Page 49 of The Mist of Stars
“Want to bet?” He matches my move, stepping toward me. “If you don’t, I’ll ruin your sister’s life. I’ll make her pay for your disobedience.”
I smash my lips together, breathing fiercely through my nose. “You won’t.” But my voice lacks confidence.
“I will,” he assures me. “And you know that.”
He’s right. I know I’m trapped.
Controlled.
Normally, I can take it, but this … this will ruin me. And he can see it.
He smiles as he grabs my arm and drags me back toward the trees from where I ran away from him. Located in the heart of the woods is a bare area where he keeps a set of chains that are bound to the ground with some sort of magic. When I’m bad, he’ll lock me up here. This time, though, I’m not the one in chains.
A girl is.
She looks around eighteen or so, with short purple hair and alarmingly red eyes, a feature that reveals she’s a pixie. She’s crying tears of shimmering blue glitter as she kneels in the dirt with the chains secured around her wrists.
“Please, don’t,” she whimpers as we enter the bare space. “Please.”
My father shoves me toward her. “Do it,” he demands.
My hand is shaking so badly I can barely hold onto the dagger. “Why?” I ask him, searching for some sort of explanation.
I want him to tell me this has to be done. That this pixie is bad. That I’m helping the world by ending her life.
“Because she’s a creature, and as a keeper, you need to learn to kill all paranormal creatures.” My father stands in the moonlight with his arms crossed. “If you don’t, you’ll let the world get destroyed.”
I swallow a shaky breath then return my attention to the pixie.
She locks eyes with me. “Please, don’t do this. I’ve never hurt anyone.”
I lift the knife but don’t swing it down.
“Please,” she sobs, her shoulders quivering.
“Do it!” my father yells. “Do it, or I’ll ruin your sister’s life. I’ll destroy her. I’ll lock her up and never let her see the sunlight again?—”
I swing the dagger down.
The last thing I hear is the slicing of flesh and a scream before I black out.
16GEMMA
I’m kneeling in a forest with my hands cuffed by chains. The sky is bleak with darkness, the starlight dim, but the moon is a crystal ball amid the night sky. The air has a nip to it, and the grass and tree branches around me sway in the breeze.
I’m not sure how I got here. I’m also not sure why I feel funny. My head is filled with memories that aren’t my own, of me with short, purple hair and magic flowing through my body. I’m crying, but I’m not sure why, my tears dripping to the ground and sparkling like glitter.
“Hello?” I call out.
Tree branches snap, and then two figures step from the shadows.
It takes me a moment, but I recognize them. Alex and his father. I want to call out to them, but the words won’t leave my lips. I’m trapped inside a body that I don’t think is mine. Instead, I sob, “Please,” over and over again.
Stephan shoves Alex in front of me and demands that he kills me. Alex hesitates, but Stephan threatens him with Aislin’s life. So, Alex lifts the dagger and, with so much remorse in his eyes that I feel it inside my chest, he stabs me.
I don’t feel the pain, but as I fall to the ground, I see his expression blank out, as if his soul has left his body, and nothing is left but darkness?—
My eyes fly open, and I gasp, bolting upright. I’m still in the car and, apparently, Alex has been trying to wake me up because he’s leaning over me. I end up smacking my head into his with enough force that it hurts. We groan in unison as we move away from each other.