Starheart Nova's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The world rushed past Nova in streaks of white and gold. She couldn't tell if she was flying or falling. The sky spun above her. The ground rushed up, lit by the strange fire pouring off her body. Then it stopped. She hit sand hard and the light snapped out. For a long time she lay still. Her arms ached. Her jacket smoked. The sand around her had cracked into a bowl, its edges scorched black, thin veins of leftover light still glowing faint in the dark. She had carved this hollow herself, falling out of the sky. Nova pushed up to her knees. The crew. Adam. The names hit her all at once. He'd laughed with her two nights ago. Now he was in a cell or worse, and she was alone in a burned pit in the middle of nowhere. A sob tore out of her. She let it come. She pressed her forehead to the hot sand and shook. Her hand found the charm clipped to her jacket. The little toy she'd made as a child, star on its chest. She squeezed it until the edges cut her palm. "I couldn't save them," she whispered. "I couldn't save any of them." The grief wanted to pull her under. She felt the heat answer it, rising again behind her ribs. If she stayed here and wept, she would burn this place too. She shut her eyes and forced her breathing slow. In. Out. The light under the sand dimmed. The heat sank back down. Barely. She stood. No money. No safe place. Police hunting whatever did this. She had one choice. Stay broken, or move. A voice came from the dark edge of the hollow. "You're the one that fell." Nova spun, heat flaring to her fingers. A man stood at the rim. Young, lean, a worn jacket, a small notebook in one hand. He didn't step back from her glowing hands. He just watched. "Stay away," she said. "I live past the dunes," he said. "I saw the sky." He looked at the cracked ground, then at her. "Twenty minutes it burned. Same as the thing I've been watching." "Who are you?" "Elias." He didn't offer more. Nova wiped her face. Her options were gone. She could not walk back to the garage; cops would be waiting there. She could not stay. "You got water," she said. It wasn't a question. Elias studied her for a moment. Then he nodded toward the dunes. "This way." She looked back once at the hollow she'd made, at the scar in the earth shaped like her fall. Then she climbed out and followed him into the dark. She chose to live. She chose to keep the fire down and find a way forward, even if she didn't know where it led.