I didn’t want the danger that comes with being the Star Bringer. But maybe—just maybe—it’s time to embrace it.
I take off running toward the heptosphere, glancing back to make sure Ian is still with me. He is—and so is everyone else. They’re all behind me.
I skid to a halt in front of the orb where it hovers only a meter from the ground, and I have to rethink my idea. An Ancient artifact with the power to create and destroy suns. Maybe it’s not such a great idea to just fire it without knowing what it can do.
But then I look up at the sky and realize the warhead in the Ravenol’s weapons launcher is glowing. We really are almost out of time.
“Go ahead, Kali.” Merrick is standing next to me, a confidence I’m far from feeling on his face.
But something strange is happening inside me. It’s like the thing is calling out in my head, asking me to touch it. Before I make the conscious decision to do so, I’m walking over there, my feet moving of their own accord.
And then it’s right there in front of me, and every ounce of my body yearns to touch it.
I turn to Ian, one last question in my eyes. But he just nods, and so I raise my hands and press them to the curved side of the heptosphere.
It’s warm, and there’s a soft vibration deep within it. But that’s all I feel, all there is. Until a shudder runs through it—runs through me—and my head is filled with whirling iridescent lights.
It’s awake.
But what now?
I don’t even know what it does, let alone how to get it to work.
I glance up at the sky and see that the weapons launcher is glowing red now, preparing to fire.
“Do something,” I plead with the giant orb. “Please don’t let all these people die—”
I break off as another shudder slams through me, bigger than the first. And then the orb is rising and turning slowly on an invisible axis. A beam of light shoots out of it, but in the opposite direction of the battle cruiser.
Shit! This is why I wanted a chance to practice! I’m terrified to look, terrified to see what the heptosphere is aiming at.
But then Ian mutters, “Holy shit,” behind me, and I have to look.
I glance at him and realize he’s staring at the Starlight, his eyes wide. The beam from the orb is hitting her straight on, and she’s coming to life, lights flashing all around her as she, too, lifts off the ground and turns so that she’s facing the sky.
But she’s too late. I took too long.
The battle cruiser releases its warhead in a flash of light, and I brace for impact, reaching for Ian.
Except, bolstered by the heptosphere, the Starlight blasts a ray of light right back, and this one is so bright that I screw up my eyes to keep from burning them. Seconds later, a huge crash fills my ears, and when I open my eyes, the sky is filled with a burning orange ball. It’s all that’s left of the battle cruiser. Another blast of light, another explosion, and the shell shatters into a thousand pieces.
“Get under cover,” Ian screams. But there isn’t any.
But that’s okay, because the Starlight has thought of everything. A thousand rays of light emanate from the heptosphere and spread out in all directions, and as they hit the debris, the pieces explode, filling the sky with falling stars.
Looks like I really am the Star Bringer.
Chapter 100
Kali
The sky above us is clear. The shuttles were either destroyed in the blast or have fled. The lights in the heptosphere are fading as the Starlight comes in to land close to where we’re standing.
Now we just need to get inside.
We approach the side of the ship, and Ian does what he tends to do. Bang the shit out of the door. Nothing happens.
“Why is that always your answer?” I ask from beside him.
“Because it works sometimes.” He shrugs.
Just when he looks like he’s about to try again, the hatch on the top of the ship flies open and Rain sticks her head out.
“I can’t get the ramp to go down,” she shouts to us, her eyes going wide as she looks around. “What’d I miss?”
She looks a little groggy but otherwise pretty good for having just been shot. And I start laughing, because—despite everything—we’re alive. And right now, that’s all that fucking matters.
“Throw down the ladder and we’ll fill you in,” I say.
“Her arm—” Merrick starts, but I narrow my eyes at him.
“She can do a lot more than you give her credit for, you know.”
As if to prove my words, the ladder comes rolling down the side. Looks like we’re back in business after all.
We herd as many people onto the Starlight as we can fit. She’s not large by any means, and many others will have to wait for us to get a separate ship here to take them home. But we’ve lost Gage, and we’ve lost Beckett, and there’s no way I’m leaving this shithole without as many others as we can squeeze on board.
Merrick and I get them settled in the galley and storage bay, with Milla guiding the ones who need help. It’s not exactly luxury quarters, but it’s better than the airlock. And way better than the evil lab we freed them from.
But on our way back to the bridge, I get a strange feeling inside of me—a hollowness in my stomach that gets worse the closer I get to the strange, locked room at the center of the Starlight.
As we pass it, I lay a hand on the wall, as I always do. But instead of the comfort I usually feel, the second my fingers touch it, an electric shock shoots through me.
It’s strong enough that I yank my hand back with a shudder.
“What’s wrong?” Milla asks, suspicious.
“Nothing. I’m just…jumpy, I guess.” I start walking quickly, determined to put as much distance between me and that room as I can. But the greater the distance, the worse the hollowness inside me gets.
I do my best to ignore it once Milla, Merrick, and I make it back to the bridge.
Ian is just hanging up with Marlina. And judging from the satisfied look on his face, he convinced her to rescue the people we had to leave behind. The news that we found and saved her son should have helped.
“So, where do you want to go?” Ian asks once Rain gets Jarved settled in our old cabin and Max finishes taking inventory of our existing food supplies. It’ll be tight for a while, no doubt, but we’ll get more provisions as soon as we can. “The Senestris System is ours for the taking.”
“Except for the fact that we’re still wanted,” Max tells him dryly.
“And we never did figure out who’s trying to kill us,” Rain adds. “We should probably do that before we go too wild.”
“I already know,” Merrick says.
“Oh, yeah?” Ian tosses him a questioning look as he fiddles with his HUD, which appears to be stuck in the lowered position. “By all means, fill us in.”
“That call I got, right before we went to free Milla—it was from a contact of mine back on Serati. I reached out to him a few days ago for some information, and he finally came through.”
“Serati?” Rain says, sounding shocked. “Why am I certain I’m not going to like what you’ve got to say?”
“Because it’s the Sisterhood that’s been trying to kill us. And by us, I mean you and Kali.”