Starbright: The Complete Series

by Hilary Thompson

  “She’s dancing for herself,” Trea says. “She won’t be with us long now.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask, pausing our movement to look down. She lifts her head, and her eyes are glazed with tears. My heart begins to race as I gather her implication.

  “Her power is nearly gone. I think she’s using it up on purpose because she wants to be with Pacem. She wants to rest. In peace, with Pacem,” Trea ends in a whisper.

  Her words tug out every black fear I’ve managed to keep tamped down for weeks now – ever since we were joined again in Asphodel. I haven’t forgotten how Trea never gave me a real answer about coming back.

  “And what about your power?” I ask, my voice gruff. “Your balance?”

  “Mine?” Trea echoes, surprise on her face. “Oh, I’m not going anywhere. My power’s only getting stronger, sleeping next to you every night.” She grins and rises on her toes to reach me better, but there is something nagging me as I bend my lips to hers. Her actions feel forced. False, like she’s trying too hard to believe in something.

  “For you, Astrea,” says a soft voice behind us, and we turn to see Hesten and Kesh. Hesten offers Trea one of the flower necklaces and grins, then they dart away, splashing through the shallow waves at the edge of the beach.

  “They’re like children,” Trea smiles as she shakes her head.

  I take the flowers from her fingers and place them around her neck. “They’re the same age as we are, aren’t they?”

  She nods. “In years. But I’ve always felt so much older than most of the people our age.”

  I smile and hug her tighter, thinking of how Zarea once said something very similar about herself and Stian. “Once this eclipse business is done and the world starts over, we’ll have our chance to be young and carefree.” Maybe if I say it enough, it will come true.

  She still doesn’t object, but again I sense her disbelief, even as she presses closer to me. Our bodies crush the flowers between us, releasing their fragrance to the night air.

  FOURTY-TWO

  ASTREA

  The fate of the world is sealed.

  Clota and Lakessa – my own sisters – have betrayed humanity, and all that is left is me. Hidden here at the edge of the world.

  One day they may come for me, but I will fight.

  My new Sisters and I will protect all that is good, and never let evil past our gate.

  From Aisa’s personal journal, saved from before the Cleansing

  “It’s time,” the Prophet says to me. I only nod as he climbs the steps of the newly-finished temple to address the gathered people. I know exactly what time it is – what day it is. It’s July 16, and I’ve been seeing this moment in my dreams for weeks now, but I still haven’t found the courage to tell Lexan.

  I just kept hoping the ending would change, but it never does.

  Today is the day of the longest eclipse in over six thousand years – the longest possible eclipse, according to Elysium’s calculations. When the Goddess Moon will once again join the Sun God in his blue sky, blotting out the light of the earth.

  Today is the day of my final test – both from the Sisters and the Goddess Moon herself, if my dreams are correct. Have I helped the people enough to earn my own destiny?

  And today is the day when Lexan must fulfill his promise to his mother. He’s gone everywhere with me, both in body and spirit, but today I must go somewhere he cannot yet follow.

  Today he must simply let me go.

  Even now I can see the moon creeping toward the sun. This false night will be even longer than the eclipse which Lakessa and Clota used to cleanse their world of light – I only pray we four have enough power left between us to save this world from the darkness that waits for us. Or three, if you account for Irana’s absence. She’s been missing since the Night of Peace, though there are several reports of people seeing her dancing with the waves under the moon’s light.

  As I watch the people gather, my brain is again flooded with thoughts of the fears in Aisa’s journal: what happened a hundred years ago when four became three, and the darkness entered.

  “People of the Garden!” the Prophet calls, and everyone quiets. “Today we reclaim a world which was taken from our predecessors!”

  I glance around me at all their rapt faces, and my stomach turns. The Sisters visited me only this morning to warn me that Hade will likely try to regain power in any possible way – I still have many tests to pass before the world will grow light again.

  I try not to imagine what horrible things could happen if Hade begins to play.

  Lexan is only a few feet away, next to Aitan, who has a firm grip on Isa’s arm. She grew accustomed to his attentions over the long journey, and although she still holds no visible emotion, she no longer wanders from his side.

  I shuffle over to Aitan. “Are you ready?” I whisper.

  He nods, his face grim. “I’ll keep her still.”

  “And I won’t miss,” I say, clamping my mind shut on the image of myself shooting an arrow of fire into my best friend’s heart. Lexan’s vision hasn’t changed – his solution will work because it has to. I won’t leave Isa like this.

  I look up at the gate, where Stian and Zarea are watching for any attack from beyond the gate. Zarea nods at me and comes to join us at the base of the temple, with Lexan on my other side.

  The three of us wait while the Prophet drones on, telling the complete history of the world as we know it. Again, none of us mention Irana’s absence.

  The Sun God is full and hot with fire above us. Evidently Elysium kept more pre-Cleanse records than Asphodel did, because my mind overflows with the Prophet’s stories of how horrible humanity has been.

  “I wish we could get on with it,” I whisper to Lexan. “I’m going to change my mind about saving everyone if he tells one more story about the evil in the world.”

  Lexan smirks at first, but then a shadow passes over his face.

  “Don’t worry – I’m not going to fail the people,” I bite out. How can he doubt me now?

  I turn my face to the sky instead, and gasp as I notice the Moon Goddess is clearly visible now, huge and pale as she approaches the Sun in his sky.

  “It’s just like Mother’s stories,” I breathe, reaching for Lexan’s hand. The Moon inches toward the Sun, trailing white, smoky clouds with her. As her body edges slowly over his, beginning the eclipse, a scream echoes through the Garden.

  I jerk toward the sound, but it’s instantly duplicated, from a different direction.

  “No!” the Prophet yells from behind me, his hands spread too wide, as though ropes are pulling his wrists backward. Then he collapses and topples from the steps, tumbling to the base of the temple before us, his body crumpled. I start to run to him, tripping over Isa’s writhing form on the ground.

  All around me, people are screaming as they fall, one by one. I have no idea what’s happening. None of this was in my dreams. Darkness creeps over each tree in the Garden, one by one, as the Moon fully covers the Sun. It reminds me of the people I accidentally burned – how they struggled and screamed in pain. Is this Hade’s work?

  The false night becomes a real nightmare as I begin to slot the pieces into place.

  Suspicion sickening me, I close my eyes to see better, and a wail escapes my lips at what is confirmed. Lexan’s arms are around me instantly, but there is nothing he can do.

  “Their souls,” I whisper to him, not even sure if he can hear me over the chaos. “Their souls are being snuffed out. Like the people’s fires in Mother’s story.”

  “Snuffed out – like death?” he shouts, panicked. He stumbles as a spasm of pain flashes across his face, and then he grips my shoulders and shakes me like I could give him another answer, a more hopeful one.

  But I can’t, because my mind is suddenly filled with laughter.

  “Oh, darling. You never even believed those stories were true,” Hade says from nowhere, forcing his way between my eyelids and my memories. “But
it’s all true. Every. Horrible. Wonderful. Word.”

  My limbs tingle and my skin tightens as he stretches himself inside me. His fingers burrow into my fingers. His feet fill my shoes. His smile grows on my lips. My eyes roll back in his skull.

  Everything descends into darkness, just the way it did in the womb, and on the ocean.

  The screaming has stopped. As my eyes blink open, I see everyone prostrate on the ground before me. Lexan and Zarea alone are conscious, but even they are struggling to stay standing, their features stiff with pain. Looking helplessly out from eyes that used to be mine, I see my own knee ram into Lexan’s stomach. He groans and topples, peering up at me. His whole face is grief.

  I fight against Hade’s grasp, but he only chuckles at my futile efforts. “It’s simply me and only you, Astrea. Just like it should have always been.”

  Zarea groans to our left, sinking to the ground, and Hade moves my feet to step on her chest, crushing the air from her lungs. She tries to shove me off, but her head rolls backward as she loses consciousness.

  No-one here can defeat me. A strange feeling swirls in my gut, and I start to see everything more clearly. I want this darkness, don’t I? It’s so powerful. Just like Keirna said.

  Power is a delicious drink, and I am so, so thirsty.

  I want these bright colors to stay black as night. I want the Goddess Moon to stay in the sky, shutting out that infernal sun.

  We’ll share everything now, darling, Hade whispers in my mind.

  We walk slowly up the stairs of the temple and take the Prophet’s place. We can choose any playmate we want now. Before, there were simply too many to manage. But now…now we have choices.

  Aitan lies nearby, his arm enclosing Isa’s lifeless body.

  “That one,” we say, and shadows spool from our fingers, pulling her upright, tugging open her eyelids. She focuses calmly on us, but even the darkness can’t get a grip on her slippery mind. She rejects the evil as much as she rejected the good.

  Empty. No good to us that way.

  Then we hear footsteps on the temple stairs, shuffling and dragging, and we turn to see Lexan. How did he get up? What is that strange glint in his hand?

  His eyes are nearly as empty as Isa’s. Nearly.

  Something sloshes out of the corner of his eye – a wave? No, it’s a tear, and as it wobbles on his cheek, I remember again what he promised his family, so many, many nights ago.

  He must let me save myself. But I could use a little help, here.

  Just a tiny bit. And gods bless him, he knows it.

  Hade looks around, as if he’s just noticed I’m there again. As if he’s just realizing I’ve stepped away from the main event. I open my mouth, and Hade screams in rage as I scream in desperation, “Do it!”

  And Lexan reaches out, the glint forming a knife in his hand. He scratches it across my neck and Hade’s neck and we laugh because it’s not enough but it might be enough, and we push Lexan right off the edge of the temple.

  But something is leaking. Blood or shadow or regret is seeping from the shallow cut in our skin. I swipe my fingers through the wet and bring them to his lips, and it burns.

  It burns like fire, and I remember.

  Girl of fire and ash.

  My blood is fire. Not Hade’s.

  Our fingers clamp over his eyes and my eyes and scratch at the lids, and our voices tangle agonizingly in our throat. I swallow a bit more of the blood and it burns as it goes down, cleansing.

  Hade howls in rage, the sound shaking every bone in my body, and I nearly swoon off the temple’s edge after Lexan.

  But when my eyes open and the world becomes visible again, I’m staring out of my own eyes, and I feel the fire that courses through my own veins. It’s no longer painful but powerful. But the darkness is swirling above me again, twining around the tree branches like dissipating smoke. Waiting. Always waiting.

  I feel sluggish. Drained. I’ll deal with Hade in a minute. Right now, I need to save the people, starting with my best friend.

  I turn and summon as much strength as I can to hurl a powerful bolt of light and pain into Isa’s heart, and she jolts to life, her soul splitting in two, just like in Lexan’s vision. One soul hovers above and one below, and I unleash every bit of my fire at the darker one, whose shadows swirl to show iridescent black emptiness before it collapses in on itself. The empty body convulses, and a groan issues from her lips as the remaining soul sinks back into its vessel.

  I hear the flapping of great wings above me, and when I raise my head, I see the Three Sisters hovering above the tree line. Their eye sockets drip with black blood and their bones shine darkly through their skin. But they are each smiling, and for once, the smiles are not vindictive or judgmental. They are triumphant: I have passed their test.

  As I watch them swirl into the clouds and out of sight, I feel my power slipping away – my fire is finally gone.

  Used up.

  But it was all worth it, because Isa opens her eyes, and she is really Isa again.

  “Trea?” she whispers, blinking up at me. “Are you okay? What happened to your neck?” She tries to push herself up.

  I would cry in relief, except nothing has yet been decided. Isa is free to feel, but Lexan is unconscious, along with Zarea, the Prophet, and all the hundreds and hundreds of people. My power is gone.

  The only one who isn’t gone, apparently, is Hade. Glancing above me, I can still see the darkness there, tendrils reaching down from the branches, ready to grasp me.

  “Trea?” Isa says again. “What happened?” She coughs and slumps down again as though exhausted. Then she notices Aitan and whimpers, kneeling up next to him and shaking his still form.

  The Moon is still covering the Sun completely, but I know there is little time left in the eclipse. I have no idea what to do now. I begin to walk, milling through the bodies crumpled at my feet. Some are completely still, but others moan and cower as I come near.

  I want to assure them I will only and always help, but I’m not sure I can promise such a thing.

  I’ve never been sure of that.

  And suddenly it’s clear. Keirna wasn’t my biggest enemy. Even Hade isn’t.

  All along, my biggest enemy has been myself.

  My resistance was only fear, all along. Fear that I could never be enough. Fear that I wouldn’t know how to save everything and everyone I hold dear. Fear that I might never help the world the way it needs.

  Hade is me and I am Hade, because I let him in once and too often afterward. I am too dark, and there is no-one here to cleanse me. Elysium’s path cleansed my body and mind, but only the Goddess Moon can truly rid my soul of the darkness.

  I must die for Hade to die.

  So the dreams are true after all, just not the same truth I thought I saw.

  I am the girl known for bravery, whose weakness is fear. The irony is like a burning brand on my soul. I stumble to my knees, ready to beg the Fates and the Furies and the Goddess Moon and anyone else who will listen.

  “I’m afraid,” I whisper into the night sky. “I have no bravery left to give, and no fire left to burn.”

  A different voice, soft and rippling like clear, pure water, speaks at the back of my mind. Your fire is in your blood. Astrea of Asphodel, Starbright Maiden of Justice. Girl of fire and ash.

  It’s the True Prophet, I realize suddenly. Or his vision at least, left there so many nights ago. Its meaning has finally been opened to me.

  Asphodel is gone. Justice has been served. All that is left of me is my blood.

  And it tastes of fire, because it is made of fire. Sunfire.

  Shaking, more fearful than I’ve ever been, I slip the knife from my boot. Remembering how many times I’ve slipped a similar knife from a similar boot, I smile weakly. I draw the blade slowly along the vein in my forearm, and beads of blood line up on my skin.

  One by one, they make trails, sliding down toward my wrist and fingers. Then one by one, they drop onto the parche
d earth.

  They sizzle in the dry grass, then flames burst to life.

  My own blood holds the sunfire we’ve been searching for. The same fire that has been snuffed from the souls of each of the thousands of bodies lying around me.

  I clench my fist, and the blood flows faster. A drop of it splashes onto the person nearest to me, and as it sizzles on his skin, he gasps, the life and soul snapping back into him. Another rivulet reaches a young girl, and she does the same.

  I call out for Lexan, searching the crowds, dripping blood on the people as I go.

  Finally I find him, slumped over in the grass. I brush his cheek with my fingers, and the blood soaks in, prying his eyes open.

  “Trea,” he groans.

  “I need your air,” I say, my voice close to a sob. I bend to kiss his lips one last time. I know what this will mean, even if he doesn’t realize it yet.

  “Spin me a tornado,” I say. He stares at my bloodied arm, frozen in horror at what I’m asking of him. “Do it!” I scream.

  He jerks, then begins to call the air, forming a pitiful whirlwind at our feet.

  “Bigger,” I whisper, forcing my arm into the wind. It whips at the trails of blood, sucking more and more from my opened vein, flinging the drops of fire into the crowds of dead people.

  As the blood sizzles into their hair, and seeps into their skin, they begin to cough and gasp and rise.

  “It’s my sunfire. It’s saving them,” I gasp to Lexan, slicing into my other arm and forcing it into the whorl of wind. “I love you! I’m so sorry,” I manage just as I feel my body slumping forward into the twirl of air, being sucked into its vortex.

  I’m a living storm of fire and blood and ash and life.

  I fall, and fall, or maybe I’m rising into the night sky, but then I stop. Surrounded by blackness and a cool, calm serenity. This darkness does not laugh like Hade.

  It rests, like eternity.

  And suddenly I remember. I remember everything.

  I was the star, watching the people.

  I was the spring star, watching the sky for a glimpse of her love across the heavens.