Chapter Text
Omega seemed determined to stick close to Tech’s side over the next few days, and he did not complain as overseeing her recovery was among his top priorities. He was perturbed to find that her progress on her studies had been severely lacking in his absence. He had learned during their previous stay here that children on Pabu were largely educated at home. No formal school system existed as it did on many other planets. And his brothers had not done very much, in his opinion, in pursuit of her education.
“Well, for the first five months after you died, I was kidnapped,” Omega said with a roll of her eyes. “So there’s that.”
“Keeping her out of the Empire’s hands was more important than stuffing her head with facts,” Crosshair added.
“Be that as it may, you have ample opportunity now to continue your studies,” Tech said. “Particularly while your mobility is limited during your recovery. I will devise lesson plans for you.”
Omega looked anything but thrilled as she replied, “Oh great. Thanks.”
A rainstorm swept over Pabu on Tech’s seventh day there. It brought with it a drop in temperature that made Omega’s insistence on always wearing gloves and long-sleeved shirts more understandable. Though Tech worried that she might now grow even colder. The storm also meant that everyone stayed home. The previous day, Tech and Omega remained home alone together while Crosshair and Wrecker went to do work at the docks and Hunter joined a building project elsewhere on the island. Because they had jobs. Actual jobs for which they received payment. Like civilians. From what Tech gathered, they normally had a schedule worked out in which two of them would be gone on a given day while the third remained home with Omega. Although Omega often went out on her own too, as most of Pabu’s children were apt to do. The island was considered a safe place for children to roam. Tech wondered if it had taken Hunter a while to allow that. He wasn’t sure he was thrilled with the prospect himself considering Omega’s multiple kidnappings and her tendency to find trouble.
But Tech was here now. He wasn’t sure what all he would do with his time as a civilian, but he was willing to devote a large part of it to providing Omega company and tutelage on a daily basis. The day it rained, however, Omega sat them all down around the table and produced a deck of cards to play Balaans. She and Tech won an equal number of games and no one else managed to win any.
“At least she’s not hustling Imperials for money this time,” Crosshair grumbled. Tech was not sure what this was in reference to, but he believed it.
They played for bragging rights instead of credits. And though Wrecker complained loudly about his repeated losses, Tech got the distinct impression his family was happy as they sat and did nothing more involved than play a simple game together. They laughed often. Even Crosshair gave a closed-mouth chuckle now and again.
Wrecker decided that they should celebrate the fact that Omega drank her last required medicinal drink at breakfast with a big meal at lunch. He and Hunter prepared a soup—of all things—with chunks of flaky fish, diced vegetables, broth, and a side of pillowy bread warmed in the cooker. It was hard to feel that anything was wrong in the galaxy with a belly full of warm, fresh food, a sturdy place to ride out the storm, and siblings nearby who were all safe and content.
“Have your patterns shrunk anymore today?” Omega asked Tech that evening. “Have you found anything new in your research?”
She asked about this everyday, always with a tone of barely concealed nervousness. He did his best to quiet her concern. While he had been digging into whatever resources he could find about Dathomir, he had not had much success finding details about how dark Force spells worked. He was thus obliged to come to his own conclusions, and he was truly beginning to believe that the skin patterns may have been a temporary after-effect of the magic and nothing more. He felt entirely healthy. He did not get the sense—nor did he have any proof—that anything particular would happen to him once the marks faded. “They have mostly left my limbs,” he said. “They remain only on my chest and torso. And as ever, they are not causing me any discomfort.”
Despite his assurances, Omega looked a little more disquieted with his report each day. Perhaps only time would provide her with the evidence she needed to put her fears to rest.
The following day, the weather was clear, if still a bit chilly. Omega’s leg had healed to the point where she no longer needed the crutch to limp slowly along. After days stuck in the house, she convinced Tech to take a brief foray with her outside. The speeder bike was currently in use by Hunter, and the beach was too far a distance for her to walk. But she insisted she could make it to a park not far away on lower Pabu just fine. She, Tech, and Batcher left the empty house behind and headed outside. Tech provided an arm for her to lean on and was reminded again of how much she’d grown. She was just a few inches shy of his shoulder now. He didn’t know why that fact squeezed something in his chest.
Batcher, to her credit, matched Omega’s slow pace and didn’t leave her side. They gradually made their way down the lane and to the main road. They worked their way downward, passing three more streets, before coming to a green grove of palm and fruit trees. A few people were already lounging in its shade.
“Omega!” Lyana sat on a blanket in the grass a short way inside the park grounds. She waved. Tech could see Shep further off conversing with a human couple.
Omega waved back. She freed herself from Tech and took a few tentative steps on her own. He remained close behind her, eyes on her feet. When she reached Lyana, her friend stood up, and together she and Tech took Omega’s arms and lowered her down to the blanket.
“How are you doing?” Lyana asked as she sat back down beside her. “Does it still hurt?
“Some, but it’s getting better.”
Batcher nudged Tech’s hand. He saw that she had a round piece of fallen fruit in her mouth. He stared at her. What, was she asking his permission if she could eat it?
“She wants you to throw it,” Omega said.
Tech raised an eyebrow. “For what purpose?”
Omega laughed. “To play! Just take it from her and throw it. She’s used to Wrecker doing it.”
Tech tentatively reached for the fruit in the hound’s mouth. She resisted when he tried to pull it out for a few seconds before relenting and dropping the slobbery blob into his hand. He grimaced. He reached his arm back and lobbed the fruit precisely between two trees. Batcher took off after it. She retrieved it promptly, and, tiny tail wagging, trotted back over and held it out to him again.
“How many times am I to repeat this?” he asked.
Omega grinned. “Until she gets bored.”
Tech threw the fruit five more times, wiping his hand on his shirt in between each throw, before Batcher suddenly took off barking after a troop of moon-yos that came too close to the ground. He was relieved when he could leave her to it and let Omega and her friend chat while he leaned back against a boulder with his datapad. The fresh air would do Omega good. He’d read about the importance of changing the environment when possible for a child recovering from injury. Children who spent too much time cooped up indoors during such times healed 23% slower on average.
He had just begun going through Omega’s latest lesson plan on his datapad when he became aware of a presence at his side. A little Iktotchi girl stood right beside him, gazing up at him with big blue eyes. Tech recognized her. She was one of the children who came to visit Omega in the clinic. Hunter said she was one of three on the island who had been rescued from Hemlock’s vault on Mt. Tantiss. One of the children who was evidently Force-sensitive.
“Ah… Hello,” he said, a tad unnerved by her unabashed stare.
She blinked at him. Then her eyes trailed down his body to his feet. She followed something along the ground with her gaze as though watching an insect crawl off of him and through the grass. Her head kept moving slowly until her eyes landed on Omega. She stared at her for a long moment. Tech glanced between them. He examined the ground. He didn’t see anything moving there that she might have been following. She looked back at him with an expression of outright fear on her face.
Tech was at a loss what to say. What had startled her?
Just then, Omega’s comm went off. She dug it out of her pocket. “Havoc Five here.”
“Hey, kid. You really need a new greeting that’s not your call sign.”
Tech’s focus on anything else fell away. Phee’s voice.
Lyana leaned toward the comm. “Hi Auntie Phee!”
“It’s both my girls, is it? Well, I wanted to let you know I’ve landed on Pabu. I just put my latest treasure in the Archium if either of you want to come see it. Then maybe you can show me your big surprise, Omega. It better not be a tattoo. I told those three laserbrains not to let you get one of those for at least another five years.”
Omega looked over her shoulder at Tech with a big smile. “It’s better than a tattoo, trust me. But um, I’m having a little trouble getting around right now. I hurt my leg a bit. Can you come down to our house?”
“Sure I can. What’d you do to your leg?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll see you soon?”
“See you there.”
Tech’s heart slammed against his ribcage. She was here. He’d had days to think about what to say to her and he still didn’t know.
Omega shifted around on the blanket so that she faced him. “Do you want me to come with you? I could, or I could stay here while you meet with Phee at home. I’ll be fine.”
“I…” Tech considered Omega here with her friends, Shep and other adults not far away, and very close to home if something were to happen. Their brothers weren’t due home for a few hours. Tech could talk with Phee alone, and if things went sour he could use the excuse of needing to come pick up Omega. It would probably be better if his little sister was not there to watch him make a fool of himself anyway. He cleared his throat. “I will go alone. I will come and collect you in an hour.”
“You don’t have to rush. It may be a lot to take in. Phee will probably want to hear the whole story.”
“Omega can come home with us if she needs to,” Lyana offered.
Tech stood, clipping his datapad to his belt. “That will not be necessary. I will see you in an hour.”
He sidestepped the still inexplicably frightened Iktotchi girl and made his way mechanically back to the house. His palms were sweating despite the cool temperature outside. He was going to need to explain how he was alive. That was the first thing to do, right? Or should he apologize first? What words exactly should he use in his apology? How truthful should he be about why he’d clammed up the last time he and Phee were together?
Tech entered the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water with slightly shaky hands. He drank it as he paced from one end of the room to the other. He tossed words around in his head until they were all helplessly jumbled up and he was sure nothing coherent was going to come out of his mouth at all. Maybe he should have had Omega come after all. She was so much better at knowing what to say.
Minutes crawled by. How long would it take Phee to walk here from the Archium? Tech should have timed it. He’d already measured the amount of time it took to walk from the house to various nearby locations on the island, but he hadn’t been up to the colonnade yet. He set his empty glass down on the table. He reached for his datapad to occupy his hands, but thought better of it and left it clipped to his belt. The last time Phee had ever seen him, he’d been buried behind a datapad. He refused to make that mistake again.
He heard the creak of the front gate opening. He faced the door, suddenly rooted in place. He glimpsed Phee through the front windows before she disappeared from his view behind the door. Then the door slid open, revealing her whole frame.
She looked the same. It was like not a day had passed. Her hair was still big and beautiful. Her clothes hugged her curves in a way that allowed freedom of movement while still edging toward tantalizing. Her lips were full and her face lean. She put her hands on her hips and took one step inside.
“Alright, what’s—” Her eyes met Tech’s. “Oh shit.” She back-pedaled. Her hand went to the vibrosword at her waist, but she didn’t draw it. She went stock still, her mouth falling open.
They stared silently at one another for eleven seconds. Tech counted. He tried to find his voice.
“I know you must have questions,” he managed to say at last. “And I intend to answer them, if you’ll allow me.”
Phee let her hands fall to her sides. She took a few tentative steps inside, never taking her eyes from his face. Tech was caught between wanting to let the explanation spill out of him like a faucet left on high and being paralyzed by her proximity. She came closer and the paralysis won out. By the time she was directly before him, he was sure his internal temperature had jumped three degrees.
She slowly lifted her hands. When they came to rest on either side of his face, her long fingers cupping his jaw and cheeks, an electric shock traveled down the length of his body. He was hyper aware of each place their skin touched. Her eyes bored into his, and though he was terrified, he couldn’t look away.
“Brown Eyes?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
He swallowed to try and lubricate his dry throat. “Hello, Phee.”
Her eyes glistened. A smile spread across her face. Before Tech knew what was happening, Phee leaned forward, stood on her toes, and pressed her lips against his. His brain short circuited. All thoughts turned to static. He didn’t have enough cognitive function to tell his body to move in any particular way. He was a rigid board, unable to move his hands or his mouth or even close his eyes. All he could process was the surprising softness of her lips.
It didn’t last long. She leaned back. “Sorry. I probably shouldn’t have done that, I just… You have no idea…” She let her hands fall away from his face and Tech immediately missed the contact. She took one step back. “Where have you been? Your entire family thought you were dead, and I’m guessing you didn’t do that to them just for kicks. Who took you? The Empire?”
Tech adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. His lips felt like they were on fire, and he had to think very hard about getting them to work right again. “No. The truth is going to seem very bizarre. But I can explain from the beginning. Perhaps you should sit down. Ah, that is—would you care to sit down?”
Phee still hadn’t taken her eyes from his face. She took a seat at the table and then motioned to the chair nearest her. “Start talking, then.”
Tech took the indicated chair. It put them only a foot apart from each other. His head was still buzzing. He felt as high on adrenaline as he did when fresh off the battlefield. He began to tell the story of Omega’s visit to the fortuneteller and everything he had learned about Dathomir and force witches. He was sure he was talking too fast. But now that he’d begun, he couldn’t stop. He told Phee about waking up on Eriadu and all he and Omega had been through there. He ended with a summary of the last few days, including the fact that the patterns on his skin were receding.
Phee never interrupted him. She listened with somber attentiveness until at last he ran out of words. She took a minute to process. Then she said, “I’ve heard stories of Dathomir. There are legends about the things Nightsisters can do, and none of them are good. I never believed any of it was real. Guess I was wrong.”
She went back to staring silently at him as though memorizing his face. Tech fought his impulse to shrink away and forced himself to meet her gaze. He couldn’t stop one finger from tapping rapidly on the tabletop. “I—feel you are due an apology for how I behaved during our last encounter,” he said. “You were kind enough to come see me off before the mission to Eriadu, and I…” Tentative courage bloomed in his chest. If Phee’s first impulse upon finding him alive was to kiss him, maybe there was no reason not to be entirely honest with her. “...panicked. I had only just begun to consider possibilities. With you. For the entirety of my life, I have only ever seen myself in the context of my squad, my family. But for the first time, I began to picture myself as an individual with desires that pertained only to me. It truly began when we helped the clone Ponder and his wife Sohi. He was only the second clone I had ever met with a permanent romantic partner. If occurring once, it could be a fluke. Cut and Suu could have been a special case. But twice? It suggested a pattern. Perhaps clones could be more than we were created to be. Perhaps companionship of that nature is open to all of us. It wasn’t something I ever considered for myself until I met you. And that realization was overwhelming. I hadn’t had time to think it through when we left for Eriadu. Or rather, I had thought it through, but I hadn’t decided how to approach you with it yet. And so I’m afraid I gave the impression that I was uninterested, and for that I apologize. It was a poor last impression to leave you with.”
A smile had slowly been building on Phee’s face as he spoke. When he stopped, he felt empty, like had just poured his entire heart out into a messy puddle on the table. His finger was still tapping out a nervous cadence. Phee rested her hand on his, and his finger stilled.
“I knew, Brown Eyes,” she said. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have pushed you. I knew you needed to take your time, and I tried to rush you anyway. I was impatient. You know, I didn’t hear from Hunter and Wrecker for two weeks after you left. I kept trying to contact you. I knew something must have gone terribly wrong. They finally told me what happened. Of course you sacrificed yourself for your family. I wasn’t even surprised. It was just like you. And all I could think about was how much time I wasted. Maybe if I was more upfront with you a long time ago, it would have made it easier for you to process. I thought we’d have all the time in the world. Years, even. I should have known better.
“It’s been hard for me to come back to Pabu knowing your family was here and you weren’t. I love Omega—she desperately needs more female influences in her life. I know she has the rest of her brothers, but she meant so much to you—means so much to you—and some part of me felt like I needed to love her in your place. But it was still hard to be here. I never quite got over you, Brown Eyes.”
Tech was aware that he was smiling now, too. Probably too much. He couldn’t help it. All those possibilities that had been running around in his head before his death jumped up and resumed their dash. There was an actual chance now. A chance at a future. Happiness. Peace. A chance to have everything he ever wanted and somethings he didn’t even know he wanted. He turned his hand over so that his palm was pressed flat against Phee’s and he could curl his fingers over the back of her hand. “Nor I you.”
After a moment, Phee let her eyes fall to the table. “I’m going to be honest, though. This feels too good to be true. Too easy. The legends of the Nightsisters are all of them doing weird kark like talking to the dead and mutilating animals in unnatural ways. How is it that they just gave you your life back?”
“From the way Omega tells it, the fortuneteller was not strictly aligned with the Nightsisters. She claimed to have learned spells from both them and the more benign tribes of Dathmoir. She claimed there would be a cost for Omega’s wish, but we have been unable to determine what that may be. Omega says she endured a great deal of pain during the spellcasting. She believes that may have been the referenced price.”
“Hm. Still sounds too easy to me.” She tightened her grip on his hand. “Not that I’m complaining. I’ve just seen too much of the galaxy to believe that something like that can be given for nothing. Everything costs something.”
“I am confident that should something unexpected come up, a solution could be found. When my brothers and I were all together, we had a 100% success rate for every endeavor we undertook. Things only went awry once we separated. And now we are even more fortunate because both you and Omega are here. There is no hurdle we cannot overcome together.”
“Maybe that’s true for fighting battle droids or ducking Imperials or uncovering ancient treasure. But we’re basically talking about magic here. If something’s already been put into place, what would we do against that? It’s not like there are any jedi left to ask about Force stuff.”
“I fought alongside enough jedi to know that even the Force isn’t infallible. There’s always another way. Sometimes it simply requires a different approach. Should one be required, we will find it.”
Phee shifted her hand around so they could interlock their fingers. “You had better be right. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you a second time. You have no idea what it’s been like this last year. I don’t think I could go through that again.”
Tech reached for her other hand and held it, deciding that he definitely enjoyed the close contact. “Please tell me what you have been doing since I’ve been gone. I should like to hear it all.”
* * *
“Eva? Are you okay?”
After Tech left, Eva stared at Omega while looking positively spooked. “Um,” she said. “You…” She abruptly turned and shuffled off toward where Jax was playing with some other boys under the palm trees.
“I wonder what that was about,” Lyana said.
Omega shook her head. “I don’t know.” If it wasn’t for her leg, she might have gotten up to chase after her younger friend and make sure she was okay. “It’s like something scared her. Maybe we should just give her some space.”
“You’re probably right.” Lyana reached into the basket sitting on the blanket beside her and pulled out a round puffed pastry with purple jelly leaking out one end. “Want a snack?”
“Yes!” Omega took the pastry gratefully. She hadn’t been allowed any sweets since Tech had been home. He was so strict about her diet while she’d been recovering. And she understood that. But if it had been Wrecker taking care of her, she would have had pastries drenched in icing everyday.
Both girls enjoyed a treat while a chilly wind blew through the palm fronds and the distant sound of waves mingled with the raised voices of children playing. Omega dusted the crumbs off her gloves when she was done and lay back on the blanket. It was so good to be out of the house and thinking about something other than her growing patterns. Out here, it didn’t seem like such a big deal. There had to be an explanation. They would find it sooner or later.
Lyana lay back too and for a while the girls watched the clouds drift above the trees and debated about what shapes they were making. Omega told Lyana about the lessons Tech was preparing for her and heard about the comparatively easy things Lyana’s dad had her doing.
“That’s not fair,” Omega pouted. “I’m probably the only kid on Pabu who has to memorize every category of starship in the Imperial fleet.”
“Well, most kids’ dads aren’t Tech. Are you learning normal stuff too? Like galactic history? Math? Literature?”
“History and math, yes. I don’t think he has any fiction books lined up for me to read.”
“Maybe my dad can recommend some. He says a rounded education is important.”
“Um, Omega?”
Omega and Lyana sat up as both Eva and Jax approached the blanket. Eva was huddled behind Jax, peeking at Omega.
“What’s wrong?” Omega asked.
“Eva has something to tell you,” Jax said. He stepped to one side and nudged Eva’s shoulder. The little girl wrung her hands.
“What is it?” Omega asked again. “What’s wrong?”
Eva took a deep breath. “I had a bad dream last night.”
“Oh.” Omega relaxed a little. She could understand that. She tried to emulate Hunter as she said, “I have bad dreams sometimes too. Do you want to talk about it? What was it about?”
Eva met her eyes. “It was about you.”
“Me?”
Eva nodded. “I dreamed you were on the beach at night. Those marks that we saw on your feet covered almost your whole body, and they were glowing an orangish-yellow color. The marks started to split open. They cut your skin in the exact pattern of the vine and thorns. There was a lot of blood… It spilled all over the sand, and a circle of light surrounded you. You looked like you were in pain.” She took another breath, this one unsteady. “Omega, I think you died. I was so scared that I woke up and didn’t finish the dream.”
Omega rubbed her ankle where the patterns were prevalent beneath her sock. The cold pit in her stomach that rose up every time she looked in the mirror and saw how far the vines had spread made itself known again. “That sounds like a really bad dream. I’m sorry you had to go through that. But it was just a dream.”
Eva shook her head. “No. It felt so real. And then today…” She glanced in the direction Tech had disappeared earlier. “Today when I saw you with your brother with the glasses, I could see the shadow moving. It was like a hundred vines made of shadows were leaking off of him and collecting around you.” She scrunched up her nose. “I can still see it. It’s on your arms and legs, much bigger than it was before. And it’s so cold.”
“I can see it too,” Jax said quietly.
Omega looked down at her left arm. She pulled her sleeve back. The pattern had reached all the way to her elbow. She swore it was even a little longer since she last looked at it this morning.
Lyana gasped. “It’s different than it used to be!”
Dread clawed at Omega’s insides. “Are you saying that once the patterns cover my whole body…you think I’ll die?”
Eva went back to wringing her hands. Jax just looked sad. Neither one said anything. All the clues began snapping into place in Omega’s mind. Jorrah said the toll would be heavy on the person making the wish. Tech’s patterns receded at the same time hers grew. The poem Tech found talked about a journey that ended in death after a time measured in “thorns.” The price for bringing Tech back to life…was her. Her life for Tech’s.
Omega’s ears rang. The cold spread out from her stomach until it seeped into every part of her body. “Is—is there a way to stop it?”
“I don’t know,” Eva said. “I-in my dream it looked like you couldn’t stop walking until you collapsed on the beach.”
“Maybe there’s a way to reverse the shadow’s movement,” Jax said. “Make it go back onto your brother.”
“No,” Omega said at once. “No, I… I can’t…” She watched the moon-yos jumping around the trees without really seeing them.
Lyana put a hand on her arm. “Omega, you have to tell your brothers. Maybe they can find a way to help. They need to know. They deserve to know.”
The cold was turning to numbness. Omega swore she couldn’t feel her feet. “Yeah. I… I need to go talk to Tech.”
Lyana helped her up. “I’ll walk you home.”
Omega’s head was numb too. “No. Thank you. I can make it. I want to be alone for a little while.” She whistled and Batcher came trotting over. Omega leaned on her humped back and she limped away from her friends. She could feel their worried eyes on her back. She moved her feet without feeling them, putting most of her weight on the right one and only taking tiny steps with the left as Batcher patiently acted as her crutch. They left the park. She hardly paid attention to where they were going, but Batcher knew the way home.
Omega was going to die. Jorrah asked her what she’d be willing to do to bring Tech back, and Omega said she’d do anything. She had meant it, but she never thought this would be the price. Would she still have done it if she’d known? Was she that selfish? Tech had been willing to trade his life for his family’s. Was she not brave enough to do the same?
Could Eva and Jax be wrong, though? They were making an assumption. They didn’t actually know what was going to happen. They had the Force, but they’d never been trained to use it like a jedi or anyone else. (Even if they were often oddly intuitive about things). Who else was there to ask? They had no idea where Asajj Ventress was or how to contact her. Would anyone other than a Dathomari force witch know what to do with this spell? Even if they could find a surviving jedi, Tech made it sound like the witches used the Force in a unique way. And Jorrah had disappeared without a trace.
Omega went through all they knew from Tech’s research and her own observations again. There were two kinds of force witches. Some that cast light spells and some that cast dark. Jorrah said she did both. The vine-like marks appeared all over Omega’s body at the outset of her wish, and the same pattern covered Tech when he first woke up. Now it was leaving him and reappearing on her. Jorrah said the dark spells demanded a price. She wasn’t sure what it would be, but she expected the cost to be high. The dark spells were ritualistic and often required a blood offering. The poem mentioned “light splitting” and blood pouring.
Omega stopped walking. She’d only given three drops of blood to Jorrah during the spell. Maybe that wasn’t enough. Eva said there had been a lot of blood in her dream. Maybe if Omega gave more blood now, it would appease the dark magic and the patterns would go away.
Omega looked around and realized she and Batcher were only one street away from home. There were a few people out walking on the lane, but none were close. She sat down against a fence post. “Batcher, sit.” The lurca hound dropped her back haunches and tilted her head at Omega curiously. Omega pulled back her left sleeve. She didn’t have a knife on her. She lifted one of Batcher’s big front paws. “Okay, girl. Just stay still and trust me.”
She raised the paw up to her forearm. Before she could think too hard about what she was doing, she pressed Batcher’s toe down so that her claw got caught on Omega’s skin and then yanked her arm away.
Batcher whined and pulled her paw out of Omega’s grasp. A line of red bloomed on Omega’s skin. It cut across the dark brown vine pattern. She winced as blood oozed out of the scratch. Batcher squirmed, whining again.
“Sorry,” Omega said. “It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. This was my choice.” She scratched Batcher’s side with her right hand as she watched the blood trickle down her left arm. What were the words Jorrah chanted? Most of it was in another language, but the rest was something about the “Amber Dawn.”
“Answer the call of the amber dawn,” Omega said between clenched teeth. “Bind to the…the light of the amber dawn.” She watched blood collect in two thin streams that dripped off her arm and onto the paving stones. She waited for the patterns to move. Maybe it wasn’t enough blood yet. “C’mon. Disappear.”
Batcher sniffed her arm. She gave a short and pitiful bark. Omega kept scratching her. She waited as the blood continued to flow. She refused to stem it. She watched a tiny puddle gather on the ground. “Go away, marks. Come on!”
Her arm continued to sting and leak, her head grew increasingly light, and the patterns did not change. Finally, Omega yanked her sleeve back down and pressed her hand against the scratch with a growl. She leaned her head back against the fence post. What was she going to do? If there had been a way to find Jorrah, Hunter would have done it after Omega disappeared at the festival. He had tried. She could be anywhere in the galaxy. Could even she stop this spell if she were here? She said the dark magic was unpredictable. Like it had a mind of its own outside her influence.
She got up on unsteady feet and leaned against Batcher again. She was going to have to tell her brothers. There was nothing for it. And if they couldn’t find answers, then… Then she didn’t know what.
She limped the rest of the way home with Batcher’s help. When she arrived at her front gate, she paused. She could see Tech and Phee through the open window of the house. They sat at the kitchen table holding hands. They looked like they were deep into a serious conversation. They hadn’t noticed her yet. Tech’s face held a soft and attentive expression Omega had never seen before. His eyes never strayed from Phee’s face. And she seemed just as engrossed with him.
Omega stood frozen for a moment. Then she quietly turned her back to the fence and sat down outside it where she couldn’t be seen by the two inside. Batcher dutifully sat with her.
What was Omega doing? Tech finally had his second chance. He had a whole life ahead of him. A life with his brothers, with Phee. He had a chance to be happy. He had a future. If Omega told him what was going on with the spell, he would try to find a way to stop it. If there was a way to reverse the shadow’s movement, she knew he would take it back onto himself. He would die again. She couldn’t let that happen. Not now that he was home. Her brothers were so happy he was here. She’d never seen Crosshair more happy in his life, even if he tried not to show it. The four brothers had always been together, and they belonged together still. The squad was never quite right when the four were separated. First with Crosshair, then with Tech. They were finally whole again. Omega had been with them when they were babies, but they didn’t remember that. All they ever knew was each other. Omega was added later. Her presence wasn’t as essential to them as each other.
Omega squeezed her scratch harder. Her sleeve was getting soaked with blood. Heat built up behind her eyes and her heart pounded. She knew what she had to do. She had to keep all this to herself. She wouldn’t take away Tech’s second chance or her brothers’ happiness. She would let them live the life they should have had all along. She would cherish what time she had left with them.
And then she would die.