Ruin of Stars by Linsey Miller

Author:Linsey Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2018-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Lena de Arian was going to Lynd.

At least some good had come out of that.

But I’d never cried while running before. It burned deep in my chest and up through the backs of my eyes. Snot dripped into my open mouth, bitter and slick, and I stumbled to a stop a good ways out of Hinter. Elise had been concerned for the missing children. Would she have been less worried if Lena were stealing them?

This was where hope and mercy got me.

Sobbing in the middle of a dark forest, spit all down my shirt and nose stuffed, the dry scents of ink and paper clinging to my hands, the barely-there trails of the rangers ahead of me vanished with each breeze. A cacophony of whippoorwills and mockingbirds drowned out my crying.

“Where’s the line?” I asked the stars, my head tilted up to the pine needles casting the forest floor in darkness. Only one glittering light broke through. “Before me or behind me?”

North Star.

I ran north. I stayed as close to the roads as I could, keeping an eye out for Riparian’s carriage or guards. I found them on the third night. The guards were spread out, attentive and well trained, and the carriage had glass in the little viewing window. A wagon rolled behind it, stacked half-full with trunks and boxes. Dimas sat atop one, head in his hands. Maud sat next to him.

Of all the things I couldn’t think about, her going with Riparian wasn’t one of them. It haunted me. I dreamed about it. Why had Maud left with Riparian in the first place?

I followed their procession, watching from afar anytime I could, and kept my eyes on Maud. She did servant things, nothing else. Riparian’s interest in her had waned.

I squashed the flare of panic in my chest.

Maud hadn’t been found out. She’d have been dead if Riparian knew she’d not killed me and not even tried.

Two nights later, after tracking the guards and late-night movements of their little camps, I waited in the pitch dark of the trees for Maud to take her nightly walk to clear her head. Dimas tried to join her, coming into the conversation with the slump of someone who knew they’d been defeated ages before. Maud laughed and shook her head. He fidgeted.

“You’re in danger.” He wasn’t his normal self—his hair was loose and tangled, his clothes were more dust than wool, and the ink stains on his fingertips had been there for days, building up one after the other. “Do you know how many times I’ve had to convince her you’re serious?”

“Are you threatening me?” Maud rounded on him and slapped his shoulder with her braid.

He backtracked. His face fell. “No! I’m trying to keep you out of danger. This is a disaster.”

“I don’t want you to do anything for me, Dimas,” she said, low and furious, “except leave me alone.”

“Please be careful.” He slunk away from her.

Finally.

I crept forward to the path I knew Maud would take and crouched in the underbrush.

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