And yet, the boy’s confidence was unshaken. He twisted his hands and the wind picked up, spinning around us again. Great, just what we need; a fire tornado I thought to myself as the flames began to spin. I had underestimated him though, the spinning began to disperse the flames, until they slowly began to go out. 

The boy stood up, confident. “Stop fighting me, you can’t win.” he jeered.

Even if I had wanted to, I couldn’t have stopped what happened next. I threw back my head and cried out as pure power poured from me. My flames turned blue, rushing at the boy who was thrown back by the flames. He slammed into the red brick wall and dropped to the ground, broken bottles cutting into his hands and rotting food under him. He did not move. 

Orion took a defensive position in front of the boy, ready to fight to the death. But Ophiuchus had been empowered by my fire. He locked hands with Orion in a stalemate. They flexed, each trying to overcome the other. But Ophiuchus was never alone—as Orion learned when the shadow snake looped around his body, locking him in place. The snake bit down on Orion’s neck—and he was forced to his knees.

The boy, his arms shaking, got on his hands and knees. He tried to climb to his feet, pushing himself up on the wall, but collapsed. He could not get up any further, so instead he raised his head, chin up. Prideful until the end.

Around me, the fire had burned through the exterior walls of the building around us, and it was spreading further. I struggled to hold back the flames—I had to stop this. But I couldn’t pull it back. Weirdly enough, my other hand also started leaking water. More than just sweat—like a slow, steady drip of water that was entirely useless in this situation. Thanks for nothing, water hand. 

Just as the buildings to either side of us began to groan and crackle from the heat of the fire, a glowing violet Lion emerged from the smoke and soared through the air. It landed between Ophiuchus and Orion, breaking them apart then turned to the boy and me, snarling at us both. I was knocked on my butt—and to my surprise, the fire and useless water stopped.

“That’s quite enough of that, I think,” said a voice from the other side of the smoke.

The flames on the walls blew out, instantly extinguished. I stumbled to my feet and stepped back, utterly exhausted. A hand reached out and touched me—it was Ophiuchus. He gave me a smile and then faded away before my eyes.

Framed in the alley entrance was a man in a dress shirt. His sleeves were rolled up, pushed to his elbows, and his curly hair was a perfected form of bedhead. He sauntered towards us.

“What are you doing here?” the boy coldly questioned the man.

“I’ve come to save you from doing something you’ll regret,” the man said. “This mission wasn’t sanctioned, Castor.”

“That’s impossible,” the boy—no, Castor—said flatly. 

“But it’s true. There’s no official record of it,” the man said. He took a step towards Castor and squeezed his shoulder. Red grew high on Castor’s cheekbones.

“So now you decide what you are, Cas. An Astral or someone’s personal assassin?” the man asked quietly.

Castor stared at the ground, unable to meet the man’s eyes. What did he mean by that? I leaned a little closer—and the man caught my eye. A wide grin took over his face.

“The name’s Leander. This one is Castor,” the man said with a short wave. I took a step back from him, fearful, then grabbed a piece of glass from the ground and pointed it at him.

“Woah, woah, woah,” Leander said. He put his hands up, the universal sign for being non-threatening. Then again, just this morning shadows weren’t threatening, so I kept my distance.

“You have nothing to fear from us. This has all been a misunderstanding,” he said.

“A misunderstanding that nearly got me killed,” I snapped back at him.

“And that’s unacceptable. That’s why I’m here,” he replied. “To save you.”

Well, he had done that. 

“Let’s just talk,” Leander said.

He held up a hand. A ball of fire formed within it.

“You’ve already become aware that there is more to this world than it seems,” he said as the ball of fire spun in his hand.

“Yes. Recently,” I said, trying to sound as if I knew what I was talking about and hadn’t just discovered these powers five minutes ago. 

“Then let me explain. There are the normal humans, and then there are, well..us. There are two types of us,” Leader told me. The glowing purple Lion stopped at his side, yawning.

Across the street, I could see a man drop his watering hose as he stared, slack-jawed, at the Lion.

Leander noticed my gaze and followed it to the man. 

“Oh, don’t worry about that. Who’s he going to tell?” Leander laughed. He seemed very laid back about the whole thing. 

“Now where was I? There are two types of us. Astrals, people like us who can use elemental powers and summon Constellations who fight at our side. And the others. The Dark Stars, who have their own shadow abilities,” he continued.

“But I have both?” I said, unsure. 

“You’re an Astral. You might have some extra bits, but you can summon a Constellation and you have the power of the elements. That makes you an Astral,” Leander said gently. “We Astrals protect humanity from dangers they’re not even aware of. And one of those dangers happen to be those known as Dark Stars. Dark Stars tend to be doomed to a disastrous end. They become monsters, destroying the world around them. And it is our responsibility as Astrals to stop that from happening.”

My eyes flicked over to Castor.

“Is that why he attacked me? Because of my Dark Star bits?” I asked hesitantly.

“You’re not a Dark Star,” Leander said warmly. “But...”

He spoke hesitantly, his words carefully chosen.

“Having shadow powers like you do and with your particular Constellation, you could easily be discriminated against. You’re not like the others”—Leander’s eyes darted to Castor and back to me—“and you’ve seen how some people react to what’s different.”

That I understood. Easily.

“But being an Astral is special. You save the world—from Phantoms, from Dark Stars—and you do it again and again.” Leander held his hand out to me.“Will you embrace being an Astral and join us? Will you help save the world?”

There was sincerity in Leander’s eyes. When someone asks you to save the world, how can you possibly say no?