Page 20 of The Stars

“Son, we’ve talked about this. Brea sent her here, to her future,” Joe said a little firmly.

Amy nodded and gave the boy all of her attention. “Believe it or not, I just left your parents less than an hour ago. Your mother was still this big.” She held out her hand to show the kids how large Liz had been. “Carrying the three of you.” She glanced at her brother. “Of course, none of us knew at the time that there were three of you.”

Joe shrugged. “We wanted it to be a surprise.”

For the next hour, Amy spent time with the kids. Luna and Stella stuck close together, talking animatedly about the games they played, the books they read, and how they helped around the underground compound. Orion, however, remained more reserved, his eyes flicking between his sisters and Amy, though he eventually warmed up to her, showing her the small, carved wooden animals he’d made.

The presence of the children, their innocence, was a reminder of the devastation that had torn their world apart. Amy laughed with them, momentarily forgetting the horrors Joe had hinted at, until finally, the questions she’d been avoiding weighed too heavily on her mind.

She looked at Joe, who had been sitting quietly, watching them. “Can we talk? I need to know what happened.”

Joe’s face tightened. He glanced at the kids, and with a simple request, he sent them out of the room. “Go see if Brea needs help with dinner,” he said gently. Luna and Stella obeyed without question, though Orion remained for a moment, his gaze lingering on his father before he finally left, closing the door behind him.

The room fell into a tense silence. Amy leaned back, her pulse quickening as Joe stood up, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck, as if trying to figure out where to begin.

“It all started after the kids were born,” he began, his voice raw with emotion. “About a month after their birth, October tenth, everything went to hell.” His eyes darkened as he continued. “Moros—one of the primordial gods—led the attack. He wasn’t alone. He gathered other gods, demi-gods, and forces we didn’t even know existed. Including Thanatos. The two of them led an army. They came with fury, with destruction.”

Amy swallowed hard, trying to process his words. Gods? Demi-gods? It sounded like something out of a nightmare, yet here they were, living it. She could see the pain etched in her brother’s face as he spoke, his hands balling into fists at his sides.

“We fought back,” Joe said, his jaw tightening. “All of us—me, Michael, Jess, Brea—we did everything we could to protect our world. It was decided that Xtina and Liz would bring all the kids here—Xtina and Michael’s daughter, Harper; Brea and Ethan’s son, Milo; Jacob and Jess’s son Reed; and as many of the townspeople who would follow them while we fought them off. But then they shattered the moon. When it broke, the pieces rained down on the planet, causing earthquakes, tidal waves, and fires. The whole world went into chaos. Countries believed others had attacked and shot off nukes in retaliation. Half the population was killed by the other half. Only small pockets of people survived those first few weeks.”

Amy’s heart sank, her mind flashing to the empty streets, the hollow world she’d walked through on her way to find them. “That’s why everything’s so... quiet?”

Joe nodded, his eyes distant. “Everything changed after that. There are pockets of survivors, people who’ve banded together, but most are gone now, disbursed after years of starvation or fighting amongst themselves. More than half of the planet is dead. More than half.” He rested his head in his hands.

Amy felt a wave of nausea rise in her throat, her hands shaking slightly as she gripped the edge of the small table. She thought of all the people that she used to know, the families, friends... gone. “And Liz?”

Joe’s expression faltered for the first time, his eyes clouding over with grief. “Liz... she didn’t make it through the first battle. She died protecting the kids when they came for them.” Joe’s gaze moved to the door. “If Xtina hadn’t been there…” He shook his head. “She’s the only reason all of the kids are alive.”

The air in the room felt thick and oppressive. Amy’s chest tightened as the tears welled up in her eyes, threatening to spill over. She bit her lip, trying to keep herself composed.

“But they survived,” Joe continued, his voice barely above a whisper. “Luna, Stella, Orion... they’re the last part of her. They survived.”

Amy wiped at her eyes, nodding, though her heart ached. She had so many other questions, so much she wanted to understand, but the weight of Joe’s story—of everything that had happened—was too much to process all at once. She could tell he was tired. Knew that just retelling how he’d lost everything weighed heavy on him.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had powers sooner?” she whispered. “What your group of friends could do?”

Joe looked away, his jaw tight. “I wanted to, but the others felt that we couldn’t risk it. Not until now. Not until...” He paused, his voice trailing off as if he were about to say something he wasn’t ready to.

Amy stood up, crossing the room to stand beside her brother. “Until what?”

Joe exhaled deeply, meeting her eyes with a mixture of guilt and determination. “Until we knew what you were capable of.”

“What I’m capable of?” She shook her head, not understanding his meaning.

“Brea has seen it all. She’s gone further into the future, hundreds of years beyond this. She has traveled to different timelines where this didn’t happen. Where they used different methods to destroy things or where they never attacked.” He motioned to the room. “Each of those times, you’re the first key to unlocking what lets us win, you and Dante. That’s why…” He shook his head and closed his eyes. “I can’t tell you anything more. I’m not…” He sighed and rolled his shoulders, a move she remembered her brother making so many times before. “Before the sun rises, you’ll leave us again.” His eyes locked with hers. “This time, you will go because of your powers.”

She frowned.

“Did you ever wonder why I never left Hidden Creek?” he asked suddenly. The change of subject threw her off.

“N-no.”

Her brother smiled slightly for the first time. Then to her utter shock, he flew across the room so fast that his body was nothing but a streak of colors. Before she had a chance to blink, he was back, sitting in the chair across from her with a soda can in his hand, sipping the drink.

She had believed she’d imagined him moving so fast that night she’d left. Imagined that everything she and Dante had witnessed had been faked somehow.

“Oh, my bad, did you want one too?” he said and—zip!—a soda can appeared on the table in front of her.