he works. “I miss Tas and Afya and Araj,” I say. “It’s so quiet without them.”
“Tas worships you,” Elias says with a grin. “I think he’s in love, actually.”
“Only because I told him stories and fed him,” I say. “If only every boy were so easy to win over.” I do not mean for the comment to sound so pointed, and I bite my lip as soon as I say it. Elias lifts a dark eyebrow and gives me a fleeting glance of curiosity before looking back down at the half-plucked chicken.
“You know he and all the other Scholars are going to talk about you in Adisa. You’re the girl who razed Blackcliff and liberated Kauf. Laia of Serra. The ember waiting to burn down the Empire.”
“It’s not like I didn’t have help,” I say. “They’ll talk about you too.” But Elias shakes his head.
“Not in the same way,” he says. “Even if they do, I’m the outsider. You’re the Lioness’s daughter. I think your people will expect much of you, Laia. Just remember, you don’t have to do everything they ask.”
I snort. “If they knew about Kee—the Nightbringer, they might change their minds about me.”
“He fooled all of us, Laia.” Elias gives the chicken a particularly violent chop. “And one day, he’ll pay.”
“Maybe he already is paying.” I think of the ocean of sadness inside the Nightbringer, the faces of all those he loved and destroyed in his quest to reconstruct the Star.
“I trusted him with my heart, and my brother, and my—my body.” I have not spoken much with Elias about what happened between Keenan and me. We never had the privacy to do so. But now, I want to get it out. “The part of him that wasn’t manipulating me—that wasn’t using the Resistance, or planning the Emperor’s death, or helping the Commandant sabotage the Trials—that part of him loved me, Elias. And some part of me, at least, loved him back. His betrayal can’t be without cost. He must feel it.”
Elias stares out the window at the swiftly darkening sky. “True enough,” he says. “From what Shaeva told me, the armlet wouldn’t pass to him unless he loved you truly. The magic isn’t one-sided.”
“So a jinn is in love with me. I far prefer the ten-year-old.” I put my hand to the place my armlet once was. Even now, weeks later, I feel the ache of its absence. “What will happen now? The Nightbringer has the armlet. How many more pieces of the Star does he need? What if he finds them and sets his brethren free? What if—”
Elias puts a finger to my lips. Does he let it linger a little longer than it needs to?
“We’ll figure it out,” he says. “We’ll find a way to stop him. But not today. Today, we eat chicken stew and tell stories of our friends. We talk about what you and Darin will do after he wakes up, and about how enraged my bat-crazy mother will be when she learns she didn’t kill me. We’ll laugh and complain about the cold and enjoy the warmth of this fire. Today, we celebrate the fact that we’re still alive.”
«««
Sometime in the middle of the night, the wooden floor of the cabin creaks. I bolt up from my chair by Darin’s bed, where I’ve fallen asleep wrapped in Elias’s old cloak. My brother slumbers on soundly, his face unchanged. I sigh, wondering for the thousandth time if he will ever come back to me.
“Sorry,” Elias whispers from behind me. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I was at the edges of the Forest. Saw the fire went out and thought I’d bring in more wood.”
I wipe the sleep from my eyes and yawn. “What time is it?”
“A few hours before dawn.”
Through the window by my bed, the sky is dark and clear. A star shoots across the sky. Then two more.
“We could watch from outside,” Elias says. “It will only go on for an hour or so.”
I pull on my cloak and join him in the doorway of the little cabin. He stands slightly apart from me, his hands in his pockets. Falling stars streak overhead every few minutes. I catch my breath each time.
“It happens every year.” Elias’s eyes are fixed on the sky. “You can’t see it from Serra. Too much dust.”
I shiver in the cold night, and he eyes my cloak critically. “We should get you a new one,” he says. “That can’t be warm enough.”
“You gave this