Chapter 46
ISAAC
We ran to the gates, soaked within minutes. My heart skipped too many beats, eyes hot and confused.
Preston was here. Preston was here alone, according to the witchcops. But they wouldn’t let him pass, every gun and spell at the ready to fuck him up if he so much as twitched wrong.
What was he doing here? How did he get away from the Kingwoods?
And where was Daniel?
It would be okay. Tony was right about something—things were about to change. We’d get him inside and steer this ship in a better direction.
Our brother’s home…
Riley and I arrived at the gates first.
Our youngest brother shivered under the floodlights, a target in a circle of witchcops. They’d dragged him here from the bottom of Aurora Lane where a heavy checkpoint sat, treating him like a threat but with a bit of leeway on account of who he was.
Shit. Were the Kingwoods about to storm the gates?
Don’t tempt fate, prick!
“He’s soaked,” I said, grabbing the bars. “We have to let him inside.”
Shaking, Preston glanced between us, his lips turning blue to match his eyes.
Our brother with the platinum-blond hair, a complexion like Riley’s, right there, about to be part of us at last.
“This is too much!” Riley complained. “It’s freezing and he’s—”
“I’m not him,” The Star spoke, his voice deep and Welsh, his adopted family a pack of werewolves in Llandrindod Wells, Wales.
“What?” I pressed my face to the cold, wet metal. “What did you say?”
“I’m not him and he’s not here. The Star… The Star isn’t here. Not in me, not in the city, not anywhere. I’m not all of him, only part of him.”
I looked to Riley, dumbfounded, then returned my attention to our littlest brother. “What do you mean?”
My scalp prickled, more dread forming in my belly.
“Not here. I’m not here. I’m not here.” Preston’s eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the ground. As still as death, making my blood run cold. It both freaked me out and plunged me into a vat of numbness.
“Dammit!” Riley yelled. “We have to get him out of the rain!”
I tightened my grip on the bars, watching the witchcops gather him up. The gates hummed under my hands, and I stepped back as they opened.
“I don’t understand,” Riley whispered to me, taking my arm.
Before I could answer, I returned to Blue Orchard.
“Shit…” I groaned, falling to my knees in the snow.
“Welcome back, Sunshine One.”
Piper had pretty much returned to her normal rotting self, sitting upright.
She regarded me with her violet stare and a sheepish grin.
“What do you want?” I snapped. “To whine about how your little plan failed again?” I showed her my new marks.
She cackled. “Silly, silly, silly. I’m here to elaborate on the news The Star just shared. Or should we call him The Impostor Star?”
My throat closed around a comeback.
Preston. He’s… He’s…
This couldn’t be real. He was The Star.
“The voice I hear on the wind tells me she is in another Coldharbour,” the hag said. “Waiting over there, a dead thing, a lost thing, offering to share her power with me. I can be her salvation. I can mark her return to glory in your version of the city, not that other one.”
My brain performed its best washing-machine-at-full-spin impression. “What the fuck?”
“I always believed I needed The Sun, The Moon, and The Star to be free of this prison. Only now I see the bigger picture, and you will set me free by affecting a massive change. By allowing her in when you find the real Star. She felt the touch of your city and now she hungers for… You will see.”
I languished in my confusion, my tongue frozen. I couldn’t speak, only listen to this soul-wrenching revelation tumble from her lips.
“Your brother is in a parallel world. A place not dissimilar to this one, but also with many significant differences. Over there, you are not you. Over there, I’m long dead.” That made her laugh.
This couldn’t be right. This couldn’t be real.
Someone wake me up!
“He used a doorway I cannot find, The Real Star. Maybe Sweetvoice can scry for it with the help of the impostor. After all, he is a part of the true Preston.” Another cackle.
“Aren’t these exciting times, Isaac? You will go to this other Coldharbour to bring your brother back because you must. In doing so, you will allow my mysterious new friend to enter this reality.
” She clapped excitedly. “The days of fun, fun, fun will soon begin. And all I have to do is sit back and wait. How wonderful!”
She threw her head back in a mighty cackle, leaving me in my numbness, unable to wrestle with any of this.
Preston in a parallel world?
A mysterious friend? The she the hag kept banging on about?
A different version of Coldharbour and of me?
No. She was playing games. She had to be.
Riley and Drake arrived, the delay Piper inflicted on Mind Sharing still in place.
“Isaac,” my little brother said. “What—”
Starlight swirled, swarming me then peeling back like opening drapes to reveal an empty room with a mattress on the floor, a tall lamp glowing in the corner.
Unseen starlight. Just like my dream.
Whoa.
My littlest brother entered the room, his back to me.
“P-Preston?” I said, my mouth dry.
Unseen starlight. Had I been seeing him subconsciously?
Preston turned, looking right at me. “Huh?”
Winded, I reached out for him.
He sees me.
He sees me.
And I see him.
“Who are you?” he questioned.
But the vision collapsed, leaving me in the snow, Piper cackling her rotten head off.
“Preston,” I breathed.
“Fun times are coming!” Piper bellowed. “Get ready to dance, Sunshine One! Get ready!”
I returned to the rain, sat on the ground, drenched to the bone.
“Isaac?” Ollie’s voice licked at my ears, his hands on me. “What happened?”
“I saw him,” I whispered. “I saw him.”
Unseen starlight.
A parallel world.
“So did I,” Riley said, sitting beside me, shoulders slumped. “I saw him over there. I saw him in the other place.”
I slid over to him, gently wrapping my arms around him as he whimpered.
Together, unified in our confusion in the rain.
“It’s okay,” I said, my head pressed to his. “We’ll find him. We’ll make this right.”
“Because we’re Auroras,” he answered, a kernel of his positivity tickling my senses.
“Absolutely, honey. Auroras who aren’t giving up.”
He lifted his head. “You can’t keep a good sacred witch down.”
“Preach it.”
He smiled, closing his eyes against the deluge. “We’re coming for you Preston.”
The witchcops carried the fake Star away.
“Yes, we are,” I agreed, closing my eyes too.
No matter the obstacles and the onslaught of revelations, we were fighters.
This was a war we’d win in a tempest of sunlight, moonlight, and starlight. The triple whammy Piper and every other threat should be getting ready for.
If they all wanted a party, we’d give them one.
Mark my fucking words.
The story continues in…