Page 100 of Shattered Stars

I nod. My aunt had told me of those darker days.

“Your mother–”

“She’s not my mom,” I insist.

The chancellor smiles like he doesn’t believe me. “Was able to predict when the enemy would strike, how they would strike. She could see their plans and their weapons. She gave us anadvantage that turned our struggles around. We had the upper hand and we used it to our advantage.”

I think of my aunt. Strong willed, determined, brave. Most of all principled. She had her beliefs – a sense of right and wrong – and she stuck to it. She hated the authorities and everything they stood for. She told me time and again they could not be trusted.

I always assumed my mom was just like my aunt. Same strength, same beliefs. But she aided the authorities, she worked for them, she helped to destroy their enemies. Could that really be true?

Unease whistles through my veins. The more I learn about my past – about who I am, where I came from – the more confused I feel.

“You can’t change the future,” I mumble.

“How would you know, Miss Blackwaters?” he asks. “Have you ever tried?”

That unease inside me seems to grow in the room too, curling around me, squeezing me tight. It presses against my lungs making it hard to breathe. It presses against my skull causing pain to spike through my brain.

The chancellor smiles and I see it’s his doing.

“No,” I say, sinking my nails into my palms. I won’t give him anything. I won’t betray myself or my aunt or Azlan or Stone. He squeezes a little tighter still and my skin prickles with discomfort. “But fate is a powerful force – that’s what all the books at the academy say – you can’t go against it.”

“But fate gave us your mother as a weapon in our struggles. Fate wanted us to know what we were facing.”

I blink. Is that true?

“She told me,” the chancellor says quietly, “that one day a girl would come with abilities even greater than hers.” All his focus is trained on my face.

I stare at him. “What girl?” I say.

“I don’t know, Rhianna Blackwaters, but sometimes I wonder if she is you.”

I manage a smile. “Me? I’ve been teased, laughed at … bullied at the academy for my ignorance and my hopelessness. I am no more some powerful magical, chancellor, than my pet pig is. I’m not the girl you are looking for.” I laugh. “Or perhaps this woman lied to you. Perhaps there is no girl.”

“Can you see the future?” he asks, no mirth on his own face. He has me in a vise now, like a giant hand has hold of me and is squeezing me more and more tightly. Or perhaps I’m caught in the invisible coils of a snake.

My ribs creak, dark spots swim on my vision, vicious pain smarts all through my body. I keep my eyes locked on him, not showing how much it hurts. What choice do I have? If I blow his magic apart, he’ll see just how powerful I am. And if I scream out in pain – if I let any of the agony I’m feeling spill into the bond – Azlan will be bursting into this office all guns blazing and it will be game over for all of us.

“See the future? No,” I say. “No more than you can.”

I grit my teeth, concentrating with all my might on not letting my pain spike through the bond.

“Maybe I’m not giving you enough motivation to think, Rhianna Blackwaters. Maybe you need that motivation to focus.”

He holds out his hand and clicks his fingers. A flame jumps to life, hovering above his palm before swimming slowly towards me. The heat of it smarts against my face, the brightness of it making my eyes water.

“I know how vain young women can be,” he says, “how highly they prize their faces. And you do have a pretty, if not very cultured, face. It would be such a shame to ruin it.”

He edges the flame closer and the heat is unbearable, my skin scorching.

That memory in my head comes searing to the forefront. Of fire. Of everything burning.

“I’m telling you the truth,” I say, glaring at him through the dancing flame.

“Are you?”

He holds my gaze, letting the flame burn against my skin. I don’t move. I don’t feel. He thinks he’s the first man to try and hurt me. The first man to try and take something from me. He’s not. And I’m not scared of him.