“Mom, this is . . . my new girlfriend,” I answered.
Raiya and Cheryl both looked at me in surprise. I gave Raiya a quick glance, before turning back to my mother. “This is Raiya Cole. I go to school with her.”
“That’s fine, Hamilton,” Cheryl assured me in her best lawyer-voice. “Nice to see you again, Raiya. I’m going to ask you to say your goodbyes now.”
Confusion hit me. My mother knew who Raiya was? It wasn’t like she actually went to Rachel’s, and the last time she went to school was when she had to attend a parent-teacher conference, and that was only because my dad had a sixteen-hour shift at the hospital.
Raiya was the first to step back. “I’ll see you later . . . Humdinger,” she said with a terse, though affectionate, tone.
“Bye,” I replied listlessly, still helplessly confused as to how Raiya and Cheryl could have been acquainted.
Cheryl barely moved to let her pass by. Raiya weaved around her gracefully, as I was thoroughly embarrassed by my mother. The following silence did nothing to ease my discomfort.
Typical, I thought.
“I thought you weren’t dating anymore,” Cheryl finally spoke.
“I’m not dating Gwen anymore,” I said. “I just started dating Raiya.”
“I see that,” Cheryl replied. She folded her arms. “I’m going to have to forbid it.”
“What?” I frowned. “Why?”
“That girl is not good for you, Hamilton,” Cheryl told me. “You need to stay away from her.”
“You don’t even know her.”
“I know her well enough,” Cheryl bit back.
“How?” I asked.
“That doesn’t matter.” Her face reddened as she added, “I know her well enough to know she’s nothing but trouble. That’s all you need to know, too.”
She didn’t wait for me to object, before moving onto the next topic. “Your new phone came today,” she said. “I had one of the techs at the Mayor’s office set it up for you while I was there.”
I took the phone and couldn’t help but grin. It was the newest style and everything.
The old Hamilton would have been over the moon about this phone, I thought. He would have been taking pictures and uploading them to social media, or using any excuse in the book to brag about it.
My new self—my newer self—just gave Cheryl a grateful smile. “Thank you,” I replied.
She was a bit surprised by my reaction. “Try not to let this one get damaged,” she said.
“I will,” I promised.
She just turned around and sighed. “Why couldn’t you have just stayed with that nice Gwen Kessler girl?”
That was the last thing I heard as she walked out of my room and down the hall.
I almost called her back, ready to defend Raiya’s honor or yell at her until she told me why she didn’t like Raiya, or something of that nature.
But before I could get out my door, I heard the tap tap tap at my window. I looked to see Raiya had transformed back into her Starlight Warrior form, and she was waiting outside my window.
Opening it as quietly as possible, I waited for Cheryl’s expensive Jimmy-Choo-Choo shoes to cease their stomping before saying anything.
Only to have myself interrupted before I even began. “Sorry about that,” Raiya said. “But I thought I’d come and say goodnight before I left.”
I leaned out my window and took her hand. “How do you know my mother?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you all about it later,” she promised, giving my hand a squeeze in return. “Right now’s not a good time, since your parents are home.”
“I guess so,” I reluctantly agreed, recalling Gwen would probably be arriving with Adam soon. The last thing I needed was Gwen to have another reason to hate me. “But I don’t want to hear excuses later.”
“I’ll just keep you distracted enough not to talk about it,” she assured me, before I let her silence my protest with a fervent kiss.
☼
24 ☼
Secrets
Mrs. Smithe looked down her nose, her gaze bypassing the thick frame of her glasses. A hint of a smile was on her face, but Martha was cunning enough to quell it. “Alright, good job,” she finally said. “I’m astonishingly proud you and Raiya managed to work together, Dinger.”
I sighed audibly, loudly, exaggerating my disdain. “Barely,” I asserted.
Raiya and I had nearly forgotten we had to present our report on the differences between the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution that day. It was a bigger project, and given the amount of time we had to deal with, it was hard to put together at mostly the last minute.
I could almost feel the smirk Raiya was secretly giving me from her seat.
“You presented well,” Mrs. Smithe went on, “and I’m guessing Raiya did the design for your visual aid?”
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “Does that mean we passed?”
“Yes, with flying colors,” Martha announced. She gave Raiya and me a sneaky smirk as she added, “You two make a good team, as it turns out.”
Inside, I felt a happy dance parade throughout my body. But outwardly, I just shrugged. “Thank goodness,” I said. “If I ever have to work with Raiya again, it’ll be too soon.”
“Thank goodness for me, you mean,” Raiya spoke up from behind me.
I turned to face her in mock battle, but Mrs. Smithe cut in. “Do stop the theatrics,” she commanded, her sharp tone once more intact. “We have several other presentations to get through. No encore performances are necessary.”
We only held each other’s gaze for a moment, but Raiya gave me a wink before she buried herself in her doodles/notes, and I turned back around and pretended not to pay attention to how happy I truly was.
It was easier to forget about that as Gwen and Brittany got up to do their report. Seeing Gwen eye me with an unusual, fluctuating disdain and apathy made me uncomfortable.
I sighed for real as they introduced their topic (I don’t even remember what it was). Raiya and I had more or less agreed it was for the best on several fronts not to mention to anyone we were together.
There was the entirety of high school, it seemed, that would demand answers, even if it couldn’t provide the necessary obligation. (There are no Terms and Conditions you have to agree to when you enter into high school society, even though everyone acts like it.) There are secrets upon secrets that people keep all the day long; many people have secrets that they make up, just to keep other people distracted from their real secrets. Everyone is always watching themselves, but everyone is also watching other people.
Raiya and I knew we would have to be careful not to give our sudden secret away; that meant we had to be careful not to overplay our hand or underestimate our peers.
The thought of doing so was a bit terrifying, considering how my default had always been to under-esteem everyone around me.
It helped knowing the primary reason we decided to keep it quiet was for Mikey and Gwen. The last thing we wanted to do was provoke a response from either of them. Probably because the most likely response would be negative.
My mind wandered further off, reaching out to the girl sitting behind me. It humored me as much as it burdened me to know I’d spent the last few years of my life looking for the perfect girl to date, only to realize perfection was the worst sort of girl for me. Talk about irony.
Love is an amazing thing. But I don’t recommend it for people who have to focus on their work a lot. The tension between moving thoughts and rapturous feelings and the convergence of the two is maddening, even as you enjoy it—a vicious cycle of pain and pleasure, revealing the poignant truth of the heart’s fragile, enduring nature. Throughout the hour, it was like waiting for the opposite of a heart attack; my heart was so full to bursting, it just wanted to work harder and go faster.
Even as the presentations continued, my thoughts circled around, always winding their way back to Raiya.
I supposed
, in some way, considering the truth of these matters, I should have been grateful to see Elysian’s lizard-like form skirting up the waterspout outside.
I was not. And I let him know the minute I was able to find him.
“Elysian,” I muttered, “this has got to stop. Someone’s going to catch you.”
“They think I’m a lizard,” Elysian reminded me. “If they do, I’ll lick my eyes and hiss a bit, and they’ll set me free. No one wants to hold a mad creature captive.”
“That was oddly specific,” I replied. “Has it actually happened before?”
“Only twice,” he rebuffed. “No need to worry about it.”
“Why are you here?” I asked. “I’m trying to learn.”
“I was outside long enough to know you were just daydreaming,” Elysian snapped. “I saw the look on your face. You were thinking about Starry Knight again, weren’t you?”
“Keep your voice down,” I mumbled back, glancing around guiltily. “Someone might hear you.”
“Someone has heard you,” Raiya said, sliding out from around the corner. I pressed a quick kiss onto her cheek, and even though she pushed back from me, she blushed. “And I think it’s sweet.”
I grinned at her before glaring at Elysian. “See?” I said. “People have noticed you.”
“She’s a Starlight Warrior just like you,” Elysian argued. “It’s okay if she hears me.”
“Why are you here?” Raiya asked. “Has anything happened? Did Aleia find Orpheus yet?”
Elysian, Aleia, Raiya, and I had all gone out and searched for him for the last two days. He hadn’t returned to the church. While Aleia was worried more that SWORD had managed to capture him, I was waiting for him to attack us again.
“She just found him,” he said. “He was in Shoreside Park.”
“Really? Why?” I asked. “I mean, I know it’s a big place, all things considered, but it hardly seems like a good place to stay.”
“Maybe he’s waiting for Taygetay,” Raiya suggested, “or Asteropy or Elektra to come and collect him.”
“Aleia wants you to come,” Elysian said, nodding to me. “So you can read his heart.”
“Really?” I grimaced. “I don’t think I want to do that. Sounds . . . gross. And possibly dangerous.”
“Are you saying you’re afraid to do it?” Raiya asked. Her taunting sneer made me angry, or maybe I was mad because she was right.
“It’s hardly worth pursuing if it’s irrational,” I argued. “Fear would be a normal response.”
“There’s nothing irrational about it,” Raiya said. “Aleia’s right to ask you to help, particularly if Orpheus is adamant about changing.” She thought it over and then nodded. “I should’ve thought of that.”
“You probably didn’t because you wanted to protect me,” I said, still wanting her to help me worm my way out of it somehow.
“Just come on,” Elysian said. “We’ve waited long enough.”
“We have school for another couple of hours,” I reminded him. “Does it have to be now?”
“Now I think you’re just whining,” Elysian muttered back.
“You’d be whining too, if you had to deal with detention.”
I might have said something else, but that was before Mrs. Smithe came around the corner. She looked at the three of us and arched her eyebrows. With her glasses resting on her nose, the situation might have been more comical if we weren’t going to get in trouble for it.
“Do you need a pass to get somewhere, Dinger?” she asked, looking between Raiya and me. Her eyes purposefully glazed right over Elysian’s lizard face.
I searched her expression, before exchanging a glance at Raiya.
“We need a pass to next period,” Raiya said. “Sorry for the trouble, Mrs. Smithe.”
“It’s no problem, this time,” Mrs. Smithe snapped, “but you better skedaddle to class quickly. You don’t want anyone to miss you.”
She whipped out two passes, scribbled on them, and handed them to us. “I can’t give out passes willy-nilly, Dinger. Watch yourself.”
“I will,” I assured her.
She marched forward a few steps, and then turned back to us. “Have you been keeping up with the news on those superheroes?” she asked.
“Oh, because of my mom’s case and everything? Yeah, I kind of have to.”
“There’s a new blog post up,” she said. “Very interesting. You might want to read it.”
“Will do,” I said.
“Make sure you do it soon,” she told me, and she left us alone.
I looked down at my pass, and read it twice, just to make sure I was reading it right.
Gym exit.
“What does yours say?” I asked Raiya quietly.
“Stage exit,” she said.
“I’ll see you at the park in twenty then,” I told her.
“What was that about a blog post?” Raiya asked.
“I think she means Mikey’s blog,” I said. I pulled out my phone. “I’ll check it out after we deal with Orpheus.”
“Okay. See you in a bit.” She smiled, and I had a really hard time not kissing her goodbye before she slipped out of my sight.
“Ugh, I think I preferred it when you were always mad at her,” Elysian said, as he transformed into a snake and wiggled his way around my neck. “The googly eyes are enough to make me sick.”
“Shut up,” I replied gruffly, petting him affectionately despite our disagreements. I knew I almost agreed with him.
☼
25 ☼
Searching
I grinned as my wings, fired up and brightly shining, folded down into themselves when I landed in the heart of Shoreside Park. I glanced around and saw Elysian morph into a smaller, though not completely tiny, version of himself and circle into a landing position. His long body awkwardly waddled through the woods to make his way over to my side.
“Where’s Aleia?” I asked.
“She’s over there, in that clearing, just behind the observatory,” Elysian said, nodding in the direction. “You could have landed closer.”
“I thought it would be easier to land here because of the clearing,” I admitted. “You didn’t have to follow me.”
Elysian snorted. “Sometimes it’s easier to follow people.”
I shrugged and said nothing. This was the clearing where I saw Raiya painting shortly after I met her, I realized as I looked around.
How many moments had I messed up with her? I wondered. How many did I just not see what was right in front of me?
“Wingdinger?” Aleia’s voice called through the trees, and I hurried forward.
“Here,” I replied.
She was tired-looking, I thought, as her face came into view.
“Thank you for coming,” Aleia said. “I know this is not a good time for you, but it’s important.”
“I can understand,” I told her, even though I’d objected to it earlier. “How is he?”
“Okay,” she said. “He told me that he’d seen Taygetay as she escaped, and she took some of his power.”
“Why would she need his power?” I asked. “That seems weird.”
“Taygetay has been trapped under the blood of a Star for many months now,” Aleia said. “She would need a vessel to provide her with stored energy if she was going to try to stay away from us.”
Starry Knight—Raiya—landed behind us. “And you believe his story?” she asked.
“I have no reason to doubt it,” Aleia said. “And it would explain why he’s been here so long, being deprived of energy and power.”
Raiya’s lips pursed together. She was always so dedicated, I thought, admiring her. As I watched her, she caught my expression and shook her head. She knew what I was thinking, and she wanted me to know it was time to get to work.
Okay, I grumbled inwardly. I’ll work.
As I forced myself to pursue that venture, Orpheus came out from behind another tree. “I thought I heard you,” he said.
“I’ve come to read your heart,” I told him. “Give me your hand.”
“What?” He jerked away from me. “No.”
“It’s the only way we can trust you,” Raiya said. Her eyes were sharp again. I had a feeling she didn’t trust him anymore than I did.
“I’ve been full of evil for too long,” Orpheus said. “He’ll destroy me.”
“I didn’t destroy you last time,” I reminded him. The scathing tone of my voice was purely instinctual.
“We’ll be here to help both of you,” Aleia said. She turned to Raiya. “You can heal Orpheus if he needs it, right?”
“Yes,” she said, though I could tell she wasn’t enthusiastic about that prospect.
“Alright,” I said, holding out my hand again. “Let’s just try it.”
Raiya came up beside me and held onto my other hand, and Orpheus looked helplessly from me to Aleia.
“Just do it,” Aleia told him. “It’ll be okay.”
He sighed, but he took my hand a moment later.
My power pushed out of me and reached into him at the contact. My memory took off at the familiar gesture; Orpheus and I had been friends on the other side of Time. He’d taunted me with that fact before, but I never really tried (or wanted) to think about it.
But there they were, inside of me—memories of us racing through the growing skies, surfing on the sun’s waves, and working on different worlds.
We looked different, I noticed, even as we were the same. But then, I had no idea how much of who we were was the same as who we had been. As I’d seen on my trip through the universe with St. Brendan on the Meallán, physical things and the supernatural things didn’t always take the same form, even as their character and substance stayed the same.
He was Courage, and I was Fire. We shared friendship and adventure. Neither power nor animosity came between us as we protected Earth and watched over the other Stars and angels.
I almost let go of his hand, until I saw a great shadow overtake my vision. It was large and clear, even though it was dark. It took me a moment to realize it was emptiness.
Alküzor.
His eyes were hollow and devoid of light, and his face was rotting and grim. He resided down below the bowels of the earth, his power trapped by the flames of the Mortal Realm. He was blistering with rage and ferocity, commanding demons and fallen Stars to come to his aid, and willingly sacrificing them for his own impossible gain.