Unknown
I stayed on my so-called patrol for a few hours. When dawn took over the sky, I knew I was supposed to go home and sleep, but I hesitated to do anything that would bring me back to others' view and scrutiny. I didn't want to return to that life of being a puppet.
"Found you!"
A giggling seven-year-old changeling burst from the forest. I caught her easily around the waist and used her momentum to spin on my heel. She gasped when I released her, close enough to flinging her into a tree.
"You know the price for thinking you can attack me," I growled, Dark tendrils writhing around me. They refused to touch me as they did Neferet, but they hung out when they thought they could get a meal. The changeling stared up at me from wide eyes. I sighed. "Get out of here. My anger shall not be wasted on you."
A soothingly deep voice came from behind me. "You handle yourself nicely," it commented.
I whirled again. "Who's there?" I snapped. Now that I was using my voice more, I found that it was easier to speak. Once I had even gotten the crazy urge to sing.
"Who do you think?" I rested one hand on the hilt of my sword, my fingers twitching for the other. A boy stepped out of the shadows, and I recognized his moonstone eyes. "Relax. Do you have a name?"
"Neferet calls me 'pet'," I offered. "I know that's not my name, though."
The boy tilted his head a bit to the side, observing me. "Do you remember your name?" Something in his voice urged me to remember.
I thought back and was rewarded with a migraine hitting me like a ton of bricks. The boy wrapped his arms around me, steadying me when I swayed. "It had something to do with the sky," I rasped around the pain.
"Then I'll name you, okay?" He spun me to face him, his moonstone eyes bluer than I recalled. "You will be… Stella."
"Stella," I echoed. "I like that." I smiled at him. "But what's you name, if I may ask?"
He smiled back. "I'm known as Aurox," he answered.
The name was familiar to me from one of Neferet's rants. I looked at him curiously. "You can't be the one who betrayed Neferet for the side of Light. You're too… you're a lot like me, actually."
"That's why I came back. I wanted to see you." He touched his forehead to mine. "You want to know who you are, and I've only just discovered who I am. Maybe I can help you."
"I don't know…" My hand grazed the hilt of my sword to reassure my jumpy nerves.
Aurox saw the guitar strapped to my back. "You play?" he asked, putting some distance between us. I shrugged. "Do you sing, too?"
"Not really," I answered softly. "A week or so ago I had an accident that took everything from me. I'm not sure of anything anymore." His expression was almost pleading, wanting to have me try. I sighed and pulled the guitar forward.
After warming up with a few chords, I coughed. You don't sing from the throat, a small voice inside me spoke up. You use your whole body and soul. By the calmness that rushed through my veins, it was sound knowledge. (No pun intended.) I could tell I used to sing, too.
"I'm lost in the darkness,
Fading away
I'm still around here
Screaming her name
She's haunting my dreams
I'm trying to survive
My heart is frozen
I'm losing my mind.
Help me, I'm buried alive!"
Peace stole over my limbs. Aurox had a faint grin on his face. "I knew you could do it. You have the perfect voice."
"Thanks." I slid the guitar back to its original position. "I should probably get going. Will you be here tomorrow?" I asked hopefully.
"If you want me here," he agreed. "Keep safe, Stella."
Erik
The meeting had gone fairly well. I knew I was obsessed, but I seriously felt like dying the longer she was away from me. Back in the depot, I leaned my head back against the wall. Exhaustion tugged at my body, but I did not want to sleep.
"My death, my sacrifice, is not in vain
Let the Master Rune bring forth tenfold pain!"
I looked at Apollo sharply when I sensed the shift in the air around him. Although I did not physically hear the words, they echoed in my mind. "What are you doing?"
"God of prophecy and poetry at your service," he replied. Then he sighed. "I feel bad about earlier with Kramisha. She loves poetry almost as much as you love acting, if not more," he added tauntingly.
I didn't take the bait. "Prophecy for what? Wait… did you send Starr the–?" He met my gaze sorrowfully, stopping the words from coming. I sucked in a sharp breath.
Aurox knocked and entered in the same moment. "Apollo, what will happen if… if we don't get her back?"
"Try not to think about that," Apollo told the former Vessel. "For Neferet to win, she has to go through Chaos. By ruling all vampyres, she needs to defeat Nyx and Erebus, but by starting the war she so craves with humans, it interrupts what Chaos created long ago."
"To win, though." I glared at Aurox as he kept talking. "Chaos needs Asteri, doesn't he?"
"Technically." Uncomfortable now, Apollo stood. "What is it you aren't telling us?" he queried softly.
A secret flickered beyond Aurox's blue-moonstone eyes. They had been changing ever so slowly. "I might know where to find your Rune, Erik," he announced. I no longer wanted to strangle him.
I wanted to see if he could lead me to the very thing that would help us rescue Starr.