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Chapters (73)
  1. CONTENTS
  2. ALSO BY ANNA TODD
  3. DEDICATION
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY
  55. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
  62. CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
  63. CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
  64. CHAPTER SIXTY
  65. CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
  66. CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
  67. CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
  68. CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
  69. A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
  70. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  71. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  72. COPYRIGHT
  73. ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

It wasn’t worth trying to rationalize. People, some of them, hurt others as a way of masking their own pain, but some people just hurt other people simply to do it. I didn’t need to know anything else about Kael to know that he must be one of these people. All of the helping-Austin bullshit, all of the hours we spent and secrets we shared, it was all fake. I wrapped my arms around myself. I was going to be sick. Kael had the nerve to reach for me and I jerked away, moving from the street to the patch of grass next to the sidewalk in front of my house. I felt unstable in all forms of the word. My body and mind were no longer connecting.

Even though I couldn’t speak, I kept backing away, nearly tripping on the edge of the sidewalk.

“Karina! Please—” Kael pleaded. I held my hand up, silently begging him to stop.

“Get away from me!” Tears soaked my face and I brushed aside strands of hair stuck to my wet cheeks.

“Go!” I screamed, not caring that it was dark out or that I would be alone on the side of the road. I just wanted to be as far away from him as humanly possible.

And of course, because the universe hated me, the moment my shoes touched the ground and I yelled at him again to drive away, the sky started to cry with me, covering me with thick tears of rain from head to toe.

I collapsed in the grass after he pulled away and stayed there until the moon glared at me to go to my own bed and leave hers. There were no stars to dry my tears.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

An early version of this story was originally self-published as the novel The Brightest Stars (2018). Now, several years later, and after many months of writing and rewriting (more than thirty thousand words are new!) and a deeper exploration of character and story, I have reconceived a book that I am proud to relaunch. There was so much more that I wanted to share with readers.