A Kingdom of Starlight (The Crystal Veil #1)

Chapter 1

NARYA

Iknew the gods had cursed me the moment my crystal turned black.

The girl beside me screamed when hers did too.

The guards silenced her quickly, dragging her off until her cries faded into the crystal leaves whispering over us.

I didn’t scream. I smiled.

I knew if I didn’t they would come for me.

I acted quickly and slipped my crystal into my cloak pocket before anyone could see what happened. I kept my fingers wrapped around it, the sharp edges biting into my palm, enough to draw blood and remind me I was still alive.

For how long, only the gods knew now.

No one survived long without their aelith.

I looked up at the Tree of Stars, at all the leaves glittering around me.

Crystals bloomed like starfire across the Tree’s thick white branches, scattering moonlight in every direction. The Tree of Stars was sentient and beautiful, yet there I was, standing by its heart with a crystal that had been denied by the gods.

No, not denied. Cursed.

Someone cheered behind me. A woman laughed while a man fell to his knees, weeping, when his aelith flared to life. The gods had blessed them with the magic that would guide them to their fate.

Mine had been erased.

If I wanted to make it to sunrise, I needed to lie to everyone.

Pretend I hadn’t just watched a girl get dragged away for the same secret that now bled in my pocket. A secret that got you killed.

Kaydra squealed across from me, snapping my eyes back to her.

Her aelith flared at her touch, the white light inside her crystal scattering across a thousand more.

Every crystal glowed silver at first. It was only at the Basin did the aelith reveal itself and change colour.

Those whose crystals held their light were called the Kindled.

The blessed ones. At the Basins, some flared different colours—blue for Moonstone, gold for Sunstone, and red for Bloodstone.

But if the aelith turned black, like mine did?

You weren’t Kindled at all. You were cursed. Fateless.

Hundreds like my sister cheered as they, too, plucked a crystal from the Tree. Everyone waited for their twentieth winter to do it, when the gods finally deemed them worthy to approach and receive their gift. The gift of fate.

I clenched my hand tighter, warm liquid trickling down my palm.

I could already feel it. The lack of magic inside my crystal. There was no aelith. No bond waiting to light my path and guide me to my fated one.

I was a fool to think the gods thought me worthy of one.

Kaydra’s sea-green eyes found mine through the crowd. She pushed up to her tiptoes and waved at me. Her crystal’s light spilled around her until her cobalt hair looked silver—like mine.

But hers was only a fleeting illusion, one that would fade in a moment.

Mine never faded.

I’d been cursed with starlight hair from the day I was born.

I smiled at her despite my inner panic. I didn’t want to ruin this for her.

I turned before she caught the tremor in my lips, my gaze falling to the bluemoss ground. White starflies drifted around my feet, floating like tiny wisps.

Deep down, I’d always known this moment belonged to Kaydra.

I’d never truly belonged anywhere. Not even in the Moonstone village where her father, Blayren, found me washed ashore in a basket when I was barely an infant.

As Kaydra turned to celebrate with her friends, I slipped away from the Tree.

Something clawed its way up my throat with every step. Panic really started to kick in. The ground beneath me tilted, the leaves swayed, the sky trembled at the edge of my eyes. Every branch that touched me, every crystal that pierced my gaze, made me feel as if I were drowning in a sea of light.

I needed to get out. To think. To breathe.

But even as I ducked under the silver boughs, the Tree’s light followed me.

Crystals hummed like heartbeats around me, the branches curled like fingers trying to drag me back under.

Their gleam was no longer enchanting to me but nauseating. Terrifying.

I stumbled down the path. Moonstone guards watched from beneath crescent-moon helms. I shoved my hands deeper into my pockets and headed for the temple gate. If I reached it without collapsing, it would be a miracle.

I yanked my hood tighter, shoving back the glint of my hair.

Around me, people drifted in white robes—some towards the Tree, others to the Moon Temple, its quartz dome glowing as bells chimed and priests chanted.

I could still hear them, even from there.

It had been soothing a moment ago. Now it turned my stomach.

My ivory cloak trailed behind as I made for the gate.

It was with great effort I forced myself not to look suspicious.

Guards flanked the gate, their blue armour gleaming in the lantern light.

One guard glanced my way but said nothing.

I held my breath as I climbed the last steps slowly, bracing for his hand to seize me.

It didn’t.

Far below, sapphire lanterns flickered beneath a veil of mist.

Hundreds—if not thousands—of people waited in breathless anticipation. Moonstone, Sunstone, even Bloodstone delegations were down there, cloaked in their ceremonial robes, eager to see which of us had been blessed by the gods.

Which of us cursed.

All three kingdoms had gathered for the Stargala, as they did each year, rotating the location between the Moonstone and Sunstone temples.

Never the Bloodstone temple.

The Bloodstones had banned passage through their kingdom for over a century. So long ago that most of us had stopped wondering why, or even caring.

I looked back at the mist. Somewhere down there was my family—Blayren, the man who saved me and raised me as his own despite the naysayers.

Rueren, his youngest daughter, my sweet baby sister.

Even the twins, Grisanne and Eveldra, were down there.

Probably waiting to see if I’d been cursed like they’d hoped.

My knees trembled as a rush of cold dread pooled in my stomach.

There was no way out of this. I couldn’t hide or run. The Moon Guild would find me, drag me back, and my family would pay the price for it. I couldn’t do that to them. Not even to the twins, and there was no love lost between us.

I drew a deep breath and took the first step. No one stopped me. Hooded figures moved around me, blind to my turmoil. I kept my eyes on the moonquartz steps gleaming beneath my feet.

I was Fateless.

The realisation gutted me. I had always been different, but this? This was final. As if the gods had been watching all along, just waiting for the right moment to pull my destiny from under me and laugh as I fell.

My throat tightened as I neared the bottom of the steps. I glanced up at the full blue moon, round and watchful in the starlit sky. The moon had never really comforted me. It was the stars. Always the stars. But now even they felt distant.

Tears pricked my eyes. I wiped them quickly on my shoulder. I couldn’t let anyone see me cry. There would be time to process and mourn later.

Right now, I just needed to survive.

It was Rueren I saw first, perched high on our father’s shoulders, scanning the crowd with her fierce little eyes.

The twins flanked them, bickering beside a merchant cart.

Around Rueren’s neck hung a garland of snowbelles, the ceremonial charm for good fortune after claiming your crystal.

Bards drifted through the crowd, strumming bright notes while children ran after them.

Rueren watched and waved at them all as they passed by, then she resumed her search.

Her freckled face lit the moment she saw me.

And I shattered.

A tear slipped free before I could catch it.

I loved my little sister more than anyone—and now I was about to devastate her. And she didn’t even know it yet.

She tapped Blayren’s head and pointed down.

He lifted her up and set her on the ground.

Her four-year-old legs immediately bolted towards me.

The weight inside me was unbearable, but still I smiled for her.

I even laughed when Blayren scooped her back into his arms, away from the bustling crowd, as though this wasn’t tearing me apart.

I walked by the merchant stalls and squeezed my crystal again. Not for hope.

For pain. Something I could still feel.

Blayren’s harsh features softened as he smiled down at his daughter and tickled her. Until they found me, and his face hardened. His smile slowly faded and his temple wrinkled with worry.

He knew. Of course he knew.

I could never hide the truth from him.

Blayren had once been one of the Moon Guild’s highest-ranking warriors, before his wife Aniya died whilst giving birth to Rueren, driving him into an early retirement.

He could unearth a lie with nothing more than a look.

A gift he unfortunately shared with his brother, the current captain of the Moonstone Guild.

Grisanne followed her father’s line of sight. A sneer slid over her lips as though she’d been waiting all year for this moment.

Eveldra kept her back to me until her twin spoke.

“Now then,” Grisanne called out. “Let’s see what tiny, misshapen crystal the Tree spat out for you!”

Eveldra turned around then, sneering at me. “Spitting is far too kind.”

Both pairs of eyes gleamed, identical in their cruelty, just like their mother’s had been. My ears burned, but I refused to look away.

Not from my father, whose gaze still held mine.

With a sharp warning, he silenced the twins, then turned back to me. But his light eyes were shadowed by something I’d never seen in them before. Fear.

It looked misplaced there, in a man whose shoulders had always seemed immovable, like they could bear the weight of the realm itself just to shield us.

Now, for the first time, they looked as though they might crack beneath it.

Kaydra burst through the crowd behind me, pulling every eye her way.

Her aelith blazed from her hand. The twins rushed to her side at once. Rueren gasped, nearly tumbling from our father’s shoulders in her excitement.

“Look, Papa, it’s a star!”