Orion raised the spear above his head.

“Orion,” the boy commanded. “Kill her.”

The spear came down, cutting through the air. I threw my hands up, frantic. This was it. This was the end.

And then, the world seemed to slow down. Darkness grew around us. Shadows crept into every corner—and then came alive. Wiggling, writhing, shifting. They wrapped around each other, swirling together. They grew bigger and bigger, then with one final swirl, the shadows transformed into a massive black snake. The snake rose up—and bit down on the spear, saving my life.

For a moment, everything was still.

“So it is true,” the boy said. He ripped the mask off his face, throwing it to the ground. “You are one of the Dark Stars.”

At any other moment I might have been distracted by his newly-revealed handsome features, but I had just learned I could apparently control the shadows so I was a little distracted.

“The Dark Stars?” I said. I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Orion pushed harder on the spear, but the snake would not budge. Orion’s feet dug into the concrete,the concrete cracking around them.

“You’ve been cursed since birth,” the boy said. “Cursed by the stars.”

He looked away from me for a moment, then continued. “As you grow older, you’ll lose the ability for rational thought. Over time, your ability to empathize with people and the world around you will slip away. You’ll forget how to feel. You’ll lose your humanity.” He bit his lip. “You’ll lose your soul.”

“That’s not true,” I whispered.

He continued as if I’d said nothing at all. “And when you’re strong enough, you’ll descend and become one of the greatest monsters the world has ever known,” he said. 

I shook my head—what was he talking about?

“This is a kindness,” he told me. “To live that fate…I can’t imagine anything worse.”

He met my eyes and in them, I found pity. There was a reluctance to him, to what he was doing—if it wasn’t my life he was after, perhaps I could have even understood it.

“You’ve got the wrong person,” I shouted. 

He shook his head. “Only a Dark Star can control shadows,” he said flatly, pointing to the shadow snake in front of me.

“I’ve never done anything like this before today,” I sputtered. I mean come on, I think I’d remember if I’d summoned a magical snake before.

“It doesn’t matter. The fate of a Dark Star—it’s inevitable,” the boy said. His words were so firm that part of me couldn’t help but wonder if he was telling the truth. And at that thought, I felt like the air had been sucked from my lungs.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” the boy continued. Something inside me screamed at this apology from the one who wanted me dead.

“Screw your apology,” I snapped. As I spoke, the shadow snake bit through the boy’s spear. The wood splintered. Wood shards flew everywhere. The broken spear hit the ground in front of me, bounced once, and then slid to a stop. A declaration of war.

The snake snapped at Orion, its fangs dripping with venom. Orion pulled the short sword from his back. The snake reared up, hood flaring, and lunged at Orion. Orion rolled out of the way, a glowing green trail following him. The snake twisted into a loop and slithered rapidly after him. He bit down on Orion’s arm, green blood splattering across the back of the snake and Orion’s linen shirt.

But it was a trap. Orion grabbed the head of the snake and thrust his sword into it. Holding the hilt, he dragged it through the body of the snake, cutting the snake in two. The two halves fell to the ground and the snake faded back into the shadows.

Orion turned his attention back to me. He raised the sword and pointed it right at me. Still stuck to the wall, I struggled to rip my dress free from the boy’s sword—but it was no use. I couldn’t get free.

The sword swung down, rushing towards me—

There came a strange popping feeling and a rush of energy, then a ringing in my ears. I opened my eyes. 

In front of me was a glowing hazel figure. He had shaggy brown hair, the ends of which just barely touched the long robes he wore. He half carried, half had wrapped around himself a long snake with glowing black scales. And he held Orion’s sword with one hand.

I looked at him and I knew his name. He looked at me and he knew me. And just like that, we were bonded for eternity.

“Ophiuchus,” I whispered. At his name, Ophiuchus smiled at me. I can’t quite explain what I felt at his presence. It was like the feeling of coming home after a long trip. Or opening a present on Christmas day. It was warm, bringing a blush to my cheeks.

“A Constellation…that’s impossible,” the boy whispered, staring at Ophiuchus. His face twisted into a glare and the tornado picked up again, then began to close in around us. 

A torn open recliner flew right towards me. I ducked. My eyes met Ophiuchus’ and though I didn’t know how I knew, I knew what I had to do.

I threw my hand out to my side. A tingling feeling started in my palm.

“Let us go now,” I told the boy. “I don’t want to fight you.”

And then the strangest thing happened. In my hand, a small flame began to spin. It grew—first the size of a mandarin, then to the size of a watermelon—and then larger, cutting through the sky. I struggled to aim it. The beam of fire swerved towards the boy as I desperately tried to pull it away from him. I didn’t want to kill him. He dodged—but his eyes tracked the fire, disbelief visible.

It felt like something pulling deep inside me, something I didn’t even know was there. And the fire spread—from my hands to all over my body. All over Ophiuchus, over the alley. Everything consumed with fire. 

The boy was forced back against one brick wall, trapped by my fire. The walls of the buildings around us burned. A few bricks fell beside me. The wall they came from shifted dangerously toward me, but I couldn’t stop the fire. I couldn’t control it. 

I had actually trapped us both.