Page 21 of The Stars

“Speed.” He sighed. “My gift is speed. I spent years trying to escape Hidden Creek. I’d travel far away, but I always ended up back here. Because I was tied to this place. My fate has always been here. Each of us here has powers. Our survival depends on it.”

She frowned as she reached out and touched the cold drink to make sure it was there.

“Xtina, well, you’ve heard all about hers for years. The rumors are very much true. Jess really is a witch. Remember seeing her fly? And, well, there’s more to her than the light show.” He smirked. “A damned good witch. Brea, well, she can teleport herself and others through time and worlds. You probably caught onto that one.” He chuckled.

She nodded slightly, then opened the drink and took a long sip.

“Joleen can control time and space, sort of. Among other things. Tara and Selene are pretty much indestructible and can fly, remember?”

She nodded. “Mia is a djinn,” she said in a distant voice as she remembered.

He nodded. “Yes, and Lucas is a shifter.”

“The dog?” she asked.

“Cerberus.”

“Seriously? The hellhound?” She balked.

He shrugged. “Ethan can heal others, Jacob can control anyone or anything that he locks eyes with, and I have speed.”

Her head was spinning with all the details.

“What about Liz?” She had meant to ask if Liz believed all of this but was shocked when Joe replied.

“Liz was our oracle. She’d foreseen all of this ahead of time. She knew the exact moment…” He closed his eyes. “The exact moment she was going to die. She warned me. Tried to prepare me for what was to come. She is the reason you were sent here first instead of into the past along with Dante.”

“Where is Dante?” she asked, feeling her heart dip in her chest.

Joe’s gaze moved up to hers. “Greece. About three thousand years in the past.”

She blinked a few times. “Why there?”

Joe chuckled, a dry sort of helpless sound. “It’s where it all starts.”

“Where what starts?”

Joe shifted slightly. “Your legend.”

“My… what?”

“The story of Pandora… You.” Joe took a sip of his drink.

Amy stared at her brother, her mind spinning as the words settled in. “Pandora? Me?”

Joe nodded, his face a mixture of pride and sorrow. “It wasn’t just a story, Amy. It was a prophecy, one that stretches back through the centuries. Every world and every timeline has its version of Pandora. But here, in our time, it’s you.”

She blinked, the weight of everything beginning to press down on her chest. “I don’t understand. The story of some goddess with a stupid box that holds…what? Hope or the world’s destruction? What does that have to do with me?”

Joe leaned back, running a hand through his disheveled hair. “Pandora was more than just a woman who opened some mythical box. She was the key to unlocking worlds—both creation and destruction. The gods knew it. The box… the legend, it was never about unleashing evil into the world. It was about balance, about tipping the scales between life and death, hope and despair.”

Amy’s heart raced as she tried to process it all. “And Dante…”

“Dante’s fate is tied to yours,” Joe said, his voice heavy with responsibility. “He’s your balance, your counterpart. He’s Epimetheus. It’s why Brea sent you on separate paths. You have to find him in Greece, and you will discover your full potential there. But first, you must start the process of awakening here.”

She stood, the room suddenly feeling too small, too suffocating. “And these… powers I’m supposed to have. What are they?”

“Who knows? Soon, with Dante’s help, you will discover them. You’ll remember who you are. Liz saw it all. Besides, Mia has met you in another world.” Amy remembered the flashes of memory Mia had shown her. “You told her there that she would help you remember who you are. Liz prepared me for this, even though I wasn’t ready to accept it. None of us were. But you were born for this. We all were.” Joe’s eyes darkened. “Moros and the other gods—they knew what was coming. That’s why they attacked, why they shattered the moon. They fear what you can become. They just didn’t know that Brea had sent you away before it all began. They fear you. Fear what you can do.”