Page 23 of Starborn Husbands

Treyu

Falling hurt. The most pain I’ve ever experienced. Until now.

To become a real star again, you have to drink from the cup of the gods. The gods don’t like the squandering of their gifts. When a star falls, it’s assumed you no longer have the desire to be a star, and the king doesn’t allow the rebirth because he thinks it would be a waste and an insult to the Gods, except for very good reasons.

If you lose your star power once, you’re likely to lose it again because you can’t maintain vibration.

Without it, you can’t live anywhere in the Nebuli. You’ll die. If he’s going through all this, he must really want to punish Zhang.

“You must drink from the cup until it burns,” the king had told me. “And then you must keep drinking until the pain takes you.”

That’s the last I remember. It did, but not until I’d drank an obscene amount of glow-y God juice. Pain burned white-hot through my veins. I thought my skin would burst. Then, nothingness.

Waking up is a jarring experience. I’m in a bed without remembering how I got here. A large one with red silks. It smells like … fuck. This is Zhang’s bed, isn’t it?

I’m not wearing anything except a pair of white underthings. Sun’s pouring in the window. Despite the pain and my circumstances, my heart lifts.I’m home.Gingerly, I make my way to the window to stare out at the valley of homes nestled in the greenery below the palace. The sky is streaked with cotton candy pink clouds. I inhale all the scent of flowers indicative of what humans would consider our summertime.

The door slides open, interrupting my tranquility. The king and Silva—Zhang’s older sister—storm in. Gemini floats like the swan he is behind them. With them is one of the palace’s lightseers, a healer.

“No one knocks around here? Now I know where Zhang gets his lack of boundaries from.”

“How do you feel?” the king asks.

“Kinda pissed, if anyone wants to know.”

“I am referring to the treatment.”

I yawn and stretch out the leftover kinks. “I feel like I’ve been burned from the inside, but y’know, whatever works.”

“Check him over,” the king demands.

I’m led—roughly—to my bed, uh, Zhang’s bed and, wow, I’m immovable again. Not to the lightseer—he’s built and a star—but I’m not tossed around like a human would be, especially considering the rough treatment. This healer has zero bedside manner. I sit like a good boy and let the healer do his work, using his glow-y pen-shaped apparatus to analyze me.

“He’s still healing, but a couple of days and then he’ll be ready for his punishment.”

“Oh c’mon. Heal me just to break me again?”

“You will be reprimanded, forgiven, and then welcomed into the family. You’re becoming a Centaurus. You’ll act like one.”

“I don’t need another Dad, thanks.”

He wrinkles his nose, and I think about my dads. One of them is going to be real pissed at me. The other might bake me cookies … or help murder me. Hard to say.

“Y’know, I think I’d better lie down for a bit. Feeling super tired all of a sudden.”

“If we put the bracelet on now, will he still heal?” the king asks.

Bracelet?

“Yes, but slower. You’ll have to wait a day or two before you punish him.”

The king nods. “Maybe that’s for the best. Zhang can be here for that part. Otherwise, we’re going to have a tantrum on our hands.”

Like he cares about that. “What’s this bracelet we’re talking about?”

The king pulls a cuff from his pocket. It’s metallic purple with runes the same brilliance as stars, glimmering across the surface. Fuck. I know what that is.

“Please don’t do this. I can behave myself.”