The Fallen Stars (A Star Child Novel)

by Stephanie Keyes

News travels fast in a small town. “No, this guy’s name is William. I don’t know his last name.”

  “Okay, I am dispatching an officer out to Route 3 now. Any idea where?”

  “He was headed to Boston earlier.”

  “Okay, that gives us some direction,” he said. There was a great deal of talking in the background. After what seemed an eternity, he returned. “Okay, let’s try and pinpoint your destination. Kellen, are you calling me from a mobile phone?”

  “Yes.” As if he wouldn’t have been able to tell that, what with all the rain pouring down around me.

  “Is your phone GPS-enabled?”

  “Yes.”

  There was a long pause on the other end as he typed. Eventually he called to someone else and there was the muffled sound of a hand being placed over the receiver before he returned. “Mr. St. James, I don’t think your GPS is working very well,” he commented.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because it says you’re in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.” Those last words shook me and then my battery died.

  ***

  The sounds around me were the first to go—the ones that you would typically expect of a forest, like crickets, frogs, the occasional bird…They’d all gone, like I’d entered a soundproof room.

  Looking to the edge of the clearing, I could see another Mihkomuweh standing with his back to a tree. He wasn’t Walter, but a different creature altogether. His hair had been shaved to form a blond Mohawk. On his chest were several medallions, gold in color. He reminded me of a very short Mr. T.

  Mr. T leaned against a pine tree. He managed to seem unpleasant, despite the smile on his face. He had a sinister quality about him that made me fear him. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t move my legs.

  “Mr. St. James.” He walked toward me, circling, keeping a distance between us at all times.

  “Who are you? What do you want?”

  “Oh, I think you know what I want,” he said. He stopped and looked at his nails as though he contemplated filing them. They were about an inch longer than normal nails might have been, even on a woman. “I’m sorry about your friend. I had to get him out of the picture, you see. It was a shame to do it.”

  Anger began to hum in my veins. “What do you mean, get him out of the picture?”

  “It was the only way to get you out of the house again. She wanted you pretty badly, and none of us could enter that blasted house of iron to get you. You had to be flushed out.”

  “You speak of Cana,” I said, the answer dawning on me.

  Mr. T. inclined his head. “Of course, I mean Cana.”

  My breath literally stopped coming when he spoke Cana’s name. It had been easy for me to forget about her, to ignore the fact that she might be on the loose.

  “Though,” he continued, “the warlock ended up helping more than he knew. He’s the one that actually got you out of there.” William, that bastard. “We could only reach you in your dreams, and we weren’t likely to be successful after the arrival of that blasted Dillion, who sneaked right by us.”

  “How did you find me? After I left Ireland, I mean?” I kept my voice even, as my heart pounded wildly.

  “Willock was kind enough to do that for us. No one knew where you went after your friend said the protection spell on the plane,” the little man commented.

  Cali had been right. That had been a protection spell that Gabe said. “How thoughtful of him,” I said. “So what are you going to do with me now that you’ve gotten me out of the house?”

  “That will be up to the mistress.”

  “What did you to do my friend, Gabe?”

  “I ran your friend’s car off the road.”

  “And he’s—”

  “Dead? Oh yes. I couldn’t imagine how he couldn’t be after that. I’d say five revolutions down the hill at the least.” The being’s Mohawk quivered when he laughed.

  My heart seemed to have stopped working and my body slipped into a wicked paralysis. Mr. T stood there watching me and waiting for my reaction. He was not disappointed. Gabe was dead and this creature had killed him, had taken him from the world. “You bastard! You killed him! You killed my best friend!”

  My feet were running before I even understood what I was doing. All I knew was that I had to teach this creature a lesson. Gabe’s death needed to be avenged.

  Yet no sooner had I started running than I slammed back against the ground as if I’d hit a wall. Jumping up again, I pushed and pushed, running this way and that, trying to break free. After a few moments of panicked scrambling, I realized the reason for my struggles. He’d encased me in a large bubble. No matter where I went, I couldn’t get out. Mr. T chuckled loudly as I struggled.

  “Why did you kill him? He meant nothing to you. Nothing!” My teeth clenched on the last word.

  Coming closer, he stopped just a foot from my encasement. “We had to, you see.”

  “I’ll kill you.” The words were out of my mouth before I even realized, words that were the antithesis of my beliefs.

  The Mihkomuweh smiled. “Perhaps you will someday, I couldn’t say. I truly had no choice. Cana wanted you and I can’t defy her. There’s too much at risk, too much at stake.

  “What does she want with me?” Standing in the middle of the bubble, I seethed, my arms out at my sides, fists clenched. How would I ever get out of this?

  Then I remembered how I’d gotten out of things before when I’d been trapped in Faerie. My knife. Reaching in my pocket, my fingers clasped around nothing; the other pocket also came up empty. My knife with the black handle, the one that I’d used to travel through time in Faerie, was back at Gran’s cottage in Ireland. That’s helpful.

  “Boy, you know why she wants you. You will have no choice but to turn it over. When you do, we’ll get to keep our freedom. I was surprised when William led you here. He did our work for us.”

  Walter burst through the clearing; his arms extended to Mr. T. “Why are you involving us in this? It is foolish.”

  “What choice do we have?” Mr. T asked.

  “Listen to me, Bob…”

  Bob, Walter—these American faeries certainly had some different names from those I’d met in Ireland.

  “We should not believe anything that Cana promises. I heard that this young one stopped Arawn,” Walter said, gesturing to me.

  Bob looked like he didn’t want to listen to Walter. “Those dark ones told us—”

  “But I heard tell from another—” said Walter.

  “Well, what do you know?”

  “I will tell you what I know. We’ve already made a crucial mistake by modifying his dreams and almost killed him. As you well know, he was supposed to sleepwalk, not almost drown! It will be our heads if we make another mistake,” Walter said.

  Wait…These guys were responsible for that? “You two led me out to Compass Harbor?”

  Bob smiled. “It was ridiculously easy. We made you think that you wanted to go outside. Then we lured you away so that you would think it was your idea. When Willock showed up and took you with him—although I have no idea why—we had to try again.”

  “Was…is your purpose to kill me?” I asked casually.

  “We were just supposed to get you here,” Bob said.

  “See, we’ve done our part. Now we need to stay out of it!” said Walter.

  The bickering began to escalate until Walter and Bob were nose to nose in a shouting match. As they argued about where their loyalties should lie, I stood impatiently. Fortunately, the shelter of the bubble kept me dry and muted the sounds from outside slightly. My mind kept wanting to drag me back to the fact that Gabe was dead, but I tried to push it away. I wasn’t ready to examine that.

  Bob gestured in my direction. “Let us just kill him now and we can be done with it.” My opinion had started a downhill slide as far as Bob was concerned. He was kind of a jerk.

  Walter glanced at me. “We have never taken the act of killing lightly before, Bob. Besides,
we’re supposed to leave him alive.”

  “But they will kill us,” said Bob. “They will kill our families if we don’t help.” As he said this last, he looked straight at me and met my eye.

  “I understand how you feel about wanting to hold onto your family,” I said, holding his gaze.

  “You. You’re a mortal.” He spat on the ground at my feet. “How could you ever comprehend my plight.”

  “Being mortal doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings,” I said. “Nearly all of my family is dead. If you turn me over to Cana, then she’ll probably kill me and the woman that I love.” I didn’t know if this information mattered to them, but I had to at least try.

  The one called Bob stared at me for a moment. In that instant, his features seemed to change and I thought I saw a glimpse of how he must have been before all of this started. Young, healthy, someone who cared. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  Just then, a cry broke through the drone of the rain, an unusual sound that seemed to fill the night air, penetrating even my bubble. I looked up, but I couldn’t see the source at first. Looking to the sky, I saw the clouds had shifted, letting in a bit of moonlight. I finally saw the grey-white bird circling. Initially he’d been airborne, but then he dive-bombed the clearing, heading straight for me. Bob and Walter didn’t even have time to react; the bird swooped down and pierced the bubble, latching onto the neck of my shirt. Its rough beak pierced the back of my neck, but I didn’t get the impression that had been on purpose.

  Trying not to choke, I reached up and placed my fingers under my chin, pushing the collar down in an effort not to be strangled by my shirt. The bird flew fast despite its size, whipping over the treetops. Not wanting to get tangled in the branches, I lifted my feet as best I could. The bird didn’t seem to mind. He seemed to be flying straight toward the ocean.

  “Oh no. You aren’t going to drop me in the ocean, are you? That would be bad.”

  The bird seemed to chuckle at my words and I was reminded of one other time I’d been rescued by a bird. His name had been Ghárda and he’d rescued me from the Hounds of Hell when I was in Faerie.

  “Are you one of Ghárda’s clan? Are you one of the Protectors?” The bird certainly had its mouth full, so I didn’t expect an answer. It made a small grunt as if it was clearing its throat.

  We flew toward the ocean and as we did so, I noticed that the air seemed to ripple in front of us. A portal. We were traveling somewhere new, but I couldn’t tell where, since I didn’t know where I’d been.

  The bird pushed its head down and seemed to aim for the shimmering wall. My shirt, unable to take the strain of my weight, began to tear.

  “Are you going to set me down? Because that didn’t sound good.” My shirt tore incrementally as we flew. Will this beast catch me if I fall?

  The bird plunged through the shimmering air and my senses instantly returned to me. The salty smell of the ocean air tweaked my nose; the wind chilled me. Again, I could hear the roar of the ocean and the sounds of the animals in the woods around me.

  Slowly, the bird lowered me to a rock overlooking the sea. Then my shirt finally gave out, tearing with a riiip!. I landed on my butt on the hard stone. I looked up at the bird. Slowly, it floated to the ground in front of me.

  “Thanks for saving me,” I said.

  The bird nodded, inclining its head in my direction. Closer inspection allowed me to identify it as some sort of crane. One of the coffee table books in the Wal-Mart that we’d stopped at indicated that they were supposed to mean long life and immortality. Whether that meant the crane’s or mine, I had no idea, but was hoping for both.

  Getting up, I slowly approached the bird. “Do you have a name?” I held out my hand.

  Turning, the bird looked at me for a moment before it shot straight up into the air without a word and disappeared from sight.

  With a sigh, I looked across the water. Gabe’s parents’ house sat above the sea, exactly where I’d left it. It looked to be a quarter of a mile away. Yet I couldn’t go back there, not yet. I still had to find Gabe’s body.

  Standing, I looked around before picking a direction at random and walking again. One of these paths had to get me back to the main road. At least it had stopped raining.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CALI—SECRET

  My feet tread back and forth on the carpet in the foyer as I went to the window for what seemed to be the millionth time. Kellen hadn’t returned and neither had Dillion. Though it was early afternoon, it looked to be dark as midnight out there.

  At first I’d counted my steps on the floor to kill time, but after a while there were so many that I lost interest. My stomach twisted into knots, clenching and bunching inside me. Kellen gone, Gabe injured, and I couldn’t do anything about any of it. If only I’d stayed immortal and still had my powers. This exercise hadn’t done us any good at all. They’d only followed us. Found us out, though how I didn’t know.

  Pulling back, I moved away from the window. Dillion said that it would be best to act like no one was at home, though our enemies had to know where we were by now. Sitting in the dark served little purpose. Walking to the fireplace, I carefully lit one of the many candles that were placed in an artful arrangement at the base of the hearth. Sitting on the floor, I held it in my hands, soaking up the warmth and light from its flame.

  “Okay, calm yourself. You were a goddess once. Be strong.”

  The candle quickly went back into the grate because my hands shook. My usually nimble fingers could’ve dropped it. I didn’t have much experience with this mortal life; I could set the entire house on fire.

  “Dillion!” His name was a sigh that escaped from my lips. Not only did I have Gabe and Kellen to worry about, but now should I add Dillion to the list? Was he injured?

  “Did you miss me, my dear?”

  Jumping, I looked up to find Dillion sitting in an armchair across from my spot on the floor. Whoosh. Out came my breath in relief. “Uncle Dillion. I had no idea where you were. Gabe’s been hurt. William came to the house and told us that there had been an accident. Kellen went with him, but neither of them have come back.”

  “Kellen went where?” Dillion’s voice rose as he spoke. “Tell me what happened.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

  “William, the caretaker warlock, came to the house. He said that Gabe had been in an auto accident. Kellen didn’t waste any time. He went with William.”

  “This William character concerns me. You mentioned some of your experiences with him and they have not been good. He is one that we should all be wary of,” Dillion said.

  Standing, I went to the door and started putting on my footwear. “I think we need to go out there and look for them.”

  Dillion stood and walked toward me. “No, no, no. The last thing we need is for you to go out there as a mortal and get into trouble. I know where to go. What to do.”

  “And I should just sit here and do nothing, right?”

  Shuffling on the other side of the door put us on alert. The handle seemed to shake and then the front door opened. Gabe walked through, looking beat up. Both of his eyes were blackened and he had blood on his hands. “Hey.” He looked from me to Dillion. “I wrecked the car.”

  “Gabriel! Are you all right?” I wanted to go to him, but Dillion held out an arm to stop me.

  Before I knew what was happening, Dillion had Gabe pinned to the door through which he had just come. Dillion muttered some words under his breath as he magickally gripped Gabe by the neck, raising him a foot off the ground without touching him. “It’s not him. He’s an imposter. It’s not Gabriel,” Dillion said.

  Holding my ground, I stayed right behind Dillion though out of arm’s reach of our prisoner. If anyone would have the power to discern an imposter, it was Dillion, a member of Faerie himself. “Who are you?” I asked, stepping closer.

  Dillion waved a hand in front of Gabriel’s face and he instantly transformed into William right before my eyes. Gone w
ere the two black eyes, the blood, the bruises. Instead, he hovered before us looking clean and crisp, wearing dry, tailored clothes.

  Looking directly into Dillion’s eyes, he smiled. “Hello, Father. It’s been a long time.”

  My legs buckled and I fell to my knees, banging them hard on the floor. The pain spread from my knees up through my legs. Only my own stubbornness kept me from crying out. The two men stared at one another. To them, no one else seemed to exist.

  William looked mocking, cruel; Dillion looked devastated. Rising and fighting the urge to wince, I remained in the background. Dillion stared at William as if he was memorizing every feature, every mannerism. When Dillion spoke, his voice sounded forced, thick. “I cannot believe it is you, son. I thought—”

  “Yes, yes, I know. You thought that you’d gotten rid of me for good.” William seemed to dismiss Dillion. With a wave of his hand, he lowered himself to the floor, appearing to dispel whatever hold Dillion had on him. “Surprise!”

  “You’ve turned,” Dillion said, without fuss. “You’re one of them.”

  “Of course I’ve turned!” William’s face contorted in rage. “What did you expect?” His composure, which had always remained so tightly in check, slipped.

  Dillion took a half step forward. “I thought you died. Your mother—”

  William stood, then placed two hands on Dillion’s shoulders and pushed him back roughly. “Do not speak of her to me.” William choked out his words.

  Dillion took a step back, but kept his voice even. “I’m sorry, Willock.” He raised his hand in the air as though about to touch William before pulling it back and letting it fall at his side. A defeated look crossing his face, Dillion looked at me. “This is my son, Calienta. Willock’s his name, or Wil’k as we often liked to call him.”

  “And this is the William that we told you about,” I said. “I apologize for missing the family resemblance.” Inclining my head to William—Willock, I hinted at the obvious difference in size and looks between father and son.

  “Why are you here?” Dillion again kept his voice even, neutral.