by A. B. Bloom
"Star dust," Nick shouted and his fingers tightened as a loud crash echoed around us. “It happens when two Stars fight.” Another shower of sparks rained, this time pink, and I wondered what it meant. The colour reminded me of Celeste's soul and I wanted to scream.
A loud rip, like tearing metal tore through the air and I flinched. "Keep going, Bron. We are nearly there!" Nick called, and his voice coaxed me on. My legs were burning but I knew I could go faster, longer, if I wanted. A snap clicked inside my brain. The energy I contained within me shifted, burrowing its way home as it made itself at one with me. Suddenly, I understood it, could feel it. It was mine. And now the hunter was here to take it away. My dark weak thoughts of moments before when I wished I'd never known about all of this evaporated. Power surged through me. I would fight.
We reached the blue tent just as a shower of brilliant blue sparks scattered in the gentle breeze. Connor. I hurt for the star that had spent all his existence waiting for someone who, when they turned up, didn't love him back. He deserved more than that.
Nick pulled back the tent’s door and we stumbled inside. It wasn't dissimilar to mine but it was strewn with clothes, all black, and countless books. Bent paperbacks and reference books stacked into towers that defied gravity.
It was Nick's tent. I didn't even have to ask to know.
"What happens now? How are we going to find Lauren if we are hiding in here?"
"We won't be hiding in here for much longer." His face was stern, the moments we'd stolen away from the camp long forgotten. "I will move us but it will take a lot."
"A lot of what?"
"My energy."
"Can't we use mine?"
He hesitated and then shook his head. "No, I don't think so, you don't have enough."
I laughed. A crazy reaction. "Don't I?" I wanted to tell him how I felt—the vibrancy that was coursing through me, but I didn't know how to explain it. Instead of bumbling with words, I reached and held my hand on his skin. The white flame flared inside of me as I touched him and my energy spiked.
"You are amazing." His words were a breathless whisper before he snapped back into code red mode. "I think I can harness it."
"Do whatever you need." Insane as it was, I hoped that harnessing the power might involve kissing.
"Bron," he warned. "Okay. Step closer, whatever you feel just stay anchored to me."
Did he not know that I was anchored to him with iron chains that would never let me free? "Okay." I pulled away. "Wait! I need to tell you something."
"Later, please." He frowned.
"No, now." My throat tightened and I had to squeeze the words out. "Your soul is beautiful. I want you to know so if I don't have time to tell you again, you know. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
His hand reached for my face just as a blinding revelation unravelled and I gasped in shock. "Nick. What does it mean if you can't see someone's soul?"
"What do you mean?" His hands lingered, ready to connect and transport us wherever it was we were going. I was torn. I could go somewhere with him, alone.
"If you can't see someone's soul in the energy around them, what does it mean?"
"It means they've killed another living being."
"I thought so." My stomach twisted.
"Why?"
I didn't get to answer because the voice I expected ripped through the camp. "Bronte!" A chill ran through my body and I shivered. I stepped automatically for the door.
"No!" Nick grabbed my hand.
"Yes. It's Lauren. I have to save her."
I yanked my hand away, the separation cutting me with a vicious slice of a blade. I walked out into the darkness and found Aaron waiting in the centre of the camp. Lauren at his feet, her eyes wide above a bound mouth.
Aaron smiled at me but he looked nothing like the stepfather who'd looked after me my entire life. He looked like a stranger who was set on killing me. "Well, you know what they say about best laid plans and all that. I'm guessing someone was a naughty girl and went rifling through her mummy's wardrobe."
"What's going on?" I called back. My eyes roved over Lauren but I couldn't see any obvious damage.
"You know," he mused loudly so that everyone present could hear. "I wouldn't have known if I hadn't come by the school today and seen through your glamour." Aaron laughed. "All these years of me watching you and making sure you didn't access your power and then you snuck around and did it right under my nose."
I stared at him. He still sounded like my stepfather. He was still wearing the same jeans I'd been begging him to replace for the last two years. But I knew instantly that he wasn't. That Aaron had never existed. This was why he had never wanted me to call him dad. My stomach heaved but I held my tremors on the inside.
"So, was it all a lie?" I called over the grass. The expanse of moor didn't seem wide enough now. The universe tilted and spun.
"God, yes. And what a drag it's been."
"And you are the reason I've been so sick, because you hid my energy in a necklace?" Anger coursed through me. “Why didn’t you just kill me when I was born?”
"Hey!" He held his hands up. "That wasn't me. That was your daddy. Where is he now, though?" He glanced around the camp. "Nope. He's not here now." Aaron sighed and rolled his eyes. “Why didn’t I kill you? Why did I put up with this for sixteen long years?” He grinned. “Let’s say you were collateral damage. You were my card up my sleeve, so to speak.”
My veins zapped with electricity and I wanted to pound on him. "I don't understand any of this."
He grinned again, an evil grimace that made my stomach turn. "Well, after the last half born was dispatched, I decided to play a different game with you. I figured if you never came into your power then you could never stop the tide of darkness. That I could manipulate your deciding vote without anyone knowing who you were."
He glanced at Nick. "I guess I didn't see that coming." He pointed at my fingers Nick was still grasping with all his might.
"So what's it going to be, Bronte? Lauren for you?" He titled his arms like an old fashioned scale. "I think that sounds fair."
I slid my fingers out of Nick's grasp and took a step forward. Lauren shook her head. Her mouth working beneath the black tape across her face but her words were silent.
As I took tentative steps towards my death, I noticed a bundle of rags on the floor behind Aaron. I faltered. What was that? At first I thought it might be my mum, that maybe he'd brought another bargaining chip along just in case. He noticed my attention shifting and gave a dreadful sneer. Where was my step dad? My head spun with the unknown. I wanted to hit pause so I could take a moment to work out what was going on. But there were no pauses in life, and that predestined script I'd been handed was playing out, even though I no longer wanted to read the words.
"Ah, the mysterious piece of the puzzle. The bit that no one could work out. This was my finest moment, I have to say." He kicked at the bundle of rags and it gave a groan, rolling over. The dim moonlight lit the face of Eleanor Heavers who was a mess of scrawny bones and tangled hair on the floor.
"What the?" I started towards her but Nick grabbed my hand. I don't know whether he worked out the situation with lightning speed, but he held me back, shielding me behind his body. From behind the curve of his back, he linked his hands with mine. "Relax and let me help," he whispered. Aaron was still too distracted with Eleanor on the floor to see our exchange. I didn't know what Nick was planning but I knew in my soul I trusted him. I relaxed and let him pulse his hand against mine. The energy surged in my body before slowly ebbing out like the tide, washing into Nick.
"What's going on?" I shouted at Aaron.
He laughed and the manic release bounced off the tents. I felt the presence of other Stars behind me but I didn't turn to see whether Celeste or Connor were there. Going into my fate not knowing would be better. Nick had taken my energy so that when Aaron killed me, he wouldn't get the power he was expecting. He would get nothing.
My mouth dropped open and I didn't think I'd ever be able to shut it again. "But . . ." I was at a loss.
"That's right. The energy you have, is shared, only one of you can survive. Who's it going to be, you or her? If you die, she becomes the last star child and I've got her right where I need her to be, on the side of darkness. She's always been the darker of the two of you."
With a wave of his hand, Aaron transformed himself and looked just like Eleanor's dad. My head threatened to explode all over the grass. "Dad?" Eleanor groaned.
"Yes, dear, this will all be over soon."
"How can she be my sister?" This made little sense. I was an only child.
Aaron gave another manic chuckle. "Probably the grandest glamour that's ever been performed." His chest puffed as he glanced between the two of us. "When I found your mother and sensed the energy she was carrying, I knew I had my perfect opportunity." He turned towards the other Stars. "I knew I had to act quick because you would all be arriving, ready to implement your worthless protection scheme." He paused. "Sorry about that last girl, Connor, I didn't mean for it to be quite so messy." He laughed and it was clear he'd enjoyed whatever mess he'd created. My understanding of Connor deepened immensely. The wasteful loss of the other star children pulled on my soul. They'd all died in vain—their blood spilt in a war they didn't understand. Aaron, or rather Eleanor's dad, turned and inspected the crowd. He put his hands up to his mouth and gasped, sarcasm drilling from him. "What, no Connor? Now where could he be?" Nick straightened behind me and hissed through his teeth.
"You son of a bitch," I charged across the grass, out of Nick's grasp and threw myself towards Aaron. I had nothing left to give, no energy left to fight with, but I would give it everything. Lauren squeezed her eyes shut as I powered towards her. Aaron turned to face me.
"Good girl, Bronte." He grasped for me but I dodged him and spun around, moving myself closer to Lauren. "You can't save both of them," he taunted.
I knew this. But I could try. I had a sister. She hated me. She'd been the strong one when I'd been weak. Now I was stronger. I hated her. She was my sister.
I didn’t know how any of it was possible. What had Aaron done? To me, to her, to my mum?
I spun again, but Aaron, using energy I had no idea he possessed, sped around and grabbed me, his fingers finding purchase around my throat. Out of his right arm came a gold arrow with a tip that glinted in the moonlight. There were shouts and crashes behind me and I knew the others were trying to fight free to get to me. I wouldn't let them. I allowed my body to cease struggling, even though it went against every instinct I had.
"Any last requests?" Aaron asked and I couldn't see a single shred of the man who'd always been my father.
I tried to say yes, that I wanted Lauren to live, but my vocal chords pinched and strained. "I've got one." A voice called behind me.
"The knight in shining armour." Aaron's eyes glinted and I looked on with despair as Nick stepped forward.
"Take me instead of her. Feel her, she hasn't got any power, not really, not like me."
Aaron clenched his hand tight around my arm. His face flickered with consternation when he felt the empty chasm that was my vacant energy. He reached forward and touched Nick, who was juiced to the max. He dropped me and I gasped for breath. I turned in shock and I saw the ring of Stars, some I recognised and some I didn't, group around us.
"Good boy, Phoenix." Aaron said. "Take one for the team and all that."
"Wait," Nick said. "Don't I get a last request?"
Aaron grumbled but he let Nick go, his confidence that Nick would save me clearly running high.
Nick stepped towards me. He pulled his cap from his head and his black hair stood up at electrified angles. His eyes shone with determined vibrancy. The violet hue of his spiked energy reached for me. "Remember I said it was gravity that pulled me here?"
"Yes?" I blinked up at him.
"I lied. I want to show you something." His hands reached for my face and with delicate fingers he pulled me in close. The tip of his nose skimmed my cheek and I held my breath as his violet eyes claimed mine. “I’ve been in love with you since the beginning of time,” He whispered the words into my ear, as inside my head the startling image appeared of how he saw me. It was the first day when I fell on the grass. I could feel the way he felt. The way his soul reached for mine. The way my soul was a vibrant violet perfectly created to match his, shade for shade, tone for tone, depth for depth. We were the same, with the same soul.
How this was possible I didn't think I would ever understand.
He released his fingers and tears sprung down my face. "Nick?"
“I’m not allowed to keep you, it’s a punishment I have to bear, but I fall in love with you every time we meet.”
The air grasped in my throat as my head spun. Punishment? For what?”
“Nick?” I wanted to know more. I needed to know everything.
"Shh." He leaned in closer. "Remember the first time we kissed? Remember the flames?"
"Yes," I whispered back.
"That was us. Remember that. Remember me."
"Come on, get on with it," Aaron cut in.
"Ready?" Nick's smile flashed, his eyes burning. He grinned as he leaned in and brushed his lips against mine. The white flames responded, surging through me, licking up my skin, running through my veins. In a crystal moment, his words became clear. Together we were the fire. The fire would save us.
I leant in, pressing my mouth against his, absorbing every shred of our shared energy. The white fire boiled, the heat intensifying until it felt like it would consume me whole. As it pulled me under, I clutched onto him. My fingers holding onto my soul as the white light exploded out of me, and the entire world went dark.
To be continued . . .
Acknowledgments
I would love to thank my family for all their support. This adventure I’m on would not be possible without them. My husband, is so understanding when I go into the “zone” and I know I will be eternally grateful that I found a man who could allow me to embrace my creativity—even if it means we live in squalor and I only remember to feed us on an adhoc basis.
I would also like to thank my friends who acted as Beta’s and allowed me to bounce ideas off them at various points, sometimes repetitively. A special thanks needs to go to Holly Baker the Queen of Comma’s—one day I promise I will learn where they are supposed to go!
Lastly I would like to thank The Indie Girls, for inspiring and supporting me with their dogged enthusiasm and tenacious “Go Get Them” attitude. Most especially Lianne Cotton and Nikki Groom, without which this book would not have been written.
The Gravity Series Book II VELOCITY
Darkness swirled around me. Confusion ran through my mind, too many variables, too many scenarios, too many lies.
There was one thought I held onto. I claimed it for my own. I clutched my fingers into his jacket as I watched his memories unfold. He was laughing, watching me trail over the grass as I followed the invisible chain that connected us. I didn’t know it was there, not then, but he did. He could feel it and I could feel it through his memory. It hummed and sang as we connected. From under the shade of his cap, he watched, his heart beating fast as he saw me change course for his direction. Surrounding me was a violet pulse of light. It twisted and turned, flickering through the cloud filtered morning light. The violet pulse recognised him, reached for him and ultimately lead me to him. Until I fell and landed on the grass. He’d walked away then, but through his memories I felt his resistance, the pull he’d felt in his soul to go to my side. He'd wanted to help me. To offer me a hand. It had cut him more than it had hurt me and my grazed knees.
I knew that now.
It was him. And it was I. And destiny pulled us together.
Leaving his memory, I looke
d up into his eyes. “I will always find you, Bron,” he said. And I knew he would.
I knew I could kiss him and resign myself to the fire and that he would find me wherever I went. So, I did.
And it burned with glorious resolve as our souls met and rejoiced at becoming whole once again.
Chapter Two
A hushed whisper pulled me from my dreams. Tormented, I'd tossed and turned. Ripped apart by white hot flames that had scorched me from the inside out. In the flames, I’d seen a mesmerising violet light. It had called, shouted, but as far as I stretched to reach it, the further away from me it was. It slipped away and my heart bereaved its loss, mourning for the light it couldn’t catch.
“We will need to tell her something,” one voice whispered.
I struggled to sit up but my body lay unresponsive. My eyes fused shut in darkness and I couldn’t fight through. It was just endless black. The memory of the violet light, reeling like an old movie, flickering on repeat.
“She needn't know anything.” The other voice was firmer, sterner. My ears registered a tightened note that scratched beneath the surface of the words. Good thing my ears were still working, even though my eyes weren’t.
“She will wake soon and the first thing she will ask for is him. You know it. I know you don’t want to, but you do. Anyway, things have changed now. Haven’t they?”
There was silence, followed by, “I don’t know what to think.”
“It’s a mess, hey, Brother?”
“That it is.”
Straining, I tried to hear more, but the voices lapsed into silence. I wondered who they were talking about. What had happened? All I knew was a burning nightmare had held me in it's fiery grasp for what felt like days, maybe even months.
