Stars May Fall (Stars May Burn #2)

23. Sophie

SOPHIE

T o my frustration, Lord Lyrason didn’t turn up for the campaign planning or have any secret meetings with the king for Annabelle and I to eavesdrop on all morning, so I decided to head home after an hour of lingering, giving space for the princess to talk to Venerick. I couldn’t exactly stay in or around Annabelle’s rooms all day. Not without raising suspicion, anyway. Besides, she had many other duties. I suspected the king would already be cautious about the amount of time we were spending together.

I got halfway down the corridor before I heard Kasten’s voice calling my name. I turned in surprise to see him striding toward us. How had he known I was leaving?

I frowned at Meena in suspicion. “Did you just signal to him on your detector?” Various signals had been going off all day, none that I recognized, and I’d had the sound turned down to concentrate on Annabelle.

Meena looked sheepish. “Yes, my lady. The general asked to be notified when we were leaving the palace. He likes to be kept up to date on your movements.”

“Oh.” I supposed that made sense for him to know where I was. But why had he come? Had something happened?

Kasten stopped beside me and looked me up and down. “Are you well?”

I nodded, still taken aback by his sudden appearance. “Aren’t you still in the war council meeting? Or have you stopped for lunch?”

He shrugged. “I asked to be excused briefly. I wanted to escort you home.”

I took a step back. “Escort me? Why? Kasten, you need to be in that meeting. It’s important. You can’t afford to antagonize anyone in there.”

He looked down and shrugged, then fixed me with one of his intense stares that made me lose my train of thought. “I’ll only be gone for half an hour and they’re breaking soon anyway. The king excused me.”

I shifted, uncomfortable, though his tone was confident.

The corner of his mouth twitched, and his voice lowered to a more teasing tone. “Don’t you want to spend time with me, Sophie?”

I shook myself and let his gaze warm me. “Yes, of course, Kasten.”

He stepped closer to me, his eyes briefly flicking to my lips and bringing back memories of the night before last. I felt my cheeks warm and looked away, taking his arm and pulling us forward. Meena was awkwardly looking everywhere but us.

Kasten chuckled under his breath and closed his free hand over where mine was resting on his arm. My stomach flipped.

We didn’t speak until we reached the front steps and Kasten summoned our carriage. I turned to him and patted his arm. “Kasten, thank you for coming, but you really should go back now. It’s only a short carriage ride, and I’ll be with Meena. I don’t want to undermine all the hard work you’ve put in with the campaign planning and discovering what’s going on.”

Kasten shook his head. “Give me just fifteen more minutes with you, Sophie. Please. Fifteen minutes to simply be myself.”

The carriage pulled up, and he helped me up the step before climbing in with me. The floor tipped with his weight. He sat beside me and took my hand again, his thumb stroking back and forth.

I tried to read his expression. “Do you want to talk about your morning? Has it been especially hard?”

He sighed. “Only the usual. And actually, I just want a normal moment with you free of pressure and schemes. We haven’t had much time recently to simply enjoy each other’s company.”

I squeezed his hand back. I could respect that.

We didn’t speak until the carriage pulled up in Highfair outside our house. He hooked his finger under my chin and kissed me before helping me out.

“I’ll be back this evening. Get some rest.”

I waved at the retreating carriage as it took him back to the palace. It was only once I was back in the quiet of my room that I could process my thoughts once more. His attentiveness was sweet, and of course, I enjoyed his company, but had his need to see me for a short period of time really been so great? No, he had been protecting me. And he had chosen to personally protect me over focusing on the job he was supposed to be doing. I was becoming an unhelpful distraction and worry.

My frustration grew as Beatrice helped me change into a less formal dress. Couldn’t he see that I wasn’t so weak and useless to need him beside me every hour of every day?

Or was I being unfair? Kasten was right, we hadn’t been spending much quality time together since we’d arrived in Adenburg. Maybe I should be reassured by his behavior.

But this didn’t seem like the right time to be making our marriage the priority. Not when the entire kingdom was at stake.

To stop myself from overthinking further, I headed straight downstairs to find Sir Luke and Sir Philip so we could discuss how to get the guardswomen Annabelle requested to look like they had come from a different lord. It was going to be difficult.

Kasten came home three hours later, and his first action was to choose four guards from his personal battalion to join my private guards along with Meena. Any doubts that his earlier attentiveness had been driven by anything other than my protection vanished.

Personal guards were heavily frowned on in the palace, so we planned to disguise two as maids and one as a footman. If anyone questioned the remaining male guard and Meena, I hoped my recent scare of becoming a halfsoul would seem a valid excuse. Kasten didn’t want to take any chances with my security, and when I asked if they were really necessary, he said he felt better having them close to Annabelle too since it was going to take much longer to sneak soldiers into her guard. I agreed. We were on the edge of a coup after all and if I was guarded well, Kasten would stop being so distracted worrying about me.

Kasten was smuggling and hiding men everywhere, it seemed. Everything felt like a pot ready to boil over, and I wondered how long we could go on like this.

Both of us were quiet as we went to bed, and I slept with my back to him. Part of me wanted to curl up in his arms as I was accustomed to, but I didn’t want thoughts about my fertility to distract me from more important things tomorrow. I couldn’t cope with a repeat of the activities of the other night right now, and if he started kissing me again like he had before, I wasn’t sure I would have the self-control to stop. I wanted him, but I didn’t yet trust myself to face my fears.

So instead, I allowed my back to press against the warmth of his arm, dwelling on that sensation alone, and was lulled to sleep by his steady breathing.

The next morning, a tired Callum turned up at breakfast without a jacket, his loose white shirt smeared with soot and ink.

Kasten and I looked up at him in surprise. He grinned as he collapsed into a seat and filled his plate to overflowing with bacon, eggs, cheese and bread. “I may not have discovered a cure exactly, but I have the next best thing. I’ve learned to replicate the sort of collars Mister Gregane uses on the Originals, but made as something far more subtle.” He held up a chain of glittering metal links. “This works like a shield that will cut off two haemalcomy poles. If you get bitten while wearing this, you’ll suffer the infection for a day or two, but no vitality or anything else will be drawn out of you, nor will anything be added.”

Kasten sat up. “How many can you make and how quickly can you make them? If all our people in Kasomere wear these all the time, it will be a good protection.”

Callum winced. “It will take me about a day to make each one, and they are expensive, but I’ll do what I can.” He passed the chain to Kasten to inspect. “It will disrupt any haemalcomy that involves any part of your body. That means it will also stop the pyramidal tracking devices from working.”

Kasten pulled a face and grunted. “What counts as wearing them, then? Can you carry them on your person and only put them on if needed?”

Callum nodded. “If there is enough of a barrier between them and your skin, then yes. For full effect the whole chain needs to touch your skin. I’ve made these into bracelets that can be worn at the wrist or upper arm, but they need to be worn tightly.”

Kasten nodded. “Sophie and I can carry them. The rest of you can wear them.”

Callum gave me a sideways grin. “Sophie is likely immune. Her body has already defeated the infection once, and there is metal in her blood. I suspect she doesn’t need one at all.”

Kasten frowned. “Unless we know that for certain, she should still carry one.”

I frowned. “Since we only have a few, surely it would be better to give it to somebody else who will definitely need it if bitten. The halfsouls ignore me.”

Kasten’s voice became sharper. “No. You are the lady of our household. You should have one.”

I didn’t push him.

Callum inclined his head. “The starstone has probably given you some protection as well, Kasten. The amount of power and vitality you possess when using it would take a lifetime to draw out. But still, you should both carry one.” He tossed two pouches on the table. “I’ll start making more today after I’ve gotten a few hours of sleep.”

Kasten took them, passed one pouch to me, and pocketed the other. He stood and patted Callum on the back. I opened the draw string and stroked the pale golden chain before securing it to my belt next to the bag of medical supplies I carried around for emergencies.

I took in the shadows under Callum’s eyes and the paleness of his skin as he devoured his food. I passed him the teapot. “We can’t do this without your amazing brain, Callum. Rest and look after it.”

He shrugged. “Well, I’d rather we don’t need what I’m making and that you two find a way to resolve this peacefully without us being overrun with halfsouls.”

I patted his hand as Kasten grunted. “I think we all hope for that.”

After breakfast, I walked to the door with Kasten to bid him farewell, since I wasn’t due to see Annabelle again until tomorrow. He cupped my cheek and kissed my lips, caressing my chin with his thumb. Despite all my fears and frustrations, his kisses still made my stomach dip.

He leaned in and spoke quietly. “Are you doing all right, Sophie?”

I nodded with a smile. “I’m sorry I’ve been quiet, Kasten. I’ve had a lot on my mind, and after so much time in the palace talking with Annabelle, sometimes I run out of words.”

The corners of his lips tilted up in that half smile I knew so well. “I can relate to that. Everyone in the palace seems like they can talk from dawn to dusk. But…” I could tell he didn’t believe me. He didn’t believe I was coping well. “If anything is bothering you, you can tell me. Especially if it has to do with your safety in the palace. I worry about you in there, even with Annabelle.”

I nodded, hiding that frustration that he still saw me as weak and vulnerable. Yet he wouldn’t let me take risks that proved I was not. “I’m safe enough, Kasten. I have Meena and now all these extra guards.”

He didn’t seem very reassured. “I’ll see you this evening. Try to talk to Prince Stirling without annoying him.”

He grimaced. “I’m no saint, but I’ll try.” He kissed me again, this time on the forehead as his hand cupped the back of my head. His fingers intertwined with my hair, and for a moment his hand lingered as if he was struggling to let go. Then he turned and strode to the stables without a backward glance.