Now that the moment was really here I didn’t know what to do. I’d thought it over in my head again and again, but my imaginings had always ended just as I knocked on my brother’s door. Yet here I stood ready to cross the threshold of that moment. I slowly climbed the stairs up to Benjamin’s brownstone, focusing on the city sounds of cars and children playing. Any other time I would savored my first experience in New York City. But not this time. This meeting had the potential to change everything for me.
I glanced over my shoulder. Noah and Angie waited at the bottom step. Noah’s eyes locked on mine. “The offer still stands. I can come with you.”
“I know, and I appreciate it, but I still think I have to do this one my own.” I had no idea what Benjamin was going to say or do. Would he blame me for leaving? Would he hate me? Would he even recognize me at all?
I tried to push the worries from my head. I reached up and lifted the knocker. I let it fall against the door.
There was nothing at first, but then I heard the sound of footsteps inside. Moments later the door swung open, and an older man with sparse gray hair stood on the other side. He leaned heavily on a cane. His eyes landed on my face. “Can I help you?”
“Hi. Yes. I’m looking for Benjamin Miller.”
“That is me.” He smiled. “Why are you looking for me?” He blinked a few times then removed his glasses. “I’m sorry. You look familiar. Do I know from somewhere?”
“Oh.” I tried to come up with what to say next. This clearly wasn’t the right Benjamin, although there was something familiar about him. Perhaps we were related. “Did you have a niece, a granddaughter or anyone named Rachel?”
He frowned. “The only Rachel in my family was my sister, and I haven’t seen her since we were children.” He started to close the door. “If you’ll excuse me.”
“Wait.” I stopped the door with my boot. I thought over what Ella had asked. Her weird comments about time. “When did you last see her? Your sister?”
“1944.” His eyes were full of sadness.
And then something clicked. It hit me full force. I knew that year. That sounded right. “What year is it now?”
“2018. Why are you here? Why are you asking me these silly questions?”
My head swam. I struggled to understand. “Do you have a picture? Of Rachel?”
“They are all packed away. It hurts me to think about her.”
“Why?”
“Because I failed her.” He rubbed his eye. “Now if you’ll excuse me. I really need to go.” He closed the door.
I knocked again. I could hear the sound of the lock turning in the door.
“Rachel?” Noah hurried up the stairs. “What’s wrong? Who was that you were talking to?”
“Benjamin.” I sat down on the top step.
“But that was an old man. He had to be like eighty something.” Noah sat beside me.
“I know.” I stood and waited for Noah to do the same before we walked down to the sidewalk where Angie waited for us. “Guys? Do you remember what I figured out before we, uh, left Earth? The house willed in the 1960s… the story that didn’t make sense. Do you think it’s possible? I mean I wasn’t up there, but I got a good enough look at the guy.”
“There is no way you are in your seventies.” Noah looked me over. “That’s impossible.”
“No. She’s not. Obviously. But maybe Andrelexa handles time differently. Maybe time passes slower. Maybe… maybe that is her brother. And remember what Rachel was explaining? Didn’t you say your parents sent you to New Orleans because of a war? I mean 1944 was World War II. And space travel is real. There are aliens. Anything is possible.”
My head spun. I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t think straight. “I can’t just leave now.” I tried to accept all the crazy things I was learning. “If I could find Benjamin someone else will.” I buried my face in my hands. I couldn’t keep up. I couldn’t accept that somehow over seventy years had passed on Earth when I only experienced thirteen.
“He will be safe.” Ella appeared beside us. “But we need to go. Your companions are growing antsy. They may be ejected from North Star by my brother if we don’t return quickly.”
“Ejected?” Noah narrowed his eyes. “What happened to guaranteed safe harbor?”
“We all have our limits.” Ella put a hand on her hips.
“Dale,” Angie and Noah said in unison.
“How can I be sure Benjamin is safe?” I wasn’t ready to leave. After everything I couldn’t leave my only surviving relative in danger.
“We’ll bring him to North Star.” Ella pulled out a tablet and removed the cloaking from her ship. “Don’t worry. He will be fine.”
“What if he doesn’t want to go?” He didn’t even want to talk to me.
“What’s the alternative?” Angie asked. “Let him die? I wish we could move my parents.”
Ella looked down.
“What?” Angie frowned. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“They are safe too.”
“You moved our parents?” Noah’s eyes bulged.
“I told you I can sense anyone close to you. It was necessary to ensure their safety.”
“Where are they?”
“The same place where Benjamin will go. They won’t even know they are there…”
“Explain. Please.” Angie pursed her lips.
“Not now. Once we get back.” Ella looked all around her.
Noah took my hand. “And here I thought I was robbing the cradle. Instead I’m with a cougar.”
“What?” I had no idea what either phrase meant, although I knew a cradle had to refer to a baby.
“It’s a joke. You were born way before me.”
“But we’re almost the same age in actuality.” I didn’t really get why the time that passed was different, but I knew it had only been thirteen years for me.
“I know. It’s crazy, but not the craziest thing I’ve seen yet.” He brushed his lips against mine. He did that a lot, and I would have been fine if he did it even more.
“We have to go.” Ella shooed us toward the waiting craft.
We boarded, all strapping into our seats. I took the same seat again, right beside Noah. Angie was on his other side.
Ella started the ship. Amsi beeped from her spot in front of the console. We’d left her on the ship. Seeing how things went down with my brother, it had been a wise decision.
“That’s it. It all makes sense.” Ella turned around her seat so she was looking at us rather than the console. I was glad Amsi was locked into the system. At least someone was paying attention.
“What does?” Angie asked.
“Why Rachel was taken. I don’t know how I didn’t see this before.” Ella pulled her legs up under her. “It is so obvious.”
“What’s so obvious?” If it was obvious I would have known.
“The Andrelexa have technology like none other. Your father figure, Telton was it? He found you. He knew you were a starmate and assumed you were the other half to Caspian. But he was wrong. He was completely wrong, but in his mistake he made it possible to meet your true starmate!” She bounced in her seat. “So obvious!”
“Uh, I’m not following.” Every time the whole starmate thing came up I got more confused.
“The reason there has been no starmates for so long is that two halves of two different pairs were being forced together. Caspian is a feeler. He sensed what you were but couldn’t see you weren’t his. All we need to do is find his true starmate and all will be right again. The time clock will once again hit equilibrium, and everything will be fine. It’s so simple.”
Amsi beeped. We were getting ready to land.
“Simple? So you know where to find this starmate of his?” Angie adjusted the straps on her seat belt.
“No. But Noah should be able to help. He’s a feeler too. One set of a pair always is,” Ella explained.
Amsi beeped. “Landing complete. Locked.”
“What’s the other side?” I unbuckled.
“A feeder.”
“Uh...” A feeder sounded way less appealing than a feeler.
“It means you feed emotions to others. We really don’t have time for this.” Ella opened the access door and stepped off.
I waited for Noah and Angie, and we followed her off. Amsi marched behind us.
“Okay. So if we need a feeler to find her, what does Noah have to do?” I wasn’t quite sure what the equilibrium was. But I understood it needed to be dealt with.
“He has to look.” She led the way inside the aquarium. I looked out at the water. It appeared darker now. Murky. Maybe I was only imagining the change.
“Can’t Caspian help too?” It was his starmate after all.
“Well, he can if you can point me in the right direction to find him. I can’t find him since he does not connect to either of you.”
“Wait, isn’t he here?” Etan had only brought Angie to us before we left. He said the others would be waiting for us when we got back.
“No. If he was we wouldn’t need Noah to find the fourth starmate.”
“Oh. I guess I didn’t tell you.” Angie looked down at her boots “Caspian turned himself over.”
“Turned himself over to who?” I gasped. Caspian didn’t give up. It made no sense.
“You mean to whom?” Etan corrected.
“Does that really matter?” Ella snapped.
“The Lexas I think,” Angie explained. “I wasn’t there for that part. But it had something to do with Dale being bait and Caspian trying to protect you.”
“Dale being bait?” Noah laughed dryly. “For real?”
“Why would he do that? Why would Caspian do something that crazy?” I already understood that I didn’t know Caspian as well as I thought but still. If he was siding with his father he would have taken Telton prisoner. But from what Angie was making it sound he’d gone alone.
“To protect you.” Angie shrugged. “At least that’s what Kelby says.”
“No matter his reasons you need to retrieve him and find his starmate.” Ella led the way back through the castle. “If he dies, the balance may never return.”
“And I thought saving Earth was going to be hard enough.” Noah took my hand.
“That’s only the beginning,” Ella called over her shoulder.
“Hey, at least we’re together.” Noah stepped closer to my side as we walked out onto ‘the porch’.
“We are.” I squeezed his hand
“We are.” Kelby walked toward us from the corner of the patio. His eyes zeroed in on Angie. “Glad you are okay.”
She flipped her hair off her shoulder. “Because you know I’m…useful.”
“That. And because I like having you around.” He grinned.
“Uh. What am I missing here?” Noah looked between them.
“Nothing as crazy as starmates.” Angie rolled her eyes. “You have more explaining to do than I do.”
“Starmates?” Kelby grunted. “Can this web get any more tangled?”
“Oh yes. Oh yes, it can,” Ella said with far too much cheer for the words she was delivering.
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.” Noah led me away from the others and around the corner to a private area overlooking the ridges of coral. A school of pastel yellow fish swam by as the sun set above, adding a pinkish tint to the water.
“Pretend all you want, but it’s true,” Ella sang after us.
“Give us a minute. Then we’ll be ready for some starmate hunting.” Noah put his arm around my waist.
I rested my hand on his chest. “I’m not sure what a starmate is, but I’m glad you’re mine.”
“Right back at you.” He leaned in, and I lost myself completely in his kiss.