I scan the area but don’t see him.
“There,” Max says and points to my left.
I follow his finger and see Javen in the distance, and I pause. A blood-curdling shiver moves down my body. The anger on his face shoots pain into my stomach and I want to retch. But I suppress the nauseating urge and race for him instead, the others following behind.
Fear writhes its way through my insides as we get closer. But I keep my attention focused only on him.
“Cassi!” Irene yells from behind.
I skid to a stop to see what she wants. Next to her is Dad, frozen and clutching the portal device in one hand and a weapon in the other. I run to him and place my hand on his shoulder. He blinks twice and stumbles back a step.
“What the . . .” he says.
“Dad.”
He looks around, then flits his attention to me. “What’s going on, Cassi?”
“I used my Starfire to stop the battle. The Starfire from the Intersection has altered the Alku, and I need to fix my mistake.”
Dad glances around, and the wide-mouthed, shocked look on his face wears the memory of everything horrible now flooding back to him—the calculation error we both made. I knew the Intersection Starfire changed people, and now he does, too. But I don’t have time to explain the experience to him. I have no idea how long this frozen state will last. I can already feel the weight of the Starfire’s energy slipping through my grasp.
I finally reach Javen and draw my brows together. His eyes swirl with anger instead of the gentleness I know. With shaking fingers, I touch his hand, and in an instant, he unfreezes and grips my fingers.
I hold my breath as he bares his teeth at me.
“Javen,” I cry out. “It’s me, Cassi!”
He lets out a low growl as if he doesn’t know me.
“Javen, please. Fight this . . . this anger. It’s not you.”
With a shove, Javen releases my hand and pushes me away from him.
“Cassi,” Dad says close by. “You need to back away.”
I do as he says, but my legs will only move so quickly. I stare at Javen’s hand, which now glows cyan.
“You humans are stealing everything from us. And we will take our planet back!” he roars at me.
I think of my hidden laser pistol. But I can pretty much guarantee that I’ll never get it out in time. I can’t shoot Javen anyway. Unsure of what to do, I choose my words carefully. “We need to fix this together. It’s the only chance for peace.” I close my eyes and clear my mind in attempt to summon him, connect to his mind. But a force shoves my thoughts back and I flick my eyes back open to the horrible scene.
“No,” he growls, and with that single word, our bond disintegrates. I shudder in a breath from the pain of the unexpected severance, as if my insides are being ripped out. The anger hardens his beautiful features and the pain in my gut intensifies. Doesn’t he feel the loss? Is the grief shredding through his body, like it is in mine? He gives away nothing, if so, and instead puts his palms up into the air. A bolt of cyan energy shoots from his hands into the sky and the frozen battlefield thaws within a wild beat of my heart.
The scene roars to life. Javen’s hands fly forward, and another bolt shoots for me. I seize up, muscles tight, waiting for the hit. And then I’m falling, forced to the ground and out of the way. The bolt hits Dad square in the shoulder, and he buckles and tumbles to the ground beside me.
Chapter 24
Igrab for Dad’s limp body and scream for Max and Irene. Both turn my way as they shoot their laser guns at the Alku now charging for them from behind Javen. They get to my side and Irene attempts to pull me to my feet, but instead, I yank her down and grab Max by the leg. Mustering all the energy inside of me, I visualize us inside the Intersection and rip the four of us through.
On the other side, I glance down under the starlight at Dad and his barely breathing chest.
“We can’t let him die!” I screech.
My mind reels as images of Javen blasting Dad replay over and over again in my mind. Seeing him changed guts me. Everything I had on this planet . . . everything has been stolen from me.
I begin to heave with unreleased grief but force myself back to reality, to the present. Max is by my side and no one else. Panic resets in my bloodstream and I rush out, “Where’s Irene and the rest of the people who stayed behind?”
“She ran to the lab. There are some basic medical supplies back there. The other people might be at camp.” Terror washes over his face and then he whispers, “Do you think the Alku are coming after us?”
Dad’s portal device still juts out from his pocket. I retrieve the black device and hand it to Max. “I’m pretty sure this was the only one, and from what I can tell, the Alku can’t cross into the Intersection without it or me. But since the Alku have now absorbed the Intersection Starfire, I have no idea if they’ll eventually be able to.”
It’s not a satisfying answer and the tension still shows on Max’s face. Avoiding him, I return my attention back to Dad. What if the Starfire can heal him? I pull the crystal from my neck and place the gem to his chest. The second I do, his body tenses.
“What are you doing, Cassi?” Max yells. “You saw what the Starfire just did. Who knows what will happen if he wakes up?”
Everything in me wants to listen to him and remove the crystal, but a voice in my mind tells me to leave the Intersection’s gem where it is, to funnel myself with energy.
If you need to take me, I tell the Starfire, do it. Just don’t take Dad. He needs to live. Warmth fills my core and spreads up my chest and into my neck and arms. Memories of my life swirl through my mind, both good and bad . . . life with my parents, growing up, the memories of Javen’s life mixed with mine. Like a whirlwind, I integrate the Starfire’s power with who I am—an imperfect person who wants nothing more than all these wrongs set right again.
“Please work,” I whisper. “I just want my Dad back right now.”
I open my eyes and find my body slumped over Dad’s.
Rolling up to sit, my eyes focus on him, and then I see his breathing has returned to normal. His eyelids flutter open.
“Daddy!” I cry out, throwing my arms around his neck.
He groans, and I jerk back.
“Am I hurting you?”
“A little bit.” He sits up and looks around, confusion pinching his brows and mouth. “What happened?”
“Can you stand?” I ask while searching for Irene and Max, who are now standing a good distance away with wide-eyed looks on their faces.
“Please help,” I call out. They look at each other and then jog my way.
Max steps in, reaches toward Dad and takes his hand. “Do you think you can stand?”
Dad nods and blinks several times, as if he’s trying to wake up. He takes Max’s hand, and Max tugs up, pulling him to his feet.
“Lean on me if you need to,” Max says.
Dad shifts, a bit dizzy on his feet, and then straightens. “Thank you,” he mutters before Max leads him toward the lab.
Irene stares down at me for several seconds and then finally offers her hand to help me up.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask, wavering my attention between her and Dad to ensure Dad stays upright.
“Cassi,” she says, “when you used the Starfire on your Dad, something happened.”
“What?” I ask, placing the necklace back around my neck.
“I don’t quite know what I was seeing, but everything around us was glowing . . . on fire almost.”
“Fire?”
“Yeah. I’ve seen some pretty amazing things in the last few days, but what just happened tops that off.” She grabs my arm and pulls me toward the lab. Dad and Max are nearly at the front entrance. “Do you really think we are safe?”
I look around, unsure if I can answer her question truthfully. The Starfire from here changed the Alku, and I and have no idea if just being in such proximity to the fields will negativel
y change humans, too. Maybe the change just takes longer. “If someone were able to follow us, they would be here by now.”
Irene nods, having little choice but to accept the answer.
Inside the lab, my mind is in a complete haze. Still, I check on Dad, who’s now resting. Max scanned his vitals before Irene and I even got inside, and he seems to have stabilized.
The walls feel as though they are compressing my body, and all I want to do is go back outside. “I need to be alone for a while,” I tell Max and Irene. “I’m taking a walk.”
“You really need to rest, and I’m going to find some food around here,” Irene says. “And then we need to tell the survivors left behind here what happened. Prepare them for the worst.”
“I’d be able to rest better if I had a few minutes to think,” I say, the building pressure of my emotions weighing on my chest.
Max looks at Irene. “Let her go.”
Irene nods, and I smile at Max. He looks away.
But I don’t have the energy to delve into what either of them is going through right now. I will eventually, but I have my own losses to sort through. In a haze, I make my way toward the exit. The Intersection’s blue-green cast permeates everything around me. I peer up at the two moons and the cyan gases painting the now night sky.
I reach into my pocket and feel for the Starfire, but it’s gone. Confused, I check my other pocket and rush back to the spot where I healed Dad. Something metallic glints from the ground and I rush for it. I retrieve the necklace and search for the crystal pendant, but it’s gone.
With a sigh I place the chain around my neck, then scan around the nearly abandoned organic housing constructed by the Alku and refugees. There are a few dull lights, and I see one person wandering in the dark. They don’t know anything that happened, and I don’t want them to see me right now, so I hurry into a shadow. Beyond them is the hill illuminated by the Starfire field’s soft glow from behind the crest.
I avoid the camp, and on the way over to the hill, my body grows heavy. Each step takes effort. Javen severed our bond. He wanted to hurt me, to kill me. The loss sits on my chest until it even hurts to breathe. Is the hope for a connection between humans and Alku now lost? Either the races will destroy each other, or one side will win. But neither really will.
I drop to my knees as the pain building in my heart mounts. What can I do? Any thought that I can fix this situation is ridiculous. Still, I can’t help but wonder if there really is anything I can do, something I haven’t thought of yet. I sit back on my feet and lay my hands on my lap, palms up.
Mom, if you were here, would you know the answer? Tears stream from my eyes and drop down into my open palms. I squeeze my eyelids shut.
“Why did you have to die?” I yell into the air and out over the Starfire field. “I need your help.”
Just as I finish the words, a pulse of light from the field vibrates through my body and I open my eyes to find Mom’s journal in my hands.
I hid this on Arcadia and didn’t have time to find it again. But since Dad was able to use the Starfire to send the apples to Paxon, maybe I can use the same principle to bring items here. Staring at the cover, I grasp the journal with one hand and touch the lock with the other.
With a click, the lock pops open. My hand glows with a bright cyan hue, and I gasp. How did I do that?
My chest tenses as I stare at the first page, illuminated by the light of the moons and the Starfire field below. My mom’s feminine handwriting scrolls over the paper. Dad was right. She started journaling about a year before she died. My heart races, and I quickly flip through the pages to see where the writing ends. I stop at the last entry.
That day. A Tuesday.
The tears begin rolling again, and one drops to the open page and splashes over the paper. I wipe it and a tiny bit of the ink smears. Quickly I center myself and brush the other tears off my face, then glance down at the words with my heart rushing in my ears.
Cassi,
Today is the day. I’ve played the events out in my head a million times and tried to compose a way for them to turn out differently. But they never do. The visions always end the same way . . . with me gone.
I strain to hold back the tears.
It pains me that I will not be able to join you and Dad on Arcadia. Ever since I “discovered” the planet’s atmosphere compatibility nine years ago, I’ve dreamed of the day our family would set foot there. But I have a secret. I’ve known about Arcadia since I was a little girl, in my dreams at least.
The visions started when I was five, and the planet came to me every night. Calling me. For some reason, I kept the dreams a secret. But just before your grandfather died the year before you were born, he asked me a strange question. He asked me if the cyan planet had come to me yet. I was confused but ecstatic that someone else might know of it too. Then he showed me the most beautiful cyan crystal and told me a crazy-sounding story.
He told me that he came from another place and that he was the guardian of peace there. But one day, he was so tired of being alone that he used the crystals to help him escape. To release him from his servitude. He was able to open a portal for himself to leave and knew he’d never be able to return. It was a one-way journey for him. He stepped through and found himself not back among his people but here, on Earth. He worked to blend in and hide his identity, and eventually, he married a beautiful redhead. Then they had me. When he died, the crystal was gone. I watched the gem vanish before my eyes.
It all sounded so crazy, the babbles of a man on his deathbed. But I knew all he shared was true. Every word. So, after that, I did everything in my power to find the planet. And when I did, I knew. I convinced your dad to take me there, and we arranged for the journey to happen, and I led your father to the Alku without him knowing how. But on Arcadia, I sensed them, and somehow, the people must have felt I was safe and showed themselves. When they did, I knew this was our home. A new home for Earth.
Mom knew . . . she knew the whole time.
But then the visions changed, and it became clear to me you were the person who needed to come to Arcadia. The planet was calling for you, but for some reason I would not be coming. As much as this knowledge pained me, I worked to make a new life on Arcadia happen, to do what I knew was right.
I don’t know how this connection will come about, but you are the key. You’ll find a way to bring Arcadia and Paxon back into harmony, as well as bring healing to Earth.
My purpose to get you to Arcadia will be fulfilled, so I can’t change my destiny, no matter how much I want to.
Team Foster forever. And tell your dad I love him.
Love always,
Mom
With eyes full and brimming with moisture, I lower the journal. My grandfather is Alku, the One Pure Soul. My mom was Alku.
I am Alku.
Book two of Cassie's journey is at an end, but you can read what happened next in Parallax.
Parallax
BOOK THREE OF THE STARFIRE WARS
Chapter 1
The blood pumping through my shredded heart isn’t fully human.
The night air grows thick, and my lungs struggle to breathe. I force a deep, settling breath, but instead, my head spins. My grandfather was an Alku who traveled to Earth.
He lived there. Worked there. Raised a family. Held secrets that could influence the lives of millions. And then he died there, never returning to the planet he originally called home—Arcadia.
His death occurred over a year before I was born, so I only ever knew him through old videos and photos. As I sit on the ground, overlooking the Starfire field in the Intersection, I conjure those images of him now, searching for a clue that he was anything more than human. The man was tall, with dark hair and eyes like Javen. Similar to endless other people. No tip-offs that he came from another planet. I must have visited their tiny house in the middle of nowhere a hundred times, and nothing I ever saw would have made me think that my grandparents were anything oth
er than normal.
The field’s glow ahead of me dulls and brightens in a steady rhythm as if sensing my pain, loss, and confusion.
I lower my head to the knees curled up to my chest. Tangled hair spills over the arms clasped around my legs.
The words from Mom’s journal spin round and round in my mind . . .
. . . it became clear to me you were the person who needed to come to Arcadia. The planet was calling for you, but for some reason I would not be coming . . .
Mom knew she was going to die and did nothing to stop the accident. Why didn’t she warn me and Dad? Tell us that the worst was coming? That we would be living without her soon?
I clench my jaw against the thoughts. There’s no way she could have shared without some kind of fallout. We would have stopped her. If we believed her story, that is. Or thought she was a crazy person who needed protection from herself.
How was she going to bring up the conversation anyway? At dinner? Over ice cream?
Hey, do you want vanilla or rocky road? Oh yeah, and just so you’re aware—I’m half-alien, and Cassi is one-quarter. I hope my sudden confession doesn’t bother anyone.
Pretty sure the entire conversation wouldn’t have gone over well.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. The responsibility Mom held on her shoulders must have been crushing. So many secrets. I have no idea how she managed to keep her sanity together through the very last day.
With a sigh, I straighten and gaze out over the field again. The low hum of energy resonates in my chest and my breath eventually regulates with the steady, pulsing rhythm.
I’ve experienced the Starfire’s pull. And I’m confident—regardless if her visions were true or false—that Mom had believed each one. Even I’ve seen how the crystals show the past, predict the future, and direct events in the strangest of ways. The imparted knowledge is like an endless series of waves on a sea you can do little to change.
The Starfire Wars- The Complete series Box Set Page 34