Indeed, she opened her eyes, once again a calm gray. She smiled up at Astar, who’d immediately gone to her side. Jak squeezed her ankle through the long sleeping gown she wore—she must’ve been asleep and recovering, too, before she revived him—and she levered up onto her elbows, giving him an assessing look. “How do you feel?” she asked.
“You’re the one laid out on the impromptu bier,” he pointed out, “while I’m hale, hearty, and upright. So who should be asking that question?”
She laughed. “Clearly Jak is just fine. And so am I.” She brushed off Astar’s supporting hands. “I’m all right, Willy. That was just a big healing drain, even with the focusing power of the Star.”
Jak pulled the jewel from his pocket and handed it to her. “Speaking of which, you left this inside my shirt when you were feeling me up.” He gave her a slow wink, and she blushed.
Astar growled, a deep rumble in his chest, and Stella swatted him. “Stop that. You promised.” When he lifted his palms in surrender, she scooted closer to sit beside Jak, her arm brushing his lightly, dangling her feet over the edge of the table. “I agree with Jak. Except I don’t think we are being hunted. I think I am.”
Everyone began protesting, except for Jak, who only regarded her gravely. “It makes sense, doesn’t it?” she asked him, trusting that he’d give her the truth. “It explains the pattern.”
“Yes,” he agreed, his dark eyes sober. “I thought so before, but this last attempt made it crystal clear. This intelligence from the alter-realm recognizes you and knows how to target you. And it seems to want to acquire you.” His words gave her a shiver, remembering how those tentacles had held her immobile, how the intelligence mobilizing them had batted her sorcery away like a bothersome gnat. Jak seemed to follow her thoughts, his jaw firming. “Which is why you can’t go with Zeph.”
The others had quieted down to listen by then. “Who said anything about Stella going with Zeph to the alter-realm?” Astar demanded.
“No one said it, but Stella was considering it,” Jak said. “Weren’t you?”
“I’m small and light enough for Zeph’s gríobhth form to carry,” she replied, wondering how he’d divined her thoughts. His kiss still tingled on her lips, a delightful aftertaste of him. Did he realize? She didn’t think so. For the moment, she held the amazing revelation close to her heart. “And Lena can’t go back.” Her gaze went to Lena, who had her hands folded together, fingers interlaced, knuckles white with tension, terror wafting chill off of her.
“I can go back,” Lena asserted, but her voice wobbled, and it didn’t take an empath to know Lena couldn’t face the alter-realm and its denizens. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
Stella turned to Jak, raising a brow at him. “If Zeph’s locked into gríobhth form again, she’ll need someone with her with words and opposable thumbs, just in case.”
“Not necessarily,” Zeph countered with a proud tilt of her chin. “Who am I going to talk to—the monkey-lizards? And thumbs aren’t everything.”
“How will you carry a wolf back?” Stella asked.
“He can jump on.” Zeph shrugged, elaborately. “Rhy and I have been practicing.”
“And how is a wolf going to hold on?”
Zeph opened her mouth and closed it.
“Exactly,” Stella replied. “I’m the logical choice.”
“And I’m the Emperor of Dasnaria,” Jak said, lightly enough, but with a bite beneath it. “You can’t even defend yourself.”
Stella felt her jaw sag at the unexpected insult, then drew herself up. “I have sorcerous skills you can’t imagine.”
“Pfft.” His huff of disgust actually blew back the hairs around her face. “What if your skills don’t work there, or work sideways like Lena’s?”
She didn’t want to contemplate that lowering possibility. Someone had to go with Zeph, and that was all that mattered.
“Tell me,” Jak said, leaning in closer. “Why did you need the Star to fight the tentacle monsters here?”
Searching for an answer that would appease him, Stella found herself wilting at the knowing spark in his eyes.
“You sent me for the Star,” he continued, “because you didn’t have enough power on your own.”
“Is that true?” Astar demanded, and Stella had to acknowledge that with a short nod.
But it made her remember… She’d reached out and spoken into Jak’s mind. And he’d heard her, despite having no sorcery of his own. He’d let her direct his body, too—something Aunt Andi could do, but that had taken her years of practice to master—and Stella had been able to use the Star through him. Jak, dark gaze fastened on hers, nodded as if he followed these thoughts too. A matter of familiarity and trust. Could it be?
Finally, Jak tore his eyes from hers and looked at Astar. “I’m going with Zeph. I’m no heavier than Lena.”
Astar looked incredulous. “I feel I should point out that you were dead until just a little while ago.”
“Not entirely,” Stella corrected, though it hardly mattered now.
“And clearly it didn’t take,” Jak said with a cocky grin that he slanted at her. “Thanks to our personal star.”
“Still, are you even up for this, Jak?” Astar asked, frowning—though whether from concern or from irritation with Jak’s flirting, she wasn’t sure. Her twin was going to have to get over that, however, as Stella had no intention of indulging his overprotectiveness.
“Let’s find out.” Nimbly, Jak sprang down from the table, testing whether his legs would hold him. Pulling two daggers simultaneously, he spun them, then threw both in quick succession. Eyeing the point on the wall he’d pinned, he strode over to retrieve them. He moved well, with his usual liquid grace. The striking scarlet leathers he’d worn to the ball that long night at Ordnung clung enticingly to his leanly muscled frame.
“He looks good to me,” Gen murmured in Stella’s ear, having sidled close—and Stella didn’t disagree.
“Good enough,” Jak declared. “Let’s retrieve Rhy from the evil clutches of the alter-realm and get away from this creepy empty inn.”
“I feel I should point out,” Lena said, calmer now that she knew she didn’t have to go back, “that it’s entirely possible the denizens of this inn all went into the same rift that Rhyian did. They might all need rescuing.”
They fell silent, contemplating that. Jak spun a blade thoughtfully, expression neutral, but eyes dark with some unnamed emotion as they rested on Stella. “If they do, they do,” he decided. “Zeph and I will change tack accordingly, as necessary. We’ll bring everyone back that we can.”
Stella didn’t have to read Jak’s mind to know that he thought the odds of the people surviving weren’t good—and she had to agree.
“If you can even get back yourselves,” Gen said quietly, then lifted her chin when everyone turned to look at her. “It needs saying. Zeph and Lena said they circled for hours searching for a return rift, and it was so narrow Zeph almost didn’t fit through.”