around it, so I could find a way to what they needed me to be. Maybe I needed

to find a way to make amends that wouldn’t put Hale at risk.”

“Make amends for what?”

The heat of my temper drains away, and I wrap my arms around myself, trying to ward off a sudden chill. “I am their enemy’s daughter. I am the rea—” My voice breaks and I swallow back a sob. “I am the reason the man who raised us is dead.”

“That’s not how they see you.”

I step back and fold my arms across my chest. “Stay out of my head, Misha. I don’t want you there.”

His fingers are gentle as they sweep across my cheek and tuck a lock of hair behind my ear. “They love you.” His throat bobs.

“You are so easy to love.”

My stomach twists because I want these words more than he could possibly understand. “You don’t have to say that.”

“I am king .” His lips quirk into a crooked smile. “I don’t have to say anything I don’t want to.”

The sight of his smile feels like the summer sun after a long, brutal winter, and my irritation with him melts away. “Oh,

pardon me. I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise.”

“This power of yours, the one that lets you sense how people feel about each other. Are you able to use it when you’re one

of the parties in question?” His smile has fallen away but the warmth is still there. “Do you know how I feel about you?”

“You hate me.” The words are weak. I haven’t tried using my gift when he’s around. I’m too afraid of what I’d find. But I

know him well enough to know he feels many things when he’s near me, and hatred isn’t even in the vicinity—hasn’t been since

he had me locked in his dungeons.

He lifts his chin. “So that’s a no ?”

“You hated me enough to lock me away when you found out the truth. Hated me enough to ignore me when I told you they’d come

for me.”

“I’m not a monster, Felicity. You deceived me and had unfettered access to much of my court because you did it so well. I have a kingdom to protect, and I reacted accordingly.”

“Right.”

He studies me for a long time, the way he does when I think he’s trying to see the real me, and I wonder if he wants to. I’ve

been so hung up on him wanting the girl he thought he fell in love with, I haven’t let myself consider that maybe he wants

me . Or that maybe he could.

He finally sighs and steps back. “It’s been a long day. Get some rest.”