Catching Stars

by Cayla Keenan

  “I just thought—” Maddix started, quickly composing himself to hide his shock.

  “That I grew up in a manse in the outer ring, with servants to wait on me hand and foot?”

  “I didn’t know that there were witch orphans too.” With how they prized their magic, Maddix couldn’t fathom sahir parents giving up their child. Besides, he’d heard more than one person call her Ayrie’s favorite. How did an orphan wind up at the Palace at all, let alone their favorite pet?

  “I knew there was something familiar about you,” Jayin said with the ghost of a smile, and Maddix realized he’d given himself away as well. “We can always recognize our own.”

  “Southside,” Maddix managed, still reeling. “That’s where I grew up.”

  “North,” Jayin replied, and Maddix marveled at how close they’d been as children, orphans living with dozens of other unclaimed kids just across the river from one another.

  “I thought I was one of you for years.” Jayin said without prompting. Maddix had to bite his tongue to keep himself from asking a thousand questions. Even after a lifetime of living side-by-side with witches and his education at the helwyr compound, there was so much he didn’t know.

  There was so much about her that he didn’t know.

  “I lived in a room with eight other girls until the Kingswitch took me to Ayrie. I’m just much a dockrat as you.”

  “How?” Maddix asked. “How did you know you had magic?”

  He expected her to snipe at him, not turn her head away.

  “Because I thought I was dying,” she answered, spreading her bedroll onto the filthy floor. “And then he found me.”

  For someone who’d been rescued and thrown into a life every orphan dreamed about, Jayin’s voice didn’t hold a lot of gratitude for the Kingswitch. For the hundredth time since he met her, Maddix wondered why she’d run away. Or who she was running away from.

  He had a hundred questions, a thousand, but Jayin was done talking. Maddix stayed awake long after her breathing evened out. He stared at the rotted ceiling, wondering about corruption that lurked beneath gilt floors and how it was starting to seem like nothing he’d ever believed about the sahir was true.

  “No,” Jayin said the next morning, before he’d managed to explain even half of his plan. He knew she’d react like this, but it wasn’t as if they had any other options. “Not a chance, convict.”

  “It’ll work.”

  “It’s a death sentence.”

  “This whole thing is a death sentence, isn’t that what you’ve been saying this entire time?” Maddix asked. Jayin paced, her movements jerky and stiff

  “If anyone’s got those anti-sahir charms, this whole thing falls apart,” she said finally.

  “If we stay here, they’ll find us, and you’re the one who refuses to go to Kaddah.”

  She turned to him, glaring.

  “If you have a better plan, I’d love to hear it.” Maddix challenged. His hand went to the jewel at his throat, worrying the stone.

  “This is a terrible idea.” She was right, of course.

  “I know,” Maddix said, steeling himself. “Let’s get it done.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six:

  Jayin

  Jayin had been told her entire life she was mad. Before they knew she was sahir, the medics thought her pain was caused by some kind of Dark possession. At the Palace, older witches scoffed at her recklessness but whispered worriedly about the things she could see inside their minds. Mind reader and secret stealer. The Kingswitch’s favorite, the King’s pet. Eventually, the words lost all meaning.

  Kell’s plan redefined madness, even for her.

  “We’re going to die,” Jayin hissed. Her head ached from the strain of glamoring Kell around the stone. To curious onlookers, he was one of dozens of soldiers milling around the wall. Jayin allowed herself to be dragged behind him, disguised as a stocky man who stank like the bottom of a bottle.

  The plan was a simple on, and in a sahirla-free world, it might actually work. Jayin could fabricate the credentials and keep them from being detected. But Hale knew they were coming, which meant there would be an untold number of people walking around with those starcursed gems.

  “How about you concentrate on magic, and I’ll worry about getting us through? Stars, I thought you Northside kids were tougher than this,” Kell whispered. Jayin almost laughed and forced herself to swallow the sound.

  She dug her elbow into Kell’s ribs, using the pain’s echo to refocus. She still didn’t know if telling him about Northside was a mistake, but if her concentration wavered now, it could kill them both.

  Some part of her worried he might use it as leverage. Another part marveled at his unexpected empathy. They’d practically grown up in the same place, only separated by the river that bisected the city. In a different life, they might have grown up together.

  Who would she be without magic? She wouldn’t have pursued the Guard, that was for sure. After years of living under the matron’s thumb, she wouldn’t subject herself to a career of taking orders. She might have joined one of the gangs, recruited for her skills with a blade. Maybe she’d already be dead. Maybe she would be running things.

  “Hold,” a soldier ordered. Jayin snapped out of her thoughts, focusing her attention on him and searching out what he expected to see in order to let them pass. “Papers.”

  Kell handed over a blank sheet they’d stolen this morning and Jayin projected the correct information, plucked freshly out of the soldier’s head. The man nodded after briefly inspecting the paper and waved them through.

  “That went better than I expected,” Kell murmured.

  Jayin rolled her eyes. “You are the most infuriating kind of optimist.” The fact that he could remain so after everything that had happened to him was beyond her.

  “And you are ten pounds of surly in a nine-pound bag, but here we are,” Kell replied easily. Once again, a laugh bubbled up inside her and she shoved it back down. Don’t be an idiot. “Come on, we’re almost through.”

  As Kell marched her through the inner chamber of the wall, Jayin let her power flare out, searching for the empty spaces that meant there were sahirla about. Suspicion prickled under her skin, the sense of unease deepening the closer they came to the other side. The wall should be crawling with witchhunters. Someone should have seen through her glamor by now.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” Jayin murmured as they crossed through the second checkpoint.

  “Me too,” Kell started before words hiccupped and died on his lips.

  “Stars, sometimes I hate being right,” Jayin hissed, dropping the glamor. It wasn’t worth maintaining anymore.

  “Ah, our guests of honor have arrived,” Hale said, stepping into the middle of the chamber. A chamber studded with white gems. “I’m impressed you made it this far.”

  Jayin should have it seen coming from miles away, but she’d been too focused on searching out individuals to notice the gaping void in her second sight.

  "Look at that,” Jayin said, forcing her voice to remain even. There had to be two-dozen soldiers waiting for them, all masked and armed to the teeth. Jayin sized them up. She didn’t like their odds. “The zealot thinks we’re impressive. High praise.” Hale’s smile twitched, but the smug look remained in place.

  “You two make quite the pair.” He turned to Kell. “Oh, Maddix. You could’ve been such a wonderful helwyr. But here you are, allying yourself with one of these animals. I’ll be sorry to hear when it kills you.”

  I am not an ‘it’! Jayin wanted to shout. She bit her lip so hard it bled.

  “You look real broken up about it,” Jayin said.

  “Enough from the valyach,” Hale said, raising a hand. Burning skies, Jayin hated that word. Her lip curled over her teeth in a snarl. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

  Knives appeared in Jayin’s hands, and Kell ripped his sword from its sheath. They stood back to back and for the first time, Jayin could
sense something in his aura besides pain. He was ready to die by her side. But they wouldn’t go down without a fight.

  Something shifted inside of her, a magical spark that shouldn’t have been possible with so many of the gems studding the walls.

  “Run,” Jayin whispered to Kell. He stiffened, his muscles tensing. “Run as fast and as far as you can and then take the necklace off.”

  “Not a chance.”

  Hale motioned his hand forward and the soldiers advanced, pressing in on them from all sides.

  “Then this is going to hurt,” she warned, pulling off one of her gloves with her teeth. The second their skin touched, pain bloomed behind her eyes and the strange power surged with it.

  Jayin fought through the haze of pain and threw her hands out in front of her. Auras disintegrated under her fingertips, blowing away like ash. Jayin killed five soldiers before Kell ripped his hand out of hers, shoving her hard.

  The air beside her shifted, and Jayin moved just in time to avoid the head of a double-bladed axe plunging into her skull. Her movements were uncoordinated and sluggish, slowed by the ringing in her ears. Jayin rolled out of the way, her knife sliding cleanly into his ribs. The soldier fell and Jayin threw her shields back up, lurching into the fight. The chamber erupted into chaos, and it was all she could do to stay standing as the soldiers converged in a tide of violence and steel. Time dissolved into chaos, the space between each heartbeat seeming to go on for hours as her knives flashed. The air was thick with blood, and Jayin lost track of Kell until he grabbed her sleeve and hauled her back the way they came.

  “That door was open the whole time and you tell me now?” Jayin panted, doubled over. Soldiers pounding on the door.

  “I was a little busy trying to keep you alive,” he protested, slamming the heavy bar down and pressing his back against the doors. It wasn’t going to hold for long.

  “There’s got to be another way out,” Jayin said, casting about for something, anything.

  “Well if you have any brilliant ideas,” Kell said through gritted teeth, “now would be the time.”

  Jayin didn’t answer, her gaze landing on a stack of abandoned supplies. Please, please, please, she thought, pawing through the pile.

  “Jayin,” Kell said urgently, but she ignored him, grabbing as many thin logs as she could carry. “What are you—Jayin!”

  “I’ll be right back,” she promised, sprinting as fast and as far as she could. This side of the wall was as empty as before, presumably because the bulk of the soldiers were on the other side trying to break through. As soon as she was far enough away, Jayin set up three of the blasting sticks against the wall and set a small fuse of flash paper. She lit the flame and took off again, setting two more charges before she made it back to Kell.

  “What were you—” he started, before an almighty crash shook the wall. Jayin ducked for cover, throwing her arms up against the debris that rained down.

  “Running now, talking later,” she said.

  For once, Kell didn’t argue. Two more explosions shook the earth and within minutes Jayin could hear shouts and footsteps echoing behind them. Her little trick with the blasting sticks wasn’t as effective as she’d hoped. Hale was persistent, that was for damn sure. She and Kell had slipped through his fingers twice. Jayin was willing to bet he didn’t want it to become three.

  “Turn!” Jayin shouted, sprinting into one of the mechanized boxes. Kell followed and she threw the lever as soon as he was inside.

  “Bloody skies,” Kell swore, pressing himself flat against the walls of the box as it lurched skyward.

  “You’ll get used to it.”

  “Explain to me how this is better?” Kell asked as they stepped out into the open air. The wind howled, threatening to pitch them over the edge.

  “No soldiers, no fire, no Hale,” Jayin said, ticking them off on her fingers.

  “No way down.”

  “At least I did something,” Jayin snapped. “Now cut that,” she said, pointing. Maddix severed the cable it in a single swing and the box plummeted to the ground. It wouldn’t keep the soldiers off of them forever, but now they had a head start.

  “Keep up, convict,” she said, picking her way along the top of the wall.

  Kell muttered under his breath but followed her footsteps.

  “Impulsive, irresponsible, incendiary,” he groused just within earshot. Jayin tried to ignore him, scouting ahead.

  “Stars, are all Guardlings so whiny?” she demanded without looking back. “If you want to take your chances with Hale, be my guest.”

  “I’m not whining—” Kell started, but his words faded as something in her second sight caught her attention. An archer.

  “Move!” Jayin shouted. Even as the word left her lips she knew it wouldn’t be in time. She wasn’t fast enough.

  Jayin reached out her hand. Something flickered to life around Kell’s body, glowing like a silver sun. By the time her vision cleared, Kell was staggering on the edge of the wall. The arrow was broken at his feet.

  “Kell!” she cried. The world seemed to slow as he tipped over the edge. For a moment, it looked like he might regain his balance, but then gravity claimed him. “No!”

  As he fell, Jayin could almost imagine that Kell pressed two fingers to his heart, and then stretched them out to her.

  Jayin moved without thinking, throwing herself off of the wall after him. Her heart leaped into her mouth as she fell, air whistling in her ears until she managed to grab hold of a stray rope. It slowed her descent, but Jayin still hit the ground hard. She rolled, absorbing the impact before scrambling to her feet.

  “Kell,” she said, forcing herself to breathe as she approached his body. The glow was nothing more than a dim flicker, winking out between one breath and the next. Jayin pressed two fingers to his neck, hardly daring to hope. There was nothing. No pulse. No heartbeat. “Kell,” she tried, louder this time. “Maddix! Bleeding skies, if you die on me, I’m going to kill you.”

  She drew her fist over her head and pounded it against his chest. Once, twice, three times, until finally she could feel his heart stutter back to life. The breath rattled from his lungs and he groaned.

  “Stop that,” he mumbled without opening his eyes.

  “Dayri idiot.” Jayin sank to her knees, laying her forehead on his chest. She barely felt the pain, her heart beating in time with his.

  “Let’s never do that again,” Maddix breathed. She almost laughed, exhaling shakily. Maddix grabbed her sleeve, careful not to brush her skin. His gray-blue eyes found hers. “Jayin.”

  She waved off his thanks, interrupting as something much more pressing occurred to her.

  “I didn’t feel it,” she said. It was a fifty-foot drop. Miraculous survival or not, she should have felt the impact. Maddix lifted his arm for her inspection, a small smile on his lips. His wrist lacked a certain cuff.

  “I told you I’d take it off,” he said, slowly pushing himself up. Jayin just stared at him. He’d thought the fall would kill him, and he’d taken the precious few seconds he might’ve had left to free her.

  “I don’t know what you did, but it saved my life,” Maddix said, still smiling.

  “I didn’t—” Jayin started before startling to her feet. This time she was ready. “Duck!” she ordered, a knife in her hand and thrown before the word was out of her mouth.

  Twenty feet away, a soldier crumpled. The hilt of her dagger sprouted from his neck.

  “Stay here,” she said, darting forward to retrieve it.

  “You’re never…getting out of here…alive,” the soldier gurgled. Bloody foam speckled his lips and dribbled into the sand.

  “I’ve heard that before,” she said, pulling the blade out of his neck and wiping it clean on his jacket. “And I’m still here.”

  “Come on, convict,” she said, pulling his arm around her shoulders and helping him to his feet.

  “You called me Maddix before,” he said. “I think you’re going so
ft on me.”

  “And you’re soft in the head,” Jayin replied. She let him lean on her, trying to ignore the ache behind her eyes.

  Jayin’s nerves pulled taut as they hobbled towards freedom. They weren’t moving fast enough, and if it came to a fight, Jayin was on her own. Maddix’s movements were sluggish and he could barely walk, let alone swing a sword.

  “Stars,” Jayin swore as a volley of crossbow bolts flew over their heads. Archers were assembled on all sides but one, and it only took a moment to realize where the open path led.

  Kaddah.

  Jayin swore, skidding to a stop. Om’s energy flared in her second sight, a beacon of fear and warning. Hale was herding them into the accursed queendom where she would be killed just as surely as if the hunter did it himself.

  “What are you doing?” Maddix demanded, pulling her against the wall and bracing himself so they were chest to chest. Jayin’s head throbbed. “Now is not the time to be standing still.”

  “It’s Hale,” Jayin said, her voice shrill with panic. “He’s forcing us across the border. I can’t go to Kaddah, Maddix. I can’t.” Another arrow whistled past their heads and Jayin sucked in a breath. Maddix crowded close, covering her body with his own. The archers were getting bolder.

  “I’m not seeing a lot of other choices here,” he said tightly. Jayin could feel him wince, and she smelled blood. She hissed a breath, not bothering to hide her fear. If they crossed the border, a simple scratch would be the least of their worries.

  Jayin tried to look beyond the cage of his arms, searching out escape routes, anything that would allow them to get through. She could set another fire, she could go out swinging, she could fight her way out.

  “Jayin, we don’t have any other choice.”

  “I’ll die there,” she said, dread weighing in her stomach like a stone. “I’ll die in that place, and they’ll drain my magic and sell me for parts.”

  “Nothing is going to happen to you,” Maddix said, his voice low and steady.