Chapter 27 Star #2
Aric, for his part, just stares at Declan for a moment. Waiting for him to meet his gaze. But Declan’s eyes remain steadfast on me.
And mine on him. That’s how I notice the walls are starting to crumble.
“Do it,” Declan says. “Quick. So we can get the fuck out of here.”
“Wait!” I scream. “Wait, you guys. We need to talk about this!” A gaping hole appears in the stone floor between Nyx and me, but I ignore it.
“I don’t know what you’re doing here, or why you sent me to live in the mortal realm, but something about this is all wrong!
You don’t cut off people’s body parts to win a game! ”
“Don’t you?” Quaid asks. And when I look over at him, he’s pointing across the room at the Minotaur’s head.
“But—” I don’t know what to say to that. I just know that everything about this felt right until the Goddess of the Night appeared.
And now it feels wrong.
The archway behind Nyx, suddenly crumbles. Like actually disintegrates into tiny grains of sand.
We all start looking around at the other doors because we need four of them to get us all through and there were only eight to begin with.
Seven now.
And just as I think that, another one turns into sand.
“You’ll get them back, you know,” Nyx says. Her words more hurried now since the place is literally starting to crumble.
“Get what back?” Aric answers.
“Powers. Different, because they’ll come from the old gods instead of the new ones. But everyone who goes through becomes immortal in that realm too.”
Another door disintegrates and now we’re down to six.
“Ok, everyone,” Declan shouts. “Fuck this, we’re out of here. Aric, cut off my fuckin ears! I don’t care if I look like a mongrel on the other side, at least I’ll be there!”
Aric walks over to Declan, already stripping off his belt and throwing it at Nyx’s feet. He holds the knife up to Declan’s head and…
Well, Quaid grabs me, pulling me into a hug and turning my head away so I don’t have to watch.
Declan screams, and I force Quaid to let me look.
He’s covered in blood, but he’s wingless and an archway opens for him. “Come on!” he yells. “Let’s go!”
Aric throws his knife at Nyx and the moment it clangs against the stone, another archway opens so he can pass through.
“Glasses, Quaid!” Aric yells. “Now!”
But before he can take them off, another archway turns to sand. Five. We’re down to five.
Quaid throws his glasses at Nyx, and a third door opens.
Now it’s my turn. But I don’t know how to give up the essence of myself. So I don’t do anything, and it’s during this hesitation that the fourth door disintegrates.
And now there are just enough.
Nyx walks over to me, placing a hand on my cheek, and gazes down into my eyes. “You will shine brighter in their lives than you ever could in the heavens. Give it up, little Star. Give me, the mother of the twinkling night, your station in the sky.”
Then she opens her mouth and I feel something come loose inside me. The next thing I know, my mouth is opening too. And I watch as a glittering bit of light comes out and hovers in the air between the goddess and me.
I reach for it, wanting to hold it in my hand. To feel the gift the gods gave me. Because I never knew it was there.
But Nyx leans in and gobbles it up!
She ate my light!
Then, the whole room begins to shake and she flies upward, into the twirling night sky, and the last thing I see of this world before Quaid pushes me through my open archway to Paradise, is an eighth sister lighting up inside the Pleiades cluster.
Everything goes dark.
My world becomes emptiness.
And I knew it. I knew it! I knew there was something fishy about that bitchy goddess! She’s probably evil! She did rip me out of Olympus, took my memories of my true self, and left me for dead in the mortal—
But before I can finish my internal rant, the brightest of light flashes, blinding me so I have to put my hands over my eyes. I start to spin. Slowly, at first. But as I begin to rise up into the air, the spinning becomes faster, and faster, until I am a vortex of starlight.
I open my eyes, looking up at a night sky above me.
Twinkling stars make patterns in the chaos.
Three moons shine brightly, but each are in a different stage of luminosity. One is big and dull, but also full. The second is bright and small, and in the shape of a crescent. The third is only half lit, but you can see the rocky terrain, even with the naked eye.
I am transfixed by the beauty of it all, not paying any attention to what’s below me until Quaid yells, “Holy shit, Star! Get your ass down here before you fall out of the fucking sky!”
I look down and there they are!
All three of my guys!
Declan laughing like a lunatic, dancing around like a fool, because he has grown a massive set of fluffy gold wings!
Aric is looking down at himself in awe, because he’s now wearing the shiniest set of golden armor the heavens have ever seen.
And Quaid, always so bossy and demanding, is looking up at me with glowing eyes! Gold, like Declan’s wings and Aric’s armor.
Which makes me sigh.
Because we’re really a team now.
We’re really together. We even match.
I start to descend, making a lazy, twirling vortex until my feet are on the ground. But when I look at my guys, they are not looking at me, but at something above my head.
“What’s wrong, is my hair messed up? Did I go gray, or something? I wouldn’t put it past that stupid Nyx.” And then I’m ranting again, just like I was in the darkness.
But Aric points to my head, while Quaid puts a hand over my mouth, and Declan says, “Look up, Star. You’re… twinkling.”
Slowly, my eyes roll up and I gasp. I reach up with my fingertips and find that there is a crown on my head. I pull it off so I can see it, and hold it font of me.
Stunned, I just stare at the twinkling lights. Like teeny, tiny fireflies, except they’re… stars.
I look at Aric in his golden armor—a sure sign of godly strength if ever there was one.
Then Declan, and his golden wings—certain that they will carry him to wherever he needs to go with exceptional speed.
Then Quaid, with his glowing gold eyes. He smiles at me. “Mr. Nobody?” Then he laughs. “Not anymore. Fuck the glasses because I don’t need them. I’ve got these now.” And he points to his eyes.
I look back down at my crown. “What’s it mean?” Then look back up at the guys.
“What’s it mean?” Declan laughs. His gold wings rising up above his shoulders as a way to express his amusement.
“It means you’re our queen, Star,” Quaid says. His eyes glowing like the crown in my hands.
And when I look at Aric, he bends over into a shallow bow, offering me his hand.
I take it, and the other guys crowd in around me we take our first steps into our new life in Paradise.
I am a queen with three kings.
Mine.