Star Gods, стр. 26
Ashe slowly turns his head. “You’ve really got to stop leaving out the important stuff. He meant you, Zeke.”
“I know he meant me. Listen, that’s everything out in the open. I didn’t intend to keep this to myself, just like before.”
“Why does he want us dead?” Sage asks.
Ashe takes the picture. “The only thing I can think of is the fact that you’re twins and you’re an extractor.”
“What does my ability have to do with anything?”
Ashe shrugs. “It’s rare?”
“Mom and Dad wanted to keep it a secret,” Tyce interjects. “Why?”
“I wish I knew.”
“I want to know, Ashe, I need to know.” Sage hugs her stomach as tears trail down her cheeks. “You’ve always had family. You’ve always felt loved. You’ve always known where you came from and have some idea of where you’re going. I had that once. My mom loved me with everything she had and always put me first. Then she died.” Her bottom lip quivers. “For eight years I haven’t been in a place long enough to call it home.”
“Now you do,” I say as more of her tears fall.
“Whatever it’s worth, Sage, Mom and Dad would never have split us up if it wasn’t for a good reason,” Ashe answers sympathetically. “Somebody wanting you both dead is a good reason.”
“We can come up with as many assumptions as we want,” I say. “We need to know the why and what we’re up against.”
“Exactly,” Sage agrees. “Is there another Luminary we can call? Someone has to know.”
Ashe shakes his head. “Something is going on here already involving one possible Luminary who may or may not also be an assailant of unknown origins. I’m hesitant to pull anyone else into this.”
“So, we wait and keep watching over our shoulders?” I ask. “They almost killed me, Ashe, they almost succeeded. We may not get so lucky next time.”
“Then we bring the fight to them,” Tyce suggests.
“How?” Sage questions. “We just go to your planet and storm the castle?”
I snort. “I don’t think there’s a castle on Planet Eos.”
“You’ve never been to your planet?”
“Once. I was really young and I don’t remember it.”
She smirks. “So, there could be a castle.”
Tyce stands and stretches. “Girls and castles. Is everything a fairy tale to girls?”
Sage spins and curtsies. “Of course.”
Ashe chuckles. “I say we get out of this house. I, for one, am getting a little stir crazy. We stay diligent, and if Zeke is right and you traveled here, we attempt to get you to do that.”
“I didn’t travel,” Sage answers matter-of-factly.
“And you didn’t just discover you’re part Star God,” Tyce replies.
“With an extractor ability,” Ashe adds.
“You still think he brought you here?” I ask. “Why would this assailant bring you here to where I am?”
“Apparently, to stab you,” she answers sarcastically.
“Be that as it may,” I say. “You traveled, I’m certain of that.”
“Zeke, that’s your ability.”
“He does have a point, though,” Tyce interjects, pushing his chair back where it belongs. “With what just happened in the hallway, I’m thinking your abilities work together somehow. Why would he bring you two together and enhance that?”
“To stop us,” I say.
“Stop us from doing what?” Sage asks.
Shivers go up and down my spine at the possible truth behind my recollection. “I don’t know.”
She crosses her arms and cocks a hip. “I felt that, and now I really don’t want to leave this house.”
“We’re going,” Ashe states. “We’re not going to find any answers by cowering inside.”
“Let’s pick up Claire on the way,” Tyce suggests. “Get some chow too, other than sandwiches. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Cesar taking care of us, but I really need something different.”
Ashe picks up Sage’s picture and hands it to her. “Yeah, let’s do that. Tyce and I will have to get back to work as bills don’t pay themselves, and Zeke is going to need to get back to school, as will you, Sage. I’m convinced that no one is getting through our wards or someone would’ve by now, so we’ll leave some in place when we leave. We may draw the assailant out and Tyce, Zeke, and me will be prepared if he does. I honestly wonder if he stands a chance between the four of us.”
“You’re willing to risk our lives in order to see if our combined abilities will stop him?” Sage asks.
“Yeah, I am.”
She places the photo back into her pocket. “As long as we’re on the same page.” And she leads the way to the side door.
With my stomach too full and my body craving a nap, I stand in a patch of the rays of the sun letting it soak into my exposed skin.
“If the two of you are going to work on your tans, Claire and I are going to catch a movie.”
Claire playfully jabs Tyce in the side with her elbow and he responds by nuzzling her neck and making her laugh. Even with Sage encouraging her to go back home, Claire insisted upon coming with us.
I survey the clearing we’re in that Dad created, surrounded by trees and away from the general population, in the scenic overlook across Highway 61 from Dayton’s Bluff Park. It’s the same place our dad has taken my brothers and me when needing to teach us something we needed to know with our abilities.
Sage inhales a deep breath, her eyes closed, and her face lifted toward the sun. “It’s weird how much one can miss something once it’s been gone.”
I feel it, a jab of sadness through our connection, and know it isn’t all the sun in her thoughts. With one final sigh, she removes a hair band from off her wrist and twists her hair up into one of those messy buns that girls make look easy, her angled bangs falling free and lining the right side of her face.
“Does that mean you’re ready now?”
Claire elbows Tyce again. “Don’t listen to him, he lacks manners.”
“Ouch—now