When Stars Come Out (When Stars Come Out 1)

“Come on,” I grab her hand. This is the most I have touched her since I met her and I am soaking up every bit of it—the feel of her fingers laced with mine, the heat of her skin, the faint blush that colors her cheeks almost every time she looks at me.

“What did you want to show me?” She asks as we step through a curtain of willow branches. “Oh.”

We’re at the lake, far away from light and anything that might pollute the natural beauty of the landscape. The water is so calm and so dark, it mirrors the star-clustered sky. There’s a faint breeze picking up the smell of roses, it envelops me and makes me shiver.

“It’s beautiful here,” she whispers.

She’s beautiful.

The moonlight spills over her delicate nose and full lips. Her fingers are still twined with mine. It’s strange, standing next to this girl who had, just hours earlier, wielded the Thread of Fate as her weapon.

“The lake is one of my favorite places. Being near the water, it helps me think.”

“Do you come here often?”

“Yeah, mostly after patrol.”

“How often do you patrol?”

“Most nights,” I say with a sigh. “Well, except recently. I’ve been...excused.”

She doesn’t ask why. I think she can guess. We are quiet for a moment and then she says, “At Lily’s memorial, you said you’d been training since you were twelve. Training to do what, exactly?”

“To fight and defend,” I say. “Being anything other than a Shadow Knight really isn’t an option when you’re Valryn. It’s just what you do. We take the Oath at twelve then we begin training. We learn our history and then our enemies. We learn to fight and we learn weaponry. Our last year we are given a patrol and tested. This is my last year. If the Elites think I’m ready, I’ll be ranked and given an assignment.”

“I want to learn to control the thread,” she says.

“We can teach you.”

My fingers tighten around hers, but she lets go and I feel the loss of her immediately.

“That would mean telling the Order I exist.”

“Well yeah...that’s inevitable. You’ve seen Influence’s work. You’re the only one who can stop it.”

She takes a breath.

“Anora.” I whisper her name, coaxing her to look at me. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

She looks frustrated and fierce. I want to kiss her so badly. “I don’t want to trust you.”

“I know,” I say, stepping closer. She doesn’t move away. There’s no space between us. My fingers brush her cheek and trail into her hair, then I bring my lips to hers. I kiss her once, twice—and then all at once I’m losing control. I guide her back until she rests against the trunk of the willow tree. My hands move to her hips. I lean into her and when she gasps, my tongue clashes with hers.

I can taste her—sweet and new and familiar.

I could drown in her and die happy.

Her fingers twist into my hair and then images flash through my mind: heated kisses and bodies coming together, desperate to feel, and suddenly we’re not close enough. I’m not kissing her enough and there are too many layers between us.

And for some reason, Chase is in the back of my head. I think about how he gained her trust and broke her heart. How often he embraced her and kissed her. How many lies he told her.

And how am I different?

I’m not.

Because at the end of the day, she is human and I am Valryn, and we can never be together.