CHAPTER SEVEN — THROUGH THE CELESTIAL GATE.
784 Words
The Celestial Gate didn’t open like a door.
It unfolded.
Light peeled back from the floor in huge, weightless sheets, like space itself was unzipping. Gold spirals erupted upward, bending into a ring the size of a shuttle, humming with an ancient frequency Annastasia felt in her blood.
Not heard.
Remembered.
Kael didn’t let go of her hand for a second.
“Stay close,” he said, voice low, eyes flicking between her glow and the Hunters tearing toward them.
The Echo darted in front of the Gate, its entire body expanding into a solid mass of shadow to buy them seconds, maybe less.
Annastasia stared into the opening Gate.
It wasn’t empty.
It was full.
Galaxies spiraled behind the glowing veil.
Nebulas flickered like living breaths.
Stars pulsed in rhythm with her heartbeat.
“Kael,” she whispered, trembling. “Where does it lead?”
His jaw tightened.
“To your origin point.”
Her stomach dropped.
“My… planet?”
Kael shook his head once.
“No. Your realm.”
The word hit her like a shockwave.
Before she could question it, before she could steady her breathing, one of the Hunters broke past the Echo with a metallic scream and lunged.
Kael shoved her behind him, drawing his blade in the same motion, its edge humming with silver light.
But the creature was too fast.
Its talons slashed,
a blur of void-metal,
aimed straight for Annastasia’s heart.
Instinct took over.
The cosmic light around her flared into a shield, exploding outward in a sphere.
The force hurled the Hunter across the room, shattering its mask.
Kael turned, eyes wide.
“Starlight—”
But Annastasia didn’t hear him.
Something else had taken over her senses.
A voice.
Soft, layered, echoing from every direction and none.
“Child of the Luminous Line… return.”
Her knees buckled.
“Did you hear that?” she whispered.
Kael cursed under his breath. “They’re contacting you already, too early, damn it—”
“Who?” she demanded.
He grabbed her shoulders, forcing her eyes on his.
“Your people. The Starborn Court. The moment the Gate opens, they can sense you.”
Annastasia shook her head.
“It feels like… like they’re inside me.”
Kael swallowed hard.
“That’s because they are. You’re connected to their hive-link. Every Starborn is.”
The Echo screamed behind them as another Hunter tore through its shadow form, landing heavily on the deck.
Kael pulled her toward the Gate.
“If they take you before you cross, you’ll never make it home.”
Annastasia hesitated, staring into the swirling light.
Fear churned in her chest.
“What if I don’t belong there? What if I’m not like them?”
Kael leaned close, breath brushing her cheek.
“You are exactly like them.”
His hand cupped her jaw, gentle and sure.
“But you’re also something they’ve never seen before.”
Her heart clenched.
The Hunters surged forward.
The Gate’s pull intensified, the gravitational force tugging at her clothes, her hair, her soul.
Kael positioned himself between her and the oncoming creatures, blade glowing fiercely.
“GO!” he shouted.
Annastasia’s throat tightened.
“Kael, come with me—”
He didn’t turn.
“I can’t. The Gate won’t accept anyone who isn’t Starborn.”
A Hunter lunged.
Kael met it with a brutal strike.
Annastasia took a step toward the Gate,
then another,
her body weightless, her pulse syncing with the cosmic hum.
The Gate widened, swirling into a vortex of light.
Kael risked one glance back at her.
His expression,
Raw.
Unprotected.
Terrified to lose her.
“Annastasia,” he said, voice breaking on her name. “Don’t look back.”
But she did.
And what she saw shattered something inside her.
Kael was being overwhelmed.
Three Hunters pinned him, claws scraping against his armor, sparks flying, silver blood staining the floor.
The Echo shrieked in fury but was losing form fast, its shadow tearing apart.
“No,” Annastasia whispered. “Kael—”
The Gate pulled harder, dragging her in.
Her fingers clawed the air, reaching for him.
“KAEL!”
He locked eyes with her one last time.
And smiled.
A small, soft smile meant only for her.
“Find yourself,” he said.
“Then come back for me.”
The Hunters threw him to the ground.
Annastasia screamed,
But the cosmic force swallowed her, dragging her through the Gate, ripping the observatory, Kael, the Hunters, the tearing world,
out of existence.
Light engulfed her.
Weight vanished.
Time folded.
And Annastasia fell,
through stars, through memory, through destiny,
straight into the realm she was never supposed to return to alive.
- Writer
