Chapter 2 — When the Stars Answer Back
1252 Words
POV: Riley
The stars should not disappear.
They are ancient. Constant. Witnesses to every war, every kingdom, every rise and fall of bloodlines far older than memory itself.
And yet, before my eyes…
One of them died.
I felt it before I saw it.
A sharp, hollow snap in the magic of the sky—like a thread in the great tapestry of the universe being sliced clean through. My breath caught. The bond between Alex and me flared hot and violent as the celestial balance shifted.
Alex reached instinctively for her power.
Mason moved between us and Damieon in the same instant.
The palace trembled.
Just once.
Enough to make the crystal chandeliers sing.
I turned slowly toward the window where the moon still hung bright and defiant—yet now, a wound existed in the stars around it. A darkness where light had been moments before.
“That wasn’t natural,” I whispered.
Alex’s jaw tightened. “No. That was a message.”
Damieon stood frozen between us, moonlight brushed across his dark hair, his young face lit too softly for the terror in his eyes. The glow around his hands hadn’t faded yet—faint, but unmistakable.
The heavens had answered him.
And that terrified me more than any battlefield ever had.
“Inside the inner wards,” Alex ordered quietly.
Mason didn’t hesitate. He swept Damieon into his arms and bolted as the walls of the chamber sealed one by one behind us. I followed, my boots striking stone as ancient sigils ignited along the corridor ceilings—defensive magic flaring awake like a predator disturbed from sleep.
The palace knew.
It always did.
We reached the Lunar Vault in seconds.
Only royal blood could open it.
Alex pressed her palm to the obsidian doors. Light surged under her skin, silver threads spiderwebbing across the stone. The doors parted with a deep, resonant groan and sealed behind us the moment we crossed the threshold.
Silence fell.
Heavy.
Absolute.
The Lunar Vault had once been a throne-room beneath the world, carved into the bones of the mountain itself. Moonlight filtered through veins of glowing crystal overhead, bathing the space in soft silver radiance. Ancient banners of the Royal Moon hung preserved by time itself—names of rulers long turned to ash.
Here, even magic whispered instead of screamed.
Mason set Damieon down gently.
The boy’s hands were still glowing.
Not with normal lunar fire.
With starlight.
My heart dropped into my stomach.
Alex saw it too.
Her breath hitched.
“You shouldn’t be manifesting celestial light yet,” she whispered.
Damieon looked between us. “Yet… again.”
I knelt before him slowly.
“When did the dreams start?”
He swallowed. “After my last birthday.”
Eleven.
Too young.
Far too young.
“What do you see?” I asked.
He hesitated. Then, quietly, “A burning sky. Stars falling like rain. A throne made of light and bone. And something inside it that keeps calling me its son.”
The Vault shuddered.
Alex’s power flared so sharply the air cracked.
“No,” she said.
Mason stiffened. “That’s… not possible.”
But I already knew the truth.
Because the stars had just gone dark.
And the stars never lie.
“Bring Elara,” I said quietly. “Now.”
No one questioned me.
Elara arrived beneath a veil of teleportation light moments later, her silver hair loose around her shoulders, eyes sharp despite the hour. The moment she saw Damieon’s hands, her entire body went rigid.
“The Bloodline of Stars,” she breathed.
Alex’s voice was tight. “Say it plainly.”
Elara looked at the boy as if seeing a living prophecy carved in flesh and bone.
“He is not only Royal Moon,” she said slowly. “He is something older. Something forgotten.”
My chest tightened. “Forgotten how?”
“Erased,” she answered. “When Arken fell, the universe sealed more than shadow. It sealed bloodlines capable of rivaling creation itself.”
Damieon shifted uneasily. “Am I… dangerous?”
I stepped forward instantly. “No.”
Alex mirrored me.
Mason placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“You are protected,” Alex said firmly.
Elara did not contradict us.
Which frightened me more than if she had.
“The star that faded tonight,” Elara continued, “was not extinguished. It was consumed.”
The word echoed through the Vault like a death toll.
“Consumed by what?” Mason asked.
Elara lifted her gaze toward the layered ceilings of crystal and stone.
“By the thing that once ruled the space between worlds,” she whispered. “And which has now found the heir it has been missing for a thousand years.”
Silence crashed down around us.
Damieon’s small fingers trembled.
I dropped fully to my knees before him and took his glowing hands in mine.
“And it will never reach you,” I swore. “Not while Alex and I draw breath.”
The light in his palms pulsed once.
Then… calmed.
Elara exhaled slowly. “It has acknowledged the blood.”
Alex’s eyes burned. “Then we prepare for war.”
“No,” Elara corrected sharply. “You prepare for pursuit.”
That stopped us all.
“Explain,” Alex demanded.
“The thing that moves among the stars does not conquer with armies. It hunts through bloodlines. Through legacy. Through heirs.”
Her gaze flicked to Damieon.
“You ending Arken created a vacuum in the celestial hierarchy. Something ancient has noticed that vacuum—and the boy who could fill it.”
My stomach turned cold.
“What is its name?” I asked.
Elara hesitated.
Then spoke it.
“Nytherion.”
Damieon flinched violently.
“I’ve heard that name,” he whispered.
The Vault shook.
Alex surged to her feet. “From where?”
“My dreams,” he said. “It sits on the bone-throne.”
The same phrase he had said earlier.
Bone.
Throne.
Stars.
Everything aligned too perfectly.
I closed my eyes briefly.
The war for our world had ended.
The war for the heavens had just begun.
Night deepened outside the palace.
Across the realms, constellations flickered strangely—some dimming, some shifting into configurations that had not been seen since the First Age. Seers collapsed in trances. Oracles screamed. Old gods stirred uneasily in forgotten places.
And at the center of it all…
A boy who only wanted to watch the stars.
Alex approached Elara slowly. “How long until it comes for him?”
Elara met her gaze without blinking.
“It already has.”
A sudden thunder-crack split the sky above us.
Not storm.
Impact.
The palace wards flared with violent intensity as something massive struck the upper atmospheric shield and rebounded into the clouds above.
Mason drew his blade instantly.
“Shields are holding,” a guard’s voice echoed faintly through the warded stone. “But something just tested the outer sky barrier.”
Alex’s power ignited in both hands.
“This is not a visit,” she said coldly. “It’s a declaration.”
I turned to Damieon.
His eyes were glowing now—not with fear.
With recognition.
“It found me,” he whispered.
I wrapped him in my arms without thinking.
“No,” I said fiercely. “It tried.”
Outside, the stars flickered again.
And this time…
Three of them went dark.
- Writer
