“We really should go back to your parents’ house soon,” Raiya said. Her voice seemed to echo throughout the room.
“I know,” I said, even as I reached out to pull her head onto my shoulder, letting her slide into the crook of my neck. I was glad for the sudden change in topic, even if it was one we would have over and over and likely over again.
“Lucas and Lyra might be worried about us.”
“That’s a good point, given how they saw us leave.” I tried to smile again and found it difficult. “More specifically, how they saw you leave, and left me to chase after you.”
“You found me,” Raiya said. “Eventually.”
“We are in complete agreement on that note. But since seven years is too long to risk it again,” I replied, “it’s better if you don’t leave anymore. Especially like earlier today.”
“I’m sorry I rushed out of there, but—”
“No, I can understand that part,” I told her. “I’m more concerned with how you used your power. You sort of transformed into Starry Knight again, but it wasn’t exactly the same.”
Raiya nodded. “I know,” she whispered. “And I’m worried about that.”
“I think that’s a smart position to take on the matter.”
“It is. I wouldn’t want to end up like my sisters.”
That made me worried. “What do you mean?”
“On the other side of Time, in the Immortal Realm, my sisters were imprisoned inside of my star,” Raiya said.
“I remember that, and, seeing as how it didn’t turn out well, I think it’s best to avoid that sort of situation again.”
“Good. That’s a smart position to take on the matter,” she said with a small smirk. “But they weren’t imprisoned right away after they decided to join Alküzor and Orpheus. Orpheus wasn’t technically imprisoned at all—he was caught up in the supernova, and that’s how he more or less wound up in Apollo City, I suppose. The exact logistics of it are a mystery.”
“So?” I asked. “What does it mean?”
“Stars—and people—don’t always feel the punishment for their transgressions right away,” Raiya said. “Sometimes the consequence of bad decisions affect us more on the inside, silently, before surfacing.”
“I can see that,” I said. “But I can also see it the other way, too. That’s how I fell in love with you.”
“Charming.”
“You weren’t, really, when we first met.”
“I grew on you.”
“That’s the point I’m making. You were a surprise I didn’t want, and didn’t like, but I couldn’t ignore you.”
Raiya grimaced. “No need to make it sound so terrifying.”
“It was.” I pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. “But it was a good kind of terrifying.”
“You shouldn’t distract me,” Raiya murmured as I ran my fingers through her hair. I felt her pleasure, though, and I knew she was only half-joking.
Peace and caution settled into me at the same moment. It had been several years since I’d felt this way—like I had something more than a job and career to live for; that I had an actual life to live for. The last time I felt this way, my mind couldn’t help but remind me, I lost it to SWORD and their scheming. And I didn’t just lose Raiya—I lost so much more, too.
I knew I had to take this seriously if we were going to survive together this time. If we didn’t survive together, I wasn’t going to survive, period.
“Okay,” I said, letting her feel the weight behind my word.
“Well then, as I was saying, it takes time for the fruits of our choices to come to the surface. I’m forgiven, but I have to keep my power in check down here,” she said. “As do you, of course.”
“Otherwise?”
“Otherwise we will need to be stopped, just as my sisters were.” She sighed. “The quest for justice often leads to the temptation for revenge.”
“I guess, by that logic, that mercy leads to judgment?”
“I’d think you would feel something more along the lines of mercilessness,” she replied.
“Makes sense.” It was hard for me to imagine not killing Rosemary once we managed to find her. I didn’t admit (and didn’t want to admit) that was the exact temptation I was facing, especially after hearing Aria call me “Daddy” for the first time.
“If I let it get out of control, I could easily transform the way I did and destroy people.”
She looked uncomfortable at the thought, and I felt discomfort myself; I didn’t know if there was any fallout from her attack on the city earlier. I’d been more worried about her, and about making sure Lyra and Lucas went back to my parents’ house.
I gripped her hand. “Everything will be alright,” I told her.
She arched an eyebrow at me. I mirrored her look; I’d been right about that before, even if our situation was a pretty terrible way to be right. At least we were together.
“Yes, everything will be alright,” she said, “but it might not be that way until we are gone from this world.”
“I have more hope than you do regarding that,” I said.
“Hope’s not going to keep me from hurting other people if my power gets out of my control.”
“When it comes to your powers, I’ll be here to keep you in check, and you can do the same for me.”
“That’s hardly going to be enough.”
“It’s not like we have a lot of other options. Besides, we’re good at keeping each other in check. Even if we’re a few years out of practice.”
“I don’t know.” She smiled at me. “With all your lawyer training, you might be running circles around me.”
“I’ll tell you when I get too dizzy.”
Raiya gave me a playful punch on the arm, and we finally made the decision, painful as it was, to head back to my home. We had a long day ahead, and between the two of us, at least half of it was going be spent napping.
The other half, for me, would be planning revenge. (Hey, Raiya might not have been able to go through it without losing herself, but I certainly had the option.)
☼15☼
Agreement
The next few days were nice—almost too nice. There was an all-consuming sense of relaxation around the house, as Raiya was able to remember more, and she worked on building up her strength again.
I was never comfortable letting her out of my sight for more than a minute.
Mark and Cheryl, always up to their workaholic ways, seemed happier, which was odd, because I never thought they would enjoy a full house.
Adam enjoyed getting to make snarky comments as I cuddled up to Raiya, and then he would send suggestive gestures and looks to me when he thought no one else was looking. It warmed my heart to know he was giving me his approval, even if I had to punch him a few times for just how suggestive some of his ideas were, especially for someone who wasn’t even a teenager yet.
Lyra and Lucas were happy to see us again. They were especially relieved to see Raiya again; part of me thought that was because she’d been teaching them how to harness their powers, while I generally only served as a short-order cook or a delivery boy.
But I knew that wasn’t completely true; while Raiya was napping, I would play video games with them or teach them different games or sports moves. Even I had to admit they were growing on me, and I didn’t mind their antics as much as I had when we first met.
Eventually, I even stopped asking Cheryl how her search for their parents was going; she seemed to pick up on this and told me she had found them, but she was still “waiting to see if the parents would respond,” promising that I would be the first to know when they did.
I decided not to worry about it at all until they did contact us.
Everything was going really well. It was almost like a real holiday—a real Christmas miracle, even.
So the instant I began to actually sit down and plan a way to ruin all of Grandma Rosemary’s dreams and find a way to rightfully condemn her to a small, pict
uresque corner of hell, it was only natural that Dante would show up again.
Raiya had taken the kids outside to the garden, where, in between marveling at how well the new rosebushes were holding up under the chilly weather, they worked on honing their Starlight defender skills. I was outside, watching them, in half-amusement and half-envy, when I heard a rustling noise behind us.
I turned, just in time to see Dante as he made his way out of one of my mother’s neatly trimmed hedges.
“I see you’ve been busy,” Dante said in greeting, nodding toward Lyra and Lucas as they practiced their fighting techniques on each other (with a bit too much enthusiasm for Raiya’s taste, I might add, judging from the look on her face).
“Why are you here?” I hissed, blocking him from Raiya’s view.
“You seem to be enjoying yourself too much, young Hamilton,” he said. “Are you forgetting there’s a real world out there, with news deadlines and tabloids waiting for comments on the new superheroes in town?”
I groaned. “But I didn’t even—”
He held up a magazine, which had a blurry picture of Lyra and Lucas on it.
“Great.” I sighed. “I guess I wasn’t thinking—”
“I’ve noticed,” Dante said. “You’re lucky I’ve been able to protect you from the Matriarch. She’s upset.”
“I can well imagine,” I grumbled.
“She wants them, now,” he said. “We’ve been given orders to bring them in.”
“No.” I balled up my fists. “You touch them, and I’ll kill you this time.”
“Then you wouldn’t have anyone to help protect you from SWORD,” Dante countered.
“I’ll take my chances, especially since your record is terrible when it comes to protecting me and my family,” I snarled.
“Look, for the meantime, let’s just agree to the usual terms. We have an uneasy alliance in this. I want to stop SWORD from opening up the space-time continuum in order to gain eternal life and control of this universe. You want to be free, don’t you?”
“I’ll never be free as long as there is something worth fighting for,” I snapped. “My family—and my friends—are worth fighting for.”
“Cute, but overdramatic,” Dante said as he rolled his eyes.
“We all have our moments,” I replied. “I remember some of yours, too.”
He frowned. “You still haven’t addressed my original claim. We have a common enemy.”
“That does not make us friends.”
“But it does give us incentive to work together.”
“I don’t understand why you even had me come here in the first place, really. Can’t you stage a coup on your own?”
“Like I told you before, it’s easy enough. I want you to help me save the universe and stop SWORD.”
“How?” I folded my arms across my chest. “How can we even begin to do those things?”
“First, we need to stop the black hole,” he said. “That is something your Starry Knight might know more about, considering she’s the one responsible for it.”
“I’ll talk to her about that,” I muttered. “She doesn’t like you. I don’t want you bothering her.”
“It’s nice to see you want to control the whole situation,” he muttered sarcastically. “She’ll really like that.”
“What about the second part?” I asked. “Stay focused. Tell me how you’re planning on defeating SWORD.”
“I’ll have you know, there are several inside of SWORD who are just as eager as I am to see the current administration fall,” he said. “But we are all vulnerable. Remember Martha? Many of us have been coerced into working for SWORD. While I agree family is worth fighting for, sometimes it means making unpleasant sacrifices for them.”
I knew he was talking about Mikey when he said it. I doubted Mikey would feel better knowing that. But I could agree that I didn’t want to get caught in a situation like that.
“Because of this,” Dante said, “it is better that we have someone outside the system that can help us destroy their bases of operation around Apollo City. I couldn’t think of anyone more suited to the task than you.”
“Gee, thanks.” I felt like spitting on him.
“I want the coup to be successful. We can only win if the administration fails in fighting back against us.” Dante looked me in the eye. “It’s in your interest to defeat them, too. They are looking for your Starry Knight, now that they’ve caught her radiation pattern once more, and the two smaller Stars, too. Every time they transform, it could tip SWORD off to your location.”
“SWORD is getting to be a real pain,” I grumbled. “I don’t know how it managed to last this long. Surely you guys have other enemies besides me.”
“As with all things this side of Time,” Dante said, “these things which are meant for good can become corrupted. SWORD has seen this tendency accelerated since they won their first big victory at Draco’s death.”
“He was their original target?”
“One of them, to be sure. There are rumors that he was the reason SWORD had originally been stationed here in Apollo City, even if the company has branched out significantly over the last decades. He was a complex character, with plenty of faces and roles. Now that the Skarmastad Foundation has been disbanded, he and his organization are no longer a threat or competitor.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I muttered. “So you want to defeat SWORD before they turn into the business version of Draco, and you want me to help you do it.”
“Like I said, it is in your interest to do that. I’m the only one, remember, who knows who you are and where you are, and where Starry Knight is now. And your starlings,” he added, glancing over through the bushes toward the kids. “Stopping SWORD means protecting them.”
I had a feeling he was right. Martha mentioned to me a long time ago that we were fighting a losing war if we stayed on the defensive. We might be able to outlast the enemy, but we would have to take the fight to them if we wanted to change hearts as well as save lives.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll think about it. But I want you to leave me and my family alone.”
“Easy enough,” he said, but I shot him a skeptical look. He apparently didn’t remember showing up in my apartment last week, I guess.
“And I want Rosemary out of the picture. Sorry, the Matriarch. I want her to pay for what she’s done.”
He nodded. “What do you know about her?”
“She was Draco’s legal wife,” I said, thinking of what Mark had told me. “And Starry Knight’s legal grandmother.” And she was perfectly okay with destroying innocent lives to further her agenda and gain the power she sought.
I figured Dante already knew that part.
“So she’s the woman he married once he came over to the States,” Dante said.
I didn’t know much about Grandma Rosemary, and I wanted to make sure Raiya didn’t have to recount her time with her any more than seemed necessary. Right now, absolutely nothing was the perfect amount necessary for me. But I was hoping, if I learned more about her, it would help us defeat her.
“It would be best if we move quickly,” Dante said. “I know SWORD is still lagging behind in repairs to the black site. It would be an easy strike to take her out.”
I glanced back at Raiya, as she helped Lucas and Lyra with their defense techniques. “We might need a little more time yet,” I said. “She’s not back up to full strength. And I’ll have to convince her to help.”
“You’ll need to see about fixing the hole in the space-time continuum, for sure.”
“Yes, there’s that.”
“See to it you don’t take too long. I’ll check back in with you soon,” Dante said. “I must leave now.”
“Yeah, wouldn’t want Rosemary to get suspicious of you.” I rolled my eyes. “She gives a whole new meaning to ‘nanny cam,’ I guess.”
“She might be an older lady,” Dante said, “but she has enough resources to put quite a bit of fear into othe
rs. I’m no exception.”
I hoped that I would be the exception. So I said nothing as Dante headed out, and I made my way back to where Raiya and the kids were still working and playing. I only stopped when I heard him call out to me again.
“Hey, I have one last favor to ask.”
“What?” I scoffed. I didn’t want to do him any more favors, especially since I was pretty sure the ones he already wanted me to do were going to be unpleasant and painful.
He tossed me something, something which thanks to all my years on the football team and sports conditioning, I caught.
It was a camera. It was an older model, a bit outdated, and just a little too chunky for my taste. But when I looked at him, I knew it was something that was important to him, not as an agent, but as a father.
“Take some pictures of Mikey and Gwen at their wedding for me this weekend,” he said. “I know I can’t have a place in his life anymore, but I want to at least know it turned out well for him.”
☼16☼
The Fabric of Time
It was only after Cheryl and Mark came home, and the kids were in bed for the evening, that I was able to contemplate the matter of the camera once more.
I put it on the coffee table in the living room and stared at it as if it was supposed to be some sort of source of inspiration.
Dante’s deal, the one where we get rid of Rosemary, was a necessary one, I supposed. And as for the camera, I wasn’t that hardhearted. He had it right; he had been the one to point me back to Raiya, even if he’d had some stupid and reckless options for getting me inside SWORD.
That was his trademark, wasn’t it? I would never be completely sure of his devotion to anything other than his ideas.
It was a recipe for disaster, and after the fallout from my high school years, I was not looking forward to taking another risk.
Raiya came up to me and kissed me on the cheek. “What are you thinking about?” she asked.
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