Chapter 5
“What was that all about?”
Aurora rushes in, pulling off her gold mask, revealing her beautiful face as she demands an answer from Kieran. All whilst I’m still unable to move, Lucas’s grip tightening around me.
“He was asking for it.” Kieran shrugs. “Luckily, Laia feels incredibly forgiving today.”
Funny.
“Asking for it” is exactly the kind of thing Jordan would have slapped the female Fae in the face with if she were a human and didn’t know how to kick his ass.
“I knew that guy was bad news.” Aurora shakes her head, stepping closer to Laia and gently rubbing her arm.
These Fae are—
… emotional?
I glance between the three of them. As cruel as Kieran was, he’s visibly upset. It’s obvious he cares about Laia. And so does Aurora.
Interesting.
I wonder how I can take advantage of this.
Kieran glances at me, at Lucas’s arm around my waist. He opens his mouth, but Aurora reaches out, her fingers brushing his neck.
“You’ve got blood on you,” she murmurs, wiping it with the kind of closeness that makes me look twice. Her eyes soften as he leans into her touch, only for a second—before he pulls away.
Her eyes then flick to me.
Too quickly.
Too deliberate
A display of possession.
Basically, a silent warning.
He’s hers.
Got it.
“Let me make it clear,” Kieran calls out, his eyes darting to us humans—not me, but the rest of us.
The entire hall freezes like it’s holding its breath.
“You are welcome to stay here, do as you please … but if harm comes to any one of us …” He pauses, just long enough to make sure that we’re carefully listening to every word. “You’ll wish you’d never been born.”
I stop breathing.
Kieran smirks.
“I wish I could promise no harm will come to you, but I can’t help it if you’re all reckless fools,” he drawls, his voice almost bored. “Now that that’s clear, please … enjoy yourselves. The night is still young.”
And just like that, the music swells again. Conversation and laughter fill the room in an instant like nothing happened—like this is just another night in paradise for them.
“We should go,” Lucas mutters, gently pulling me back.
I hesitate.
Kieran was about to tell me how to get a wish without winning the trials.
On one hand, he scares the absolute hell out of me.
But on the other … I didn’t come here to play it safe. And to be fair, Jordan did deserve to be punished.
So, I slip out of Lucas’s grasp.
“I want to stay,” I tell him, and I can see on his face how much he dislikes it.
“Cassandra, you saw what he just did.”
“Yes, but Jordan assaulted Laia.”
I don’t even know why he would think it was a good idea, but with the insane amount of Fae wine he consumed, he probably didn’t think at all.
“It doesn’t matter,” Lucas protests, his voice low, his eyes narrowing like he’s looking at a stranger. “You can’t seriously want to keep dancing with him.”
But that’s the problem.
He doesn’t know me.
Not anymore.
“I’ll be fine,” I say. “Don’t worry about me.”
I have to do this on my own—win these trials, these twisted games. Lucas will try to save me, but he won’t be able to follow me everywhere.
“You’re my best friend’s girlfriend. Of course I bloody worry about you,” he snaps, his words piercing through me like a blade.
I step back anyway.
“As long as I don’t do anything stupid, they’re not going to hurt me.”
Those are my final words before I turn my back on Lucas. I don’t want to see those eyes. Don’t want to know I’ve disappointed yet another one of my friends.
Now facing Kieran, with Aurora still behind him, I feel the weight of the room shift onto me.
But Kieran tilts his head, and his lips curl into a grin. Something like surprise and admiration flashes in his eyes.
Aurora is going to kill me.
But if her boyfriend humiliates her in front of the whole Court by flirting with me, then I’m not the problem.
“Will you give me a tour of the Court?” I ask Kieran sweetly.
His grin sharpens.
He extends me a hand in answer.
Maybe Kieran isn’t hers, after all.
Maybe she just wants to be his.
“Can you warn me next time you do that?” I clutch my chest, heart pounding, stumbling slightly as the world shifts around us—we vanished again, just like last night.
“Next time?” Kieran raises an eyebrow. “Sounds like you’re hoping this becomes a habit.”
Staring at his beautiful face before Aurora slices off my head is a great way to go.
I shove down my fear and ask, “Is that a problem?”
That I want to befriend the King of the Fallen.
What’s the worst that could happen?
I suppose I could die.
And I will die.
“I can smell your fear from here, Cassandra,” he says gently, both hands tucked behind his back, leaning in just a little to make my breath stutter.
I frown. “Can you blame me?”
“No.” Kieran shakes his head. “But most humans—if not all of them—usually run away at the sight of something like that.”
“I’m not most humans.” I shrug. “Or are you going to hurt me?”
He crosses his arms, stretching his wings as if to scare me. A blast of wind hits my face.
But I don’t flinch.
I narrow my eyes at him.
“Don’t flex. I already know your wings are gorgeous.”
That gets a laugh out of the man—Fae—who just took another man’s eye in cold blood.
A laugh.
Kieran shakes his head like he can’t quite believe he’s encountered a mortal girl with a death wish who dares to challenge him.
“I like you, Cassandra.”
A pause.
“Though that mouth is going to get you into trouble.”
Only if I let it land on his.
I smirk. “Or out of it.”
Implications hang in the thick air around us. Kieran’s storm-blue eye flashes like lightning, but I pretend I don’t see it and turn to scan the surroundings instead.
We are in a dark room, lit only by a single enchanted orb, a vast open window before us.
I step closer, leaning out. The damp, autumn breeze kisses my skin—it’s a tower.
And beyond it, the sky stretches endlessly.
Streaks of violet and rose stain the heavens, stars scattered like glittering dust across a canvas of night sky.
Gods …
I wish I could sleep under this starry sky.
“You did ask for a tour,” Kieran whispers from behind me. “This is the Tower of Stars.”
To my surprise, he doesn’t step closer. Doesn’t try to take advantage.
He’s probably a few hundred years old—he must know I want something from him, and he could easily twist that, make the most out of it.
He took a man’s eye without blinking.
But somehow, he’s a gentleman?
“Gideon seemed surprised that you collected me yourself last night.” I turn back to him. “Why?”
“It’s not exactly in my job description.”
I exhale, a slow breath pushing past my lips. “So why’d you do it?”
“It’s rare I get to leave the Court,” he replies, a faint smile brushing his lips—but not the same wicked one he’s worn all night. “I fancied a trip to the human world.”
I tilt my head. “Maybe you should get out more.”
He scoffs, gaze drifting to the night sky. “Just because I have wings doesn’t mean I can go anywhere I want. The Court only appears during celestial events. You know that.”
I blink.
Once.
Twice.
A shooting star slices across the sky.
Then it hits me.
“Don’t tell me …” I breathe. “You can only leave when the Court appears?”
“The others leave when they feel like it,” Kieran says softly, the shadows softening the edges of his face. “I can only do so when the Court is visible to your world.”
I press my lips into a thin line.
Two starry nights with him and somehow, he already trusts me with this.
The Fallen King.
Cursed and caged in the Court built by his very own magic.
Fuck.
I thought it would be impossible to find a version of me in this place.
But here we are.
Both trapped in the ruins we made ourselves.
“Why are you telling me this?” I murmur.
“Because, Little Star,” he says, meeting my eyes at last. “You won’t remember any of this when everything is over.”
“What?”
“You’ll remember the trials,” Kieran adds. “But all the tiny details like this will slip your mind completely.”
That’s why no one ever talks about the Court once they’re back.
It must be nice—being able to just curse yourself into oblivion.
If I could do that, I’d have forgotten Declan by now.
That horrible fight. The awful things I said.
All of it.
I’m tempted to ask Kieran to take it from me—to wipe my memories of Declan.
But I’m not done punishing myself just yet.
Far from it.