time. Me and my brothers, we’re in a war back home. Shit is happening and I can’t leave them to deal with it alone.”
“Right. But you don’t have any superpowers. At least that’s what you said. So… does it matter if you go back if you can’t do anything about it?”
I think about this. Not because I’m actually thinking about staying here to wait for ALCOR. But because I’m genuinely considering the idea that I don’t matter. “I don’t think they’ll know what to do without me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Luck won’t know what to do with Nyleena. Serpint won’t know what to do with Lyra. Valor won’t know what to do with Veila. And hell, I don’t even really know what to do with Delphi, Tyco, and Corla, so I’m pretty positive that Jimmy won’t be able to figure it out either.”
“I thought you were supposed to blow them up?”
“Yeah. I am. And they know that. But they won’t be able to do that, right? They’re never going to blow up their soulmates.”
“But you will.”
“No. I won’t.”
“No, I mean—you could. If you had to. Because you don’t have a soulmate.”
I just stare into her sparkling silver eyes. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Was that his plan all along? Is this why I got ripped off in the soulmate department? If ALCOR predetermined me to be alone just so I would blow them all up in the end… well, he’s a fucking dick.”
Alera holds up a finger. “Hold on. I might have a bright side.”
And when she says this, she literally brightens. “Stars,” I say. I don’t even know where it comes from. The word just pops out.
“What?”
“Stars. Back in that other time, with that other princess, she said the breeding program was to make stars.”
Alera blinks at me. “Huh?”
“You reminded me of that for some reason. Because you brightened.”
She looks down at herself. Then breaths heavy. “I feel like there are a million things spinning through my head right now. Little… threads of truth. Or something.”
“Like there’s a great big mystery out there,” I pick up where she stopped. “An invisible, hidden mystery.”
“And all you have to do—” she continues. “—is tug on one of those threads.”
“And it will all… unravel.”
We both smile. Then laugh.
Then she realizes she’s still holding up that one finger. “The bright side. Wanna hear it?”
I nod. Because I really do.
“If you don’t have a soulmate then you don’t need a soulmate.”
I shrug. “So?”
“Meaning… you don’t need a soulmate to find your fucking superpower!”
Now it’s my turn to blink at her.
“And that means all you have to do is fuck someone to figure it out.”
I chuckle. “Alera. I’m no stranger to fucking, OK? I have fucked plenty of women. None of them ever unleashed a superpower.”
“Sun-fucked stars. It’s not about them, dummy. It’s about you.”
“Listen,” I grin. “If you wanna have sex with me—”
“What?”
“I hear what you’re saying, Alera. And I get it. I’m a fucking catch from the future.”
She giggles. And you know what? I like that giggle. A lot. “Are you now?”
“Yup. I am. So you don’t need to talk me into sexy times using my superpower as bait.”
“Is that what I was doing?”
I nod. “I’m totally on board.”
“You are?”
I laugh. “I am. But.”
“Shit. There’s a but?”
“There’s always a but, princess. But… if I’m gonna go looking for this superpower, I need… I dunno. A general direction to look. If that makes sense. Because I have a feeling, Alera.” And now I stop smiling. “I have a very strong feeling that we only get to do this once.”
Her smile falls too. “Yeah,” she sighs. “That’s pretty much the story of my life. Something good comes along, but it’s always temporary.”
I can relate.
“How about this for a direction,” she says. “You’re like… you’re like the center, Crux.” She squints her eyes. “Hmm. Your name literally means cross.”
“Yup. Like star crossed.”
“Or like uncrossed.”
I point at her. “I like the way you think.”
“My brain is super sexy.” She waves a hand in the air. “Or crux could mean cross, as in X. As in… X marks the spot.”
“Like a target?”
She points at me now. “That’s it! You’re the target.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Sure it does. You’re the… location. Holy shit,” she laughs. “That totally makes sense.”
“No. It literally doesn’t.”
“You’re the location in time, don’t you get it?”
And this… makes me stop. Because… is that it? Am I the location in time? “Holy. Fucking Shit. I am the location. Inside the spin node you need a destination place and a