Page 15 of Shattered Stars

“Oh no, he bought me some bumper meals when we were traveling to Los Magicos–”

“Not good enough.” Ellie smacks me again. “Rhi, I don’t mean to be rude – please don’t take this the wrong way – but do you have much money? I mean, most students don’t. It’s not like you’re paid to attend the academy.”

“The authorities are giving me an allowance,” Rhi says.

“How much?” I ask, anger at myself now adding to the shame. She hesitates but my hard look has her spilling the information.

“That’s all!” Ellie says in even more outrage before whacking me even harder. “That isn’t enough to buy all the girlie things a woman needs.”

“Like what?” I blurt out.

“Plenty of things.” Ellie wags her finger at me. “Clothes, toiletries, makeup–”

“Rhianna doesn’t need makeup. She’s beautiful as she–”

“She doesn’t need it. But maybe she wants it.”

Rhi smiles, seeming to enjoy the berating my sister’s giving me even more than the teasing.

“You need to take her shopping. I’d do it but …”

“But?” Rhi asks.

“Ellie’s already taken a big risk coming here today.”

“It wasn’t easy,” Ellie says, that unease creeping back into my body as she winds her beaded necklace though her fingers. “Our uncle has spies everywhere, reporting on our every movement. I had to come up with some elaborate story, take a roundabout route.” Her tea cup begins to shake in her hands and I rest my palm on her shoulder.

“Don’t go back, Ellie. Stay here with me.”

Ellie shakes her head, worrying at her bottom lip.

“Why not?” Rhi says. “You’ll be safe here. Azlan will keep you safe.” A warmth spreads through my chest. Pride. Does shebelieve that? Does she see how hard I’d work to keep Ellie safe? How hard I’m working to keep her safe?

Ellie shakes her head a second time. “I love my family. I can’t help it. My uncle may be a cruel, ruthless man – sometimes father can be that way too – but they have our best interests at heart. I can’t be separated from them.”

“You’d really miss our uncle?”

The corner of Ellie’s mouth twitches. “Maybe not,” she confesses. “But I’d miss our aunt. I’d miss Tristan.”

I snort and Rhi catches my eye. “Everybody talks about your uncle – Tristan’s father?” I nod, “like he’s the devil himself.”

“Because he is.”

Rhi’s brow furrows. “What’s so awful about him?”

I look at Ellie who peers down at her hands.

“He’s manipulative, cruel, calculating.”

“A lot of the people I’ve met in Los Magicos are,” Rhi mutters.

Now my brow furrows. “Who?” I say darkly.

“It doesn’t matter.”

It does. I intend to question her about it once Ellie’s gone.

“Trust me,” Ellie mutters. “None of them are like our uncle.”