When The Stars Align

chapter forty four | before the

They knock again. I roll off my bed, grabbing the edge of the bed before I could actually hit the ground. There's still a dull ache running through me, that wasn't common from before. The pain used to pass, now it just lingers.

The door opens and I yelp. Atticus freezes at the door. I throw my hair back, sighing a sigh of relief. "Oh, it's just you."

"You could've just said come in, you didn't have to try to get out of bed." Atticus walks over and helps me back onto it. He kicks off his shoes and lies on the pillow. "Man, Vic's bed is really comfortable. No wonder you trapped yourself in here."

I lie back down, turning myself to face his direction. He turns onto his side, getting a better view of me. And I got a better view of what he was wearing around his neck - the amulet of Auxillium. I reach for it.

"Did we screw up, bringing the three amulets here?" he asked the question that was just on my mind. "Maybe we should've left this one-" he gestured to the one around his neck. "-back at Auxillium, and maybe we could've worked to return the red one to the ruins of Coronam."

I shook my head. "We couldn't have risked it, Ansen would've been after them. I guess we have to risk having them all out of place for tonight. We just have to let the universe decide what to do."

"Not all." He pointed to the one around my neck. "One's better than none, and it's the central power source, isn't it?"

"Kind of, I guess." I studied Att carefully. "So, what are you doing here? Something tells me this wasn't the topic you intended to discuss."

"Look at you, using formal words, practically a queen," he said with a smirk. I smacked him lightly. "But you're right, I needed to talk to you."

"If it's about being queen-"

"Yeah, it is, but I'm here to tell you to forget about it," Atticus said. I give him a weird look. "Just... forget anyone ever brought it up. Like you said, we just have to let the universe decide it's course. There's no point in worrying about something that might not happen the way you think it will."

I drew in deep breath. "Who put you up to this, Att?"

"Me, I put myself up to it," Atticus said. I mean, he sounded convincing. "because you can't shake that out of your head, and you shouldn't be worrying about it. Everyone is just feeding bullshit into your mind."

I stayed quiet for a moment, not sure what to say. And then, I had to ask him about what Tori told me. "Atticus, what is Pheon's rule like? Is he... a good person? Good king?"

"Vera, you don't have to worry-"

"Tori said that he tortured people."

He stayed silent, biting his bottom lip. "He does, Vera. He has hurt quite a number of people, especially in trials, like yours. He's been... gentler, I guess, since you got here. It was the weirdest thing." He paused. "I thought you had a side job of spying on us. I thought you knew what was going on in the kingdom."

I shifted onto my back. I couldn't explain why I was oblivious to this information, and I couldn't blame my family for keeping this from me, could I. "Why? Why would he act different now that I'm here. He's been kind to me. He cleared my name, for god's sake."

"Maybe there's something we're not seeing," Atticus suggested. "Maybe he's hiding something. Maybe he needed to gain your trust. Maybe he knew exactly who you were at the beginning of this, and he was playing dumb."

I closed my eyes. "You know, for someone coming here to tell me to stop worrying, you're making me worry a bit more that what I was." I paused. "Let's just agree to keep our suspicions on him, but don't bring it up. I don't think it would be good to talk about him under his own roof."