The Fallen Stars (A Star Child Novel)

by Stephanie Keyes

  Leaning forward on my hands, I slowly climbed up the limb, one step at a time as I made my way up. Once I got halfway up, it would only be a short climb until I reached the branch overlooking Gabe’s car. Gripping my hand around one of the taller branches, I winced as hard bark from the tree branches cut into my hands, which had already cracked in the cold. I reached out and slowly extended my left hand to the opposite branch, the one that would give me a prime view into what remained of the front of Gabe’s rental car.

  Stepping out onto the next branch, I kneeled, leaning over to peer into the driver’s seat, which was… “Empty? How can it be empty?”

  Peering inside, I examined both the front and the back seats the best I could. He’d made it out of the car. The only trace of him that remained lay on the passenger seat: Gabe’s watch. Reaching back, I broke off a small branch, cutting into the skin on my hands as I did so. I leaned toward the car and extended my arm, fishing the watch out with the branch. The car shifted a bit as I did this, but miraculously I was able to snag the gold watch from the seat. Pulling it off the branch, I put it on and tossed the branch aside. The watch had a present from Gabe’s parents on graduation day. He wouldn’t have wanted me to leave it behind.

  I turned away again and climbed down, taking a good look around for any clues as to what had happened. The area surrounding the car was devoid of any signs of a struggle. Silently, I searched within a fifty-foot radius, but I found nothing. If a fight had occurred here, I certainly couldn’t tell.

  What was odder still was that I thought I was still in the woods. If that had been the case, then Gabe had been driving into the woods and away from his destination of Boston. What had happened to make him come this way?

  Looking at the dog, I asked, “Can you take me back to the house?”

  The dog whined, but sat down so that I could climb on its back. As I gripped its fur, I asked the question aloud. “Gabe. Where the hell did you go?”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CALI—LOST FAMILY

  “Uncle? You never told me that you had a son,” I said as I stared out the window, wondering where Skyler was and if he’d found Kellen yet. Inside my head I screamed, cried out, desperately wanting to leave, to find Kellen. Waiting for Skyler to return seemed intolerable.

  Dillion scratched his head as he turned from Willock and went into the room with the table. “You knew it, once,” he said as he hopped up to gain a seat on the furniture. “Lugh told you the family history, I know this for a fact. That would have included mine.”

  I tried to call it forth, but my memory failed me yet again. Not being able to remember felt as though I was trapped inside a box with no way out but to claw my way to the top. Yet no matter how I clawed and scraped, I kept falling back to the bottom, weaker with every attempt. “I can’t…Ahh!” I sat down beside him. “It’s as though I’ve never been an immortal. Your story has left me.” I placed a hand on the side of my face, the cool of my own palm calming the ache in my head.

  “Come closer, child,” Dillion said. “Let me show you.”

  “How?” I asked.

  He didn’t say a word, but he took his hand in mine and I stared into his eyes. As I watched him, my headache dissipated and my memory returned to me.

  Mairin had been Dillion’s wife. They’d had a son named Willock and had been a happy family. Until Mairin had been beheaded during one of the first wars and Arawn had stolen Willock from Dillion.

  “The mortals wouldn’t have survived the attack if we hadn’t intervened. However, in the end it made no difference,” Dillion said.

  Sitting back in the chair with a casualness I did not feel, I prodded him to share more. “That was the battle that my father lost all of you in, wasn’t it?”

  “That is right. Arawn had to be stopped. I didn’t want my son to go into battle. He seemed so young. However, Mairin and I had always agreed that we would let Willock choose for himself how he would live his life. So we let him, and the three of us went into the fight together.” Dillion’s face crinkled up like paper and tears streamed down his cheeks. “I never knew where they took her body.” His voice sounded rough.

  My glance fell on Willock on the couch, outside of the room. He’d awakened and was staring at me. Was I mistaken or were there tears in Willock’s eyes? Not that it mattered to me. He’d lied. He’d known who we really were all along.

  “I tried to find her. I went out at night and searched the area repeatedly. Yet The Call would come every morning and I was forced to return underground.”

  I fidgeted a bit until I got comfortable on the chair. “What’s The Call?”

  Dillion glanced at the floor and then back at me again. “Arawn’s call. We were trapped, you see. However, we still had the illusion of freedom. We could come and go from Faerie in the mortal nighttime, but when the first rays of dawn touched the sky, we had to return.”

  “Couldn’t you just ignore The Call?”

  Dillion’s face told the story. “No one would dare. If you ignored it, then the screaming would begin.”

  “Screaming?”

  “Inside your head. You would hear the screaming of a loved one as if they were being…tortured. Repeatedly. It was enough—”

  “To make you completely lose your mind,” I finished.

  Another tear streaked a trail down Dillion’s face. “I only had to hear her voice once, you see, and I would never risk hearing her again.”

  My mind worked overtime trying to imagine what that would have been like, but at the same time avoiding it. My thoughts shifted once more to Kellen and I cringed inwardly. “Arawn took Willock,” I said.

  Dillion nodded. “Eventually I stopped looking for Mairin’s body, but I never stopped searching for Willock. Each and every day. The only days that I didn’t search were when you came to visit me. But I’ve never stopped.”

  “Did you find anything, any trace of him?”

  “Never. After a long while, I assumed that Arawn had killed him, but now I know that Arawn took him under his wing.” Dillion’s voice sounded so sad that I wanted to reach out to him, wanted to do something. However, his pain had little to do with me and everything to do with Willock.

  “How do you know, Uncle? That Arawn took him on as…as an apprentice.”

  “Because he’s…beautiful.” He gestured to Willock, who lay on the couch, his eyes wide open and staring at Dillion. Dillion began to sob again and I wondered why some had to suffer so much in one lifetime, regardless of its length.

  Thinking back, I remembered the Children of Danu that Kellen and I met in Faerie. They’d all lost their good looks. Yet Willock was still beautiful. No, haunting would have been the word better suited to describe Dillion’s son.

  “The only way he could have kept his looks was if he made a partnership with Arawn, Dillion said.”

  “Wh—”

  “Wait, child.” Dillion raised a hand in the air as an unearthly howl filled the air. It was stranger than nearly anything I’d ever heard, save the lost souls of the Upside-Down Ocean. This had an altogether different quality to it.

  “What is it, Uncle?”

  “Skyler. He’s found somebody.”

  Dillion’s choice of words wasn’t lost on me. He could just as easily have meant some body. Closing my eyes tightly, I said a mantra in my mind: Please let them be all right. Please let them be all right.

  Speaking in a wobbly voice, I said, “They’ve been gone for hours now.” My eyes took in the dark sky behind the wide windows.

  “That does not mean the news will be bad, child,” said Dillion.

  As the howling continued, I rushed to the windows at the front of the house, closer to the sound. Please let them be all right. Please let them be all right. If only I could put Skyler and what he might have found out of my mind. I had to try, at least. Doing my best to calm my pounding heart, I turned away from the window to face Dillion. “Is there more to your story, Uncle?”

  “No. That is all. You’ve al
ready heard that I never found him. Until now.”

  Kneeling on the floor, I wrapped my arms around Dillion. “You did your best.”

  “You would think so, wouldn’t you?” A voice came from directly behind me.

  “How did you free yourself from my binding, Willock?” Dillion turned slightly and stared at him, a look of admiration crossing his face.

  “It’s not like I’ve forgotten everything you taught me, Father.”

  “That’s a surprise,” Dillion replied, his voice taking on a dry tone.

  “Though your bindings were quite a bit tighter than before.” Willock rubbed his wrists in complaint.

  “I’ve gotten stronger with age,” Dillion said.

  Willock raised an eyebrow. “I think we’ve spent more than enough time catching up. You have something that doesn’t belong to you.”

  “I don’t know what you’re going on about.” Dillion crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Yes, I think you do. That would make you a thief, Father. Arawn doesn’t like thieves.”

  Dillion paled, seeming to age before me yet again. “So he’s alive then?”

  “Of course he’s alive!" Willock responded.

  Taking a further step into the room, Willock edged closer to me. “He’s a bit ticked off at your little boyfriend,” he said, looking at me. “I’d be furious too if someone tried to take me down with the Sword of Light. You didn’t expect that pitiful schoolboy Kellen St. James to end him?”

  He looked at both Dillion and me then burst into raucous laughter. “You did! You actually did!”

  Anger flared within me. “You’re the one who’s pitiful!” I spat on his foot.

  Willock looked at his shoe and then to me. Without appearing to even have taken a step, he stood directly in front of me and stroked my cheek. “We could have had something special, my dear. Tell me that you didn’t feel anything when I kissed you. Tell me you didn’t want more from me.”

  Dillion’s eyes were on me. I could feel them. Slowly, I walked as close to Willock as I could and slapped him on the cheek, the crack echoing through the house. “That’s what I should have done when you kissed me. I want nothing from you. You were never the one.”

  Willock’s eyes, which had held a mocking tenderness only moments before, now revealed his anger. “Remember this, Cousin. You have no idea, but you’re playing with fire, so you’d better be nicer to me.” He smiled at me in a knowing way that made me want to gag.

  “It is revenge that Arawn is after, then.” Dillion’s voice seemed weak, as if having this conversation exhausted him.

  “Of course he wants revenge, but you know as well as I do that he needs Kellen for more than that.” Willock stared at Dillion, then looked down at his fingernails for a moment. I now noticed that they were impeccably groomed, not the hands of a caretaker at all. Why didn’t I see that before? Kellen probably had.

  My hands flew to my hips. There was no negotiating with Willock, so why hold back? “What have you done with him, you bastard.”

  Willock grabbed my wrists tightly. Refusing to let my pain show, I looked him straight in the eye, my mouth a firm line as he spoke. “No, sweetheart, I’m not a bastard. I had a life once, parents who loved me. Then my father gave up on me.”

  Dillion intervened. “No—”

  “Silence!” Willock glared at Dillion for a moment before turning back to me. “I did nothing with your beloved, as I said. I planned to take him to Arawn, but the Children of Danu, who I’ve manipulated to unknowingly support our cause, took him. Don’t worry about Mr. St. James, though. He seems to have persevered,” Willock said this last with a measure of disgust in his tone.

  “What do you mean? How do you know this?” My voice tone leveled out as I tried to keep my desperation from showing.

  “Because he’s standing at the door listening to our conversation.” He looked up to the door as he spoke.

  “Wha—” My eyes flew in the direction of the front door and rested on Kellen, who stood with the door a quarter of the way open, his hand resting on the frame.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  KELLEN—LAPDOG

  My hand rested on the side of the door that I’d so carefully pried open in an attempt to make as little noise as possible. Though I tried to be quiet, Cali, Dillion, and William all stood staring at me, the latter with a sardonic smile that I wanted to knock off of his face with a solid punch.

  My gaze trained on Cali for a moment. I’d picked a good time to come back. When I found Gabe’s car I realized that I couldn’t continue alone. I needed help, but it looked like Cali did too.

  “Nice of you to join us, St. James. I’m impressed. I thought for certain you’d be stuck in the Cusp forever, or at least until Arawn got to you,” William said.

  Arawn. My heart slammed into my chest. I’d thought I’d killed that monster. Yet, I remembered stepping back after I’d plunged my sword into him, and Lugh and Brigid warning me that it could happen. That he could come back. Unfortunately, I’d imagined that it would have taken longer, rather than happen almost immediately. Taking a step into the room, I moved swiftly over to Cali and faced William.

  “Arawn? I’m surprised, William. I thought you were working for Cana.” I tried to keep the combination of surprise and dread out of my voice and instead opted for a nonchalant approach. If this guy wanted to mess with me, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of letting him see how freaked out I was.

  William shrugged. “Actually, I usually go by Willock, and I like to play the field. Cana thinks I work for her. I’ve been doing everything in my power to make her think that. However, I’ve simply been using them as a back-up plan. If I lost sight of you then I knew that the Children of Danu would search for you and find you.”

  “What do you want with me?” I asked.

  William/Willock smiled. “Why you’re the key to Danu’s amulet.”

  “The amulet!” Cali gasped, her face white. Her mind seemed to be in overdrive.

  “What amulet? I don’t’ have an amulet,” I said.

  “Why Danu’s amulet of course. It contains a greater power than you could ever imagine,” Willock said.

  “But I don’t have it,” I said.

  “I know, but I needed to use you in order to get it from the one who does.”

  “And who is that?” Cali asked, touching my arm.

  Willock didn’t answer her. Instead, he smiled at her and gave her another one of his appraising glances, which he knew would piss me off.

  “Stop,” I said in warning, placing my hand over Cali’s eyes to break the connection. The back of my hand burned like I’d bumped it into a hot pan. “Don’t use her like that. She doesn’t want you.”

  Willock seethed, staring at me like he contemplated killing all of us right then. I’d pushed too far. I had to stall.

  “If Arawn wanted me so badly, why did you save me in the woods? What did you have to gain?”

  Willock smiled. “Because Arawn does need you…I feared that Cana would have slaughtered you. They have no idea why I really set them on you. And I couldn’t have you dying prematurely,” Willock said.

  “Why do they want this amulet so badly?” I asked. Cali’s hand turned over in mine. I swallowed, trying to play it cool.

  “The Children of Danu believe that you have total control over them, that you are the only one standing in the way of their freedom. In fact, they have no idea that Arawn is still alive. I doubt that they would have been as cooperative had they known.

  “You killed Arawn. They think that you have stolen his power, thanks to me.” Willock’s eyebrows rose, as though he too found this information hard to believe.

  “What does he need with me? Whatever it is, I won’t help him. I decide my own fate,” I said.

  “You are now the only one standing in the way of Arawn realizing his full power.” Willock sat on the edge of a chair, his voice taking on a conversational tone. “My plan was to leave you out there and let you run around
for a while, you know, losing your mind,” he raised his hands in the air and used air quotes in conjunction with his words, “in the Cusp. Since you’re here, though…well, it’s a win-win. You can just come with me.” Willock stretched his arms out in front of him.

  Adrenaline pumped through my body. “I’m not going anywhere with you. You’re just a pawn in Arawn’s game yourself, a two-bit hack.”

  Willock’s eyes flared at me. With his being a warlock, I probably should have been afraid. He could probably fry or impale me or something messed up like that. But I didn’t care anymore. I was tired. Tired of being on the run, tired of the danger, the hassle. Every fiber of my being wanted to take Cali and run away somewhere. Preferably somewhere warm that didn’t remind me of fall in Maine.

  “See, that’s where you’re wrong, Kellen.” Willock wrapped his princely fingers around his own neck and gave a squeeze. “You’ve been the pawn all along.”

  “My son appears to have plotted against you from the beginning,” Dillion said.

  “Your son?” Where Willock had failed to shock me a moment ago, Dillion succeeded. My mouth hung open just a fraction of an inch until I remembered my manners and closed it. “How is that possible, Dillion?” I looked at the little man who stood weary, in between Cali and Willock.

  Cali touched my arm. “I think it’s been difficult enough for Dillion to share his memories. I’ll tell you another time.”

  Willock sneered. “You assume that you’ll have another time with Kellen. These are your last moments together. Shouldn’t you be holding one another?”

  Before I could get a grip on what was happening, my body slammed into Cali’s of its own accord as Willock controlled us like puppets on strings. Pain shot through my arm where it smacked against hers. We were crushing one another.

  “How about a kiss, lovebirds?”