Chapter 24 #2
The image shifts again, Leandros picking up his sword. The goddess reaches for him, but she doesn’t make it in time.
“Leandros took up his fallen sword, and without a single second of hesitation, he pierced himself through the chest, choosing an eternity of death with his beloved over the offer of immortality with a goddess.”
Grayson’s hand lands on my own, his grip tightening to the point of pain. His gaze is trained upwards, but there’s a single tear rolling down his cheek, the sight of it reminding me so clearly of the day he found his star-boy. He had the same expression on his face then. The same anguish.
My own breath shudders as the woman speaks on, the projection above shifting once more. Leandros disappears. His lover, too. And the goddess. All that’s left is the sword, blinking in the sky, the point aimed downward .
“Some say the stars themselves wept at the loss of such pure devotion, placing the sword in the sky so that the young lovers could be guided together in the next life. Others say it was the Fates. Either way, the constellation we now know as the Sword of Leandros sits bright above, a beacon for many who draw strength or courage from its celestial blade.”
Sadness echoes in my chest, and I turn my hand up to meet Grayson’s, winding our fingers together.
“Now, it’s impossible to say how much of this legend is based in fact and how much is fiction.
But we do know the Sword of Leandros didn’t appear in literature until around 800 BCE.
Compared to the earliest depictions of Orion’s Belt found carved on a mammoth tusk some 32,000 years old, this makes the sword in the sky one of the most recent constellations to come into being.
Dating of the stars has confirmed them to be just over 3,000 years old, which puts them in their relative infancy.
Stars, as you know, can live to be millions, billions of years old. ”
The woman continues to spin in a slow circle as she speaks to the filled theatre, the sword shimmering above.
“What’s stranger yet is that each star mapped in the outline of the sword is the same precise age.
They came into existence at exactly the same time.
Multiple star systems are certainly not unheard of.
But twelve stars born at once and gravitationally bound in a stable array?
It’s impressive, to say the least. I don’t think we’ll ever know if myths like Leandros’s were true.
But I’d like to think if the star-crossed lovers are out there still that they’re together. ”
My breath puffs out of me as Grayson’s hand squeezes my own tight.
The show continues with a shorter breakdown of other famous constellations.
But try as I might, I can’t get Leandros and the sword out of my mind.
I’d never heard the myth before, and I don’t know why it’s hitting me so hard, but the idea of Leandros and his lover dying because of a vengeful goddess?
Fuck .
Eternal death. Dying again and again and again…
“Hey.”
Grayson’s quiet voice pulls me from my thoughts. The lights are on in the theatre now, and I blink rapidly, trying to orient myself. A quick glance upwards shows the night sky projected against the inside of the dome, the stars twinkling gently once more.
Grayson is watching me with concern. “You okay?”
I nod, but I don’t know if it’s true.
We make it out of the planetarium without being stopped, although I do notice one teen snapping a picture of us in the lobby. The stars are visible outside, not quite as brilliant as they were in the theatre, but beautiful all the same. They’re easier to see here, so far from any cities.
Would Grayson ever want to move out to the middle of nowhere where he could better see the stars? Maybe I could find something small to buy, a place we could retreat to when the rest of the world is too demanding and we need to escape.
It could be our own. No paparazzi. No well-meaning agents or fans vying for our attention. Nothing but him and me and peaceful quiet beneath a blanket of unending stars.
We climb inside my Escalade, but I don’t immediately start the vehicle. I can feel Grayson watching me.
“Ez.” His voice comes out choked, his blue eyes stormy when I meet his gaze. “I know them. In here, I do.”
He taps his chest, and I nod in a stilted jerk, not needing to ask who .
“Did you feel it?”
There’s a desperation in Grayson’s tone, as if he needs to know he’s not alone in this.
My friend has always been intuitive. It’s uncanny, really, the way he can make split-second decisions about a person he’s never met before, and his gut instincts about them are always correct.
It’s as if he operates on a wavelength others can’t see or understand, myself included.
But this…
The memory of Leandros holding his lover comes to mind. The way I ached with it. Still do. The feel of my own chest being torn in two, as if my heart was dying right alongside the fearsome warrior who was staring his absolute worst nightmare in the face.
“Yeah, Gray,” I answer, my voice a hoarse whisper. “I felt it.”