Raiya looked at me quizzically, before I clarified. “I mean, show me how you feel about it,” I said.
“Why?”
“Why not?” I countered. “Come on. I want to see what’s in your heart.”
Raiya tensed under my touch, but I met her gaze with my own, and I silently promised her that I could handle it.
Slowly, I felt her submission. Warmth trickled into my skin. I felt a tentative pulse, the forerunner to a strong flood underneath the initial hesitancy.
I felt the love she had for me, pressing past the limits of my knowledge and imagination. It burst through me, penetrating me, pushing into the core of my heart and being. It took strength to keep standing as I held her there. I heard the sharp release of my breath, and I felt my knees buckle slightly.
I closed my eyes; immediately, I saw the rush of images accompanying her power. I saw our past, our present, and our future, as they came together, splashing together in a world of wet darkness, wrapping around itself into a bundle of light and joy.
A heartbeat later, I saw the bundle as Raiya held it, as I held both of them, and felt a rush of pride and love so much I had to let go of her for fear I would be swamped by the vision—for fear I would willingly run into it and drown myself.
Raiya pulled back, letting my hands drop from hers. “I’d love to be a mother,” she said quietly, allowing me time to reorient myself.
Even as I put my mind back into its usual order, I knew what she was really saying; she wanted to be a mother—as long as I was there with her.
“But I know that it’s not something I want right now,” she added, still moving away from me.
“Right,” I said, finally finding my voice again.
“I don’t think about it too often,” she confessed. “I’m still getting used to thinking of the future, past this mission.”
I nodded.
“Actually, if you’re up for it, I thought about heading over to see Logan again,” she said, grabbing a jacket from her desk chair. “We promised—what is it?”
As she passed me, I felt my hand reach out and take her arm. It was an awkward motion from my position, but I felt compelled.
“What is it?” Raiya asked.
I stared at my hand, suddenly wondering what exactly I should say.
I knew what I wanted to say. I wanted to tell her I loved that she wanted to be a mother, that she wanted to be with me. That I loved her, and I wanted that, too. That I wanted to marry her and make her my permanent home, officially, here, in this realm and in this life.
Instead of any of that, I said, “I never really wanted kids.”
Before I could explain I was changing my mind about that, and about so much, really, since she’d come into my life, Elysian came into the room, walking on his hind legs.
Talk about a mood killer.
I sighed and let it go. I had a number of things to discuss with her, so I would have the chance to bring it up again.
“There you are,” he said. “I was wondering where you guys were.”
I dropped Raiya’s arm. “What is it?” I asked.
“Dante.” Elysian scowled. “He’s walking toward the observatory.”
“I’m just saying we should go there anyway,” Raiya remarked. “Sounds like it would be a good time to check in on Logan.”
“We can confront Dante in the meantime,” I said. I thought about texting Mikey, but decided against it a second later. He wanted to be on his own, so I would let him. Even if he was unfit for the job in question.
Elysian, Raiya, and I all transformed in the shadows of the alley next to Rachel’s, and then we took off.
We had almost arrived at Lakeview Observatory when I realized I’d forgotten to remind Raiya that the prom was this weekend. I’d gotten distracted by our talk of the future, and the vision I had of Raiya’s heart.
I’ll get it later, I promised myself, along with the other stuff.
☼10☼
Findings
Considering how I’d left Dante before, I wasn’t really that excited to see him again. Of course, I don’t think I was ever really happy to see him, but this time I was especially not that excited.
I was glad to see, however, that the Otherworld, Inc. guards seemed to have vanished, and we had no trouble slipping through the back door of the observatory.
Lakeview was still open to the public, so we had to be cautious as we walked around. More than once we all scurried around a corner or ducked into a nearby room. We walked through the bottom floors, and it was only when we came to the telescope room that we stopped.
“I don’t see Logan anywhere,” Raiya said.
I glanced at one of the clocks. “Maybe he’s teaching down at the college tonight?” I wondered aloud. “Or grading papers or something there for one of his other professors?”
“That’s true,” she said with a sigh. I knew she was not completely convinced.
Dante stepped out of the shadows. “He stepped out for an early dinner with one of his colleagues from the college. You’ll have to excuse him for the moment.”
In one motion, we swiveled around.
“You’ve really got to stop doing that,” I told him.
“It’s practical,” he said, in a smug, apologetic sort of way.
“It’s irritating.”
“Most irritating things are practical.”
“Not necessarily.” I folded my arms across my chest. “We could argue the specific points on that for a while, but let’s just get down to business, shall we?”
“Fair enough.”
“What are you doing here? Mikey didn’t call you already, did he?”
“No,” Dante replied. “I can’t imagine why he would, either. I told him to stay away after we caught you.”
“He doesn’t listen,” I said. “It’s not surprising that he didn’t call you, after he said he would. Did you really tell him I wasn’t helping you help the people who had their Soulfire stolen—the people who have that sickness?”
“No,” Dante said, “I didn’t say that.”
“Draco did,” Raiya reminded me. “Dante just let Mikey go on the assumption, I’ll bet.”
“Life is complicated, and if you’re lucky enough to live long enough, you’ll get an idea of just how complicated it is,” Dante said neutrally.
So Raiya was right.
“What are you going to do when he calls you and tells you that I’ll go with you to help the victims?” I asked.
“I’ll tell him what I told him before: Stay away from me,” Dante said.
“He won’t trust me again until we do.”
“That’s his problem, then, more than yours.”
“It might not be enough to stop him from doing something stupid.”
“You’ll see to it, and I’ll see to it,” Dante said, “that he doesn’t get caught up in this. That’s why I wanted to speak with you.”
“You mean,” Raiya said, “that you, not SWORD, want to talk to us.”
“Yes.” He stepped forward and looked at me. “You know as well as I do, Hamilton, that we both have liabilities.”
I agreed with him, even if I hated to hear him say that Mikey was a liability. “We can’t trust you.”
“I have a solution for that,” Raiya said, as power glowed in her hand. She reached out to Dante. “This is my power, as the Star of Justice. Your word will bind you; if you lie to us, you will not escape your due.”
“Charming,” Dante muttered, but he shook her hand.
“Fine,” I said. “Now, let’s talk.”
“I want you to leave Mikey out of this.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because he is my son,” Dante said.
“You didn’t seem to care about that before you left him,” I pointed out.
“Do you think this is easy for me?” Dante’s voice was hushed. “I have given my word not to lie to you, but I said nothing about hurting you.”
“I’ll say something about that,”
Raiya warned. Her bow was out in a flash of light.
Elysian snorted behind us. “There’s no need to threaten us. It wouldn’t make much of a difference, anyway,” he told Dante. “The kid here is a bit slow when it comes to learning through pain.”
I almost whacked him over the head for the remark, but since it technically discouraged an attack against me, I let it go. For the moment.
Dante wisely retreated. “Fine,” he grumbled. “But I still need you to leave my son out of this as much as you can, and protect him if I can’t.”
“Fine,” I repeated. We could agree on that.
“Even if it’s me he needs protecting from,” Dante continued, “you must stop me.”
That took me aback a bit.
I guess he really is here without SWORD’s approval.
“We agree,” Raiya spoke up. Her determination, with no hesitation, startled me.
“Good,” Dante said, before I could object or question him further. “Now that Mikey is off the table, I will release your identity as well.”
“The rest of SWORD doesn’t know who I am?” I asked.
“I have the file,” he said, “and the only copy.” He pulled it out of his pocket and tossed it to me. “So, no, no one else knows.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
“Mark is also one of my oldest friends,” Dante said. “We were friends in high school. I have tried to keep him out of the loop as much as possible, but there are some things he knows, and he’s in danger just from that. I think we can agree that Mark, and by extension your mother, need not be an issue between us.”
“We can agree on it,” I said. Glancing over at Raiya, I added, “I want Starry Knight protected, too.”
“Done,” Dante agreed.
Raiya looked like she was going to say something, but I shook my head. We could discuss it later.
“Now that we’ve come to terms,” Dante said, “I’d like to hear what you know.”
“About Draco, or about anything else in particular?” I asked.
“SWORD is a company that monitors power first,” Dante said. “We have good resources, but there’s nothing like hearing it from the other side.”
So we are still on opposing sides. Right?
“It was my brother,” Elysian said. “I’d tried to warn you before. Draco has been masquerading as a human for some time here in the city. He used Orpheus to weaken Time’s power and to break his dragon skin free from its prison.”
“He’s a changeling dragon, like you?”
“One of the few,” Elysian agreed. “He has an immortal life. With his power, and the power he’s used from the Sinisters and the meteorite that was kept here, he’s grown considerably more powerful.”
“What does he want?”
“To release Alküzor and set the realm free from the Prince of Stars’ power,” I said. “Alküzor is trapped inside the world, but he has a lot of power, too. He wants to take over.”
“I see you’ve started paying attention to the facts,” Elysian murmured beside me.
“I always did,” I said. I shot him a smirk. “I just pretended not to care to annoy you.”
“Fire has a purifying effect,” Dante mused. “I can see why he’s been put in there, even if it would take forever to purify him.”
“Draco hasn’t made a move to release him,” I said. “I get the feeling from when he talks to me he’s holding off on it for some reason.”
“Evil is better at waiting, better at hiding,” Raiya said. “Goodness doesn’t need to change or adapt.”
“I’ve heard that,” I said. “But it doesn’t explain why he’s waiting, not entirely.”
“It’s possible he doesn’t actually want to do it,” Dante said. “He’s a powerful foe, and he’s enjoying it. I doubt competition is something he wants.”
“That might be true.” I thought about what Draco had said to me before, and how he still seemed emotionally connected to Raiya. Maybe Dante had a point, but I was more inclined to think that Draco’s heart wasn’t completely in it.
Alora told me once that only in Time was everlasting change possible. The temporal was discarded, and the eternal was solidified. While Draco was an immortal being, was it possible that Time’s power had affected him more than he realized?
“That’s all we really know about Draco’s intentions,” Raiya said. “But we do know that he was once known as Ogden Skarmastad.”
“The founder of the Skarmastad Foundation.” Dante frowned.
“The guys who paid for you to be hired through Otherworld,” I added.
He nodded. “But why would he play both sides?” Dante asked. “We’re here to essentially stop him. SWORD’s main job, right now, is to protect you.” He nodded toward me, and I fought the urge to shrink back.
“Draco’s always been crafty,” Elysian said. He flicked his tail against the ground.
“For now,” Dante said, “Otherworld, Inc. has been dropped by the city. With your mother folding on the case, and shuffling over to the private sector, we have no obligation to Apollo City anymore.”
“But SWORD is still on assignment to protect and assist Wingdinger,” Raiya said.
“Yes.” Dante turned to me again. “You are the Star of Mercy, and you are the only one who had the power to overcome a being like Alküzor, should he get free.”
“The Blood Flame,” I whispered.
Dante nodded.
“So it will come down to me,” I said, “if we want to save the city.”
“Alküzor will still have to get through me,” Raiya said.
“And Draco will not pass me,” Elysian added.
I felt warmth as they surrounded me; not only were they my allies, but they were my friends. “Hopefully,” I said, “it will be enough.”
“It will,” Dante said.
“How do you know?” I asked, wondering if he was friends with Alora, or if Adonaias had reached out to him, too.
“Fate is a funny thing, sometimes. The Skarmastad Foundation paid for SWORD to come in, not me. But I never wanted to come back here, knowing as I did the memories that awaited me once I got here. But my bosses knew I was from this area, so they arranged for me to take the lead.
“SWORD might be after power, and I can respect that, even now. But they are helpless when it comes to love. I thought power was all I needed. Turns out, power is at its most potent when it is laid down for love.”
“That sounds too cliché for you to say,” I said, unable to stop myself from sneering.
“Yes, well, as I said before, life is complicated,” Dante grunted. “The inner lives of people are even more complex.”
“Can you tell us the exact reason SWORD was hired?” Raiya asked. “You’ve said before they know of the Stars and other elements outside this world. Are they allied with Draco or Alküzor at all?”
“No. SWORD was hired because this is what we do—investigate and intersect the supernatural, the paranormal, etc. This is what the company has done for the past twenty years now.” Dante shrugged. “We have been given a few more assignments here, and then I will depart with them.”
“Assignments like what?”
“For now,” he replied, “our next assignment is to help you stop Alküzor from tearing the gates of hell open and sending the universe as we know it into a black hole of some kind. You know as well as I do—perhaps even better—that the situation has escalated and a more dangerous threat has arisen. If this is a power we can’t control, we need to stop it. Or exploit it.”
“Whatever serves you better,” Raiya grumbled.
I could understand why she was so adamant about keeping them in the “bad guy” box, but I frowned at her. There was no need to close the door completely on SWORD or Dante, especially right now. We didn’t have to be friends with someone to appreciate their help, and for the moment, our goals were aligned.
“Good to know,” I said. “What about Mikey? Can you talk to him and explain that there’s nothing
we can do about Gwen, and the others, for now?”
“Blaming Draco for his deception will likely be enough to take care of that problem,” Dante said. He hardened his gaze. “Warning him away will have to be enough to prevent any other problems.”
“If he’s anything like the kid here,” Elysian muttered, “don’t count on it.”
“Elysian, I swear, you need to—”
Our conversation quickly devolved into an argument. It was only when Raiya finally managed to stop us, several moments later, that we realized Dante had slipped away.
“Great.” I nearly stomped my foot in frustration. “He’s gone.”
“He might have had to leave,” Raiya said.
“You’re defending him now?”
“No,” Raiya insisted, even though I could see her cheeks fluster over in the dim lighting. She cleared her throat. “I heard some movement down the hallway. Maybe he had to leave so he wouldn’t be seen by other SWORD agents or by any witnesses. He did tell us that he was here without their approval or direction.”
“We don’t know if he was here without their knowledge,” Elysian said.
The door opened before I could say anything else. Logan came in, one hand holding an open book, and the other carrying a take-out bag. He glanced up at us in surprise. “Hey guys,” he said.
“Hi, Logan,” Raiya said. “How are you?”
“Good,” he said as he gave us a smile. “You guys must’ve known I was thinking of you earlier.”
“I’m surprised you were thinking about us at all. We heard you were out on a date,” I said.
Logan grinned. “I’m not going to confirm or deny anything about that,” he said. “But before I left, a couple of things happened I thought you should know about.”
“What is it?” Elysian asked.
“First, the Otherworld guys are gone,” Logan said. “I got a memo about it this morning. Apparently they have been assured that the insurance company has paid out for the loss of the meteorite. So they’re not worried about it getting stolen anymore.”
“Considering it was stolen,” I said.
“Yep,” Logan replied. “No need to guard something that’s not around to guard.”
“Saves them some money.”
“The government has never really seemed to worry about that,” Elysian muttered.