Page 32 of Fallen Star

Iknow. Massive plot twist for everyone. Myself included.

My bravado fades as Levi passes out. "Secure him," I shout to Dean before running over to my mother, the egg I was born in still clutched in my hand.

I drop to my knees and cradle her in my arms, tears flowing freely down my face. "Mom. Are you okay?"

The night she died flashes through my mind, the blood, the agony of my heart breaking. It's all happening again.

I can't bear it. Can't bear to lose her again. Not like this. Not when she risked her life to save mine.

I don't care that she has done awful things. I know her. I know who she is. I know she was just trying to protect me.

Her eyes open, but they are stained with red lines, and blood trickles out of them instead of tears. "My darling. You finally know the truth," she says in gasps.

"How? How did I end up with you and dad? Why did you never tell me?"

She takes my hand and places it on her forehead, and with a start I fall into a memory.

My mother, looking younger than I remember her, is on a dig. My father is with her, which isn't the norm, but he did sometimes join her for a time between movies. They look like a movie star couple on set, playing the part of archeologists rather than actually doing the work of them. My mother is exploring a crater created by something the locals said fell from the sky the night before.

Early reports called it a meteor shower that unearthed ancient remains, which intrigued the university my mother worked for, and so they sent her to investigate.

But she found something she never expected deep within the caves created by the shower. A shard of something full of power. Of magic she didn't believe in. Her scientific mind struggled to align itself with this new reality. My father, ever more open-minded and whimsical, embraced the idea of it being something from another world. My mother didn't believe it until she heard a noise. Digging through dirt, they found the source.

A baby.

Me.

Glowing white, like a star fallen from the sky. Like the shard in her hand.

They couldn't explain the existence of a magical baby any more than they could explain the magic in the shard, and so my father smuggled me and the piece out of the dig site, and my mother stayed to create a cover story and give instructions for the team to continue without her.

My mother faked a pregnancy and welcomed me into the world officially several months later. My father had connections and was able to get me fake papers to solidify my identity as their daughter. They hid the shard, raised me, and never told a soul the truth. The other pieces were assumed to have split during the descent, scattered across the world.

Through this connection I can feel the love my mother felt for me, and still feels. I was always hers and my father's. No question.

Levi was the one who figured out she had the shard, but never suspected the truth about me. And so, to protect me and my secret, she did his bidding and became his slave. He abused her, and stalked me to show how susceptible I was to his wrath. She had no choice. At least, she didn't believe so.

I pull my hand away from her head and lean into her, holding her close to me. "I wish you'd told me. I wish you'd come to me. I could have helped you."

"I wanted you to live your life, my love. I thought, maybe I could even bring your father back. Make us a family again."

I look at the egg glowing next to me. Dark thoughts fill my mind. The life I lived in the Mirror of Idis. "I still could," I whisper, hating myself for what I'm saying. "With this, I could save you and bring dad back. But…"

I shake my head, and she slowly reaches her arm up and places her hand on my face. "But it would require you to steal from the lives of others. And you cannot do that. That's not who you are. Not who we raised you to be."

Her eyes flicker, and I know the spider venom is killing her too quickly. "Can you drink my blood? Dean's blood? He saved me from near death. Maybe he can save you."

She shakes her head, her eyes struggling to stay open. "I have done too much I regret in this life. You are my one redemption. It's my time. It was my time all those years ago when your father died. I should have died then. Let me be with him now. He's waiting for me. I can almost see him. Just behind the light. His hand is reaching for me. I'm coming, my love. I'm almost there."

And with those final words, her eyes close and her last breath leaves her. My heart breaks as I watch my mother die for a second—and last—time.

Alex Stone

I'm frozen in time, paused in this moment of life and death, of choices that can make or break us.

My eyes seek Dean's, and he comes to me, wrapping his arms around me as I sob into his shoulders. We stay there longer than we should, as I mourn.

I hold the egg, stroking it, feeling the connection to my power. Light pours of it, surrounding my mother's body. At first I fear I am using the power to revive her, killing the innocent to quench my grief, but then I realize that's not the case.