He hated the darkness.
He tried to blink the dizziness out of his eyes and pressed his forehead against the side of the cell, the cool metal wall soothing against his hot skin. He didn’t remember much after they had dragged Ana away. Someone had cuffed him upside the head. He was lucky he stayed conscious—but he couldn’t even begin to guess what awful level of the Valerios’ ship he was on. Whichever it was, his cell could use a little more light. Solani never did live well in darkness. The sickness felt like a dry well that went into some deep part of him he couldn’t quench with water or food or air.
How the darkness crept closer and filled his lungs with shadows. How it made him frightened, calling upon old memories he hadn’t thought about in years.
It is never far away, the Dark and the decay, the children in his memory sang, sipping on hot cider, staring at the stars and not knowing what it meant until they were older. First it tastes, then it waits, and then it will consume.
He curled his fingers into his palms, feeling his gloves tighten. Not that his gloves had helped him when Robb had kissed him.
Goddess, he wanted to kick himself. If he hadn’t been so afraid of his gifts, maybe Ana wouldn’t be captured. Maybe he could’ve saved Wick. Barger. Maybe things didn’t have to end this way. But he knew, deep down, they did.
All fates in the universe connected in a river, and that river flowed only one way.
The door opened and a shaft of light streaked into the bare room. A silhouette stepped inside.
“Oh—oh, dear,” said the man. His deep voice held the same Erosian accent as Robb’s, but slithery. Like oil in molasses. “Mother must have forgotten to mention to the guard you star-kissers don’t like the dark. You’re like plants that way.”
Jax looked up through his greasy silver hair and recognized the Valerio jawline and sky-colored eyes. “You must be the other brother. Erik.” He shifted so he could be in a little more of the light. The weakness in his body ebbed, making him keenly aware of how close the broad Ironblood was. “I can’t say it’s a pleasure.”
In response, the elder Valerio grinned. “Oh, I doubt anything will be a pleasure for you ever again, star-kisser. Our little Robbert is leading your friend to her death as we speak. She might already be convicted by now. Maybe bleeding out, riddled with bullets.”
A muscle in Jax’s jaw fluttered. This Ironblood was more insufferable than Robb, and he didn’t think that was possible.
“I’ll tell you what,” Erik Valerio went on. “I’ll leave the door open if you tell me what was on the Tsarina. And when I’m Emperor, I might even let you go.”
“You won’t be Emperor.”
“Oh, won’t I?”
Jax drew himself up to sit tall, even though he did not feel tall or imposing, his favorite trousers stained with his crewmate’s blood. “You won’t be anything—”
“Lord Valerio!” a guard called from down the hallway, coming to a stop in front of the cell. He was sweating—quite profusely. “Lord Valerio—there’s been—that girl has—”
Erik hissed, “Spit it out!”
“The lost princess has been found!” the guardsman gasped. “I—I ran here as fast as I could!”
“The what?”
“The prisoner, sir! She’s the lost princess!”
Jax thought he had heard incorrectly. The darkness was getting to him. Ana? Ana was the lost princess?
“You won’t be Emperor,” he heard himself say, remembering the bloodied crown in Robb’s stars.
With a rage-filled cry, Erik went for Jax’s throat. “I’m going to kill you—”
“Erik,” chided a calm voice from the doorway, and Erik stopped in his tracks. Jax squinted toward the door to the thin figure blocking the light. Graying brown hair, olive skin, Erosian blue-sky eyes—Goddess damn him, couldn’t he catch a break?
He slumped against the wall, again. He just wanted a little light. Just enough to breathe easy.
“It’s not true, is it?” Erik asked his mother. “The princess is dead, and we know it.”
“She is not,” Lady Valerio replied, “and as luck would have it, your brother found her.”
“Then what about me, Mother?” Erik asked. “What’ll I do? He did it on purpose, Mother. You know he did. He never liked me—”
“Quiet. Nothing is set in stone. As for you, C’zar Taizu”—she turned to address Jax, who felt about as far from a C’zar as the stars felt from the sun—“I expected to find you in better company than in the riffraff on the Dossier.”
“C’zar?” her son asked, baffled. “The Solani named him C’zar?”
“Surprise,” Jax muttered. She’d probably known who he was the moment she’d laid eyes on him on the Dossier.
“What’s he the prince of?”
“Nothing,” Lady Valerio replied. The word struck him in the stomach and twisted.
The prince of nothing. No, he was a prince of less than nothing. Of things forgotten. Of a people who couldn’t feel the stars anymore. Of a people who treated the one who could as a weapon.
She turned to leave. “Come, Erik. We’re needed at the palace.”
Dutifully, her son followed, and the sliver of light began to close.
Panic rose in Jax’s throat, tasting like the sharp bitterness of Robb’s kiss. And with it came the glint of knuckle rings, an image from Robb’s stars that felt like a knife slicing deep into his gut. If Ana was the lost princess, then the bloody crown meant her death. It had to. Robb’s brother was going to kill Ana.
Jax had to do something. He didn’t want her to die.
But what can I do?
The glimpses of Robb’s stars were supposed to be beacons to be followed, not stories to be changed.
What would happen if I tried? He swallowed the knot of panic in his throat. Could I?
As the Valerio woman left, he realized he would be damned if he didn’t. Ana was family. Ana was his family—more than his mother or father had ever been. She was one of the only people he’d ever cared about in his life. One of the only ones who truly mattered.
Princess or not.
“I can read your stars,” he called out after Lady Valerio, even though when he did read someone’s stars, it drained away a little more of his life. “I—I’m the only one who still can, and I’ll read yours.”
Lady Valerio stopped in the doorway. She inclined her head, listening.
“Don’t you want to know?” he asked, trying to balance all his deceit with nothing but truths. “A powerful woman like yourself could use a little hint. You might find me useful.”
“Mother, it’s an old wives’ tale,” Erik scoffed. “You don’t actually believe that star-kissers can tell the future, do you?”
But the longer the woman stayed silent, the more his panic ebbed. Ironbloods didn’t believe in Solani superstitions, but Robb had said his mother valued legacy. At least that was what he was counting on.
With a sharp flick of her hand, she dismissed Erik. He tried to argue, but she sent him away again, and turned back toward the darkened cell, her blue marble eyes gleaming in the shadowy light.
Jax spread a grin across his teeth to mask his fear. “I’m glad I’ve got your attention. Let’s make a deal.”