If there was one wish Ascella thought worthy of the stars, it was to be a zodio. Her longing was strong on those nights when she remembered why the bed was cold and empty beside her. It was unbearable on those days when the zodia reclined on their moon ore thrones while she and the other attendants wore out the soles of their feet catering to their whims, but it had never been more insistent than when she crawled through the walls of the House of Toksotis on all fours.

She gritted her teeth against the pain as the tiny stones littering the cool, hard floor pressed into her knees and palms. Nightstone was beautiful until it carved its crevices into your skin, until it was crumbling from above you.

A sharp shard of something smooth and glassy cut into Ascella's palm. She yelped, falling against the side of the passage containing her and cradling her hand, but when she looked down at it, she couldn't see the line of blood she felt dripping over her skin.

If she was a zodio, she would've been able to see the blood sparkling with the magic of the heavens. She wouldn't even be in this situation—an outlaw, a desperate trespasser into the place she had once called home.

Leon would've forced his way here with all the ferocity of the leonine form he assumed when he took his place in the stars to guard the galaxy, and nobody would've dared to refuse him. Idrochoos would've snuck in, bearing a hydria filled with water to explain her presence in this place she shouldn't be in the unlikely case of anyone catching her here. Didimoi would've talked her way into what she wanted, persuading the listener so subtly that they didn't realise she was replacing their will with hers.

Ascella knew the power of Didimoi's persuasion first-hand, how her smile could unravel resolutions, how her words could unwrap temptations. That was the only reason she had yielded to her feelings for the zodio despite knowing that for a heavenly guardian to have a relationship that went beyond the mistress and servant roles the gods had assigned them was illegal.

Being found out would've meant Didimoi being stripped of her powers and banished to the mortal realms she had only ever glimpsed from the skies. It would've meant Ascella being smote where she stood by Toksotis, the chief zodio and the one who had promised her his protection the day she pledged her life to serving him all those years ago.

There was a luscious sweetness in the flesh of such forbidden fruit, but perhaps it was better that it had rotted.

Curling her hand into a fist to contain the blood she was sure leaked from her palm onto the floor, leaving a glimmering path leading right to her if anyone cared to look, Ascella continued her way. It was too late to turn back now. A little blood spilt was only a minor inconvenience when she had promised her life in service to the zodio she served, and she had failed him.

If Ascella was a zodio, she would've been wise enough to know not to venture here, not so soon after the violent tragedy that shook Galakios down to its celestial foundations.

The only time Ascella had ever been glad not to be a zodio was when she strode into Toksotis's study with the sealed bottle of wine he had requested only to find him lying on the floor in a pool of his blood. It was silver, like the stars of his being that would scatter now that he was gone.

So marred was his face by scratches, so mutilated was the rest of him by slashes that Ascella wouldn't have recognised him if it wasn't for the arrow with a line through the shaft on the medallion around his neck. She wouldn't have thought what she was seeing was real if she hadn't touched his hand and felt his skin, still warm against hers.

The zodia may have the enviable protection of the gods but also drew the terrifying ire of their enemies. Perhaps it was better to be the lowly attendant nobody cared enough about to assassinate.

Because that was what had happened to Toksotis. Ascella was sure of it. It hadn't been a robbery because nothing was missing from his study. No intruder could find themselves in the heart of the archer's heavenly estate by chance.

Whoever had killed Toksotis had done so by design. They had crossed galaxies to reach Galakios simply to hunt him, and Ascella had to find out why.

She had nothing but respect for his authority, awe for his power, and honour for being selected to serve him. She had never done anything to betray or disobey him, except for the dalliance with Didimoi, which nobody but the two of them knew about.

It was preposterous for anyone to think that Ascella had the sheer heartlessness or even power to carry out such a brutal crime, but the rest of Toksotis's house was dead, their shimmering star blood staining the floors where they had fallen on the same night as he had. Only Ascella remained, the last star of the great constellation.

She could understand why the zodia suspected her. She had read their thoughts in their accusatory eyes when they condemned her that night. As Toksotis's senior attendant, she had immediate access to him and his staff. If they were all dead and she was alive, that made her guilty.

She had been so shaken that night that she had almost believed them. Perhaps she had done this despite having no recollection of the crime. Perhaps she wasn't the respectful servant she always thought she was. Perhaps there was a side of her she didn't know about.

Those were the thoughts bouncing around her mind until she realised that she could account for her movements the night of Toksotis's death, that her horror at seeing his body couldn't be feigned. She knew herself better than the zodia did, and she would never do something like this.

But they hadn't given her the chance to defend herself. They had acted as the jury and the judges, but she had escaped before they could call their executioner.

She still wasn't sure how she had escaped. She could've sworn a black panther had appeared out of thin air and teleported her to the outskirts of Galakios, where neither the zodia nor anyone who worked for them would dare venture. She could've sworn that the panther was Cervere, Didimoi's animal companion, but she wouldn't have defied her fellow zodia to save Ascella, someone she had said she didn't care for in no uncertain terms.

There were so many things about that night that didn't make sense, but Ascella was going to start with finding Toksotis's murderer so she could clear her name and return to her former life. She wasn't sure what kind of life it would be now that her master was dead, but it would be a better existence than living in hiding.

How was she to eke out an existence when she had no idea where she'd get money? Only the wealthy could afford attendants, but she couldn't secure the job without giving away her real name that was now falsely stained by murder. She had no other skills, nothing that would make her a valuable worker outside of Galakios's small circle of privilege.

Ascella was kidding herself if she thought she had returned to the most dangerous place for her in the kingdom out of choice. This was her only option.

The dark passage grew colder. Its walls pressed in against the sides of Ascella's hands as she crawled between them and then against her elbows, uncomfortable yet comforting because it told her that she was being funnelled towards the secret entrance into Toksotis's study.

Ascella slowed as she continued forward so that she wouldn't slam into the door headfirst before she realised it was there. The last thing she wanted to do was alert the zodia's guards to her presence or hit her head so hard she was no use to herself or anyone else.

She had known these passages like the lines intersecting her palm once, back when she was a young star wandering through the walls, listening in on meetings her ears were too naïve for. Now, she was old enough to sit in on those meetings and no longer too young to be accused of murder.

The door brushed against Ascella's hands, the skywood smooth and cool. She punched it lightly, nearly falling out of the secret passage when it flew open easier than she had expected it would.

The door clattered against the panel beside it on the wall as it swung on its hinges. It sounded too much like knuckles rapping against a door, and Ascella started.

Sliding as far back into the passage as she could so that she could look around her without being seen, Ascella studied her surroundings.

Starlight fell from the glass ceiling above, filling Toksotis's study with its light and turning the tables and chairs into shadows. It would betray its own and show Ascella if any of the guards were here, waiting for her guilty conscience to bring her back to the scene of what they believed was her crime so that she could receive her reckoning, but they weren't. Of course they weren't.

Toksotis was dead. Nothing, not even the presence of the kingdom's most elite bodyguards could do anything for him. The guards Galakios had allocated to him had probably already been distributed among the remaining eleven zodia to keep them safe from Ascella and her unpredictable wrath.

But she knew it wasn't her they had to fear, and that didn't make her feel better, only worse.

Ascella felt along the edge of the hidden passage. Finding a chunk of nightstone, she snatched it up and hurled it across the room, holding the inner handle of the door in case she should need to close it in a hurry. The piece of nightstone hit the floor with a tap. Around it, the room was still. No guards rose from hidden places to accost an intruder. No bells rang out in alarm.

Scanning the room one last time, Ascella crawled out of the secret opening. She might've stood, straightened her dirt-streaked chiton and dusted herself off if she didn't see something glimmering on the ground not too far away, not cold silver like the blood of a star but dull, warm bronze.

Ascella crawled towards where it lay, partially obscured by the shadow of a table leg. Her fingers grazed the wood, and she recoiled at the memory that loosed in her mind.

She had seen only Toksotis's sprawled legs protruding from under his desk when she entered his study two nights previously. She had knelt beside the desk as she did now, propping herself against the table leg and crying out his name.

Ascella blinked and pulled herself back to reality. The flash of the past turned hazy, and her present surroundings came into focus around her.

She was once again in Toksotis's study, but this time, there was no body, only something else that might explain how and why it had gotten there.

Ascella reached into the shadow and withdrew a coin. The rusty circle with a square cut out of the centre rested on her palm, gleaming like a dying sun beneath the cut across her skin that had now clotted. It was engraved with a border and symbols Ascella recognised even though she couldn't understand them.

Chinese.

She traced her fingernail along the straight lines of the nearest character, unable to believe her eyes.

How in the heavens had this gotten here? Why hadn't it been found when they did the initial inspection of the crime scene?

Could it have been dislodged during the investigation? Had it been hidden by someone who wanted to cover their tracks or incriminate Ascella? Or had it been planted there to create confusion that might or might now work in her favour?

Ascella frowned at the coin, another indecipherable element of this impossible mystery, but before she could think any more, a voice spoke from the shadows, cool as moonlight, bright as stardust.

"I knew you'd turn up here sooner or later."

Ascella jumped to her feet, pulling the dagger out of the leather sheath at her hip despite knowing it would be no match for a zodio or any of their guards. It would buy her time to escape at best or die fighting at worst.

She searched the room for the source of the voice as her heart thudded in her ears. She should be running, not seeking out confrontation, but when her eyes wandered to the door to the secret passage she had entered through, she saw that it was closed.

The confrontation she wanted to avoid would find her before she could reach her escape route.

Her wandering eyes finally settled on a woman as pale as the moonlight draped around her slender figure. Strands of starlight shimmered in the wavy, dark hair that fell past her shoulder blades. She stepped away from the balcony and past the pillar into the light that illuminated the room.