The Girl Who Called The Stars

by Heather Hildenbrand

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the forest outside of the small circle we made. It was completely calm. Nothing moved on the trees or the ground. My gaze caught on something, and I blinked, zeroing in on a figure through the brush. It crashed closer, tearing a small tree up from its roots as it barreled toward us.

  Robes swirled as the faceless monster cut a path to where I stood.

  My mouth opened—a silent scream frozen in my throat.

  Xander let go of my hand, and I spun toward him, half-expecting him to charge at the creature and attack it. But he didn’t. Instead, he jumped toward me, grabbing me in a protective hug that nearly knocked me over. He caught us both, holding us firmly inside the circle of wind and chaos.

  Through the whirring of it all, I looked back at where I’d seen the Shadow, but it was gone.

  And then everything else disappeared along with it.

  I blinked, but it didn’t help. When I opened my eyes again, reality itself had melted away, and the entire scene in front of my eyes had vanished. The Shadow was gone. The woods had disappeared. The world was nothing more than gray matter. All of it was spinning like the inside of a washing machine.

  Xander’s arms around me were the only things that kept me from being swept into the void. Desperate now, I held on to him as tightly as I could.

  From somewhere above, a cyclone descended, threatening to rip me right off my feet. I screamed, my chest vibrating with the sound my throat made, but I couldn’t hear it. The wind had ripped it right out of the air and swallowed it whole.

  My hair stood on end, sucked upward by the suction.

  It wanted to suck me in too.

  If that happened, I knew instinctively I’d be lost.

  Something flashed in the gray oblivion. A light too bright to be Earthly. Too bright to even be my own. I shut my eyes but the light penetrated until it hurt. I doubled over, leaning on Xander; so, so grateful for the pressure of his body against mine.

  No matter what happened next, at least I wasn’t alone.

  A second later, the light receded and then it was gone.

  I pried my eyes open just as Xander’s arm tugged me upward. I straightened my legs and looked around, mostly to see if the Shadow was still gunning for us. But it was gone. The forest, the wind, even the darkness—all of it had vanished.

  What was left was calm and bright and welcoming. A stand of trees, not unlike the redwoods of Earth, rose up around me. Although, the kaleidoscope of colors dripping from the landscape was richer than anything I’d ever seen there.

  “Are you all right?” Xander asked, frowning down at me.

  I nodded, struck mute by the impossibility of what had just happened.

  A few yards away, Peter stood off to the side looking a little green as he murmured soothing words to Archer. Eamon had wandered onto a small path nearby and was sniffing the air as if it would tell him something important.

  Questions cluttered my mind, but I couldn’t figure out how to put any of them into words. Dizziness washed over me and my knees buckled.

  “Whoa,” Xander said, grabbing me and steadying my shoulders. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Just a little dizzy,” I said, breathless.

  “Yeah, those trips can be rough. It’ll pass soon,” he said.

  I took a deep breath, nodding again. “Where are we?” I asked, finally able to voice the loudest question in my mind.

  Xander looked around, his hands still braced on my shoulders for support. “We’re back,” he said simply. “Welcome to Bardawulf.”

  I looked around. “I—”

  My response was cut off by the sound of Peter throwing up.

  Chapter Ten

  Year: Reign of Tharos 5

  Planet: Bardawulf

  System: Ursuna

  I seriously considered following Peter’s lead and just throwing up too. It would have been easier than trying to quiet the raging emotions inside me—not to mention the woozy sense of vertigo that prevented me from running over to see if Peter was okay.

  “I’m fine,” Peter said, holding up a hand as if he’d known what I was considering.

  “You guys should sit,” Xander said. “The air sickness passes quicker if you do.”

  Air sickness? They should have a better word for whatever this was. I’d heard of air sickness—but getting queasy on airplanes didn’t even come close to what I was feeling.

  Still, you didn’t have to tell me twice.

  I sank to the ground right where I stood, concentrating on breathing deeply and on keeping the contents of my stomach from making an appearance.

  Xander crouched next to me, still watching me with a worried expression. I knew he was waiting for me to say something that would make him feel better, but nothing reassuring came to mind. This was a lot. Even for me: a girl who’d known all along that life on other planets existed.

  “Talk to me,” he said.

  “We just space traveled through a tree,” I said. Then I winced and ducked my head, bracing myself for an onslaught from the tree in question.

  None came.

  “The tree’s sentience is heightened only during the activation spell,” Xander assured me, failing to hide his amusement. My confusion must have shown because he added, “The tree doesn’t understand you right now. Not in English, anyway.”

  “Oh.” I blew out a breath. “Good. So, I can comment on the fact that this one looks nothing like the one we left behind. That’s not an insult,” I announced loudly. “Just an observation.”

  Xander’s brows shot up.

  “Just in case,” I muttered.

  His mouth twitched. “You’re feeling better.”

  I shrugged. “A bit.”

  “Good. I’m going to check on Peter. I’ll be right back.”

  I nodded as Xander rose and hurried to help Peter uncap a bottled water he was currently struggling with.

  I took a minute to look around, studying the new world we’d landed in.

  Bardawulf.

  The tree species were different here, especially the one we’d apparently used for intergalactic travel. It was taller than any tree I’d seen on Earth, even the famous Redwoods in California. Its leaves were shaped like five-point stars and colored a dark purple. The trunk was covered with bright yellow moss all the way around and dotted with small flowers, all of them with tightly closed buds.

  The trees beyond it were variations of the same.

  Large, thick trunks covered in bright moss with leaves of every color imaginable. And some unimaginable. Blues and purples and yellows in every shade on the spectrum and some shades that weren’t—at least not on Earth. This planet’s flora was completely new to me, and the kaleidoscope was breathtaking.

  But at the base of it all, the land was the same.

  Ground beneath me, sky above. Air to breathe. Thank the Goddess.

  Peter was right: I didn’t need oxygen. But knowing something and suddenly adjusting to it would have been disconcerting for sure. I smiled to myself at the word I’d just used. Kate would have been proud.

  Several yards away, Xander continued to hover near Peter which was probably a good idea. He still looked pretty green. I focused on deep breathing, and slowly, the worst of the dizziness lifted until I felt steadier. I managed to get to my feet and wandered toward the path where Eamon still stood, sniffing and almost debating to himself about something. As I got closer, the trees gave way, and I caught sight of a field that stretched into rolling, clay hills in bright reds and browns.

  The colors weren’t unlike my own canyon back on Earth. But the land was softer, richer. That excited me because maybe it meant I’d see rain. There was never enough of that in Arizona.

  Above me, the sky was more purple than blue and not a cloud in sight. The sun had dipped low on the horizon, its orange glow melding with the tips of the hills in the distance. I looked down at the clay ground beneath me to rest my eyes and settle my sense of gravity.

  Gravity! I wigg
led my toes and raised my palms, testing the feel of the air. Apparently, gravity existed here which was great since I hadn’t even considered the possibility of trying to float everywhere.

  “You look steadier,” Eamon said, coming up beside me.

  I grimaced. “I’m doing better than Peter, anyway.”

  Eamon and I glanced over to where Peter was slowly beginning to move this way. Xander followed with the horses in tow, a rein in each of his hands. I didn’t bother to tell him Nightingale would have followed us without prompting. It would raise more questions than I wanted to answer right now. Besides, I had enough questions of my own.

  I turned back to Eamon, all of my questions taking a back seat to the most important one. “There was a Shadow in the woods. Right before we came through the portal. Did you see it?”

  “I saw,” he said grimly. “I’ve been searching for a trail here, but I don’t sense anything. I think we lost him.”

  “Are you sure? He was right there,” I said.

  “The old magic won’t allow him to pass,” Eamon assured me. “The only way he could have made it would have been in pieces. And I don’t sense any part of him here.”

  “Good.” My shoulders sagged in relief. Even a piece of one didn’t sound like fun to me.

  “Ready?” Xander asked as he and Peter joined us on the path.

  “I think so,” I said.

  “Here.” Xander handed me Nightingale’s lead. “You should ride. You’re still wobbly.”

  I didn’t argue, and when he offered to help me up, I let him.

  “What about you?” I asked, realizing belatedly that I should have let him get up first.

  “I’ll walk awhile. Stretch my legs,” he said, not quite meeting my eyes.

  “Okayyy.” I watched as he made a beeline for the front of our processional, his expression hardened into something unfriendly.

  Weird.

  A moment later, we were headed toward what Eamon simply referred to as “the town.” I couldn’t see any evidence of it yet, but up ahead the path twisted to the right, obscuring whatever lie around the bend.

  Slowly, the adrenaline waned and a stark sense of reality set in, right along with horrible nerves.

  It didn’t matter that I’d narrowly escaped death twice in the last twenty-four hours. Three times if you counted Eamon trying to bite my face off this morning. Suddenly, the idea of riding into town atop Nightingale like some cowgirl beauty queen made me woozy all over again.

  “Alina?” I glanced over to see that Peter had ridden up beside me. His injured arm was held tightly against him and his pale skin was pinched in pain. “How are you?”

  “I’m fine.” I forced a smile. “How’s your arm?”

  “It’ll heal,” he said, “Faster now that we’re home and I can see a healer.”

  Home? This place might have been safer than the one we’d left behind, but it wasn’t home. For some reason, hearing him call it that made me angry.

  “That’s good,” I told him. “When I saw you come home earlier, I saw your injury and the blood and it was pretty scary.”

  Peter’s eyes shuttered, glazing over with some memory that clearly already haunted him. “The darkness the Shadows wield is… I’d forgotten how truly horrible it feels to have that inside you.”

  “It’s pretty awful,” I agreed, remembering the horror of the darkness as it had unleashed its magic on me last night. Goddess, had it really only been last night? “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  He nodded but his expression didn’t lighten. If anything, it turned bleaker. “You will train harder here. Xander will see to it. We can’t let them get so close again.”

  “Of course.” I had never seen him this shaken or this afraid. It rattled me. “Eamon said they can’t follow us here.”

  Peter nodded. “No, they can’t. Not with the old magic in place.” But he didn’t sound encouraged. What the hell had that Shadow done to him? I made a mental note to ask Xander or Eamon about it later.

  “Don’t be nervous,” Peter said a moment later.

  I looked over and found him attempting a reassuring smile. Up ahead, Eamon and Xander had put distance between us and fallen into quiet conversation. I wasn’t sure if the privacy was for them or for us.

  “Why would I be nervous?” I asked.

  Peter’s smile turned to an eye roll. “You can pretend with them,” he said, nodding his head toward Eamon and Xander ahead of us. “But I know you. And I know you have dreaded this day just as much as you’ve looked forward to it.”

  Peter was right—about all of it. No point in lying. Not to him. “I thought I’d have more time,” I said quietly. “To prepare.”

  Peter nodded and shifted his weight in the saddle, wincing. Clearly, he was hurting more than he let on. I bit my tongue, knowing full well his stubbornness wasn’t going to allow him to admit that now.

  “I’d wanted more time as well. Things just happened so fast, and we had to leave or risk your safety.”

  “Xander said one of them got away, though. And before we came through the portal he saw me. I know he did.” I hated the way Peter’s expression twisted, but I had to know. “He’ll report back to Tharos, won’t he?”

  “Yes. But they won’t continue to hunt you on Earth.” We exchanged a glance, and he added, “Kate will be safe.”

  Relief washed over me, sending a new wave of dizziness with it. I hesitated and then said, “I left her a note.”

  Peter nodded, his gaze far away. “That’s good. She deserved some closure. I wish you’d had more time for that with her.”

  “Maybe it’s easier this way.”

  Peter didn’t answer.

  For a while, we rode in silence. I wondered what he was thinking and what sort of friends awaited me here—if any. Did an empress even have friends? Or just advisors?

  “Peter, can I ask you something?”

  He looked over. “What is it?”

  “Would you have been friends with my parents even if you hadn’t been their royal advisor? I mean, did they have close friends aside from the various roles everyone filled?”

  Peter’s expression softened. “My friendship with your parents was the reason I took my role so seriously. I would have done anything to protect them. In the end, I did.”

  My heart ached as I tried to imagine how that must have gone down. Peter leaving with me. My parents knowing they’d never see me again. Peter knowing he’d have to live with it all. For the first time, I realized Peter was the one who’d been dealt the worst of it. At least I’d been able to forget.

  “You are not alone in this, Alina.”

  Peter’s words startled me, and I forced a smile. “I know.”

  “I mean that. I am here for you. Not just as your advisor but as your friend. And I will never let anyone or anything get in the way of that.” He took a breath and added, “And I’m not the only one who feels that way either.”

  I followed his gaze to the back of Xander’s head and scowled. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” He’d gone from hot right back to cold the moment we’d touched down here, and if anything, he was getting colder the closer we got to town.

  Peter just leaned back, looking way too satisfied as he said, “Sweetheart, you’re not the only one who can put on a show.”

  I wasn’t sure what to make of his words, so I kept my mouth shut.

  “Just remember that you don’t have to be anything other than what you already are,” Peter said.

  I sent him a grateful smile. “Thanks, Peter.”

  Up ahead, I could hear Xander and Eamon talking about living arrangements and training schedules. I listened with half an ear, letting Nightingale trail behind.

  I was too busy to really pay attention anyway, between taking in everything about the beautiful scenery as we passed by and taking deep breaths to calm the nerves that had seized me. What would the Zorovians here be like? Would it be everything I had always wanted, to be with people of my kind? What would it fe
el like to finally be myself, no lying or hiding?

  Would they all be as disappointed as Xander had been when they found out I wasn’t some all-powerful warrior like they’d envisioned? Had they all given up on me? And if they still believed in me, was I capable of living up to their expectations?

  For the rest of our trek, I deliberately focused on the scenery.

  It worked in distracting me; everything looked so different here. The road we were on now wound up and down and around so that I couldn’t see much farther ahead at any given time, but I could see enough on either side to keep me fully engrossed. To the left were open fields that rolled up and down with graceful hills. On my right, a small embankment covered in dark moss led to a thick forest full of ivy-coated trees with leaves the size of beach umbrellas.

  I stared, wide-eyed, until the men’s voices caught on a few words that demanded my attention. “…won’t be able to get through without notice anyway,” Eamon was saying. “We might as well march in from the main road. Make a statement.”

  Xander scowled at that, and I cocked my head, trying to figure out what I’d missed. “She has no idea what they expect from her. Or what to do about it.”

  “She’ll be fine,” Peter said. I hadn’t even noticed that he’d ridden up beside them, leaving me to trail behind.

  Xander huffed. “All due respect, Peter, things are much different than before, and I don’t want the wrong message sent. Alina isn’t ready to lead. Not until she understands more about what’s at stake here. Until then—”

  “Until then, we will not lie to them about her identity,” Peter said firmly. “And we won’t allow her to make a mistake in staking her claim on her own birthright. She should march in the front, not sneak in the back.”

  Xander nodded slowly. “Of course. We’re on the same team here,” he said carefully. “But for now—”

  “For now, things remain as they are,” Eamon put in and there was just enough growl in his voice to make it clear no one should argue. “But Peter is right. Alina should not hide herself—not here. Not from them. We march in the front. Together.”