Star’s stomach sank. Raphael was right. Was the seraph mocking him, or trying to be careful? Why did his mind go towillful harm? Fucking Gabriel. Star wondered again if he would get any closure from finding the bastard in his rotting world of nastiness and stomping the worm back into a gooey pulp of non-existence.
“I don’t know what to do,” Star whispered. “When happiness rises, fear slides in with it, threatening to tear it away.”
“What if you lean on the others more? Try the things they enjoy? Perhaps it will inspire you.”
“I can’t dance,” Star said, certain, though he’d never tried outside of a dream.
“Okay,” Raphael agreed. “Neither can I. But strangely enough, Uriel can. He spun me around the floor like he’s been doing it forever. His smile made my dizziness worth it. Sometimes he cries, and I hold him. Sometimes I cry and he holds me. If dancing makes him smile, I will dance with him. If building helps him heal, then I will find a thousand patterns and plans for him to build an empire.”
“And if I make a fool of myself?”
“Do your men care?” Raphael got up and headed for the door. “I’m going to drag Uriel home. Maybe step out and spend some time with them. Last I saw, they were hopping around the floor like rabbits.”
“Rabbits?” Star shot to his feet in confusion. Were they infected with something? He followed Raphael out, and found Yuri and Theo in the middle of the dance floor beneath glowing lights in the pergola, bumping hips and wiggling around with no actual rhyme or rhythm. Radu played a violin, the song upbeat and unfamiliar. Lucian clapped and stomped his foot in time to the music.
Uriel stood off to the side, tall and thin, with a touch of the seraph rainbow colors despite hiding in the dark corner. His long, dark hair pulled up in a messy bun, left dangles of bright swatches to roam free around his troubled dark eyes. He lookedyounger than Raphael in some ways, and others a thousand times older, likely as haunted as Star by the past.
In the beginning, their creation had been two distinct types of seraphim: healers and guardians. As time passed, they merged, becoming both more often than not. A decision of Uriel and Raphael together, or borne from their inability to further add to their creation?
Star hesitated to ask. His creation had become a nightmare in a dozen ways. The hidden city of the evolved, filled with artisans, was the only thing he claimed good about his people. Although staring at Lucian and Radu, he thought perhaps he might be wrong about that.
Raphael took Uriel’s hand and squeezed it. The storm clouds lifted from Uriel’s expression as he glanced at Raphael. A smile touched his lips. He dragged Raphael into a hug, and the two waved at the rowdy bunch, wandering off toward their home through the dark.
Yuri took a step toward Star. “I don’t dance,” Star said.
“Incarnations of you have danced in the past,” Radu corrected him.
Heat rose in Star’s cheeks. “Not like what they were just doing. And you and I never danced. You danced, and I watched you.”
“Would you like to try something slow?” Radu offered. “Lucian, despite his grumblings, has formal training.”
“I won’t step on your feet, but I’ve been told I’m less grace on the dance floor than I am on the battlefield,” Lucian said.
“We can try, too,” Theo said, grabbing Yuri. “Please, Star.”
Star sighed, but took Lucian’s offered hand. Lucian wrapped his arm around Star’s waist and took his right hand in his left, drawing them close.
“This is a modern type of sway. Easy,” Lucian offered, as Radu played and the tone guided them into a gentle movement.“I can guide you with my hands and feet to do simple things like a turn,” Lucian added, turning them and then returning to the sway.
Yuri and Theo copied them, though Theo dissolved into giggles twice as they stumbled during turns. The second time, Yuri laughed too, and the duo clung together laughing instead of swaying. Hearing their laughter brought a warmth to Star’s heart. A smile lifted the corners of Lucian’s lips, his eyes crinkling with mirth, though he held back, maintaining their rhythm of swaying with a careful turn.
“Let’s try again,” Yuri said, holding up his left hand to reach for Theo’s right.
“Theo, put your left hand on Yuri’s shoulder and let him put his arm around your waist,” Radu instructed as he continued to play.
“He likes this sort of thing,” Star muttered, catching Radu’s joy at getting to have a bit of fun with music.
“Yes,” Lucian agreed. “He would have thrived in your artisan city.”
Star flinched. Another mistake. Cutting part of his people off from the rest. They had now remixed and that worried Star. Would they war? Would the beauty and peace of Auroi be lost? Lucian was king of all Dahna, which included Auroi. Radu should have been as well, only he’d not known about their existence. Star had fought to keep Gabriel’s corruption out of the city, and that meant alienating part of his people, too.
“I have changed nothing in Auroi other than to sit with the counsel and ask them to accept refugees,” Lucian said. “I prefer their type of leadership. That they rotate through the entire population every few years seems to mean they understand their society better and take pride in it rather than milking all the resources from it to enrich themselves.”
Star was shocked that Lucian hadn’t stepped in and taken over. But it wasn’t the sort of man he was. “Thank you.”
“It’s a bit of a utopia,” Lucian said. “Not without its flaws as a social and civil society.”
“Nothing is perfect,” Star agreed. He, least of all.
