Look to the Stars (The Orien Trilogy Book 1)

by Catherine Wilson

  “I think I may have preferred the board to this,” I say, slouching against the curved wall of the small space.

  It’s empty except for a single pallet, blanket, and what looks to be something dangerously close to a chamber pot. I’m not sure who my new captor will be, but I hope he is at least a little disturbed with my living arrangements.

  Reeve’s eyes don’t even hold a trace of pity as he leans on the wall across from me. “It’s dark outside at this hour anyway. When the sun rises, we’ll crack open the door.”

  “We?” I ask, shocked I won’t be left here to suffer alone.

  Reeve’s brows furrow, and his lips tip down with a slight frown. “Yes, we. Did you think I’d leave you out here alone without at least one other person to man your station? I’ll stay out on the porch and keep first watch tonight, but I’ll have one of my men meet me in the morning.”

  He turns to move toward the door, but stops, dragging a hard look over his shoulder. “Do you honestly not understand how important you are?”

  I shrug, wishing that I were still the girl who trembled with a mere glance in the mirror. That girl didn’t have near as many problems as she thought. “Perhaps I have more important things to care about.”

  Reeve’s eyes soften at my words, and he turns to face me once more. “Look, I didn’t mean what I said about Emory. I won’t harm him, no matter what opinion he holds on the current matter.”

  “Emory?” I shout. “Emory!”

  The mere mention of my papa sends stinging heat through my bones, and for the first time since Reeve took me captive, I can feel the fire begging to be released from my soul. With all the trauma, I had forgotten about it, but its return brings an unnerving comfort that I’m not ready to admit. I move toward him, determined to make something out of this heat, when Reeve crosses the room and places a cool hand on my shaking shoulder—the flame instantly extinguishing in my heart.

  “You know so little, yet in a few days, you’ll need to know it all.”

  His words only anger me further, and though Reeve probably knows more about magic than even I do, I reach within once more, trying to call the flame to light. No longer can I feel the painful burn along my fingers. Instead, I’m left with a withering heat across my chest. The kind that speaks of potential, but failure all the same.

  I decide I’ll have to let my words do the burning in its place.

  “Listen!” I say, poking him in the chest with as much force as I can muster. “You think I know so little, but I do understand this—I know it was you. You’re the little devil who scared me to pieces the first time I ventured into the woods alone. I didn’t realize it when we first met, but you’d never convince me otherwise now. You called me Cursed One, and all of my life, I’ve been left to wonder what it could mean. Now I know.”

  He starts to speak, but I shut him off, refusing to back down when I have the lead. “You say you’d never harm my papa, yet I haven’t spoken a word of him since you gagged and tied me like a pig. What have you done to him? Why do you speak his name as if you know where he is?”

  Reeve lets out a slow breath and brings his other hand to rest upon my shoulder. “I haven’t hurt him, Brave, but the damage has already been done.”

  His words engulf me like a wave of fear, and I shove my hands against his chest, backing away and breaking his hold. “Get away from me!” I scream. “You don’t know anything. You don’t know me, and you certainly don’t know my papa!”

  Reeve walks toward the door, pausing before locking me in my prison. “That’s where you are wrong, Brave. You do need me. I’m your cousin, and that makes us two of the few remaining members that our family has left. I won’t hurt him, but sometimes, blood trumps love.”

  And then he leaves me to be consumed by the dark, although I’m not sure if I even have anything left to take.

  Thirty-Six

  When dawn finally arrives and my door squeaks open to allow the early light to shine against the wooden floor, I’m not sure if I actually slept at all. Content to never move again, I had lain curled up in the dark, thinking thoughts that mirrored the blackness forming in my soul. Just over a week ago, my mother was dead.

  Now not only is she alive, but there’s also a new piece of the puzzle to think about as well.

  Reeve’s words continue to tumble and twist throughout my thoughts, creating monstrous holes and deep caverns in their wake. I’m not sure which bothers me more. The fact that we are kin, or that I didn’t see it coming. I’ve never had a cousin before, but if I did, I would have at least thought him to be a little friendlier.

  My present cousin makes me want to throw hot ash in my face.

  The door opens wider, and a long arm reaches in to offer what I hope is a pouch of water. Snatching the pouch from his hand, I almost pull him over with the force of my greed. Reeve’s brazen face peeks around the corner, and he eyes me carefully as I guzzle.

  “I take it you like me even more now that you know we’re cousins,” he says.

  I sigh as the water runs dry, tossing the pouch back in his direction. “I’m beginning to think that everything you say is just another opportunity to see me fume.” And only because I’m quite positive he knows my cursed secret, I add, “Be careful, or perhaps I’ll take to lighting you aflame.”

  Reeve scoffs, moving in through the narrow doorway. He sits against the wall, eyeing me over his raised knees. “Well, I can see now that there’s even more you don’t know. I’m surprised you haven’t at least asked to be filled in on our history.”

  “Oh, and when should I have asked that? Before or after you ruined my bloodline and left me in the dark?”

  He leans across the room, reaching out and touching my cold finger with his hand. “If you knew more about your bloodline, you’d be thanking me right now. I may very well be the only thing keeping you in check.”

  I snatch my hand away, wishing once again that the shameful fire would pour from my veins, all the while fighting a sneaky suspicion that he just might be right. “The only thing you’re doing for me is ruining my life. I don’t care whose blood you carry. You’re nothing to me.”

  “Not a drop of your father’s blood runs through me,” he snaps. “Besides, your father is the last of his kind. He has no true family, or none that are of use to him at least. That’s why he needs you, and that’s why we aren’t going to let that happen.”

  “So are you just basing this on the assumption that he’ll somehow use my unseen magic to hurt Theron, or do you truly not possess any thoughts that are of sound mind?”

  His eyes roll, and I have the sudden urge to jump across the room and pull what little hair he allows to sprout across his head. “It’s not an assumption, Brave. It’s the absolute truth. And as far as your magic goes, you’re not fooling anyone. Aside from your father, you’re the strongest mage I’ve ever tried to block, and your powers haven’t even fully developed. In time, you’ll be a force, and it’s important that your magic lies on the right side of this war.”

  Reeve’s words cause a painful pulse to throb in my head, and I lower my face to my hands. He isn’t making any sense, and for once, I wish that he would. He speaks as if he can block magic, yet aside from my mishap by the waterfall, it doesn’t seem that there is much I control, let alone possess.

  Clearly, I make his job much easier than I should.

  Raising my head from my heating hands, I look him the eye, determined to stand my ground. Focusing on the hurt and fear is the only way I know how to make it appear, and perhaps now is just the time to prove him right. Slowly, the flame within my chest grows, and my fingers tingle as if preparing to dispel the nasty little beast who hides within my soul. A wry smile floats across my lips.

  If he wants magic, then that’s exactly what I’ll give him.

  “Not so fast, Princess,” he says, lunging forward and covering my hands with his own.

  At his touch, a cooling calm rushes over my veins, and what little of the fire I had managed to cal
l withers away like a flickering light. Shocked, I pull my hands from his grip and cradle them to my heaving chest.

  I don’t like this boy, not one little bit.

  “You see? You know you have his magic, but that’s not what makes you truly dangerous. That’s not what makes the myth of your existence so hard to swallow for our kind. No, that magic is powerful, but also to be expected. What makes you the biggest threat our world has ever known is that you possess my powers as well. An impressive force only to be handled with the most delicate of hands. Emory served his purpose well, but he can’t be your guardian forever. He and Ingrid fought a long battle, but even they couldn’t forsake your destiny.”

  “Reeve!” I yell. “Stop speaking of powers and destiny! I’m nothing but a slightly normal girl who just needs to know that her papa is alright. I care nothing of your talk of wars, nor do I ever intend to be a part of one. The only reason I was going to Orien is because that’s where Aras and my panther were leading me. I knew I’d have to face my horrible father once I got there, but I had no intentions of using my pathetic magic for him or anyone else. I only ever planned to make it to Orien and find my papa. That’s all I ever wanted. Needed.”

  Reeve pulls back on his knees as if I’ve just slapped him in the face. Pouncing toward the door, he yanks my rumpled pack into the room. I don’t have to guess at what he’s about to pull out.

  “Have you really not read another page since your meltdown by the river?” he asks, holding the threatening journal in his hands. “Do you honestly care nothing of your mother?”

  His words send a lit match straight through my heart, and although I want to burst into flames, I know his own form of magic is the only thing keeping me together. Convinced that my fire can’t call to me now, I cross the room, grabbing the journal from his hands and shoving it in his face.

  “Do I honestly care nothing of my mother? My mother’s dead, Reeve, and she has been every day for the past eighteen years. In fact, the only thing she left me are the stars in the sky and a papa who is not even my own. So before you go spouting off those worthless opinions of yours, perhaps you should try to live a day in my life.”

  Reeve’s dark eyes turn to dangerous slits, and he slams the journal against my chest. “Oh yeah? You think you’re the only one who’s had it rough? The only one whose very life was taken away? Well, think again, Brave. Actually, I suggest you read again. Maybe then you’d learn what it’s like to be the first cousin of a cursed brat who runs from the only destiny fate has given her.” He pauses, shoving me hard into the wall. “I was only four years old the day you were born, and I was five the day both of my parents were killed. Burned to a crisp while they slept in their bed by the one you call father. The very next day, I was tossed into the woods and confined to their trees with a curse set to run for the rest of my life. So imagine me, scrounging in the woods until the day when I could lead your sorry hide in the right direction. The only direction.”

  My stomach sours at his words, regret bubbling at my blatant disregard for his past. Of course something terrible had to happen to him to end up here, and at such a young age at that. I had always just assumed his parents were outcast, and by default, so was he. I never imagined he was sent here alone and left to survive at the tender age of five.

  “Reeve,” I breathe, reaching out to place a careful hand on his trembling arm. “I’m sorry. I truly am. If I could seek vengeance on my father for what he’s done, I would. It’s just that I don’t think I can. My magic is a sputtering flame that only arises with my anger and fear. Compared to him, I am nothing. Perhaps destiny has different plans for me, and maybe they don’t involve Orien or Theron. Why should it matter to you so much if it does? If Knox wanted Theron, then why hasn’t he already taken it? Obviously, there’s something stopping him, and maybe that’s where your focus should lie.”

  “You see? And that’s exactly why your mother risked her life to keep this journal for you, and in the end, it almost took her. She wanted you to understand your past, so that you could control your future. Yet, you’re too spoiled and afraid to even lift its cover.”

  “Careful, Reeve,” I spout. “You may have spent years in the woods waiting for my return, but in the end, you still don’t know a thing about me or my intentions. Tell me why I should care about Theron, and maybe I will.”

  He lets out a strangled growl, and I find myself creeping further into the wall. “Oh, I’ll tell you why you should care. I’ll tell you why you will care. Theron is my true home, Brave, which makes it yours as well. You may have been born in Orien, but you’re half Theron in blood. Our parents were important citizens there until the day your father bargained for my aunt as his wife, and we followed her trail. These men of mine risking their lives to drag you through the woods, they make their true home in Theron as well. Yet, they are just as cursed as me, left to live out their lives until someone brave enough comes to set them free. You are that person, Penelope Brave, and that’s why I won’t let you go to Orien if it kills me.”

  His rush of words stream through me, having their way and leaving me nothing but an empty shell. I never wanted to be anything but Ashen, and now I belong to not just one horrid place, but two. Belatedly, a small frown forms on my face as the fresh thoughts take course. Aras knew exactly where my mother was born, but he chose not to say a word. He chose not to warn me of this second kingdom who seeks my blood, and for the life of me, I don’t understand his reasoning.

  Reeve turns to leave, already beginning to place his foot on the ladder, before the words can heave from my throat. “Why didn’t he tell me? Warn me of what could possibly come? He only said that my mother sought safety in Theron, and that because of her decision, Knox wants to start a war. He never mentioned a word of her connections there.”

  Reeve sighs, looking my way with a halfhearted smile, not even having to ask of whom I speak. “Aras has his own reasons for keeping secrets, though I don’t know why he allowed himself to become so involved in your path. He’s complicated things, and he selfishly knows it.” He moves to make his way down the rope, pausing just as his blond hair barely clears the porch. “Be leery of him, Brave, though I can’t say it matters much now. You’re on your rightful path, and if you’d read that journal, you’d understand why.”

  It’s a moment after Reeve’s head disappears that his words finally hit their mark, and this time, the arrow doesn’t just graze my ear.

  It pierces my heart.

  Thirty-Seven

  Entry Two

  It’s been two full seasons since you left. Two full seasons since Orien’s world began to fall apart. In secret, I once told my brother of this very journal I plan to keep. He scoffed at me then, telling me it was a terrible idea. One that could only end in devastation for us both. But you, my Brave, are worth the risk.

  I suppose I should start with the beginning—the reason I find myself in Orien and you came to exist. My father always told me that our future is already laid out for us in the stars. That everything that happens does so for a reason, and we shouldn’t complain or try to stop the unique story of our lives. When I was young, Father’s words provided me with hope and courage that my life would follow a path that was always meant to be, but then one day, he came to me and said my stars were leading me in a new direction. They were leading me to Orien.

  You see, my love, the problem with being special is that it can come with both a blessing and a curse. There is a reason that Knox’s kind have never been able to invade Theron, and that very reason hides within our hearts. For our kind has secrets of our own, and it has kept us safe for all of these years. While Knox has the ability to produce magic, we possess the ability to block it. It’s a mystery, really, how it all came to be. The Theron believe we were given the antidote to the curse that has so plagued our world, but I happen to believe we just might have gotten lucky.

  So when my father, who served as counsel to the king of Theron since before I could remember, heard that the newest king of
Orien had plans to conduct a peace treaty with our land, he was not fooled. No, he was elated. Here, we had an enemy who we knew only wanted to sniff out our secrets, yet we had the opportunity to do the same as well. Under the guise of a peace offering, Knox was offered my hand in marriage—an offer he eagerly took. For while Knox thought us the fools for giving away a high-ranking citizen for him to study, my kind thought the very same of him. They may have given up their most powerful blocker, but they gained a powerful mole as well. One who could possibly tear Knox’s kingdom apart from the inside out.

  Once I arrived in Orien, however, Knox’s true intentions became very clear. You see, Knox knew our secret long before he ever took my hand, and though we never saw it coming, he already had a plan. Not only did he want an heir, but also a powerful weapon as well. By marrying me, his firstborn would inherit not just one magic, but two. A child born who could rule with both fire and ice. A child who may just be strong enough to destroy Theron once and for all.

  At first, I refused to bring a child into this world with him. I refused to burden my own flesh and heart with a magic that can both heal and destroy at the same time. Unfortunately, while Knox’s magic couldn’t hurt me, he also knew that I couldn’t project my magic to stop him from harming others. First, he took the life of my closest handmaiden, and I watched stoically by his side until I could return to my room and sob for her soul. Then, he did the same to her son and daughter, and this time, I couldn’t hold back the tears as I watched him work a magic that shouldn’t even exist in this world. Though the loss of her innocent children nearly broke me, I didn’t give in. Both of our kingdoms were worth too much to give up on now.

  Stupidly, I believed I had won, but I soon learned that true evil knows no bounds. Knox’s warpath continued, and with each day, another piece of me broke, never to be fixed again. Until, finally, he found someone who I was not willing to give up.