Chapter fifteen

After rising before the sun and eating a hasty meal, Audrey gathered her pack and followed Emandi out of the cave.

"So, where exactly are we going?" she asked after a wide-mouthed yawn.

"I'm taking you to meet a Wish," Emandi answered. They had draped their long, muscular body with a flowing travel cloak. The ends of it flapped like flags in the frigid mountain wind. "The closest one that I know of lives with a fascinating little cult deep in the forest. I think it would do both of you some good to get to know one another."

Audrey shook her head, uncertain if she'd heard them correctly over the howling wind. "What kind of a wish? And did you just say 'cult'?"

With a deep rumble of laughter, Emandi crouched down onto all fours and dipped low so Audrey could climb onto their back. "I'll explain as much as I can along the way."

It took most of the day for them to descend the mountain and make their way to the isolated forest where this so-called cult lived. Along the way, Emandi talked.

"Has Welkin ever told you of the missing conjury?" they asked as they navigated the unforgiving slopes of stone. Audrey, who was nestled within their cloak like a baby in a sling, shook her head.

"What's a conjury?"

"It's an object that gives the Stars the ability to manipulate our world. Contrary to popular belief, Stars aren't all-powerful; their influence here on earth has limitations. However, in order to enforce the Plan, they occasionally need to do things that are, shall we say, outside of their skill set. In those cases, they draw their power from conjuries. Over the course of history, conjuries came to be known as wishing stars."

Thinking back to the conversation between Emandi and Welkin in the cave, Audrey was confused. "I thought you said the Stars don't actually grant wishes?" She felt Emandi shrug beneath her.

"Typically, they don't. In most cases, humans were simply convinced of their own importance thanks to some well-timed coincidences. But, on occasion, humans actually manage to provide a bit of inspiration with their desires."

"So, am I a Wish?" Audrey asked. Emandi's laugh rumbled through their back and into her chest.

"No, my dear. You are most definitely a Starborn. Your mother may have wished for you, but I believe Welkin chose to grant that wish the old fashioned way."

Audrey shuddered at the implication. "Oh, gross! Ew, forget I asked."

"Never." There was a grin in Emandi's voice as they spoke. "Anyway, nearly twenty years ago the Stars lost one of their conjuries here on earth. It was quite the scandal, especially after they couldn't find it on their own and needed to enlist the help of their most loyal followers to search for it.

Unfortunately, even the most loyal humans have a hard time turning down the kind of power offered by a wishing star. And so, when the fallen conjury was found, some opportunistic mortals decided to make a few wishes of their own before giving it back."

"Uh oh," Audrey said. The sensation of second-hand dread filled her gut with ice. "Something tells me that didn't go over very well with the Stars."

"Not with the Stars, nor with many of the loyal followers who had been tasked with finding the conjury in the first place." Emandi chanced a quick glance back at her over their shoulder, and their expression was wide with incredulity. "You have to remember that these are people to whom the word of the Stars is law. That anyone would defy the Stars by misusing the wishing star was seen as sacrilege of the highest order. Needless to say, the whole debacle created a bit of in-fighting, all of which was exacerbated when the wishing star itself vanished."

This twist in the tale made Audrey gasp out loud. "Are you serious? What happened to it?"

"No one knows," Emandi replied. "It's still missing to this day."

"No way." Audrey couldn't believe what she was hearing — almost as much as she couldn't believe that it was the first time she was hearing it at all.

Emandi's great head dipped with a nod. "Indeed. And, as I'm sure you can imagine, this spate of rogue Wishes has created quite a few headaches for the Stars, what with none of them being part of the Plan."

At this, something in Audrey's mind clicked into place. "Hang on. Did some of those people wish for kids like my mom did?" She didn't need to hear Emandi's humm of acknowledgement to know she was right. "So, when you say we're going to meet a wish, you're talking about one of those kids, right?"

"He isn't much of a child anymore," Emandi said in that roundabout way of answering that Audrey had already grown accustomed to. "If my memory serves me correctly, he's probably only a year or so older than you."

The edges of Audrey's brain felt as though they'd fallen away to reveal a whole new world she hadn't even been aware of before. She felt her mind expand with new possibilities. "And this person, he doesn't have a destiny either?"

"So it would seem."

"Wow. Why didn't Welkin tell me about any of this?"

It took Emandi a thoughtful moment before they replied. "My best guess is that they were trying to protect you. Though if you find out otherwise, do let me know."

In that moment, Audrey was too consumed with all of this new and wondrous knowledge to wonder what exactly she might have needed to be protected from.

*

The sun was on the cusp of setting by the time Emandi slowed to a stop. Stiff and sore, Audrey slid off their back and stomped her tingling feet to wake them up. When she looked to Emandi, she found them standing tall on their hind legs and sniffing the air. Their ears twitched and swiveled toward a sound that she couldn't hear.

"Is everything okay?" Audrey asked, scanning the darkening woods around them for any signs of trouble.

"It sounds as though we may be interrupting something," Emandi said. "Follow me, but be quiet. Let's investigate."

Audrey did as she was told, keeping her steps as light as possible while following Emandi's path. The warm glow of firelight emerged between the trees as they walked, until they found themselves on the edge of a wide clearing that was packed with people. When Emandi ducked low to take cover behind the brush, Audrey followed.

"What's going on?" she whispered as she watched the action between a cluster of leaves. "Is this some kind of cult ritual?"

Emandi shook their head and pointed to a large platform surrounded by wood in the middle of the clearing. "I believe we've stumbled upon a funeral."

The word "funeral" made Audrey's blood run cold. Instantly she was transported back to that brisk autumn day three years earlier, when she stood above her mother's fresh grave and said her final goodbyes. Whatever was happening here didn't look like a funeral to her, but before Audrey could say anything about it, she was distracted by a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. She glanced to her right and froze: there, creeping through the underbrush only a handful of paces away, was the most beautiful teenage boy Audrey had ever seen. The light from the bonfires reflected off the curtains of golden hair that framed his chiseled face. Even in the gloom, she could see that his eyes were an impossibly vibrant shade of green. Like them, he was watching the proceedings in the clearing and seemed completely unaware of their presence. He licked his lips as his hands clenched tightly at his sides, his posture rigid in a way that screamed of nervousness.

"Ah," Emandi whispered at Audrey's ear level, making her jump with surprise, "that's our Wish right there!"

With this new information in mind, Audrey turned back to the boy just in time to watch him step out from the shadows and into the clearing. As he moved through the crowd, people all but lept out of his way. Some people seemed surprised to see him, while others looked down on him with thinly veiled disdain. The boy ignored them all, and instead strode toward a lovely young woman with brown, tattooed skin and thick dark hair that cascaded down her back in a mess of wild curls. When she spotted the boy, the girl threw her arms around his neck and collapsed, sobbing loudly into his embrace. Had Audrey not been distracted with something else, she would have been curious about the drama playing out in front of her.

"Does that girl have golden eyes?" Audrey hissed, barely able to keep her voice down through her disbelief.

Emandi nodded. "She's not the only one. Look around."

Audrey combed the crowd and was shocked to find that many of them had eyes in the same shade of gold as her own.

"They're a group of astromantic druids known as the Starborn," Emandi explained, sensing the question she hadn't yet asked. "They aren't the direct progeny of Stars like you are though. Rather, they're the closest remaining descendants to the original Starborn — a cross-pollination between humans and Stars used to diversify the species. This was eons ago, back when I was still but a wee thing." They glanced at Audrey, who wore her surprise plainly, and added, "I'm assuming Welkin never told you about that, either?"

"Of course they didn't!" Audrey threw her hands up in frustration. "Why would they tell me anything useful or interesting? They are in so much shit when they get back."

Through a smile, Emandi shushed her and motioned for her to get low. "It looks like the ceremony is starting."

From the cover of the forest, Audrey and Emandi watched as a parade of Starborn druids carried a shrouded bundle that Audrey recognized at once to be a body. As the druids carried their precious cargo through the crowd, the gathered mourners wept and showered the deceased with handfuls of flower petals, ash, and herbs. The body was then laid on the platform, and while the crowd knelt in the grass and opened their palms to the sky, a golden-eyed man who had been standing beside the girl and the Wish boy recited a prayer in a language Audrey didn't recognize. Someone posted beside each bonfire gathered a flaming torch from each and marched them to the platform. Audrey flinched back when they laid their flames to the wood that was piled up beneath the body.

"It's an open-air pyre," Emandi whispered. "It is Starborn funerary custom to have the body burned so that their essence can return to the Stars."

"Oh." Audrey didn't want to be rude, but the idea made her squirm with discomfort. She dragged her gaze away before the flames reached the body, and looked at the Wish boy instead. He sat with one arm still draped around the girl, their sides pressed tightly together. Whoever they were saying goodbye to clearly must have meant a lot to the girl, who was still crying into the boy's shoulder. Audrey's heart ached for her; she knew that kind of grief well.

After some time, the crowd got to their feet. Before leaving, each person came to the man who had prayed and spoke softly to him, the girl, and the woman at his side. Audrey assumed these three were the deceased's family, and she didn't envy them one bit. The stream of condolences looked a lot like those she had sat through herself when her mother died. That is, until a dour-looking man with graying hair and sallow cheeks stepped forward. First, he spoke to the grieving family. Even without hearing his words, Audrey could tell that this man's heart wasn't in it. He seemed twitchy, distracted, and soon Audrey understood why. The man turned his attention to the Wish boy with a glare sharp enough to cut. With one hand planted firmly on the boy's shoulder, the man steered them both through the crowd and back into the woods. The look on the boy's face was caught somewhere between terror and pure hatred, and something about it set off alarm bells in Audrey's mind.

Without thinking, Audrey got to her feet and followed the pair as they marched deeper into the forest. They didn't stop or speak until the light from the funeral fires had given way to the gloom, and Audrey had to strain in the moonlight just to see what happened next.

"What were you thinking?" the man spat as he roughly wheeled the boy around to face him. "You were told to stay out of sight!"

"I wanted to pay my respects," the boy said. Even though his voice shook, it still felt like a velvet caress to Audrey's ears. He opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off by the back of the man's hand connecting with his face. The blow was heavy enough to send the boy staggering back, but the man grabbed him by his shirt before he could fall and shook him instead. Audrey clasped a hand over her own mouth to smother her shocked gasp. She had never witnessed anything like that before.

"The only respect you should be worried about is the respect you owe to me," the man snarled as he threw the boy down, hard. Without an ounce of mercy, he leveled a kick straight into the boy's side. It landed with a sickening thump that was followed by a grunt as the boy struggled to stay quiet. "How dare you embarrass me in front of the Starborn! How dare you defy me! Who do you think you are, boy?"

As the man pulled his foot back and readied for another kick, Audrey knew she needed to act. Electricity raced beneath her skin as she launched herself out from behind the tree she'd been using for cover. "That's enough!"

Startled, the man whirled around. His brow furrowed as he squinted to see her in the pale moonlight. "Who are you?" he demanded.

Audrey stormed up to him. She could feel energy thrumming just beneath the surface of her palms, begging to be released right into the man's twisted, miserable face.

"Get away from him," she shouted. She was close enough to see a flicker of recognition in the man's gaze. Suddenly his posture softened, and he backed away with his hands up.

"I'm terribly sorry you had to see that, miss," the man said, simpering. "The boy was just—"

"I don't care," Audrey interrupted, relishing in the way he cringed away from her anger. "Leave him alone."

The man's eyes flitted to where the boy still sat on the ground, watching this exchange in wide-eyed disbelief. But when Audrey took another menacing step forward, the man scampered back. "Of course! Please, accept my apologies."

Audrey said nothing. She stood, an immovable mountain, until at last the man retreated back the way he came. Even after the darkness swallowed him, she glared into the space he left behind just in case.

"Who are you?"

The boy's voice brought Audrey back to herself. She shook her body like a bear crawling out of the water, sending what remained of her furious energy scattering like glittering droplets into the night. From where he sat, the boy gaped up at her in awe.

"I'm Audrey," she said, holding a hand out to him. "Are you okay?"

It took a moment for the boy to make a move. When he did, he cautiously took her hand in his and let her help him back up to his feet. "I'll be fine," he said. His unusually radiant green eyes searched hers. "Are you a Starborn?"

"I am." Audrey nodded. "And you're a Wish, right?"

The color drained from the boy's face.

Audrey hurried to reassure him. "It's okay! I'm not... Well, I'm not like that guy, that's for sure." She hitched her thumb in the direction the horrible man had gone. "What's your name?"

The boy considered her for a moment. He was cautious, and Audrey didn't blame him. But finally, his shoulders softened ever so slightly.

"Connor," he said. "My name is Connor Rowan."