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Malia - means ‘rebelliousness’, ‘exalted one’, ‘beloved’, ‘wished for child’, ‘brave’, ‘diligent’, ‘sea of bitterness’, ‘drop of the sea’ and ‘star of the sea’
“Holy shit! Am I reading that right?” Bhodi exclaims. “Holy fuck! Do I need my eyes testing?”
“We’re all seeing it. Reef, is this legit?”
“Yes, boss. I think it is.”
“This confirms it then. Malia-Tarni is the Star.”
I should be celebrating, but I just have this sinking feeling in my gut. Something isn’t right. It can’t be right. She can’t be. Surely our paths would have intertwined if it were the case?
The others whoop and cheer, but I can’t join in. What happens now? We have to protect her from the Shikari, sure. But after? How do we use the Star to find the queen? And what happens to this girl, Malia-Tarni Van der Zee, afterwards?
Something feels off, and I haven’t been able to put my finger on it for a while now. My memories are fuzzy, like there’s a block stopping me from remembering everything that I need to. I always feel half in the dark about our role here, about the assignment, but when I tried to broach the subject with my brothers they dismissed my concerns.
A phone ringing interrupts my thoughts and the others’ discussion-cum-celebration.
“Hello?” Cove answers, frowning. He motions for us all to be quiet and then covers his other ear with his free hand. We fall silent and watch him intently. He looks at the screen and sighs.
“It went to voicemail.”
“Give it a minute and see if they leave a message,” Bhodi suggests. I can see the worry on Cove’s face and I get a bad feeling in my gut.
“There’s a voicemail,” he says.
“Put it on speakerphone,” the prof instructs tersely. Cove does, placing the phone down on the counter before dialling his mailbox.
“Cove? Hello? Can you hear me?” A panicked female voice rings out through the room. “I’m in trouble and I didn’t know who to call. I..I need your help. I can hear things…bad things…and I think there are some bad people coming for me. They’re close. I can hear them. I can hear the things they want to do to me. Things they don’t say out loud. I promise, I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe me, please, please just send help.”
The line goes quiet for a moment and then an almighty bang makes us all jump.
Silence.
Then Malia-Tarni releases a blood-curdling scream that turns my blood to ice and my stomach to stone.
Fuck.
The line goes dead.
