Starless (The Starless Duet #1)

Chapter 1

I ducked under a string of glowing crystals, their pale blue light casting shadows across the cramped stalls of the Hollow Market.

Click chittered from his perch on my shoulder, his brass tail ticking against my collarbone with each mechanical swing.

The sound blended with the general chaos, haggling voices, the hiss of steam vents, the distant clang of metal on metal from the forges below.

“Easy,” I murmured, reaching up to scratch under his chin. His scales were warm beneath my fingers, and he butted his head against my palm before settling.

Kora walked half a step behind me, close enough that I knew she was there, but far enough away to watch my back.

We’d been doing this dance for years now, ever since we were teenagers sneaking our first haul past the Assembly’s guard posts.

She knew how to move through a crowd without drawing attention, how to keep her hand near the blade hidden in her boot, and how to read a room for threats.

“Three stalls down,” she said quietly. “Varek’s there.”

I didn’t turn to look. “How’s his mood?”

“Probably foul as ever.”

“Perfect.”

The market sprawled through the old mining tunnels beneath the Merchant Quarter, a warren of passages that the Assembly had declared unstable and off-limits two decades ago.

Which made it ideal for people like us, people who dealt in things the Assembly didn’t approve of.

Unsanctioned anchors mostly, and artifacts from dead realms that could be salvaged and re-sold.

Everything that could get you thrown in the Dredge if you weren’t careful.

The air tasted metallic, tinged with the scent of unregulated elemental magic.

Someone was running a fire forge nearby, and the heat pulsed through the tunnel in waves.

I could see the orange glow reflecting off the rough-hewn walls, making the embedded crystal veins shimmer.

It was a small miracle that whoever was running the illegal forge hadn’t been sniffed out by the Assembly guards yet.

Click’s claws tightened on my shoulder as we passed a stall selling what looked like parts from a dismantled skiff.

Probably stolen. The vendor, a woman with fire magic tattoos spiraling up her arms, watched us with flat eyes but didn’t call out.

She knew better than to hassle customers who looked like they had a destination in mind.

Fire made Click nervous. I’d found him in a forested realm years ago, and while he loved the warm climate of the Prime Realm, he hated fire magic.

“Juno,” Kora’ warned.

I followed her gaze and spotted the Assembly guard near the entrance to one of the side tunnels.

He wore the standard black uniform with brass buttons, and his hand rested on the hilt of an air baton.

Not uncommon. The Assembly liked to remind everyone that even at Hollow Market, they were watching.

But this guard was too focused, his eyes scanning the crowd with purpose rather than boredom.

“Looking for someone,” I said.

“Not us, I hope.”

“When is it ever us?”

Kora snorted. “Do you want that list chronologically or alphabetically?”

“Alphabetically sure does sound more impressive.”

We moved past the guard without incident, though I felt his gaze track us for a few seconds too long.

My hand drifted to the pendant hidden beneath my shirt, feeling the familiar shape of the anchor crystal through the fabric.

Black as the void between realms, shot through with pinpricks of light that looked like trapped stars.

My father had made it for me on my sixteenth birthday, back when I’d been naive enough to think scavenging dead realms was an adventure rather than a necessity.

Now I knew better.

I didn’t wear the crystal on the outside of my clothing, keeping it tucked away from the eyes of the guards who could ask me for my registration at any time, and seeing as my crystal was indeed illegal, I avoided it at all costs.

Varek’s stall occupied a prime corner position where two main tunnels intersected.

The old bastard had been running this spot for as long as I could remember, selling everything from rare elemental crystals to questionable tonics that claimed to cure everything from heartache to hair loss.

Most of it was garbage, but Varek had connections throughout the city’s underworld, which made him valuable.

He looked up as we approached, his weathered face creasing into a greedy grin. “Juno Farren.” He dragged out my name unnecessarily. “And the lovely Kora Teller. Come to grace my humble establishment?”

“Humble.” Kora crossed her arms. “That’s a new word for overpriced and highly questionable.”

Varek’s smile widened. I leaned against the stall’s support beam, careful not to disturb the precariously stacked merchandise. Click scuttled down my arm and perched on the counter, eyeing a jar of preserved something-or-other with interest, his forked tongue tasting the air.

“I need to move some items,” I said. “Interested?”

Varek’s watery eyes narrowed. “What kind of items?”

I pulled a small cloth bundle from my satchel and unwrapped it on the counter.

Three crystal fragments, each no bigger than my thumb, glowing with a soft amber light, and an antique brass astrolabe that remarkably still worked.

The crystals were rough-cut raw material from a collapsed fire realm called Veil’Sheerah.

Rare, valuable, and completely illegal to possess without Assembly documentation.

Varek picked up one of the fragments, holding it to the light. The glow intensified, casting warm refraction across his pocked and lined face. “Quality,” he murmured. “Very nice. Where’d you pull these?”

“Does it matter?”

“Suppose not.” He set the crystal down carefully. “What are you asking?”

“Sixty sovereigns.”

He barked a laugh. “Sixty? Girl, you’ve been breathing too much of that void air. Thirty.”

“Fifty-five, and that’s me being generous.”

“Thirty-five.”

I reached for the crystals. “I’ll take them to Mika. She appreciates quality.”

“Mika’s inventory got seized last week,” Varek said quickly, his grin oily. “Assembly raid. She’s out of business.”

That made me pause. Mika had been one of Hollow Market’s most careful traders, always covering her tracks, never getting greedy. If the Assembly had gotten to her...

“Forty,” Varek said. “Final offer. And that’s only because I like you.”

I glanced at Kora. She gave a tiny shrug, her version of “could be worse.”

“Fine. Forty.”

Varek counted the coins from a locked box beneath his counter. Silver sovereigns, each stamped with the Assembly’s seal on one side and the elemental symbol for unity on the other. The irony wasn’t lost on me, using the Assembly’s own currency to fund our illegal activities.

I was tucking the coins into my satchel when Click suddenly went rigid, his brass tail frozen mid-swing. Every muscle in his small body tensed, his scales flattening and his bright green eyes fixed on something behind me.

The hair on the back of my neck rose. I turned slowly. The crowd had shifted, and through the gap I could see three Assembly guards moving through the market with purpose. They weren’t doing a casual patrol. They were searching.

“Juno.” Kora’s hand found my elbow. “We should go.”

“Agreed.”

We moved away from Varek’s stall, blending into the flow of foot traffic heading toward the tunnel exit. My heart thundered, but I kept my pace casual, unhurried. Running would only draw attention.

We slipped through the narrow passage that curved upward through the rock, emerging through a rusted grate disguised as a drainage opening. The sudden brightness made me squint as we stepped out onto cobbled streets. Click retreated deeper into my collar, shielding his eyes.

“That was close,” Kora muttered, glancing behind us.

The evening sun bathed Arkanis in amber light, turning the city soft and warm.

We emerged near the docks, where the air carried the mingled scents of salt water, crystal dust and spices from the vendors down the street.

Workers swarmed over vessels of all sizes, from massive wing ships with their elegant crystal-powered engines and wing-like sails, to sturdy trading barges laden with goods, and nimble skiffs darting between them.

I paused to catch my breath, the forty sovereigns weighing down my satchel. “We should put some distance between us and that raid.”

I followed Kora as she walked, my eyes drawn inevitably upward to the Assembly Hall that dominated the Arkanis skyline.

The massive spire of interlocking glass and crystal caught the light like a prism, sending rainbows dancing across the surrounding stone buildings.

Its impossibly tall towers housed the Assembly council chambers, the courts, and the grand libraries filled with knowledge only the privileged could access. Beautiful and terrible at once.

“Hungry?” Kora nudged me, nodding toward a vendor whose cart emitted clouds of sweet-scented steam.

My stomach growled in response. “Starving.”

We approached the cart where a woman was arranging pastries in neat rows. The display showcased star-shaped confections filled with spiced fruits from at least three different realms, their crusts dusted with sugar.

“Two sunberry twists,” Kora said, handing over a few coins.

The pastry was still warm when I bit into it, the sweet-tart filling exploding across my tongue. Click chirped hopefully, and I broke off a tiny piece for him, hearing him nibble it next to my ear.

We leaned against the dock railing as the bustle of the port continued around us.

Above, the massive portal to the Gallery hung in the evening sky, its edges pulsing with pale blue magic.

The double moons, one silver and one faintly amber, looked utterly diminished next to its vastness.

That tear in the sky was our connection to everything beyond the Prime Realm.

It was our gateway to all the realms, dead or living, that made up our universe.