by Jamie Loeak
“Ego, Val – take this woman out. Bring the sacrifice.”
Great. Now it’s going to get worse.
“But what about you, Sire? Will you join us?” Val asks the huge man.
The man uncrosses his arms and steps forward. “I will be right behind you, watching your every move,” he warns.
Val stumbles back and nods furiously. He turns around and pushes Sterren and I forward. We move up the stairs quickly, and I can’t help but get lost as we make our way through what feels like a hundred corridors and stairwells.
Finally, we step out into the cool, night air. The breeze makes the hair on my skin stand up, and I feel like a rabbit out in the open. I want to bolt. I want to hide.
Ego pushes past the four of us. He makes his way across a large yard and walks over a hill that stands about twenty feet in front of where I now stand. He disappears for a moment, before his figure pops back over the horizon. He is now dragging a blindfolded stranger. As this new person comes closer, I see that it is most definitely a homeless man. He is wearing tattered clothes, and has a long beard. He smells of alcohol, whisky to be exact, and he is jittery. By the time he reaches us, his breathing is heavy.
“Your time has come,” Ego says to the man as he pulls off the blindfold. The man blinks furiously, trying to bring his new world into focus. He lifts his dirty hands and rubs his eyes. I can almost feel the fear as he takes in his surroundings. But, when his eyes find me, he smiles.
I stare at him and squint my eyes. What does this man want? And what are they planning on doing with him after they find out that I have no magical abilities or powers?
“I want my wish,” the homeless man grumbles.
I glance at Sterren and sigh. Well, this is it.
Sterren nods reassuringly and lets my hand go. “You know what to do,” he whispers.
I lift my left hand and reach for my first star. The warm tattooed skin tingles as it heats my fingertips, and I pull it until I hold the star in my hand. It sparkles, just like it had in the dark dungeon. However, it appears to be brighter than it was when it was trapped underground. Now, it shines brightly, a real star.
The homeless man sucks in air and a gleam of greed flashes across his face. He had been skeptical about this, but now things were different. I could almost feel the plethora of wishes cross his contaminated thoughts. “I wish to have my love back,” he says to me.
Ego growls before I can tell him that he cannot make his wish yet. “We told you what to do,” he reminds the homeless man. “Do not mess up,” he adds.
The greed within the homeless man’s eyes flicker to reveal anger and a cold heart. I am afraid of him. I am afraid of what he’ll wish for this time, because I have a feeling that it won’t be the same.
I breathe in as I prepare myself for casting my first real star. I pull my arm back, ready to throw my star into the sky. Before I let it go, I whisper the words. And when the star leaves my hand, it shoots up in a fury of fireworks and sunlight. As it flies into the sky, the homeless man begins to recite the rhyme.
“Star light, star bright – wishing star, you are mine.
I close my eyes at first sight and grant myself a wish tonight.”
As the words tumble from his lips, a great surge of power fills my veins. I feel a burning sensation flow through me, and look down at my hands to find that they are glowing with the light of my beautiful star. In fact, my whole body is glowing, right down to the ends of my glittering blonde hair. I turn to face Sterren, knowing that I am beautiful.
The man’s next words pull me from my happiness. “I wish to have this man killed,” the homeless man says.
My head snaps toward my captor, the man who has spoken his first wish. I look into his muddy eyes and nod unwillingly. Then, the power rushes through my veins once more, moving from my heart to my hands. I lift my left hand up and point a finger at Ego. It is a death sentence, and I fight to take it back; I know that this is my power, that they were right. But now, it would be used against them.
As soon as my elbow locks into place, a bolt of energy that mimics lightning releases itself from my body. I feel like a magician, knowing that the bolt is escaping through the very finger that points at Ego. His face is horrifying. His ugly mouth is contorted; it’s something between a sneer and a frown, and it’s terrible, because I am the one causing it. Ego’s immortal life is ending because of one man’s wish. His life is ending because humans are impulsive. And it’s my fault, because I am the one making it come true.
As the bolt of energy hits Ego’s chest, he falls to his knees. Val runs forward to collect his fallen brother, and he holds Ego so that he doesn’t plummet to the ground. No matter what, no death should be ungraceful, and I am proud of Val for doing that.
It doesn’t take long for Val to recover from the shock, though. He turns around, crazy and outraged at what happened. He lunges at the homeless man, who is still standing there, unaware and unprepared for Val’s brutal attack. When Val slams into the homeless man, there is no stopping him. He has hit crazy mode again, and no one – not even the leader of the twins – is stupid enough to stop him.
I watch, horrified, as Val tears this man limb from limb. In the end, bloody body parts litter the ground, scattered around Val. He is breathing slowly now, and tears and blood are smeared across his face. He stands and lifts his head proudly, ready to face his master.
“Good,” the man’s voice rumbles.
Val looks up at him like a child. He nods. “Thank you, Sire. I am glad to have made you proud of me.”
I’m blinking, trying to figure everything out, when Sterren grabs my hand and squeezes it, silently preparing me for what could happen next. Thankfully, the leader doesn’t kill Val. Instead, the large man just opens his arms. Val walks into them, torn and breaking because of his brother’s death. I almost feel sorry for him, but it’s hard to feel sorry for someone that kidnapped you. So, I just stand there, wide-eyed and stunned. My nerves are buzzing, and I know that my mind is protecting itself from what it has witnessed. But when Val pulls away from the large man, I am yanked out of my protective bubble. And it all crashes down as the leader says five simple, yet frightening words. “Shall we get her father?”
A terrified scream erupts from my throat. “No!” I shout as I rush forward, ready to kill both of them. Sterren grabs my waist and holds me still, forcing me to stay with him. His voice reaches my ear a moment later, a soft embrace. “Shh,” he says. “They have already seen death.”
Sterren’s simple statement calms me somewhat, and I stop kicking and screaming. Fine, then. They can have my father; as long as they don’t hurt or kill him, I can handle it. And to prove to myself that my thoughts are true, I take a deep breath and shift my mindset. I don’t want Val to know that he can hurt me, so I erase my mind and focus on meadows and tall, blooming flowers. They burst into my thoughts so clearly, that I feel as though my reality is fake, imaginary. But then, Sterren’s earlier words come to the front. He told me that a Star Caster’s imagination saves them; this must have been what he was talking about.
Val just shrugs and turns away from the three people left. He gives up on intimidating me, and is left with his job. When he comes back over the hill, much like his brother had before, I hold my breath, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
When my father’s figure comes into view, he is walking oddly. I’m nervous, afraid that he has been tortured. But when Val grows closer, I can tell that there are two people that follow him. I know that my mother is dead, so who could it be? Who could be with him?
“Meet your birth mother,” the rumbling voice says from behind Sterren and me. His voice sounds smug and powerful because of his knowledge. He knew this, and I did not.
I turn to look at the masked man. My eyes are large. What was this? This could not be happening. I had a mother, and she had died long ago. There was no one other than her. No one could replace my mom.
But when this woman steps into the lig
ht, I cannot deny her. She looks exactly like me. She has the same golden blonde hair, the same brown eyes and porcelain skin; her lips are full and pouty, just like mine. And when she looks up into my eyes, I see that she wears her hair in front of her face, just like Sterren does. How in the world did this happen?
I look at my father, who wears a bandana over his eyes. He stands there in his million dollar suit, slumped over and weaker than I’ve ever seen him. He holds the answers, and I need to speak with him. “Dad?” I ask him.
My dad’s head snaps up and he looks around. “Dani?” he asks me. That’s the name he’s called me ever since I was little, and it brings back old memories, memories of when we used to talk.
“It’s me,” I sigh.
My dad lets go of the air that is trapped inside his lungs, and forces himself to stand straight, to stand taller for me. “Dani, I’m sorry. I tried to protect you from this.”
“What?” I ask, surprised that those words tumbled from his lips.
“I should have told you what you were, Dani.”
“You knew?” I begin to shake, angry and upset that my own father knew that I was a Star Caster. I was more upset, though, knowing that he hadn’t told me about it all.
Then, the woman beside him speaks. “He wasn’t certain if it was you, Danika. He wasn’t sure if you would be the first. None of us were sure.”
“You don’t get to talk to me,” I snap. “You were never around. And you,” I say as I turn back toward my father. “You told me that Hilary was my mother.”
“She was the woman I loved,” he says.
“And what about my real mother?” I ask, even though I’m afraid to hear the answer.
My dad sighs. “Can I have this taken off, please?” He’s talking about the bandana now, because he’s ready to look into my eyes. I find the symbolism funny here.
Val steps forward and unties the bandana. It falls to the ground slowly, like it rides on an invisible breeze. When it lands and stays still, I look up into my father’s blue eyes. They shimmer like the color of a summer afternoon, and I’m reminded of home. “She was nothing to you,” I answer for my father.
A sigh escapes his lips and he nods his head. “I wish she had been something,” he says. “I wish I had given you the life you needed. You needed to know about yourself. You needed to be prepared to deal with a mess like this. And I’m sorry for stealing that from you.” He looks into my eyes as he speaks, never faltering, never staring at my golden eye. He just looks at me like he always has, like a father looks at his only daughter. And instantly, I forgive him for everything. He was just trying to do his best.
“No,” I start to say.
“Now you must wish,” Val says eagerly. His fingers tap together, eagerly waiting. A slick grin falls across his face, and his dry lips appear to be cracking like his smile. And I have a feeling that Val is cracking as well, that he is on the edge of something much crazier than I’ve seen thus far. And I’m not ready to see it play out.
“I want to wish,” my birth mother says. “I want to wish for a love with this man.”
I roll my eyes at her and shrug. “Fine,” I say. “Let’s see if it works,” I add as I reach for my stars for the fourth time that day. My fingers graze my skin and I notice that the first star has come back. I turn to Sterren, searching for an answer to my unasked question.
“The first man is now dead,” Sterren whispers. He looks at the ground as he says this, and it hits me. He lied to me so that he could calm me down.
I falter my movements. Oh no. My birth mother was sacrificing herself for my father’s life. She knew that they would kill my father after his wish, that they would end his life so that they could use their wishes. But, I don’t know if I can let her do it, and I stand there, barely touching the first star.
She nods her head bravely, though. It’s an order, the first and last motherly thing that she will do for me. The gesture is powerful, and I find the strength to listen to her request.
A single tear falls down my face as I say goodbye to the Star Caster that gave birth to me. And, in one swift movement, I pull the star from my face and cast it into the sky. “As your star is cast, I grant thee a wish,” I state.
“I wish for my child’s father to love me, to truly love me until the end of my life,” my mother says after saying the rhyme that starts it all. I look into her eyes as the new and familiar burning sensation rushes through my veins. The power engulfs me in tickling flames, and this time, the swirling power breaks through my chest. It shimmers like the fading light of a summer’s day. It is sheer and liquid in its movements. I wonder, briefly, it the magic looks different every time a wish is granted.
The light floats toward my mother, into her soul as she breathes it in, and before my father can truly feel the new love that flows through his veins, Val rushes forward and ends it. My mother lies on the ground, lifeless and beautiful.
And that’s it. I’m broken. I fall to my knees, and am comforted by Sterren, who is beside me in seconds. “I’m so sorry,” he says sweetly. “Danika, I’m so sorry.” He rubs my back in soft circles, and my breathing slows. In another moment, my father is beside me as well. His hand is in mine, and he is squeezing intermittently. It’s something that he used to do when I was younger, when I was sick or scared, and it begins to help with the pain that surges through my body.
After about five minutes of dealing with the shock of everything, I breathe in and sit up. That’s right, let it all out.
Chapter 8
“Now we begin,” says the large leader. His voice booms around us in his excitement, but I am still on the grass, unable to move, unable to grant a wish. He just needs to disappear, because I’ve dealt with enough for today.
Beside me, my father snaps his head up and stands. Sterren tries to stop him from approaching the man that captured me, but my father pushes him off. Instead, my dad walks into his deathtrap. “It is time that you let my daughter go. It is time to end this,” he claims. “You have caused enough destruction to last for a lifetime, and she does not need to witness more of it.”
The man just stands there. He crosses his arms over his massive chest, but stands there, still hidden by the veil that covers his face. “We will begin now,” he repeats.
“Dad,” I say as I stand up, “I’m perfectly fine, and I can handle this. Don’t push this.” My voice shakes as I say this, as I stand up to defend my father.
My dad turns to face me. His blue eyes are sad, and his perfectly parted hair sticks up in places. He is protecting me right now, something that I never thought I would see again. And now, it’s my turn to protect him. I can’t let him get hurt or worse.
“Why don’t we take a break?” Sterren interjects. “The Star Caster needs to rest. And the dawn is here. We’ll have to wait.”
The man huffs and grumbles, but he knows that Sterren’s point is valid. I can see the truth of Sterren’s words flash across his face. “Get rid of your father,” he says a moment later. His voice is stern and dangerous, and I know better than to mess with him.
“Dad,” I say as I call my father back to me. “You have to go now, but I promise that I’ll be safe. I’ll be fine here. I know I will.”
As an intelligent lawyer, my father knows when he’s lost a fight. He nods and pulls me into a hug before stepping into Val’s grasp. He follows Val back over the hill, back to where he must have been kept before.
I sigh, happy that my father is safe, but saddened by his forced departure. I hope that he is okay where he is, that he is comfortable and warm. I hope that they feed him. I hope that I will see my father soon. But most of all, I hope that I can trust them to keep him alive.
Sterren’s arm finds my waist and he pulls me into his side. “We will save him,” he whispers. “I promise, Danika. I swear.”
I turn to face Sterren right when Val stumbles back over the horizon. “I know,” I answer. I look up into his eyes and smile slightly before turning back to our wicked leader. I
wait for him to give us our orders, because I know that we will not move until he tells us to.
“Back inside until the light of the moon,” he orders. Then, he turns and leads us back through the winding corridors and spiral staircases, back into the small living area, and back to the tiny bed that I share with Sterren.
I wake up to the sound of metal scraping against metal. My eyes flutter open, almost afraid of what I’ll find. When they do open, I notice that Sterren is not next to me. I sit up, panicked. Where did they take him? What did they do to him?
“I’m here,” Sterren says to me.
I look to see him leaning over the plain wooden counters. He is shirtless and wears sweatpants that sit low on his hips. The muscles of his back and arms are clearly defined, highlighted by his tanned skin. When he turns to speak to me again, my eyes drift across his chest and down the length of his torso. His six-pack is all that I can see, and when he speaks, a faint blush spreads across my face.
“I’m making breakfast for you,” he says.
I look up into his eyes and attempt to smile, but my embarrassment stops me. I can’t even speak right now, because of the things running through my thoughts. This connection with Sterren is growing stronger, and I’m afraid that I won’t be able to keep myself from him for much longer. I bite my lip, worried about this.
Sterren smiles and pulls something off the gas burner before approaching me. I can still see the fire blazing behind his shoulder, but as he gets closer, I stop caring. “I want you,” he whispers as he bends down to kiss my lips.
I answer his kiss by wrapping my hand around his bicep and pulling him on top of me. I lean back, my head resting on his arm. Sterren lies on top of me, shifting my legs so that he is in between them. Even though his weight is pressing into me, I am comfortable. So, I pull him closer, wanting to feel every inch of his skin. Our kiss deepens and I am released from my body, left only with the desire that encircles us.