“It’s not just for City Hall,” Logan said. “The Skarmastad Foundation is a big customer. It’s here and in their headquarters, too.”
“Headquarters?”
“You know. The Time Tower.”
The address and the numbers I’d seen in the hospital dashed across my mind’s eye.
That sounds about right, actually.
The Apollo City Time Tower was close to the hospital, not too far away from midtown.
Considering the matter carefully, I knew I had to have more information on the Foundation, but I had reason to suspect Dante; he’d met Mikey there before, back before Mikey found out that Raiya was Starry Knight. I’d suspected Dante was the one who told him about her before.
An uneasy feeling suddenly settled itself into my heart. If Dante knew who Starry Knight was, she was in danger. That was no question. He had to find us—both of us—but it likely wouldn’t take much for him to find me, if he already had found her.
But then, he didn’t seem to like Stefano, I recalled. If he did know who we were, would he actually turn us into the city?
If I were him, I would turn us over to SWORD.
“Are you okay?”
Logan’s question forced me out of my circle of thoughts. I pushed them aside, and decided to glance them over at a later time.
“What else can you tell me about the Skarmastad Foundation?” I asked. “I know they’ve been paying the mayor to hire these Otherworld guys.” I held up the letter I’d taken from his desk.
“Not much, to be honest, except that they’ve been around for nearly a century here, and that they’ve funded a lot of different projects,” Logan admitted. “Why do you want to know? Do you think they know who stole the meteorite?”
“It’s possible,” I said vaguely, “assuming you weren’t the one who did?”
“No way.” Logan shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“I had a feeling that was the case.” I folded the letter and tucked it into the pocket underneath my armor. “I’m going to take this; hope you don’t mind.”
“No, go ahead. Anything to help you out. You saved my life before. I’ll never be able to repay you for that.”
“Please don’t try,” I said. “It’s my job.” I glanced down at the floor. “And even though you were saved, others haven’t been so lucky.”
“Still—”
“Still nothing. If you want to pay me back, just help me figure out what’s going on.”
He nodded. “Come with me,” he said. “I’ll show you where the meteorite was when it was taken.”
He led the way, down the corridors and through the halls. I recognized much of it; over the past months, with Raiya beside me, we’d come to see the different exhibits and rooms as we’d made sure the meteorite was secure.
Someone must have stolen it right after she left, I thought. Again, assuming she wasn’t the one who did steal it.
“Where’s Starry Knight?” Logan asked.
“Huh? Oh.” I shrugged. “She’s taking care of some business elsewhere.”
“I know she wanted me to keep the meteorite safe,” Logan told me quietly. “I was worried something happened to her when she didn’t come after it was stolen.”
“She’s fine,” I said, hoping it was true. I thought about Alora’s power stopping the passage of time, and I thought about Aleia’s time bubble bursting. “So, tell me what happened.”
“It was a few days before Christmas,” Logan said, “and I wasn’t supposed to be working. But I came in to make sure the monitors were working.” He nodded toward the large screens at the far end of the room. “The City’s been watching the radiation signatures around the city. This computer helps monitor it.”
“Is it still working?” I asked.
“No,” Logan admitted. “Ever since the meteorite was stolen, it’s been coming up as white noise when I turn it on.”
“Creepy.”
“Just a little,” Logan admitted.
“Do you think it was teenagers?” I asked, thinking of what Jason mentioned earlier. “I heard from, uh, Dr. Harbor, that the police thought it could’ve been teenagers playing a prank.”
“I don’t know about that.” Logan shrugged. “I do think teenagers are pretty immature though, and this seems … too complicated for them. They would’ve have to sneak in here and get past the security, and then find a way to remove the meteorite without tripping the sensors.”
“Sensors?”
“Yeah, there’s a weigh sensor underneath it, so we know when it’s being moved.”
“And it didn’t go off?”
“No. I saw that the fuse box had been messed with,” Logan said. “It looks like it was, well, burned.” He pointed to the small box behind the door, close to a fire extinguisher and an AED kit. I opened it, carefully, and did see, surprisingly, that “melted” would have been the better description, but “burned” was fairly accurate, too.
“That’s weird,” I said.
“I know the demons have been after it, but thanks to you and Starry Knight, and your other friends, they’ve all been thwarted,” Logan said.
I studied the fuse box and looked at the sensor plate. “Any fingerprints?” I asked.
“None.”
“I guess it was a long shot.” I sighed. “I don’t know who took it, but I’ll do my best to see to it that whoever did will be brought to justice.”
“Do you have any idea who could’ve done it?”
“I think it’s safe to say that whoever took it is probably not a demon monster,” I said slowly. “They wouldn’t have been so careful about the sensors. I mean, they don’t seem to have a great amount of working knowledge of human life and technology, unless they’re a tenwalisk.”
But if this wasn’t the work of a demon, who would have the motive to steal it?
A Sinister, most likely. Or maybe even their new leader.
I was willing to bet it was the latter.
“Well, thanks.” Logan gave me a tired look. “I’d like to have it back. I hate to think I’ve let Starry Knight down.”
I shook my head. “I promised I would look after the city while she was … taking care of her business. If anyone’s let her down, it’s me.”
☼12☼
Past and Present
The question of the new leader of the Sinisters bothered me as I huddled under my covers, tucked into bed for the night.
It had to be someone who obviously knew a lot about humans, about how we lived and what we did. But they also knew a lot about the fallen Stars.
SWORD instantly came to mind, but I shook it off. Dante might’ve been the world’s worst dad, but he didn’t seem like the double agent type. Especially since when it came to failing to carry out his work, he only seemed to slip up when it came to Mikey.
Another agent might be a more logical possibility, I thought. It was possible, after all, that actual fallen Stars were working for SWORD, too.
“Are you still awake?” Elysian groaned as he tossed and turned over on my legs. “I can practically hear you thinking.”
“Yeah, I’m awake,” I said. “I’m thinking about the meteorite.”
“The meteorite itself is gone,” Elysian muttered. “We can’t do anything about it tonight.”
“I know Aleia said it could be used as a source of power for some of the Sinisters’ minions. Do you think it could be used for other things, too?” I asked. “I mean, why would someone want it to begin with?”
“It bound the Sinisters up, along with Orpheus,” Elysian reminded me, “before it thrust them through Time’s power.”
“So it overcame Time?”
He paused, as if he’d just realized the significance behind that reality. “I guess so.” Elysian sighed and rolled himself up to face me.
“Alora told me before, about Alküzor’s plan to take the Celestial Kingdom away from Adonaias,” I said. “Do you think he could use the meteorite to break the world free from the other realm
?”
“He’s trapped in the void, squashed into this world,” Elysian said. “He would have to have an agent working for him to break open the barrier between this Realm and his own.”
“So the meteorite would be perfect for that,” I exclaimed. “If it broke through Time’s power.”
Elysian suddenly stiffened. “That’s true,” he muttered. “But he would have to have the power of the Sinisters, and Orpheus, too. It didn’t just rip through Time on its own. It had help with their power.”
“And Starry Knight’s,” I added. “Would she be in danger, too, if that was the case?”
“We’re all in danger,” Elysian snapped. “Every day that Aleia is still cut off from Alora, and every day that Elektra and Asteropy run free, the entire world is in danger.”
“I get that,” I shot back. “But I mean, would Starry Knight need to be killed or sealed away in order to make the meteorite a weapon capable of freeing Alküzor, since it was her power that broke through Alora’s power when she went supernova?”
“I don’t know,” Elysian admitted. “But I do know, if Alküzor is freed, and he gets a hold of the meteorite, he could send the universe tumbling away from the other Realms and succeed in claiming it for his own.”
“That’s bad.”
“No kidding.” Elysian huffed, sending out a small wisp of smoke. “It would be like getting stuffed into a black hole.”
“Hey, stop with the smoke,” I objected. “Cheryl’s going to think I’m smoking if you do that too often.”
“You’re worried about her thinking you’re a smoker when you’ve hacked her computer and stole information off of it?” Elysian’s smirk was clear in the sliver of moonlight sneaking through my curtains.
“Yes,” I said, smacking him lightly across the snout. “There’s no need to cause more problems than you need to. And we have a lot of problems as it is.”
“That sounds smart,” Elysian said. “Who gave you that advice?”
“Mrs. Smithe, actually,” I admitted with a grin. “She tends to be right, even more than me.”
Elysian rolled his eyes. “Well, at least you finally seem to be better about concerning yourself with your real self, rather than the fake you.”
“None of me is fake.”
“You put on your little shows quite a bit,” Elysian pointed out.
“I can act fake, but I am not fake,” I asserted. “Lawyerspeak wins again.”
“I was more focused on how you’ve seemed to come to terms with your destiny as a fallen Star.”
I pretended not to notice that he silently agreed that I had won the argument.
“Well, it’s easier to believe this stuff when I have you and Starry Knight and Aleia with me.” I shuddered. “I can’t imagine how it was for Raiya when she found out. She told me she was seven at the time.”
“Ten years is a drop in the sea, in light of Eternity.” Elysian huffed. “And she seems to be better for it, especially when compared with you.”
For a moment I didn’t say anything, mostly because I hated how often Elysian had compared me to Raiya before. Wasn’t it good enough that we were both working toward the same goal, and that we were, finally, together again, and facing destiny together?
And then there was the fact that she wasn’t exactly alone. I’d neglected to tell Elysian about Grandpa Odd as a—what did he call it—an “ambassador” for the Celestial Kingdom.
That might have actually made it harder for her on some ends.
A small smile crept onto my face; for all Raiya and Grandpa Odd shared similar interests, I didn’t think it would be easy to have a grandfather as a best friend.
“I guess eleven years would be closer,” Elysian amended a moment later. “Her birthday is coming up.”
I was surprised by his comment. “You’re right,” I said with a sigh. She’d told me her birthday was sometime in late January; I wasn’t sure of the exact date offhand. “I hope she’s back by then.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Elysian said. “Your track record with birthdays and girlfriends isn’t so great. And anyway, if St. Brendan gets here soon, we might just see her at Alora’s.”
Before I could say anything else, a now-familiar sensation took hold of me; my breath caught in the back of my body, and my head seemed to experience a case of whiplash as time once again stopped.
“Ouch,” I muttered. “I’m surprised that time stopping hurts so much.”
Elysian grumbled. “We don’t always agree, kid,” he said, “but when time stops like it’s been doing, I feel like my mind is trying to escape my body.”
“That’s pretty much how I feel.” I was about to ask him if we should go out and see if we could find Asteropy or Elektra when I heard it—the soft, helpless cries of a child.
Adam.
“Why is my brother awake?” I asked. “He’s not a fallen Star.” I frowned and looked at Elysian. “Is he?”
“No,” Elysian said as he shook his head. “But he was also able to resist Asteropy’s power before. Perhaps this is similar to that.”
“Let’s get him, then,” I said, “and head out to meet Aleia. Surely she’ll be able to tell us something this time.”
“I don’t know about that,” Elysian said, his voice quiet all of a sudden. “She has been avoiding even me lately.”
“This isn’t something we can avoid forever,” I insisted. “Now, let’s get Adam and get out of here.”
“Okay, okay. But you’re going to have to hold onto him. I don’t think it would be prudent to let a four-year-old ride on my back.”
I grumbled, but I knew he was right. I thought about what Raiya had said before, about Adam.
*☼*
“Are you sure you want me to tell you the whole story of how I know your mother?” Raiya asked me as we settled into the shadows of the Time Tower’s closed rooftop, its classic spire rising up into the cloud-covered night. It was a few days before the winter solstice, but there was no lack of warmth so long as I was with her.
She playfully punched my shoulder. “We never seem to finish the whole story.”
“Yes, just tell me,” I said. “I’m sure it’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“Alright. But don’t get me off topic this time.”
“I won’t!”
“We’ve started this conversation several times, but we never seem to finish it.”
“Well, we’ll finish it this time,” I assured her. “Just tell me. Tell me before a demon shows up or something.”
Raiya grinned. “I met your mother for the first time after she’d given birth to your brother,” Raiya said. “At the time, I was going to see your dad and some of the other specialists at the hospital, for some time for my heart.”
“Which never got formally diagnosed,” I inserted. “I remember that part.”
She nodded. “It’s true,” she admitted, “but it’s also more like it’s been diagnosed several times.”
I smiled at her. “Clever.”
“So your dad was working when your mom came into the hospital when it was time for her to give birth.” Raiya glanced off in the distance, toward the hospital, as if she was reliving the experience. “Your dad had to run, since it was close to the time when the baby would come, but I had more questions, so I followed him.”
“I can believe that,” I remarked. “I’m sure Cheryl waited until the last possible second.”
Raiya giggled. “You’re probably right about that. Many people didn’t even realize she was pregnant.”
“I believe that too. She regulates food in our house down to the last crumb and switches diets so often she might as well have a seasonal collection. Did I tell you she’s finally off the fasting diet? And I thought there wasn’t one I would hate more than the fresh meat and sugar-free shake diet.”
“Anyway,” Raiya said, “before you start complaining too much again, let me tell you what happened. Dr. Dinger went to go and see her, and I followed as much as I could.
While I was waiting to be picked up—I was only thirteen at the time, so I needed a guardian to take me to school—your dad comes out and says that the baby was dying, and he’s calling for more nurses and for help. He was pretty panicked before he rushed back into the room with your mom.”
A strong rush of emotion hit me. “They never told me that part.”
“Your mother can’t handle losing a case,” Raiya pointed out. “How do you think she felt about losing a child?”
I certainly never considered it like that before.
“I was growing into my power as a fallen Star at that time,” she continued. “I wasn’t as strong or sure as I am now. But I knew I had to do something. So I snuck in to see her and the baby.”
“Didn’t someone notice you?”
“When you act invisible,” Raiya told me, “the rest of the world is willing to go along, more often than not.”
“But it had to have been chaotic.”
“It was. Many of the nurses were running around and calling for supplies. None of them saw me as I made my way over to the baby.”
“Adam was alone?”
“They’d prepared him to go to the NICU, and your mom was completely despondent; I doubt you would have ever recognized her. Your dad was tending to her when I came in. Adam was lying in an incubator.”
“So you just picked him up and healed him?”
“I wish,” Raiya admitted. “It would have been easier. I told you I didn’t really know how to control my power. But I did pick him up and try to do something. It didn’t work completely, but he did calm down and his condition stabilized as I held him. So, after talking with your dad, I convinced him to get the baby a transfusion.”
“That had to have been hard.”
“I told him more or less the truth, that my blood could heal people.” She sighed. “He didn’t believe me, but when he saw Adam’s readings confirmed that he would benefit from a transfusion, I offered my blood. Your dad only hesitated for a second.”
She turned her gaze away from me again. “I’d forgotten, for the longest time, how blood is powerful in a Star. When Aleia reminded me, I knew it had been a mistake to be so flippant about using it.”