Page 148 of The Stars are Dying

I really had nothing to lose. If I’d died from being swallowed by the Hasseria, then this passing would be inevitable.

“What about you?” I asked, turning my head back as I stepped closer to the wall. I blinked at the empty room, raising a hand to my forehead with the dizzy spell. I couldn’t keep up with the tricks of this game.

Is he just another illusion?

I reached out to the wall, and when my hand passed through it, I forced my body to follow. The darkness that guided me was weightless. A void of nothing. Calm like an ocean at peace. While my feet still walked on firm ground, my form drifted. Then, slowly, my anchor was sinking, gently drawing me back and reminding my soul to abide by the laws of gravity.

Light broke to reveal the steps I climbed, and I felt oddly spirited and lightweight as though coming out of a trance. At the top, I was encased by four walls, but casting my sight up I knew I was back in the maze from the square balconies. In the distance I thought I heard voices, but I paid them no attention as my sight fell to the podium only a few strides away.

I turned back as if the old man would appear to help explain, but the stairs were gone.

They didn’t exist.

My hand cupped my forehead. I couldn’t handle any more obscure conjurings, or I was sure to start slipping from my grasp on reality. I breathed slowly, making my only focus to feel through my senses one by one and confirm that what was unfolding around me was real.

Calmed, I was drawn to the podium again. It whispered in a language so ancient and beautiful, moving my steps and stealing the world around me as I stared at the most magnificent thing I had ever laid eyes upon. Resting beautifully on a cushion of blue velvet was a giant, scaled black egg with silver etchings. I thought I could hold it in both palms, but as I reached, a familiar hiss coiled up my spine.

“Where have you been?” the Hasseria asked in that serpentine voice. It moved like a slow lap of water toward me, circling me and the podium as though it wasn’t done deciding my worth. “You fled in your cowardice, and now you come to claim as if you didn’t abandon us for centuries.”

“It wasn’t my choice,” I pleaded, overcome with sorrow though I didn’t have a full recollection of what for.

“You should have stayed away.”

“No.”

It began to rise, towering over me, and this time I didn’t think its attack would be so merciful. “As soon as what dwells within you is released, history will begin to repeat. You think the stars are dying now, but if you are unleashed, the nights will fall for longer…the darkness will shroud. Without the sun, the fae and humans will be powerless. Without the stars, the celestials will fall again. The moon will thrive eternal, and the reign of the vampires will begin.”

I fell to my knees. “There has to be another way.”

“It is unfair,” it said, almost with pity. “That the one who belongs is the only one who can be destroyed to stop the plague.”

“What is the plague? What is making the stars die?”

“Search your heart and you will find it.”

I shook my head with a surge of denial, not knowing exactly what for, only that my world might be cleaved in two if I discovered it.

“I have a duty, just like you,” it went on, and I balked at the threat looming over me. “I too am a protector of the celestials, and right now, you are a threat to them.”

“Wait,” I breathed, reaching for my dagger, but it looked feeble against the mighty serpent.

“Goodbye, maide—”

I winced at the high-pitched screech that pierced my ears, smothering the human cry I’d heard right before it. But I’d seen the flash of pink, and out of fear for Rose I snapped my eyes open, incredulous to find her atop the serpent’s head, two hands wrapped around the hilt of a blade she’d plunged between its eyes.

Stars,I didn’t know how she’d climbed the wall to leap down, nor how she’d gathered the unwavering courage I watched in awe of.

“Shit,” Zath swore, passing me just as I surged toward the battling duo as they came crashing down. He got to her before she hit the ground. I winced at the impact that slammed them both down as he wrapped his arms around her to take the worst of the fall.

The Hasseria withered, still shrieking.

“How did she do that?” Calix said beside me.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the fascinating beast as it turned to sparkling gold dust. Beginning at its tail, its whole huge body dissipated until it floated like wisps, a snake of the air that soared high, and my momentary sorrow turned to wonder, somehow knowing…it was not the end for the Guardian. Only the end of this form.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” Zath groaned, pain straining his voice as he rolled onto his side.

Rose was already standing, frowning at him as if she were debating whether or not to help him. “You shouldn’t have done that,” she grumbled, bending to hook her arm through his.

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