Orpheus’ own anger at heeding his call, prompted by the confusion and desire in his heart, barely cuddled the flames of the fire. Once he was in the fire, there was no getting out, and only endless pain and sadness.
I released him and grasped onto Raiya’s hand all the more tightly as I stood there. Was it possible that she would end up with Orpheus and Alküzor, too, all because her Star had gone supernova as well?
I hoped not.
“Well?” Aleia asked. “What did you see?”
“Alküzor,” I said. “I saw him. He used you to try to break free.”
“Yes,” Orpheus admitted. “That was before he realized the better way of getting free was just to bring freedom down to him, rather than trying to run to it.”
“I didn’t see much else,” I said, not wanting to go into how Orpheus and I had been friends, and I remembered him again.
Aleia sighed. “I was hoping that would work,” she said. “I wanted to see if it was possible for him to be given a second chance by the Prince.”
“I’d say that was possible,” I said softly, recalling my own experiences with Adonaias.
“There’s nothing I want more than to go up and talk with Lady Time,” Orpheus said. There was such conviction in his statement, even I had a hard time not feeling sympathetic for him.
Raiya spoke up. “Then the best thing to do is to call St. Brendan and see if he’ll take us.”
“Us?” I repeated.
“Yes,” she said, her voice tight. “I have to go back, too. I can take Orpheus with me and make sure that he watches himself.” She glanced back at Aleia. “I can take the Sinisters’ crystals up, too.”
“We don’t have all of them yet,” Aleia said. “Wouldn’t it be better to wait?”
“I am desperate to go and see Alora,” Orpheus spoke up. “Please, if we can go, please, let us go.” He surprised us all and took Aleia’s hand. “Seeing Lady Justice and Wingdinger together makes me have such great hope that we will have a second chance as well.”
“What?” I sputtered. “Hold on.” I looked from Aleia to Orpheus. “You’re together?”
“No.” Orpheus shook his head, slowly and sadly. “When I asked the Prince for Lady Justice’s hand, he told me no. He said that Courage and Justice were good friends, but there was another greater than Justice for Courage.”
“And you were Courage,” I said, as my memory reminded me.
“Yes,” he said. “I was hurt, and felt betrayed and alone. Alküzor saw my weakness and took advantage of the opening.”
“Aleia was supposed to be with you,” Raiya said. She scowled at Aleia.
“I suppose that explains why you’ve been defending him so much lately,” Elysian added.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “You should have told us.”
“You’ve never been objective about it, either,” Aleia argued.
“Judgement is necessary in these types of things,” Raiya said. “You should have been more open about it.”
“You knew,” Aleia said.
“I knew,” Raiya agreed, her look in my direction cutting me off before I could speak up. “But I wasn’t sure if either you or Orpheus did.”
“I began to realize it after you admitted Almeisan was your love,” Orpheus said. “After I knew Wingdinger here was actually my old friend Almeisan, I knew he was meant for Lady Justice, and I had my own match to find.” He looked over at Aleia, then took up her hand and pressed it to his cheek.
Almeisan still sounded weird to me, even though it was my Star name. I supposed Astraiya still sounded unusual to me, too, I thought, looking over to Raiya.
But I understood it. I understood what love shared was like, and how awful it was to have the question of its fate hanging in the balance.
And it was a matter that was up to the Prince to decide, right?
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go and call St. Brendan. I think he should go.”
“And me?” Raiya asked.
“You’re right, I guess. We can all go.” I smiled, suddenly much more enthusiastic about the trip. “We can hang out with St. Brendan some more, and go nebula surfing again. And we can see about getting your second chance and Orpheus’ too. It’ll be fun.” I gazed into the violet light of her eyes. “Just like old times.”
Before I got too excited, Aleia shook her head. “No, we must stay here, Wingdinger.”
“We?”
“Yes. You and I can stay, with Elysian,” she said. “We still have three Sinisters to capture, remember? Starry Knight can take up the other crystals to Alora for safe keeping, but we still need to be able to protect the city.”
“That’s right,” Elysian agreed.
“Can’t you just freeze time, though?” I asked. “Like you did last time?”
“The Sinisters are able to operate outside of Time’s power,” Aleia reminded me. “Before, when we went to see my sister, Starry Knight was able to stay and watch the city.”
“Don’t remind me,” I muttered.
“She was able to be here to protect the city,” Aleia repeated. “And if she is going to go and present Alora with the crystals, we must guard over the city, too.”
“I guess,” I said. “But staying here while time is frozen seems boring. I wish we could all go.”
“Time won’t be frozen while they’re gone,” Aleia said. “There’s no point to it.” She gave me a sympathetic smile. “You’re right about it being boring.”
My eyes shot back to Raiya. “So how long would you be gone?” I asked.
“I told you before, there are things we will have to take care of, if we are to be together,” Raiya said softly. “This is one of them.”
“How long?” I repeated.
No one spoke up to answer me.
“Well?” I asked. “Someone better say something or I’m going to—”
Pain latched itself around my wrist before I could finish. “No,” I whispered. “Not now.”
The last thing we needed at that moment was an attack from a Sinister. I wanted to talk all of this out. I didn’t want Raiya to leave me.
“Orpheus and I will go and call St. Brendan,” Raiya said. “It seems that there are other demon monsters at play.”
“It better be a small one,” I grumbled. I took hold of her hand. “You’re not leaving until we talk this whole thing out. And even then, you might not leave.”
“It’s a Sinister,” Aleia announced, interrupting us briefly as she studied her time orb.
Raiya rolled her eyes. “We have to go,” she said.
The burning on my arm made me reluctantly release her. “This isn’t over,” I promised her.
“Do you remember how to call on St. Brendan?” Aleia asked.
“Yes,” Raiya answered. “Now, go!”
Aleia nodded, then hurried over to Elysian and climbed up on his back.
I pulled Raiya to me and kissed her soundly. “I don’t want you to leave,” I said.
“I’m not leaving today,” she said. “St. Brendan is on his own mission. It takes time for him to come when he’s called.”
“Oh.” I kissed her again. “That’s a relief.”
“We have an audience,” Raiya murmured.
“I don’t care.” I took her face between my hands. “I lost a lot of time and sleep over rejecting you before,” I said. “I didn’t realize how angry and frustrated I would be without you around. When I thought you didn’t want to be with me, it was too much.”
“You survived,” she reminded me quietly.
“Yes, barely. I want to make up for lost time.” Even as my wrist prickled and protested, I took another minute to stay close to her.
“Almeisan . . . ” Her voice was hoarse as she pulled back from me. “We have to go.”
“Promise me you’ll come back.”
She grinned up at me. “It’ll be my pleasure,” she assured me, as she turned and headed in the other direction. She took hold of Orpheus’ tunic and lifted him off the ground with her
as she flew off.
“Kid,” Elysian said. “We’ve got a problem.”
“I will agree with you there,” I said. “Some Sinister is going to pay. She needs to learn a thing or two about interrupting my time with Starry Knight.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Elysian said. He nodded toward the old football fields of Shoreside Park, where Mikey was running around.
Even in the distance, I could hear him calling out my name.
“Ugh. You and Aleia go and find that Sinister,” I said. “I’ll get him and catch up in a bit.”
Aleia nodded. “I’ll see if I can bind it,” she agreed. “Please try to hurry.”
“Understood,” I said.
As they headed off, I gave myself a quick pep talk. I was going to have to deal with Mikey carefully. I didn’t want to ruin anything.
But so help me, I thought, if he even dared to ask me for a picture for his blog . . .
All thoughts of playing it cool went out the window as Mikey came up to me.
“I need your help,” he sputtered. “They’ve got Gwen.”
“They?” I asked. “It’s not SWORD, is it?”
“No,” Mikey said. “The demons or Sinisters or whatever. One of them captured her as she was picking Adam up from daycare.”
“They’ve got Adam!?”
“Yes,” Mikey said. “I need your help to get them back. I know you don’t really want to help me out at the moment, and I know you were angry and stuff with Gwen, but I—”
“Say no more,” I said. I grabbed his arm as my wings unfolded. “We’re going.”
☼
26 ☼
Battleground
“Wait!” Mikey called. “I don’t even know where they’re at!”
“Stop squirming so much,” I yelled back as we flew through the higher winds. “I’ll be able to find them in a moment. Just give me a sec.”
Mikey tried to relax as he glanced down at the streets and city landscape below. I could feel each cringe, and I felt his rigid posture lock into place as we sliced through the sky.
An aura was present over the Time Tower.
That’s where Orpheus said Dante was before. A block away, I dropped down.
“How did you manage to find me?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
“I . . . I don’t know.”
“Come on. We’ve been friends for years. I can tell when you’re lying.”
Mikey sighed. “Dante came and told me as I was waiting for Gwen.” He ducked his head down, averting his gaze. “He said that Gwen had been captured along with a little boy.”
“So you ran to find me?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, it’s definitely true that there’s some demonic monster close by,” I said.
“Dante said you were in Shoreside,” Mikey admitted. “I didn’t know where, though.”
I shook my head. “How do they know how to find us?”
My hands were shaking. It was only a matter of time, I realized, before they found me out . . . found us all out. And then the fallout would come. They could arrest me, and Starry Knight, and Aleia, too. They would probably want to run experiments on Elysian, given the rarity of changeling dragons on Earth. And that would just be the beginning, I thought. SWORD had no jurisdiction.
“I don’t know,” Mikey said.
“Great, thanks for the help.” I rolled my eyes. When Mikey glared at me, I just sighed. “Look, you stay here. I’ll go in and get Gwen and Adam.”
“I’m going in with you,” he declared.
“No, it’s too dangerous,” I said.
As if to assist me in my argument, I heard Elysian’s roar and saw a stream of smoke rise up from the Time Tower.
Good timing, Elysian.
“See? You could get killed.”
“Gwen’s in trouble.”
“You let me worry about it,” I said.
“No.”
I felt my wrist burning again. I decided there was nothing I could do but make sure that Mikey was protected. “Fine,” I said, giving in. “Just stick close to me and follow my orders.”
“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t,” Mikey snapped. “I’ve helped save Gwen from these demons before, you know, even if I let you take all the credit for it.”
I had no reply to that comment. As we headed off, I did recall that Mikey had been with me and Gwen the first time Maia attacked us in Shoreside Park. Recalling how Mikey had been worried for Gwen before, I resisted the urge to slap myself. It turned out that, not only did I not see true love in my own life, but true love in others’ lives.
We entered the building—no small feat as “police” and “firemen” (SWORD agents) were surrounding the tower base—and found the source of the trouble immediately.
“Get down!” Aleia’s power ricocheted and screeched across the entrance hall, dissolving several shadow demons in their wake.
Mikey and I inched our way over to her.
“They’re working for Taygetay,” she said, answering my unasked question. Her expression soured with worry. “She has two captives. It looks like Gwen and your brother, Wingdinger.”
“That’s why this one is here,” I said, jerking my thumb in Mikey’s direction. “He came to find us to see if we could help get her back.”
Aleia’s power went blasting through another shadow. “They’re over there,” she said, pointing toward the middle of the lobby.
I looked to see where she indicated to see Gwen was bound to a marble pillar at the far side of the room. I saw Adam was there, too, bound to the pillar next to Gwen’s. A rush of brotherly protectiveness and pride ran through me. While Adam was bound with a dark stream of lightning, he didn’t appear to be upset. In fact, he was calm and quiet, watching as Elysian and Aleia attacked Taygetay and her various shadow puppets, like it was some kind of movie.
“We have to get them free.” Mikey’s voice was nearly a whimper as he looked at several of the surrounding shadow monsters. “What can I do?”
“Just stay here,” Aleia told him. She looked at me. “Elysian and I are keeping Taygetay distracted. We can see about going over and freeing them. If we bring them back here,” she said, turning to Mikey, “you’ll have to lead them out of here and to safety.”
“Got it,” he said. “Stay here until you get back, and then take them away from here.”
“That’s all.” Aleia nodded. “And stay away until the coast is clear.”
“I doubt I’ll ever come back here anyway,” Mikey confidently promised her.
Aleia didn’t pay much attention to it. She turned to me. “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” I said. “Let’s go.”
“I’ll cover.”
Power, from both sides shot out in numerous strikes as Mikey and I circumvented the lobby of the Time Tower.
We were only ten yards away when Elysian fell. He roared in pain, as Taygetay laughed.
“You foolish dragon,” she cursed, raking her nails across his underbelly.
“Over here!” Aleia jumped in front of him, her twin daggers flashing with deadly accuracy as she swiped at Taygetay. Tendrils of Taygetay’s hair fluttered to the ground, the dark black-red locks blazing against the white marble tile.
Forcing myself to turn away, I headed back in the direction where Gwen and Adam were being held captive.
Adam’s wide brown eyes looked over to meet mine, and he grinned, his small smile warming me even as I felt the pressure increase. Cheryl would kill me if anything happened to him, I thought.
Gwen followed his gaze and sighed with relief. “Thank God you’re here,” she breathed.
“Shh . . . ” I tried to keep her quiet. From the sound of her voice, I worried she was going to have a panic attack if she kept talking. Of course, she was probably going have one anyway.
That would be my luck, I thought, as I crept closer to her.
Ducking behind her pillar, I used a stream of my power to try to break through Gwen’s bo
nds. The dark lightning of Taygetay’s power stream reflected my power. I leaned forward.
“Just give me a moment,” I said. “Mikey’s further out there, and he’ll take you and Adam to safety once I get you out of here.”
“Thank you,” Gwen whispered back. “I’m so sorry I’ve been such a pain lately, and you’re being so nice.”
“This is my job,” I told her grudgingly. “Please don’t read too much into it.”
“Hamilton—”
“Wingdinger.”
“Oh, right, sorry—”
Gwen’s voice rose to a scream. “Stop!”
Taygetay’s laughter washed over me from the other side. “It’s time for more power,” she said. “And you have some bright Soulfire I could use.”
Gwen screamed again, and I jumped out from behind the pillar. My sword was ready and in my hand before I even realized it.
“Back away,” I ordered, disappointed to see I’d missed my opening.
Taygetay swooped away from my sword and disappeared from sight.
“Where did she go?” I asked no one in particular, but it was hard keeping my thoughts focused as Gwen started crying, only half-hysterically, but it was still loud enough to echo horribly in the tower lobby.
My answer came a second later as she twisted around toward Adam.
Her nails bit at his neck. “Such a small child,” she said. “You wouldn’t want me to hurt him, would you?”
She managed to find a weakness. I hesitated. “Let him go,” I commanded her. “He’s just a kid. You don’t need the power of a child.”
“But children are more powerful than you realize,” Taygetay said. She grazed her hand across Adam’s cheek. I was about to holler at her again when she winced and drew back of her own accord.
She frowned and tried to touch Adam again.
He only babbled at her, his eyes narrowing as she fumbled.
There was a small barrier around him, I noticed, looking again.