“Because of the meteorite,” he explained. “I was just about to go see it, actually. It’s been in Lakeview for about a month now. I gotta start closing down everything here and get there.”
“I see,” I said. “What’s so big about the meteorite? Did they find any aliens in it?”
“No.” Logan laughed a bit. “No, but it’s an interesting piece of rock, that’s for sure.”
“What’s so interesting about it?” I asked.
“That’s a dangerous question to ask a grad student. There’s just so much to tell. Come down to Lakeview sometime and I’ll show you,” he promised. “What did you say your name was again?”
“Oh, I’m Hamilton. Does the meteorite have to do with those two superheroes running around?” I asked him, meeting his gaze very carefully.
Logan brightened. “I don’t know about that. But they’re definitely amazing. I was rescued by them this past week; that’s why I am getting a lot of interview calls, and I’ve given this speech a few hundred times this week.”
“Sounds cool.”
“Some people say they are problematic, but I can tell you, whoever they are, or even whatever they are, I owe them a lot. I don’t know what they did, but ever since I was rescued, I’ve been feeling a lot better.”
“Almost like you’ve been exorcised?” I asked with a misleading laugh.
“That’s a good way to put it, I guess,” he said, “even though I’ve never been possessed.”
That you know of, anyway. “Well, I will have to go to Lakeview Observatory one of these days. I’m getting ready to apply to college.”
“Are you a junior?”
“Next year.”
“You can start with some of the dual enrollment classes here, and get college credit for it. Have you heard of that? It’s similar to AP course credit.”
“I’ll have to look into it,” I said. “But that’s a great idea. Thank you for letting me know about it.”
We chatted a bit, and I casually glanced around the office, trying to look at some more of the files (I’d learned the power of files from the Mayor’s office, and I wasn’t going to forget about it). I backed up toward the door. “Well, I’ll let you get back to work,” I said. “I’m sure after being saved by Starry Knight, you’ve got a lot of work to do.”
There was no change in his face at all at Starry Knight’s name, nor was there any change in his voice. “Agreed.”
“Right.”
I shut the door and looked down at Elysian. I was glad to see he hadn’t done anything stupid, like slithering into the room after I left, trying to look for other clues.
So Logan didn’t know me, he didn’t know me as Wingdinger, and he didn’t seem to know Starry Knight as a real person.
So Starry Knight knew him, I thought. But he didn’t know Starry Knight. Or at least, he didn’t know her in her supernatural form.
He was in the same boat as me, Elysian, and Mikey, I grumbled silently. He was probably half in love with her, too. That was a bummer.
“Well, what do you think?” I asked.
“We didn’t get much.”
“Duh. No kidding.” I pulled out my phone to see what time it was. “I guess we’ll have to check in at the Lakeview Observatory. I don’t think getting in there will be too bad; Jason’s dad works there now, and we have a standing appointment with Logan, you heard him.”
“Let’s just go now,” Elysian said. “Maybe we can find something else out about all this.”
“Come on, no. Not tonight. If we head out now, I can go see Gwen and get Adam before heading home.”
“Is that all you think about? Yourself?” Elysian huffed.
“You know, I don’t want to have to worry about Cheryl wondering if I am taking care of Adam,” I countered. “That’s one less thing we need to worry about ourselves.”
“Fine. But you do seem to do it a lot, you know. Think of just yourself.”
I sighed, resigned, as we headed out the door. “Thinking about myself is easy, Elysian. And it’s not confusing. Thinking about Wingdinger, and destiny, and even Starry Knight, and all the questions I don’t know the answers to, the ones about Orpheus and the Seven Deadly Sinisters, and their mission to . . . to what? Take over the world or something? That’s confusing. It’s easy to think about myself; it’s hard to think about things that matter, and even harder to do something about them.”
There was a moment of silence. I actually thought Elysian was going to make fun of me for sounding weak.
But he managed to surprise me. “Well, let’s try to get it all sorted out as much as we can, then,” Elysian said. “Aleia’s around now; she’ll be able to answer some things for us. And we’ve got that appointment with her this weekend. Why don’t we try to draw up some questions?”
The sunlight of spring hit me as we headed up the block toward Rachel’s, making our plans. With every step, my mind seemed more at ease and more clear, like I’d taken allergy medicine and it was finally kicking in.
Elysian talked me through some of his questions. He wanted to know about Orpheus in particular, because he had some awareness of Starry Knight’s past, and it did seem unusual, he said, that Asteropy would allow herself to be under someone’s guidance.
“Pride is intrinsically competitive, kid,” he told me when I asked him about it. “If she’s okay with it, I want to know why. And if she’s really not, she must be bidding her time.”
I thought about Orpheus and our last battle with him. The one-eyed, gray-skinned, foul-smelling leader of the Sinisters was no prize, that was for sure, unless it was a contest straight out of the bowels of the earth.
The rainbow-colored sisters who made up the Seven Deadly Sinisters, though now it was four or five, I recalled, were more or less at odds with him in many things. But Elysian was right; they all united when faced with Starry Knight, whom they had referred to as their “sister.”
And Starry Knight had confirmed that, of course. Making it all the more terribly confusing.
How can someone turn against their sister? I thought. Or their brother? I thought about Adam, and tried to imagine fighting him. His three-year-old, gap-toothed grin would undo me in a heartbeat, even though he was a pain to deal with.
I must have voiced this question aloud, because Elysian sneered. “That’s not too hard to imagine,” he said with an indignant snort.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The people you love are almost always the easiest to hate,” he said in a disgusted tone. “You know a person well enough, and then, when power comes along, it is easy to see nothing good left.”
“I guess so.” I didn’t want to think about it. Was that why Starry Knight didn’t like me? Because I’d been corrupted by power?
I knew from Adonaias I’d been forgiven for the brief respite I’d taken from my superhero gig a few months ago, and I was on the side of good, even if I wasn’t completely “good” myself. I could still feel the truth of my condition in many ways.
If I let myself.
Thankfully, I got a text from Gwen telling me she was at Rachel’s with Adam. I grinned momentarily; real life was calling.
But my pace remained steady, and I focused once more on Elysian. “We have to find out more,” I said.
“Agreed,” Elysian said with a small nod of his dragon head. “We have to find out all we can about the Sinisters, and their specific plans, and their roles, if we are to defeat them.”
“I used to think defeating them wouldn’t be that hard,” I admitted. “But there are somethings that just aren’t adding up.”
“Like what?” Elysian asked. “I mean, other than the obvious parts.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. “Like the Soulfire,” I said, “for one. There are some victims, like Mikey and Logan, who are up and running again. But there are others, like Samantha Carter and Mr. Lockard, who aren’t. Don’t you think that’s weird?”
Elysian giggled. “Oh, to hear yourself! The great Hamilton
Dinger, asking a celestial dragon if something is weird, after several months of avoiding the very foundational ideas to that very weirdness.”
“Shut up.”
Elysian choked down the rest of his laughter. “All things aside, I do agree with you. The question of Soulfire is a valid concern,” he remarked. “Hopefully, we will be able to get some answers soon.”
Part of me lightened up at the notion, and part of me dreaded what I would find. The demon who’d been inside of Logan’s heart still haunted me with his words. “It is a punishment.” Was it really a punishment for a star to be sent to Earth? I wondered.
“I think we will.” I smiled at my reflection in Rachel’s café windows. I saw how normal I looked—attractiveness aside—and I knew instinctively inside of me that the hardest question had already been answered, which was the question of my dedication.
I had a feeling the rest of the pieces would come together eventually. Probably not as smoothly or as quickly as I would have liked, but that had been unlikely anyway.
☼7☼
Concern
It was the best kind of luck, I decided, to have my birthday come on a Saturday. There were just so many good things that happened on Saturday, no other day of the week came close to matching.
For one, I didn’t smell cooking meat or hear the whirr of my mother’s blender. That meant Helga had the day off, and I didn’t have to worry about her choking a chicken in my backyard as the band played. That in itself was a nice birthday gift.
“Why are you up so early?” Elysian half-rose from his curled up position at the end of my bed.
I almost laughed, seeing him with the dragon version of bedhead.
“You’d think of all days to sleep in, it would be your birthday.” He rolled over and stuffed his own face back into the covers.
“I have a couple of hours of work this morning,” I explained, pulling on one of my nice shirts and looking for my nicer pair of shoes.
“Ugh, really?”
I smiled; while I did have to work a bit at the mayor’s office, filing away some police reports, I didn’t mind. Having a job made me feel like an adult, and I was seventeen years old. I wasn’t a child, and I knew it was time to put more childish things aside now. The feeling of maturity, coupled with respectable responsibility, was another one of those nice birthday gifts from the universe.
Years later, I would think about that and realize I was still an idiot, seventeen years old or not.
Fortunately, there were plenty of good things that did cushion my ego throughout the day.
I was going to stop by Rachel’s on my way home from City Hall, though more out of habit than anything else. Gwen and Mikey were going to come over to my house while I was at work and begin setting up for the party. Jason and Rachel were going to come later with the cake. Drew, Poncey, and another one of my friends, Simon Gangel, were going to bring their extra gaming systems and help Kyle and his crew set up the stage for their performance.
“Tonight’s my party,” I reminded Elysian. “We’re going to have a super-fantabulous time, with good friends, loud music, sweets, and treats from Rachel’s.”
Elysian perked up at the mention of sweets (his weakness) and then narrowed his gaze. “We have that meeting tonight with Aleia, too. Don’t forget.”
“Please. I wouldn’t forget that.” Although it might get pushed back some with the party stuff, I acknowledged to myself. “You don’t need to worry. I have everyone leaving at ten. That gives us an hour to get down to the marina, and that will keep the neighbors from calling in the police if the party gets too loud.”
Neighbors. That reminded me.
I pulled back the curtain and smooshed my face against the window, trying to get a look at the house a few doors down.
“What are you looking at?” Elysian asked.
“Dante’s house is just down the street, remember?” When he got that look on his face, the one with one part outrage and the other murderous frustration, I buckled down. “I specifically recall telling you about that months ago. We were at Rachel’s and we saw him walk by.”
“Yeah, well, the importance of it was lost on me at the time.”
Recalling how fascinated with Rachel’s new muffins Elysian had been, I wisely hid a smirk. “I’m more worried for Mikey than anything else tonight.”
“Are you crazy?”
“No, idiot. But come on, SWORD doesn’t seem to be camping out in his backyard, and they haven’t bothered us since that time they—”
“Captured you and Starry Knight.” Elysian rolled his eyes. “Did you forget how they’d poisoned your friend when he was in monster form? How they tortured you, more or less admitting they are in it for nothing but power? That’s not something we ‘don’t need to be worried about,’ kid.”
“They sent out some agents afterward. They always help with clean up, nothing more.”
“Evil is much better at hiding and waiting than you think.” Elysian’s somber tone struck me hard. “They might not need to interfere just yet. We don’t know what they want, other than power.”
“Dante wanted me to protect Mikey,” I argued. “That’s something.”
“Isn’t he also the guy who ran out on his family some time ago?”
Elysian had a point, but my argumentative skills were competitive.
“Maybe he was blackmailed,” I offered. “Or tricked. Or bribed. Maybe he didn’t want to go.” Despite my love of debate, I hated defending the man Mikey and I had grown up hating together.
“There’s no room to be working with ‘what-ifs’ here.” Elysian was up now, fully alert as he joined me at the window. “Besides, I doubt that would be a nice blanket way of dealing with SWORD. One man’s weakness in a company like that won’t matter.”
I checked the time. “I have to go,” I said. “Look, I know we’re trying to figure more stuff out. Maybe I can see if there’s something in the mayor’s office or the police reports.”
“Like what?” Elysian huffed.
“I don’t know,” I shot back. “Couldn’t hurt though, right? I mean, the mayor’s the one who is bringing the charges against Wingdinger and Starry Knight. Maybe he knows something we don’t.”
“That pudgy man with the beard?” Elysian asked. “Who always wears a suit?”
“I suppose that’s how you’d see him.”
“I doubt he knows anything. Politicians only worry about two things. Themselves and their careers.”
“You’re awfully cynical for only being here for what now, six months? How often are you watching the news?”
“I haven’t been lying around doing nothing!” Elysian objected. “I’ve been looking after you.”
Before I could make a mean retort of how that was why he needed a replacement, Cheryl interrupted us. “Hamilton! I’m headed out for the office. Stefano’s expecting you at nine sharp today. Don’t make me look bad.”
Elysian and I exchanged looks, and we silently, mutually agreed to continue the argument later. We would have to worry about things as they came along.
“Happy birthday,” Elysian muttered as I left.
I ignored him for the most part, and only felt a little bad about it when I walked outside and looked around.
The morning of my birthday was beautiful. The early morning sunshine was warm, but not oppressive, and there was enough of a breeze to make the wind seem playful.
I sighed, noticing the contrast. Outside, everything was simple and elegant. Inside of me, it was a storm of complications.
I was glad Elysian and I were able to talk more without arguing quite so much; generally, it was more informative than when we fought. I suppose I had more of an appreciation for him after what happened a few months earlier, when I briefly broke ties with my supernatural self.
But I didn’t want to think about that. I thought about our plans for the night instead.
From all my friends’ homework and test prep practices, I knew very well it was never efficient to be
reactive. But Elysian and I were largely unable to plan things when it came to the Sinisters, because what we did know was based only on our observations and experiences. And, until recently, I hadn’t wanted the extra stress.
Throbbing pain suddenly lit up my nerve system, as my wrist burned.
“Augh!” I screamed, immediately regretting the outburst. I clenched my teeth together, trying to get myself under control, even as the ache on my arm fluctuated wildly. “Ouch.”
The underside of my wrist glowed as my stress levels involuntarily slid up the supernatural spectrum.
“Not now,” I grumbled. “Ugh, I have work!”
But I knew, even as I said it, I would be late. I desperately hoped Cheryl didn’t find out.
After ducking into an alleyway for cover, I pressed into the four-point star and felt a lightning strike of power swirl around me as my clothes were transformed into armor, my black wings sliced out of my back, and my sword appeared in a scabbard at my side.
It never felt the same, but even at seventeen years old I knew it wasn’t any different, either. Transforming would always be an adventure with which I never had to worry about growing bored.
Elysian suddenly appeared at my side again, his own metamorphosis from tiny lizard to fire-breathing sky dragon complete. “Let’s go!” he roared, scooping me up.
I cheered a bit and allowed myself a moment of enthusiasm; there was nothing like riding a dragon’s back, facing into the wind.
I leaned close, looking for the aura.
“It’s a Sinister,” Elysian said. “I can tell. It’s a powerful one, too. We have to get to her before the harvest.”
Not sure how I feel about a Sinister’s attack being referred to as a “harvest,” but okay, I mused. “I’m looking for it.”
“It’s close,” Elysian agreed. “Look carefully. Remember? Evil is powerful, and better at hiding than good.”
I rolled my eyes. I was getting tired of the good and evil stuff. It was so common everyone knew about it. But then again, I suppose that’s why not everyone knew about all of it.