Stellar

Chapter Thirteen: The Son of the Sun

 Syrus sat curled up on the couch, feeling nothing but the shivers running up and down his form. He hadn't been able to sleep because of them. The shivers just wouldn't go away; not since last night.

He remembered tracking Lucine and Astro to the field, spying for the fun of it. Because neither could find out the other was Stellar. If they did, they'd form an alliance, and Lucine would know who Syrus really was. What he was doing. And that would complicate things.

He hadn't been surprised at Lucine's flying abilities; Halley could do the same thing. Before Astro could see her, though, Syrus lit a flower beside his feet. He watched Lucine fall from the ground and smirked as the fear ran rampant across Astro's face.

They left. He stayed. And when the old woman came out to find her trespassers, all Syrus had to do was place a hand on her shoulder. The life essence flowed right out of her.

But it hadn't stopped. With the others, he could tear his hand off of them, having stolen a few weeks worth of their souls. No harm done but a light nap for his victims. But this woman...

He hadn't been able to let go. He felt the life essence flood out of her, watched the light leave her eyes, heard her heartbeat sputter and stop.

That was when the shivers started. Unlike the woman's heartbeat, they hadn't stopped.

"Syrus?" came the familiar voice, seemingly miles away. Beside him, a mousy, girlish form settled down on the cushions. Halley placed a hand on his knee. "I brought you some hot cocoa."

She held the mug up to his nose. He took it wordlessly. Another shiver spilled the cocoa right onto his lap. Its heat seared into his skin. He didn't feel the pain.

"I killed her," Syrus murmured, and though Halley was there listening, he felt as though he were talking into a void, all alone in the world with no one to hear him. "I never wanted to kill anyone. I just wanted to borrow some essence to heal him. No one was supposed to die."

Her thumb rubbed small circles on his knee. He didn't feel her touch. "It's not your fault. Your powers just got out of control."

The woman's blank face flashed across his vision, haunting him. Anger sparked in his gut with a sudden vengeance. "But they didn't! My powers never get out of control. It's something else."

Syrus glared down at his phone. It sat right where he had tossed it on the coffee table in front of him, empty of any texts or missed calls. Before the incident, he had only been concerned with trying to call his 'almighty' father--or whatever a Stellar called the galactic body they were descended from. He had been calling for days now, and was always sent to voicemail. The Sun was ignoring him.

Probably because Syrus was never supposed to be a Stellar in the first place. He was an accidental Stellar, a mistake. The Sun had never meant to have a descendant. Syrus was a stain to him--a stain he had found a use for, but a stain nonetheless.

Syrus needed answers--he had needed them ever since that Flare had come at Lucine, guns ablazing. The Sun wanted Lucine dead, of course--she was the only threat to the Sun's claim on Earth, the only Stellar with the potential to have as much power as Syrus did. But if Lucine was killed, Syrus would be in deep trouble. He needed her alive.

At least, until her life essence was at its maximum strength. Then she could die.

She was supposed to be the only casualty, though. The only sacrifice he'd have to make. And now a woman sat dead amidst a garden she had grown, her unseeing eyes staring back into the stars.

Halley's hand disappeared from his knee to snatch the television remote. The television blinked on a moment later. Halley looked between him and the screen as though hoping all his worries would suddenly be forgotten.