Page 13 of Starlight Mates

He doesn’t answer me, only changing the subject instead. “Do you want to go shopping after class today? You don’t have any clothes or things. You didn’t bring anything with you except for that bag, and we found your Nex dagger. Who gave you it? It’s blessed, so it means you had?—”

“I’m not answering any questions today.” Or ever. I don’t add that, though. “Can I have them back?”

He frowns, rubbing the back of his neck. “I left the bag in your room this morning. It’s been checked through by Finn, and there’s nothing much in there, but it’s yours. Your Nex weapon is with Alek…and he will give it back to you in his lesson. I will take you shopping in the meantime.”

“I don’t have any money on me,” I counter, relieved I have the bag back. It’s something at least.

He shrugs. “I’d happily buy you anything you need without so much as blinking. Fuck, you can just have my card, and I’ll be your bag-carrying shadow. But I’m getting to know you now, and I had the feeling you wouldn’t accept that from me. You’ll be working with me on Tuesday and Thursday this week in the animal shelter after class. You earn money there, and I sweet-talked the owner into giving you a month in advance. It’s your money that way.”

I don’t know what to say. He really has thought of everything, so I can’t disagree. It would be nice to have my own things. “I will get you a phone though with my money though, and that’s not something I’m willing to budge on. I want to be able to communicate with you if you need anything. The others…well, I don’t care what they do or don’t. I’m going to be your friend. I’ll be your anything, Gwen.”

I have to ask it again, even when my mouth is dry and my heart is racing like a drum. “Why are you being nice to me? Irejected you, our bond, and ran away. I’m not a good person, Rhodes. I don’t know what you’re seeing in me, but I’m not worth it.”

He touches my cheek with his fingertips, just for a second, but it feels like forever. Frighteningly, I realise I don’t want him to lower his hand. “I know you’re lying, Gwen. I know you’re hiding something big and that you are worth waiting for. I knew from the second I saw you again, you are worth everything. Push me away all you like. I’m going to be waiting until the day you trust me and tell me all the terrible things you think make you not worth it and I tell you I still want you, regardless.”

My heart races as he walks away. Gods, he’s dangerous for me. What’s more dangerous is my monster watching out of my one eye, and I can tell she really likes him too.

Chapter

Eight

Tutor Jettie’s classroom reminds me of a planetarium I went to once when I was a kid. It’s got a huge domed roof, but instead of playing a film about the planet on a screen, and a lesson in how we can save it, this is a stunning roof of stars and constellations that I’ve never seen before. It’s all made of black tiles with dozens of silver and gold metal stars randomly dotted around. In the centre is a version of the sun, a big shining yellow ball of fire that is real, because I can feel how warm it is from down here.

Our raised seats surround a stage in the middle. I slide into a seat next to Annie as we keep looking around at the room, which is full of too many posters, paintings, drawings and other artworks on shelves on every wall. My favourite is the ceiling by far, silver and gold stars twinkling against the light of the burning sun in the middle. Only when we’re all in our seat does Tutor Jettie come in and stand on the stage in the same suit she wore this morning. Not everyone can make orange work, but she does.

“Welcome to Nexus History class, new rangers. My classes are not ones that challenge your body or Nexus like the others, but I will work on your mind. You will be informed of secretsthe general public of Nexus do not know. What you learn today is for your ears only. You do not tell your family, you do not tell your children, and you don’t tell anybody the secrets the rangers know about our people. The book will know and mark you if you speak of the secrets you learn. You will find yourself not wishing to speak about it even if you do.”

Annie raises her eyebrows, and I smirk at her. Nexus magic is weird, and we both know it. “We’re going to start with the very basics today, but I’ll have secrets woven throughout all of the stories that I tell you. All the histories of the Nexus and the Vian are open to you, and I encourage you to spend time asking questions, being inquisitive, and reading. You are to learn; you are to adapt and understand where we came from. Peace is just as important as war. You will learn where the first wars happened, why the Vian want to kill us so much, and why we want to kill them right back. Your job is to keep people alive. You are to keep the Nexus alive for future generations. There is a saying for Nexus rangers, one only spoken in whispers to each other… No range of distance comes between protecting our kind and the hand of a ranger. Remember it.”

She waves her hand up in the air. “Above you is the biggest star in our galaxy—the sun. Essentially, that is where we came from. The first Nexus was born out of the sun, travelled as nothing but starlight for thousands of years before finding Earth and humans. It blended itself with the human soul, making the first Nexus being. The first wolf.” She looks around the room, her gaze falling on a guy in the front. “Tell me, what do you know of this? You should have been told these stories at least.”

The guy clears his throat, his dreadlocks bouncing over his shoulders and around his dark skin. “The first Nexus being was really powerful, but he couldn’t live long. He shifted into every animal on earth that he saw. He made cities and new runes. He created a safe haven until it became too much. The first Nexusspent his time with his wife, who fell pregnant in the short few months that he was still alive. Five quintuplets were born, all boys, eight months after the first Nexus’ death. They were the first of our kind, and they are our Gods. The twin Wolf Gods, the Bear God, the Snake God and the Mortal God.”

“Brilliant.” She looks around the room and focuses on another guy, who pales at the attention. “What do you know after this?”

“The five babies all became powerful rulers of Starlight, this city built here that their father began, and they were worshipped by any human who came to visit the city and pleaded to live here. The five rulers put their names together to make the nameNexusfor our race, for the being within our soul that is attached to us, and for all generations to remember where they came from. They make who we are. Each one shifted pretty early on in their childhood, and they eventually went on to have their own children who shifted into their Nexus forms, and so on.”

“Very good.” She claps her hands once. “What the stories will not tell you is the first five Nexus had endless power. Not one or two. Endless.” She pauses to let that sink in. “Power that they called starlight. Even back then, they understood that we have starlight running in our veins, attached to our very souls. We are starlight, that’s what a Nexus is. It is pure, unfiltered starlight. Some may say we are stars ourselves, walking around the world, travelling this earth as guests next to the humans. If we are stars, then what does that make the Vian?”

Annie puts her hand up, and Tutor Jettie nods to her. “They’re the opposite to us. They are darkness. A void that drains and pulls in everything. Almost like a black star, my dad once said.”

“Correct. We call them the dark to our light. We do not know their origins or where they came from. They appeared after there had been several generations of Nexus already living, and theysoon drained one, marking themselves as our enemy forever. We are both guests on this amazing planet, but we strive for peace, and they will forever strive for destruction. They are not like us. They have no emotions, no guilt or pity. They kill and take and live forever on the payment of our Nexus’ souls.” I gulp. “Our history is bloody. I will not say it is an easy time to be a Nexus ranger, but you are needed in this fight. We may be made of starlight, but our hands are soaked in blood, and our ancestors’ are too. We kill to survive, and when you make your first kill, the first time you take a life, you will know in your soul it was for the greater good. Many wars written into human history were wars between the Vian that the humans sided with. Some humans worked with us to try to save the world in the wars. It all toppled down to the great war that happened in the early nineteen hundreds. Now, the Vian are in minimal numbers, whereas our community is thriving. Light shines brighter. Always. With your help, their genocide is finally in view.”

Not always. I’m living proof of that. Annie leans into me. “You’ve gone pale. Are you okay?”

I nod, but I have to calm my hands down on the bench and hope Annie doesn’t stare at the side of my face for much longer.

“All that stands between the extinction of our race is you. Rangers. We train our rangers to be the very best. The pillars of who protect our society. Your first lesson today is a rather simple one. I want you to go outside into the sky tonight and choose a star. Take a picture of it on your phone, find out what its name is on the Starlight database. Find out why you feel connected to it and write an essay to read in our next lesson. I expect you to take your time and to take this seriously. Find a star that calls to you. Use your Nexus, let it choose, let it spread out to the sky. Our eyesight is different to humans, and we see stars that they never will. Find something extraordinary, and I look forward to hearing your tales. I’m sure you’re all exhausted after your firstlesson, and I’m giving you the afternoon off. Now go and rest. Eat. Prepare for tomorrow’s lesson as Tutor Aleksander is not known for kindness as I am.”

She walks out, and no one moves for a second, and I get the impression we are all waiting for Hollis’s blaring alarm or some other kind of joke. Eventually, everyone gets up and chatter fills the silence.

Annie looks pleased. “I know the perfect star. I see it nearly every time I go out and look at the sky. Even Kosma, my mate, sees it, and he loves it too. What about you?”

I soften my voice. “I don’t let myself look at stars very often. I find them…strange.” I can’t tell her the sad truth about how I like the stars. They are the only time I let myself back at Harry’s home to think about my mates. To imagine what they’d look like and to try to feel our bond.

She knocks my shoulder with hers. “Same. I end up staring for hours, and my Nexus sometimes makes me shift so she can look at them.”

I still don’t know what her Nexus is. “What do you shift into?”

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