Light of the Moon

by David James

  I closed my eyes before anything took hold.

  No. I won’t look.

  “I don’t see anything.”

  “Open your eyes and try,” she snarled. “You have to otherwise we can’t go in, and that really wouldn’t be the best move for you, Calum.”

  No.

  I fought it.

  No.

  I didn’t want to see my fate, didn’t want to see my death.

  No.

  Didn’t want to see how I would become my father.

  And then, Kate’s voice was so close I felt like she was whispering in my ear when she said, “Open your eyes, Calum. See where you stand and what you should fight for. See who you really are.”

  Like a million tiny wolves, chills bit into my spine and fought to stay there, grinding up my back until teeth sank into my skull. I felt the Doors pulling at me from all sides, willing me to open my eyes, wanting me to see. Even in the darkness of my mind I could see its light like a beacon calling me forward.

  She breathed, “Take a chance, otherwise you’ll never know the truth.”

  I opened my eyes and, as the sound of Kate’s voice washed over me, was lost to a dream. Magic consumed me, and I was lost to this:

  The depths of Hell ate me alive, and fire licked at me like the hands of people trying to escape...

  And then there was a twist in my mind-

  sharp and loud and I was

  falling so fast too fast falling

  down

  down

  down

  too much too soon my voice screaming I yelled I hurt so bad I hurt I cried tears and pain pain pain

  falling fast

  down

  down

  down

  until

  nothing and quiet and calm and nothing

  until the fire faded to nothing, and all I saw was darkness. Then, as it faded from black to blue to white light, I felt a burning in my heart that told me I was alive.

  Above me nothing moved, nothing pulsed with life. The night sky was an inky blue-black, poked through with tiny stars. It was a different world, the sky, as though time was standing still and I was the only thing moving.

  Where am I?

  I fell to my knees. Clasping my hands together, I squeezed them while every fiber of my being ached for something more than this.

  I thought, I want to know who I really am.

  Please.

  Show me who I am.

  I unbound my hands and put both over my birthmark.

  I wished, Show me who I’m not.

  My head tilted up. Above the stars were blinking down as if telling me to wait, the wishing star would be coming soon.

  And then the world exploded.

  It started with the wishing star, a faint dot of white light flying through the sky toward me; a small movement in the dark abyss of night. Every second the falling star gained speed, every moment it flew closer and closer until it lit up the world and, as I closed my eyes, crashed into me in a collision of bright, blinding light that stopped my heart.

  No breath.

  No air.

  No life.

  All was dead and gone from light, until-

  I breathed.

  I was alive.

  I opened my eyes and began to see.

  I stood outside of time, in the dark field near the cave leading to Lake Iris.

  I was me-

  but I didn’t feel like myself.

  There was a difference; I felt it flow through my veins and beat in my heart. My body was lighter, as though lightning had cut and burned my skin away and replaced it with a hundred tiny clouds. My mind though, was as heavy as a storm; I could feel it crack in a tempest of emotions as tears rained down my face.

  Anger.

  Sadness.

  I tried with verve to look at myself, twisting this way and that to see what was different, but all I could see was white, warm light saturating me from every direction until it was all I was.

  Fear.

  Happiness.

  I was light and, just as the tears dried and became nothing more than saline lines down my face, I felt as though I could fly.

  Love.

  And then the voice from my dreams: “Free us, Caeles. Give in and become who you were always meant to be. This was it. This was your moment. Remember! Look around you. Free us.”

  The light burst to a swell around me once more and then closed against me so it was a shell, armor. I blinked and saw the same sky but a different field stretched out before, riddled with tiny hills and trees and so much blood.

  As the field became alive in shades of dripping blood, a scene shifted in smoke and shadow and exploded around me: A Hunter’s moon shone down on soldiers dressed in gray and red, shining an eerie glow on their battle armor. I felt the pull of the full moon, like always. Felt the familiar fire deep inside me raging, wanting to burn, and I gripped my hands against the heat. Rain fell from the sky in crimson sheets, each drop a needle against my skin. Water like blood.

  The battle erupted in chaos.

  There was no order.

  There was nowhere safe.

  “You know what this is, don’t you? You’ve always known what this is,” the voice said over the battle cries, over death and pain and agony.

  And I realized I did.

  For some reason I knew everything.

  The Orieno were in red, the Order in gray: Monster against Warrior.

  This was a battle fought a thousand times before-

  a thousand times after-

  forever, until someone stopped it.

  Monster against monster.

  “You must end this war,” the voice said. “We can help, but it starts and ends with you. It always has and always will.”

  “What do I need to do?” I asked. My voice warbled as though I was underwater, and I could almost feel it bounce off the orb of light around me.

  “Look, for now. See this war for what it really is. See what you must become and what you can do, even now. See who we are.”

  I looked-

  and saw death.

  Everyone was covered in blood so dark it was black with the same kind of death. Stab after stab brought down another victim in red or gray, until the field was a graveyard of bodies and there was no room to walk without stepping on the dead and fallen.

  “War,” the voice whispered, “is very rarely the answer to anything, and never so when the ultimate goal is power. It corrupts like poison in the veins of humanity. War strangles and destroys the good in people until all that’s left is what you see before you.”

  War.

  Blood.

  Death.

  Amidst the chaos, I looked up at the night sky, and wished with all my heart that this war would end.

  I wish...

  I wish...

  I closed my eyes and wished I could finally start living. I wished for my Mom and Dad, and for Kate and her sisters. For safety. For Tyler. I wished for the countless people abducted by the Orieno to be saved. For peace. For truth. For answers.

  I wish for life.

  When I opened my eyes blinding light was flooding the field in waves of silver glory, burning as if the moon had exploded. As the stars fell faster, faces marked by infuriated lines, eyes touched by anger, and dark hands holding glowing swords emerged from the light, and I could see that these weren’t stars at all, but people as black and foreboding as the night sky above.

  In moments they were intertwined with the soldiers, blades of light slicing through good and bad and turning all to dust. “There is life in death,” the voice said. “We take their souls just before they die, so both good and evil can have a second chance in the hereafter.”

  Silently, one of the stars landed in front of me, a smile on his face, and stepped close to me so he was surrounded by light.

  “Calum,” he said looking me straight in the eyes. “Thank you for calling us.”

  “Calling you? What? I didn’t do anything.”

&nb
sp; He laughed, the melody like a chorus of chimes in wind. “Oh, but you did. Before and now, you did. When you made a wish, we answered. We are the stars people wish upon. We are the light in the darkness. We are hope. I am Orion, leader of Heaven’s Guard.”

  Kate’s words dawned in my mind. “The angel Warriors that fight to save the world?”

  “I suppose you might call us that, though we are most certainly not angels.” He turned to the battle. “Look around you. We are not angels because we are not completely good, though we’re not exactly evil either. We are not passive and we fight when we must. We are protectors. In different times, however, we have been known as the Angels of Mons, appearing to Warriors in need throughout Britain as well as in other parts of the world. The Watchers. I myself have been known as the Angel Moroni to several Elder members, though we are anything but angels and those that classify us as such are greatly misled in their beliefs.”

  He waved a hand through the air. “The stars you see above are protectors to individuals all over the world. They, indeed, are Warriors still fighting. However, the larger stars, the clusters you call constellations, like me, are guards to the more powerful souls that have a greater purpose. Everyone has a claim to make in the circle of fate.”

  For a moment I got so lost in looking at Orion that I forgot it was my turn to speak. Orion had hair that cropped close to the sides of his head, with long bangs that spread in a slash down his brow. His hair was so white that it shone like opals, reflecting light as if tiny rainbows were in each strand. He had no wings, but swirls of what looked like ever-moving clouds circled around his body, translucent enough to look like fine mist. Tints of pale blue and white danced through them like veins, enhancing the sheer power they seemed to hold. The clouds moved with each breath he took, and it was easy to picture them slicing through the air like knives, lifting Orion up with ease and grace. His skin, like the others, was as dark as midnight, as if it was made of night. It seemed to be as fluid as a moving sky and, for a second, I thought I saw a shooting star fly across his left arm.

  “Calum?” he said politely.

  l looked into his eyes, golden like the sun with a halo of light around each pupil. If my eyes were mirrors of the moon, his were reflections of the sun. “Sorry. I just... I’m not even sure where I am, or what I am. You say I wished for you, but I don’t think I did. I wished for answers.”

  “You wished for life,” he said. “And so we came to give you yours, like we do every time you ask.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “We only know what we must. Never the complete truth, and never until we’re ready.”

  “What?” I asked, my head spinning. “What do you mean?”

  Orion smiled. “I’ll say this much, because it’s all you need to know in your current life: There are many theories as to how or why the world is what it is, but none of them are completely true. That doesn’t mean, however, that there is or isn’t an ultimate truth. In fact, there are many. Each person brings something different to the world, a different energy that no one else can bring because we are all secular beings, but circular in our own ways together.”

  “What?”

  “I never get tired of explaining this to you,” Orion laughed. “Forget what you know. Instead of thinking of life and death, or Heaven and Hell, think of everything as one large circle of fate. The past, present, and future are linked together not by time but by our minds. By the people that shape that period within time. The past influences the present, which changes the future. And, if we were to count those people that have not yet been born, our futures would influence their own pasts, presents, and futures. It’s an entire circle of death and life, and everyone helps shape it. One being cannot shape humanity, but they can make all the difference in the world.”

  “I don’t...” I started, but then found myself thinking of the Doors of Judgment. “Kind of like a dream catcher? Like the symbol of the Order? That idea of fate?”

  He nodded. “Exactly. Who do you think they got it from?”

  “I thought the Order was started by that enchanter, Myrddin.”

  Orion smiled again. “And who do you think gave Myrddin the power to create the Order and control the elements? Who do you think showed Myrddin the prophecy that powers this war?”

  “The lightning! It was you guys wasn’t it? Heaven’s Guard?”

  “No,” Orion whispered. “It was you.”

  “Me?” I gasped.

  “You. Don’t you feel the elements calling to you? Do you not remember the way fire burns for you every true full moon, how lightning strikes close, or even how the moon’s light beckons your eyes to the sky? Even without your full powers you can feel it, I know.”

  I remembered. “You mean when my house caught fire when I was little, that was because of who I am? I did that?”

  Orion nodded. “Because the moon was full that night, your true self was closer than ever and you were able to harness a small part of yourself without even knowing. It doesn’t happen every time but only when the moon is truly full, and only when a powerful emotion is linked to that moment. That’s why you’ve only felt that way a handful of times, and why you’ve found other reasons to blame for those extraordinary events.

  “Everything in your life has happened because of who you are. You are the one that saw the original prophecy, the Legend of the Dreamer, and you are the one that gave Myrddin his powers so he would help protect your future. Before you died the first time so long ago, you struck Myrddin down and showed him the truth; because of your bloodline and your curse, you knew you would soon forget it. You created the Order to fight in your honor and protect the world from darkness, the Devil, when you were lost to it. But times have changed. The world is darker now than ever before, and the Order is failing. We need to stop this war, and that starts with you.” He stepped closer to me. “It always has been about you, Calum. About who you are. The Order is right about one thing: You are the Dreamer, the one who walks through time, through dreams. But you are so much more than just that.”

  I whispered, “The Devil. I have evil in me. I can feel it.”

  He put his hand on my shoulder. “We all have a little evil inside us. To doubt that would be to lie. The question is not that we do, but how much of it we have. And you, Calum, have much more good than evil. It’s difficult for you to see that now because of the binding spell moving through your veins, but that was for your protection. Even so, with it you can still feel some of the power you do have. You felt it mostly when you were younger, when your mind was less stable and your thoughts much more free. The witch who placed that spell on you was right in doing so, and unfortunately only she can remove it. The Order, however, is wrong about almost everything else. You are not the Destroyer. You are someone else entirely.” He shook his head and grinned. “I missed this. Missed you. Our arguments. Our paths connecting like they always will. Are you ready to know what you truly are?”

  I gulped.

  I nodded.

  Orion said, “Look at your arm, Calum. Look at your birthmark.”

  My heart fluttered as if falling. “How do you know about that?”

  He just smiled. “You’ve asked that question a thousand times. Each time I answer the same: I have one of my own.”

  Orion pointed to a spot on his lower, right arm. There, shining amid the black of his skin, were several tiny dots glaring bright. Together, they formed the vision of a hunter ready for battle.

  “Orion?” I asked, pulling my hand back in. I had almost touched him. “As in the Hunter?”

  He nodded. “As I said, I am a constellation. As are you.”

  Cruel and wonderful bliss filled me.

  I thought, Does this mean I’m not my father’s son?

  I reached to touch my own mark, but it meant nothing to me. There was no constellation that matched it. Not one I knew of.

  “You won’t find the answer there,” Orion said, still smiling.

  I
could still hear the battle around us, but it was softer now. More had died.

  “Tell me. I need to know. I need the entire truth.”

  “Why?”

  I was taken aback. “Why? Because someone has to stop this! We just can’t sit here and let the entire world suffer, can we?”

  “No,” he said and sighed. “This has gone on long enough. People are dying when they were never meant to. Too much evil exists now. You are right to stop it. But you won’t find your birthmark in the sky, Calum, because it was lost long ago. For so long, you were the one that shone the brightest among us all. You are and forever will be the Caeles, the most powerful of all Heaven’s Guard. Our true leader, the North Star.”

  His eyes didn’t lie.

  I tried to find words-

  but nothing came except: “How?”

  Orion’s eyes grew heavy. The mist around him slowed as he said, “Your story starts like most do, with love. As you know, your true father was Lucifer, the Devil. You will always be the son of the Devil, no matter when or how or to whom you are born. Your soul will always be the first one you were born with. But there is always hope for you. There is a reason you are alive today. Your mother was the angel Gabriella.”

  I blinked. I will always be this, but there is hope...

  “She was the most powerful angel of her time,” Orion said. “And it is because of her you were able to live. But because of your father, you were cursed to die.”

  I choked, “I’m going to die?”

  Orion’s eyes closed for an instant, and when they opened he said, “Let me explain. After you were born you were supposed to die. Children of angels and demons are never meant to live. However, because they are born with the blood of angels in them, they cannot be killed outright. Instead, they are all exiled to live in limbo in the sky as stars. You, Caeles, are different because you are the only one born to the Devil himself. You are his only son. Because of this he has claim over you, and tried to find you when you were banished to the sky shortly after you were born. However, your mother knew this and asked a member of the Guard to look after you and make you his equal. Me.”