“I have taken this moment out for us,” Aleia explained, “so I could remind you of our prior arrangement this week.”
I pulled off one of my half-gloves to show her the glittering gold script, still inscribed on my palm:
Sailing on the Stars
Meallán
St. Brendan the Navigator
April 23rd, Earth Time 11:00 PM
Dock 42, Apollo City Marina
“I’m not likely to forget.” Especially after worrying so much other people would see it and ask about it, I added silently.
“St. Brendan and I will be waiting for you at the marina,” she said. “The Meallán will be ready to disembark at eleven sharp. Since this is a sort-of impromptu landing on his part, please try not to keep him waiting.”
I was just about to ask if I was going on some kind of cruise, when Elysian whooshed down and interrupted me.
“Do you have the powers of Time, then?” Elysian eyed Aleia intently.
She nodded. “My sister and I control the elements of time, but her power is on the universal side, while mine is focused on the personal.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Elysian glared at me; no doubt I’d interrupted his line of questioning.
“It means I work with individual experiences of time, while my sister controls all of it at once.” She came closer to me and looked at me closely. “In your human form, don’t you see time through your own experience?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Time operates beyond you and through you. You experience it, but it still goes at its own pace.”
“You mean like when I’m stuck in English class and it’s been five minutes but it feels like an hour?”
“That’s the present-tense version of it,” Aleia agreed. She grinned again briefly, before adding, “But you see it most when you reflect on your past. Time distances you from pain, but memory also works to help heal your hurts.”
I thought about my past, and in particular my pain. As I gazed into the orb Aleia held in her hands, the orb’s dark center glowed. I saw my younger self as I was shuffled from babysitter to babysitter, daycare to daycare, struggling to get my parents’ attention, celebrating the rare moments when I did, and how it made me forget the pains of their ambivalence.
I thought about the quiet hours in the night and morning, when I couldn’t sleep, and how I’d longed for something or someone I could not name, something I later grew to fear. I thought about being overlooked in elementary school by my peers if I was not strong enough, fast enough, smart enough, or attractive enough, even as I studied and worked hard to achieve those things, and succeeded in achieving them, all the while silently wondering if anybody would ever love me for me.
I saw myself on the summer nights when I would get sick, and I would gaze at the moonlight and wonder what was missing in my life.
I gazed downward. That isn’t who I am. Turning back to Aleia, I brushed it off. “I don’t think time manages to heal all wounds,” I said.
“No, it doesn’t,” Aleia agreed quietly. “But our memory of time does shape who we are.” She gazed over at Elysian. “And that is why I have come.”
“I guess the Prince got my messages about your lack of quality mentorship, Elysian,” I teased, trying to add some levity to the group. Elysian’s eyes had glassed over, and it made me wonder if he’d seen some of his own unpleasant past in the tiny orb. He didn’t seem to notice my remark, either.
Aleia cleared her throat. Elysian and I both turned our attention to her. “Do you have any questions about the appointment?” she asked.
“Nope. Not really.”
“I’ll be around if you do need me,” she said. “I am staying here on Earth with you, until I am called back.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good.” I didn’t really know what to say to that. “So you’ll help us fight the demons while you’re here?”
She put the orb back in her cloak and pulled out a pair of deadly-looking daggers, one in each hand. “It is the duty of a Star to protect,” she asserted, twirling them around with a languid grace. “Each one is trained for combat, for this world and for this lifetime.”
“Sounds good to me,” I muttered, impressed with the elegant features of her weapons. I grinned and held out my hand. “Good to have you on the team.”
Aleia shook my hand with a fierce pride and strength. It made me like her all over again. Time resumed as her bubble of power popped. “I’ll see you again soon.” Then she laughed a bit as she added, “Wingdinger.” And just like that, she was gone.
“Well, she seems more agreeable than Starry Knight,” I said.
“She’s here to take my place.” Elysian slumped over. “Have I really been a terrible teacher?”
Yes. I wanted to say it, but I decided not to. I shrugged. “You can’t say it’s not a good thing that we’re getting more help fighting the Sinisters. We still have five to seal away, and Orpheus, too.”
“Four,” Elysian said.
“Four?” I repeated, surprised. “No, we only managed to get Meropae and Alcyonë. That’s only two of the seven.”
“Didn’t SWORD seal one away as well?”
“Ugh . . . ” I briefly recalled they’d managed to capture Taygetay, the Sinister of Rage, during our last big battle. “Oh, yeah. I guess so. Do you really think they managed to seal her away, though? She seemed pretty powerful.”
Elysian and I exchanged an uncomfortable glance. There were no easy ways to answer that question.
“Hey, hold still a moment.”
“What? Is there something on my belly?” Elysian looked down, his long dragon face squashing itself into his neck area. “Or on my tail?”
I laughed as I pulled out Mikey’s camera and took a few quick shots. “There,” I said. “That should satisfy him.”
“Aw, what did you do that for?” Elysian grumbled as I jumped on his back. He took off and I grabbed on.
“Mikey wanted some pictures and a video,” I explained. “He asked me for Starry Knight’s picture, but I forgot.”
Elysian grumbled. “I know you like your friend, but I have to say you both need to be careful about taking pictures. Not to mention posting stuff online.”
“We will. He’s the one who’s keeping Gwen out of our hair,” I said. “This is the least I can do in return. Besides, I’m sure other people have gotten some good pictures of you. Even at Rachel’s, there was a painting with a dragon in it that looked like you a couple of weeks ago.”
“You shouldn’t have to do this for Mikey,” Elysian argued. “It seems like you’re trying to buy his silence or something.”
“I don’t think it’s that.” I hesitated. “Okay, fine. Yeah, I think it’s stupid, but Mikey’s dad is a part of SWORD, if you’ll recall, so I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“Either that or he’ll be seen as an unnecessary complication.”
I hadn’t thought of that. “Look, let’s just get back to Rachel’s, okay? I don’t want to keep Gwen waiting, and we’ll figure out all this other stuff later.”
“There’s always later for you, isn’t there?” Elysian rolled his eyes in disapproval.
I tried not to let it bother me. But as I slipped back into Rachel’s Café, I knew it wasn’t something I could ignore forever.
As I was peeking around the corner from the front entrance, Mikey waved at me from the otherwise-empty booth.
“Hey,” I said slowly. “I guess Gwen . . . is in the bathroom?” I finished uncertainly.
Mikey grinned. “Not quite. She got a text from Laura and needed to go help her with something for the cheerleading squad.”
“What? Why?” I asked. “Gwen’s not even on the squad anymore. And they have a ban or something on talking to me, don’t they?”
“Come on.” Mikey grinned. “We both dated Via Delorosa. We know how twisted her sadistic mind can be. Since you didn’t get much of a social backlash after you dumped and humiliated her—”
“I’d hardly call i
t ‘humiliating.’ I just stopped dating her,” I muttered. “And I was nice about it. It could’ve been a lot worse.”
“She was probably hoping you’d at least make one big scene with her about it, in public or school,” Mikey observed. “You know she likes attention.”
“Too much, and only if it’s on her own terms.”
“Agreed,” Mikey said. “That was part of the reason I didn’t like her.”
“Why did you date her then?” I asked, leaning around the table to see if Rachel was nearby. I wanted a new mocha. And to see if she had any more cookies. “And then why did you let her dump you? You could’ve dumped her first, if you really didn’t like her.”
“We were in middle school, Dinger,” Mikey said with a laugh. “Who doesn’t do something they are for sure going to regret at that age? And as for letting her dump me, well, I didn’t really care. Remember? I even told you to let her do the dumping, because she would be better about it.”
“I gave her some time,” I said fairly, before deciding to change the subject. “So what did Via need Gwen for?”
“Well, considering Gwen was a cheerleader last year, Via has to make it seem like it was her idea to allow you to get together. So she dragged Laura into it.”
“And Laura’s not going to turn Via down,” I finished. Laura Nelson was one of Gwen’s best friends, and I knew she was angling to get a promotion to vice-captain next year. She wouldn’t object to any scheme of Via’s. Not until she grew a backbone of her own, and that was not going to happen as long as Via was in charge of Central’s Falcons. “Oh well. There’s a reason I don’t date cheerleaders anymore.”
“Me too,” Mikey readily agreed. “I’m looking more in the way of archers these days. Speaking of which . . . ”
Anger spurted inside of me. “No, she didn’t want to get her picture taken.” I lied, conveniently not mentioning I didn’t even ask. “You’ll have to ask her in person, yourself. You know she doesn’t like to do me any favors.”
Mikey sighed. “Okay. But I am definitely coming with you next time.”
“Fine,” I snapped. “You can think of an excuse to get us out of whatever we’re doing at the time.”
“That’s easy enough,” Mikey asserted, obviously ticked at my tone but unwilling to play on my anger. “I’ll just tell Gwen my dad wants to meet with me. And when we get back we’ll say we were stood up.”
If only that would work, I thought, wondering if Dante Salyards would ever show up on my battlefields again.
“What?” Mikey asked. “You’re looking at me funny.”
“I thought you didn’t want to talk about your dad,” I said, using the moment to recover from the direction my own thoughts on the matter had taken.
Mikey shrugged. “So? He’s not around now, even if he’s back in town. Why not make him useful?” He slouched back a moment and added, “It’s not like I’m really going to talk to him, anyway.”
Unspoken words settled on me quickly enough. We both knew we weren’t going to talk about it anymore.
He coughed awkwardly. “You know, you were lucky Gwen got called away by Laura and Via. You’ve been dumping her on me a lot the last few weeks.”
“Do you think she’s getting suspicious?” I asked, this time bitterly. “Or are you tired of helping me out?”
“What? No, man. Of course not. I like Gwen,” he assured me. “I just thought it was a lucky break today is all.”
“And that I’m ignoring her, apparently.”
“Well—”
“Save it,” I retorted. “I’m going home. Here’s your phone.” I tossed him the phone and stood up. I started to leave, and then changed my mind. “Why don’t you just get over Starry Knight? It’s one thing for you to criticize me, but it’s another for you to do it while obsessing over some . . . temperamental harpy.” That was a good description of Starry Knight, I decided, recalling how she’d pushed me away earlier.
Mikey didn’t answer me. He avoided my gaze, focusing on his phone.
I decided to let it go. For the moment. There are some people who insist on being helpless, I thought, recalling the protesters at the mayor’s office earlier. And you can’t help them until they are ready to help themselves. I turned and walked away.
“Wait,” Mikey called, “You forgot to pay!”
I didn’t even care as I headed out and headed home. I’d call Rachel and settle the bill later, I promised to myself. But now I just wanted to go home and be by myself.
☼5☼
School
It took me a few days to calm down enough to want to talk to Mikey again. It wasn’t that I was mad at him, really. But I still decided it was better not to talk to him until I absolutely had to.
I mean, I rightfully pitied him. I’m sure my parents’ congenial inattention to me was much better than Mikey’s dad full-on leaving his mother. And not to mention dealing with his mother’s resulting alcoholism and depression, and having his grandmother take them in. I get it; that was hard. And with everything going on, I felt like I had to protect him from finding out his dad was on the side of the “Let’s take over the world” crazies, who also happened to be very well informed and very well paid off. That’s pretty hard, too.
But to see him place all his hopes and dreams on Starry Knight just put him past my pity limit. It was one thing to have things happen to you; it was another to be blatantly, intentionally stupid about it.
Not to mention, Starry Knight had already told him he “wasn’t the one” she was meant for. Sure, she was nice about it, and yeah, it was unlikely any sensible girl would take Mikey up on a date after just meeting him for the first time. But did she really have to be that nice to him? And just who was she “meant for” anyway?
“Dinger? Answer the question, please.”
I don’t know the answer to that question. I blinked and looked up to see Mrs. Smithe, my AP History teacher, looking down her thick-framed glasses at my face, and I recalled I was in the middle of class, trying to get through a round of review.
“Ugh, what was the question?” I asked.
“What’s the oldest city in the United States?” Raiya muttered from behind me.
“St. Augustine,” I replied, just as Mrs. Smithe began to ask the question once more.
Mrs. Smithe was by far my favorite teacher, and for good reason: Martha didn’t take any crap from people. Except from me and my friends, a lot of the time. “Yes, that’s right. Please pay attention,” she remarked in a terse voice, after shooting me a glare.
I smiled brightly, charmingly. “Of course, Mrs. Smithe,” I assured her. “I always want to make sure—”
“That’s enough for now, Dinger,” she barked. “Next question’s for Raiya.”
Jason and Evan von Ponce, both my friends in class, sniggered softly around me as Mrs. Smithe went on with her review questions in her usual relentless fashion. I glanced over at Gwen with a grin, but she just shrugged.
I hope she’s not mad at me. Even though Gwen had reassured me she should have been the one to apologize for running out on our date over the weekend, I didn’t feel like she was really okay with it. I thought about how great it would have been to take a class on something useful in life, such as how to tell what girls were thinking, when people were really telling the truth, or how to get them to tell you the truth.
I thought about my ability to read someone’s emotions. It helped, that was for sure, but there were a million and one reasons Gwen might be feeling sad or frustrated when I was around. I watched her as she answered her own review question (“Explain isolationism vs. imperialism”) with a rote precision our old drama teacher, Mr. Lockard, would have appreciated.
Eventually, review for the final exam died down and we had a few moments to settle down and relax.
“I’m slightly disappointed in you, Dinger,” Jason said as we discussed my upcoming celebration. “I was so sure you’d want a surprise party.”
“Nah. Parties have been scarce enou
gh this year,” I reminded him. “No need to try to make it special.”
“Is it true that Kyle’s band will be playing?” Poncey asked.
“Yeah, Gwen and Mike just told me about that a couple of days ago,” I confirmed.
“Cool!” My other friend, Drew McGill, chimed into the conversation with a cheer. “Caution: Hot Contents is huge with the seniors and juniors right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if you get some party crashers.”
“It’s no trouble,” I assured him. “Cheryl and Mark know how to hire a good maid service.” We laughed, as my parents were a sort-of running joke between all of us.
“Between the band and Rachel’s catering, you’ll need it,” Jason agreed.
It was nice to see my friends so excited over my birthday. “Yeah,” I agreed again. “This is going to be the party of the year,” I sneered as I turned around to face Raiya, who sat directly behind me, much to both of our dismay. “How’s Rachel coming along with my cake?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Raiya muttered into her paper. She was copying the notes on the board. “I’m not her keeper.”
“Do you think it’ll be a fun party?” I asked her, deliberately trying to bait her.
She gave me a smirk back. “I doubt my opinion on the matter has ever bothered you.”
“That’s not an answer,” I countered.
“Well, I wouldn’t have any way of verifying my answer, would I?” She leaned down and grabbed her books as the bell rang. “I’m not invited.”
“Oh, I forgot you weren’t.” I shrugged. “Oh well.”
“Yes,” Raiya said. “So it would really be a waste of time to ask me, wouldn’t it?” And then she flipped the loose tresses of her hair over her shoulder and left.
“You didn’t invite her?” Gwen asked from behind me.
“Gwen, I don’t need to argue with her all throughout my own party. You want me to enjoy it, don’t you?”
“Yes. But I think you like to argue enough that it wouldn’t matter.”
“There’s no winning with her,” I muttered darkly as Raiya walked out of the classroom. For once, she didn’t turn around and smirk at me like she usually did when she managed to get the last word in our arguments.
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