Etheria (The Halo Series Book 1)

by Melody Robinette

  He watched the two of them for a minute more, and, when Samuel began cracking jokes making Aurora laugh, Gray had enough. Feeling a mixture of annoyance and foolishness, he left the back of the ship in search of his own refuge.

  Twenty-Four

  AURORA

  Aurora and Samuel talked until it was time for everyone to meet back up for the second day of training. For having disliked him so much in the beginning, their relationship had taken a rather sharp turn. She nearly felt at ease around him because he already knew everything she’d always tried to keep hidden seeing as how he’d been there, too. It was almost a relief not to have to build carefully crafted walls up with him.

  Once again, the carnival-like attractions on the top deck had disappeared, and the weapons tents had been erected in their stead. Each tent was a station with a particular purpose. The first was for target practice. Though, it appeared, the daggers Gray threw were from his eyes...and Aurora was the target.

  For some reason, Gray wasn't pleased with her. Perhaps her moody exterior was rubbing off on him. Whatever the reason, the others had taken notice, including Brielle who seemed positively thrilled with the new development.

  Aurora came to stand beside Chord, who leaned over and murmured, “What’s wrong with your lover boy? Did you two get into a little quarrel?”

  Aurora shot him an exasperated glance. “He’s not my lover boy. Try Brielle’s. And I have no idea what’s wrong with him.”

  “Oh please. He is so your lover boy. And he can’t stand Brielle. Look at him.” Chord nodded his head in their direction. Gray was leaning as far back as he could as Brielle sang his praises, batting her super long, probably false, eyelashes at him. “Revolting.”

  “Whatever.” Aurora moved to select a dagger from the weapons rack. “We don’t have time for this. We’re Halos.”

  “If relationship drama is off the table for Halos then I quit.”

  “You like relationship drama?”

  “I like passion,” Chord clarified. “They go hand in hand.”

  Aurora thought about her past relationship drama, frowning at the unwelcome memory before throwing her dagger end over end at a nearby target. The point of the dagger planted itself a few rings away from the center. “Not always.”

  Each station was more exhausting than the one before. The next tent at which they arrived was larger than the others, and filled with what looked like demon dummies, moving on their own accord. One of the winged creatures flew past Aurora in a sickening marionette-like way, its wings and extremities twisting and disjointed.

  Samuel spoke then. “I would advise that you work together here. These dummies may seem harmless, but they can pack a punch. And…attack!”

  The dummy demons snapped into action, spreading their fabric wings and soaring upwards into the top of the tent before dive-bombing the Halos like predatory birds. Brielle screamed as one of the creatures came within inches of her. Chord dove in front of it, crux held aloft. The dummy burst into flames at first contact with his salt-infused weapon.

  Brielle apparently didn’t know whether she should be grateful or offended and quickly settled on the latter when Chord spat, “Just saved your ass! Who’s the angel now? Boom!”

  “Gloating isn't recommended amongst Halos,” Samuel called out, though he looked moderately amused.

  For how uncoordinated Sev had been on the trampoline the day before, he was an excellent swordsman. Three demon dummies dove towards him, and he took out all three with one swipe of his long sword.

  “My parents forced me to take fencing lessons,” he said in answer to their shocked expressions, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. “I must remember to thank them later.”

  “Is it bad that I’m sort of turned on by him now?” Chord muttered in Aurora’s ear as he passed by.

  She put a hand over her eyes in mingled exasperation and amusement as a warning echoed from behind her. Looking up, she saw five of the demon puppets jetting in her direction. Gray leapt to her side, and she grabbed his arm, holding him back, attempting to communicate with her firm grip that she didn’t need his help. He didn’t get the message. They both raised their cruxes in the air and, when the dummies collided with their blades, they burst into a massive fireball.

  The tent shuddered suddenly and began to collapse in on itself as the remainder of the dummies were incinerated by a bomb-like blast, material and stuffing fluttering through the air like confetti.

  Gray and Aurora loped after the others out of the tent before it engulfed them in silver fabric, tumbling out onto the deck, panting and staring at one another with wide eyes.

  “Ah, yes.” Samuel surveyed the destruction with a peculiar expression. “Well, that’s…nifty.”

  “What’s nifty?” Aurora brushed her hair out of her eyes. “A collapsed tent?”

  “Did you not see what occurred when the two of you connected?” Samuel waved a hand between Gray and her.

  Aurora looked from Samuel to Gray and back. “The dummy things were annihilated…?”

  “Right.” Samuel nodded curtly. “All fifty of them.”

  “Is that not normal?” Gray climbed to his feet and offering Aurora a hand she didn’t take.

  Chord, Sev, and Brielle watched the interaction between the other three in uncertain silence.

  “No…not exactly,” Samuel said.

  Aurora perched her hands on her hips. “Well, what does it mean then?”

  “It means—” Samuel began.

  A voice arose from behind them, interrupting Samuel. “Aurora, Gray, would you come with me, please?”

  They turned to see Michael standing with his hands clasped before him.

  “Are we in trouble or something?” Aurora asked uncertainly. For someone who cared rather little about pleasing people, she didn’t enjoy being in trouble whatsoever. It made her defensive and hostile, which usually just got her into even more trouble.

  “Of course not,” Michael answered. “Please follow me.”

  Gray and Aurora exchanged a fleeting glance and moved to follow Michael. Chord, Sev, and Brielle watched with stupefied faces as they were left behind with Samuel, who wore a strange expression upon his face—one Aurora couldn’t quite decipher.

  Michael led the two of them away from the watching eyes of the other Powers and Halos, traveling in silence until they reached the glass elevators and entered one that opened at his touch. There were extra rows of bright blue buttons inside, which Aurora could have sworn hadn’t been there that morning. Michael’s long finger pushed in the bottommost button and the elevator began its steady descent into the abysses of the ship.

  “I don’t remember seeing those buttons there,” Gray remarked.

  Michael nodded. “They only appear in the presence of Powers.”

  Aurora unconsciously wrung her hands. “Did we, uh, do something we weren’t supposed to do?”

  “No, not at all.”

  “Then, why—?”

  “I prefer to speak where there are not eyes watching and ears listening in,” he answered, his gaze cutting towards the back wall where the murals of angels and demons appeared and disappeared just as quickly as the elevator slid downward.

  As they passed into the belly of the ship, the paintings changed to dark skies with stars of all colors, twinkling as they passed. The elevator shuddered when it reached the bottom of the vessel, and the glass doors slid open to reveal a long, dark passageway lined with doors of various shapes, sizes, and colors. Aurora clutched her crux more tightly in her hand, not sure why she hadn’t put it away yet.

  “Here we are.” Michael approached the largest door at the end, bright blue with a silver handle in the shape of a teardrop. He allowed Gray and Aurora to enter before him, which they did, though they didn’t make it much further than a few steps in before screeching to a halt.

  They stopped because before them was not a room at all, nor did it make any physical sense whatsoever. Only seconds ago they had been standing in a dimly
lit hallway, and they were now on a beach of pure-white sand stretching endlessly in every direction. An ocean of purple water sent waves the color of a sunset crashing onto the shore, before pulling the water back and leaving behind an assortment of seashells and pearls on the damp sand.

  Aurora couldn’t manage to say more than, “Uh…”

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Michael sounded happier and calmer than ever. He brushed his black hair off his tanned forehead and smiled at the view. “When we Powers created our individual mental domains here, I knew instantly what I wanted mine to be. Come, have a seat.” He waved a hand at three cushioned chairs wedged into the sand, each with a table beside it filled with blue beverages, and tropical looking fruit.

  “So, this is your office,” Gray stated. “It’s nice.”

  “Thank you. I’m rather fond of it myself.” Michael settled into one of the chairs. “Have some strawberries. They’re divine.”

  Aurora sat in her chair and looked over at the bowl of fruit, some of which she recognized, some she didn’t. She assumed the starberries were the little multi-colored ones that looked rather like the glass chandelier in the center of the ship. Gray popped one in his mouth and exclaimed, “Was not expecting that.”

  Aurora tried one hesitantly and had a similar reaction to Gray as the juicy fruit burst and sizzled across her tongue with an equal balance of sweet and tart.

  “It’s like pink lemonade in fruit form.” Gray studied another one of the berries. “But better than that.”

  Michael smiled. “Precisely.”

  “So…why are we here?” Aurora tried to refrain from stuffing another twelve starberries in her mouth.

  “It seems the two of you are quite a remarkable pair of Halos.”

  Aurora's mouth sagged into a confused frown. “Why?”

  “It would appear that you are Stellars.”

  “Stellars?” Gray said through a mouthful of starberries.

  “It is a rare occurrence. Very rare, indeed,” Michael said. “It only arises when your Celestial collides with another’s Celestial, and the two fuse together, so they are forever linked. It makes for a particularly strong connection in even the most mundane humans. But, seeing as how you are both Halos, it will result in you being more powerful together than alone. When the average Halo can destroy a handful of demons at a time, the two of you will be able to extinguish hundreds.”

  Aurora let out the breath she’d been holding through his explanation. “So…you’re saying our soul stars—our Celestials, or whatever—collided with each other, and are now stuck together?”

  Michael nodded pleasantly. “Precisely.”

  “So, what does this mean for us?” Gray nodded towards Aurora.

  “It means it would be highly advisable for the two of you to work together from this point forward. You will be an asset to the Halos. I shall see to it that Samuel arranges extra training for you. When we reach Arx Isle, I will allow time for you to meet with another pair of Stellars. The likelihood of this sort of thing happening is one in a trillion, or more. It’s incredible, really. You should feel rather lucky.”

  Gray was nodding in stunned agreement, but Aurora wasn’t exactly happy about any of this. Not at all, actually. Like Gray so fondly called her, she was a lone wolf. She always had been, and always planned to be. Group projects in high school and college had been the bane of her existence, and she'd always ended up doing the whole project on her own just in case the others screwed theirs up, which did happen more than a few times.

  It was a pride thing and a control thing and an I-don’t-need-anyone-to-take-care-of-me-but-myself thing. Even with Gray, who she actually really liked…more than she’d ever admit. Feelings—hidden, or otherwise—aside, she didn’t want to have to need him to fight the demons, or Caducus. She could do it on her own.

  After several minutes of Michael talking about the rarity of Stellars—Gray nodding politely, and Aurora sitting in moody silence—he led them out of his “office” through a door hidden within a giant palm tree. He remained behind and allowed Gray and Aurora to find their way back to the glass elevators.

  They wandered in silence until they made it to the end of the passageway, and Aurora pressed the button to emit them into the glass capsule.

  “Dinner will be served soon,” Gray said. “Do you want to stop by your room first?”

  “Nah,” Aurora answered in a daze.

  Gray nodded, pressing a button and the elevator began its journey upward. “You’re pissed about this, aren’t you.”

  It was more of a statement than a question.

  “Pissed about what? Dinner?” Aurora knew perfectly well what he was talking about.

  “No,” Gray said with more patience than Aurora expected. “About the whole Stellars thing.”

  “Oh, that.” Aurora tried to keep her face impassive. “Yeah, well. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, and fighting for myself.”

  “Believe it or not, this seems to be bigger than you, Aurora,” Gray said, frustration etched across his face, his eyes narrowed at her.

  “I didn’t mean it like that, Gray. I just—”

  “You just hate that you have to rely on someone other than yourself now,” he interrupted. “You hate that you’re more powerful with me than without me. You hate that I’m—”

  “That’s not what—”

  “—not Samuel or some other better looking, more angelic guy that your soul could be fused to.”

  Aurora’s mouth dropped open. “Wait. What?”

  “I heard you and Samuel talking this morning. And, for someone who is so unbelievably closed off, you sure seemed to be able to open up to him.”

  Now she was pissed.

  “Um. Okay, one,” she held up a finger, “We were talking about an event that happened to me in the past. An event he witnessed because the Powers have been watching us since we were born basically. And two,” she held up a second finger, “What the hell were you doing listening in on my private conversation like that? Is that why you’ve been acting weird all day? You know I’m not yours to claim, Gray. We only just met a few days ago and just because we’re Stellars or whatever now doesn’t change any of that.”

  Gray shook his head. “You’re unbelievable.”

  “Thank you,” said Aurora stiffly.

  “It wasn’t a compliment.”

  “Well, I took it as one.”

  Gray clenched his jaw, but said nothing more, practically storming out of the elevator when it reached the designated floor. Aurora raised her chin and walked out with her head held aloft. She would continue to exude strength and confidence, even though she felt like breaking down and crying.

  Twenty-Five

  GRAY

  Gray had never met a girl who both charmed and incensed him quite like Aurora Coel. He wanted to kiss her and throw her off the damned ship—all in the same moment. He settled for doing neither and just stuck to what she was already rather skilled at—indifference. Well, false indifference. In fact, he wasn’t sure he could care more about the situation.

  There the two of them were, Stellars, who’d just happened to have the same physical connection as their Celestials. They were literal soul mates, and they weren’t even speaking to each other because one of them was too stubborn to accept help from a dreaded man.

  Okay, so, maybe he was a little bitter.

  The others had unquestionably read the tension between Aurora and Gray, including Samuel, who surprisingly didn’t push them to work together. Perhaps he knew their collaboration would be more harmful than helpful.

  Unfortunately, every time he and Aurora were having a dispute of any sort, Brielle picked up on this like a hunting dog sniffing out a coon. That day during their lunch break, she cornered him while he was innocently scarfing down a sandwich on a marble bench near the railing of the ship.

  “Hey, you,” she said in what she must have thought to be a desirable voice, though it grated on each of Gray’s nerves.
r />   “Hi,” he muttered through a mouthful of bread, meat, and cheese.

  She took a seat beside him. “So, you and Aurora are fighting again, huh?”

  Aurora and Chord sat on a flat, cushioned deck chair approximately twenty feet away from Gray, eating their lunch. He glanced up to see her eyes on him and Brielle. The moment his gaze captured Aurora's, she looked away to listen to Chord who was likely telling a story judging by the wildness of his hand gestures.

  Gray sighed and turned back to Brielle. “Nah, we aren’t fighting.”

  “Really?” Brielle arched a brow, her eyes moving to Aurora and back to Gray. “You two usually seem so close,” she said with evident disdain, “and now you aren’t even speaking.”

  “We’ve been training all day, Brielle,” Gray said. “I haven’t been talking to anyone.”

  And I was trying to keep it that way until you showed up, he thought.

  “Well, just know that you can always talk to me,” Brielle added, with a seductive look.

  Gray scanned the area for a way out. He spotted Sev returning to the deck with a plate of food in one hand and a set of precariously stacked books in the other.

  “Excuse me. I need to, uh, talk to Sev about something,” Gray said lamely, shoving the remainder of his sandwich in his mouth and practically sprinting away from the desperate brunette.

  “Here, let me help you with those,” Gray said, offering to take the stack of books from Sev.

  “Cheers.” Sev settled down on a bench with his plate on his lap. “Just wanted to do a bit of light research during the break.”

  “Made any interesting discoveries?”

  “More like interesting misinformation.” Sev lifted the topmost book from the pile. “I checked out all of the books on angels, but they were written by humans, of course, and are way off mark. I just wanted to see if any came close to what we’ve learned so far. But, there is a section in the library of books written by angels, and I’ve been reading some of those, too. This is particularly interesting.” He held up a thick red book with gold pages.