She opened her spirit fully.
Miranda seized up as the true power of the Shepherdess’s star struck her. Even Josef gasped, his arm clutching painfully around her waist. But it wasn’t just the spirit pressure. Out over the water, the Empress had begun to glow. Light shone through her skin, filling her body until she glowed like the morning, but brightest of all, brighter than the sun, brighter than anything Miranda had ever seen, was the mark on the Empress’s chest. The moment she saw it, Miranda knew exactly what it was and what it meant.
Bow down.
The Empress’s voice echoed through Miranda’s mind, through the very fabric of the world, and as it faded, the world obeyed.
The soldiers around them were already bowing, but now the sand under their knees joined them. All along the island, the spirits were lowering themselves before the Empress. The winds bowed, the stone bowed, even the fires shrank back in obedience, burning low before the star. Even the spirit deaf felt her presence. Oseran soldiers fell to their knees without knowing why, their spirits obeying on instinct alone. Only the wizards remained standing. Up on the storm wall, Banage clutched his rings, staring at the Empress in astonishment and growing terror. Even Sara had lost her jaded expression. She was looking about in open amazement, her eyes wide as she watched the world change itself to honor the Empress.
Miranda’s own spirits were bowing as well. She could feel them pressing on their rings, but she barely noticed it. The enormous pressure of the Empress filled her mind, impossibly bright, impossibly glorious, and strangely familiar. Miranda clenched her teeth, forcing her mind to work. She knew this feeling, this light. She’d felt it before. Suddenly, the memory came back clearly, her kneeling in King Henrith’s throne room floor beside Nico and Josef’s bodies with Gin at her back, staring in amazement that she was not dead while all around her pressure just like this thrummed through the air. And at its center, walking through the ruined hall that bowed only for him, crushing Mellinor’s fury with only his presence…
Before she could think about what she was doing, Miranda yanked herself from Josef’s grasp and bolted for the stairs. The swordsman didn’t seem to notice. His attention, like everything else’s in this corner of the world, was on the Empress.
Miranda ran as she had never run before. She clambered up the stairs and hit the top of the storm wall running, dodging the bowing war spirits as she charged the watchtower door. She banged it open and threw herself at the stairs. They were empty now, and a distant part of her mind realized that the common soldiers had had the sense to move the wounded when the war spirits arrived. Good, she thought bitterly, less for her to trip on. She was taking the stairs three at a time now, her lungs heaving as she pushed herself with all her might.
She hit the door to the upper room like a battering ram, and it slammed open. She wasn’t sure how she’d known he would be there. Maybe some tiny part of Mellinor still remained, pointing her toward him. Whatever had led her, it had been right. The man she had come for was standing by the window, staring out across the silent beach at the Empress. He didn’t even have the good grace to jump when she came in. He just turned slowly, mouth opening to say something.
Miranda didn’t give him the chance. She charged him, barely aware of what she was doing as her fingers dug into his shoulders and slammed him into the wall beside the window. He let her, his body going limp under her hands.
She was shaking so hard she could barely keep her grip. Her mind was choked with loss, guilt, failure, and blinding anger, all mashing together until she could no longer form coherent thoughts. When she opened her mouth, the words came out in a trembling, ragged sprawl.
“You’re one of them, aren’t you?” she whispered. “You’re a star.”
Eli leaned back against the wall without a sound. Behind him, the Empress’s fleet started forward yet again.
CHAPTER
27
Eli stared down at Miranda, ignoring the pain as her fingers dug into his shoulders.
“You are, aren’t you?” Miranda said again, her voice quaking. “I saw you, back in Mellinor. It all makes sense now. I never understood how you could get spirits to listen just by talking to them. Why no spirits would ever tell me about you after you left. I knew you had to be something special, something more than just a wizard. Now I see. Nothing can disobey you, can it? You just give an order and your Shepherdess will—”
Eli’s anger exploded without warning. He lunged forward, yanking her hands off his shoulders. “That’s not how I work and you know it!” he yelled, his voice raw.
Miranda stepped back in shock, and then her face flushed red as her anger rose to match his. “Shut up and answer the question! Are you a star or not?”
“Oh, fine,” Eli said through clenched teeth. “You win. I’m a bleeding star. Cover that with sugar and eat it, if it makes you happy.”
“Makes me happy?” Miranda roared. “You’re a star. What are you doing, hiding up here while—” Her voice began to quiver, and she took a shuddering breath. “If you’re really a star, how did any of this happen? You knew the Empress was coming. You knew it would be like this. I thought Josef was your friend. How could you let this happen to his country?” She flung out her arm, pointing at Nico’s bloody bundle, still lying exactly where he’d laid her this afternoon. “How could you let any of this happen? What kind of a coward are you?”
Eli swallowed against the guilt she was hammering down his throat. “I tried to make them leave,” he said lamely.
“Tried to make them leave?” Miranda shouted, shaking with rage. “How selfish can you be? Don’t you see that this is bigger than your little gang? An entire country is falling, and the continent is next. Hundreds of men have lost their lives today, and—”
She cut off, and Eli winced as tears began to pour down her face. Powers, she’d lost one of her menagerie, hadn’t she? He hoped it wasn’t the dog. She really would rip his head off if she lost her dog. But though he steeled himself for the worse, her answer still hit him like a punch in the gut.
“Mellinor,” her voice broke as she said the spirit’s name. She looked at him, her eyes so full of hatred Eli couldn’t help but hate himself along with her. “My spirit is dead, and it’s all your fault!”
Eli cringed as her voice hit him and bumped into the wall behind him. She had him cornered. There was nowhere to run.
“Everything is your fault,” she said, her voice breathy and raw. “You could have stopped this at any time, couldn’t you? Mellinor wouldn’t have had to fight, wouldn’t have had to die if you weren’t hiding in here like a filthy, selfish coward who won’t lift a finger to—”
Eli moved in a flash. He dropped, reaching out with both hands. The first grabbed her head to hold it still; the second covered her mouth, stopping her voice.
“That’s enough,” he said.
Miranda tore away from him and lashed out with her fist. Her swing caught him by surprise, and he didn’t have time to move before her punch landed in his ribs, her sharp rings digging into his skin. He let her go, falling back with a grunt as he clutched his side. Miranda stood over him, panting as she raised her fist again.
“That’s not nearly enough,” she said. “I can’t believe you’re Master Banage’s son. You have all the power in the world, but you’re too selfish to use it for anything other than taking what other people have worked for. You know nothing of duty. You don’t even know what it means to be a responsible wiz—”
“Shut up!” Eli shouted. The anger in his voice shocked them both. Eli stared at her a moment and then dropped his head to his hands. “Powers, Miranda, do you think I wanted this? I never wanted to be a star. Look at the Empress. Does that look like the kind of power it does the world any good to have?” Eli shook his head. “I hate it. I hate the way the world turns over and shows its belly to that woman. I hate the way everyone has to dance on her string, even the Immortal Empress. I’ve spent my whole adult life trying to get away from her, to make my own way on my own power. To make my life worth something, even if it’s just a bounty.”
“You think your bounty makes you worth something?”
