Beyond the Stars: INEO by Kelly Beltz Read Free Book Online

enthralled by the displays of junk. “Perhaps. I would like to see if there is anything worth buying while we are here.”
    Gaelan groaned and walked past him. “I think he’s doing some retail therapy,” Gaelan said softly by my ear.
    “I noticed,” I replied. I followed Gaelan after the rest of our group started to disperse and meander through the aisles separately, probably knowing we would be here for a while.
    I remembered Gaelan telling me that Urit liked to buy the most outrageous things for sickening sums of money. He wasn’t materialistic and didn’t collect objects for show, but for usefulness. I studied the items for sale to see if I found anything of interest. They ranged from heaps of clothing to bizarre trinkets. Some of their uses were a complete mystery. Even so, pretending to be preoccupied with the goods made me comfortable because it was the perfect excuse to avoid making eye contact with the aliens we passed. I succeeded in tuning them and their oddities out until I accidentally tripped on a small, yellow skinned man wrapped in a patterned blanket that was covering his head and shoulders. He was sitting Indian style on the floor and was blocking my passage.
    “Whoa! I’m so sorry,” I said when I inadvertently pressed my hand on his head to keep myself from falling on top of him.
    He reached up and clutched my arm in a firm grip before I could distance myself.
    “You, you are from far away,” he said, swaying his body from front to back.
    “What did you say?” I said with alarm, trying to pull my arm free.
    He only held on tighter.
    “You are from the other side … you will alter the path and change the course for us all,” he said in a haunting tone.
    How did he know I wasn’t native to these parts?
    “What do you mean?” I asked, desperately wanting to hear more.
    “There will be only one. A decision you will make. Your fate is in your hands. You are not what you appear—two spirits in one. You are in this world, though not of this world. You are energy. Pure. You are—” his voice cracked, “a star.” He lifted his face to look up at me under the hood of his blanket with a blank stare. His eyelids were so droopy they masked his eyes, and his face was full of wrinkles, making him look ancient. “Death. Power. A new path. Fear …” he said weakly before closing his eyes to resume his rocking motion back and forth.
    Gaelan huffed and came to my rescue. “Okay, enough. No— no touching,” he said, sounding repulsed, as he fought to release the man’s strong grip. He had to undue each of his long fingers by prying them off my forearm one by one. Quickly, Gaelan took me by the hand and led me away. “Don’t pay any attention to him. His mind is halfway to the Stramba moon.”
    I stopped and looked back. “I don’t know. He said something about a star.” I gulped. “Wait … he said something about me being from far away.”
    The man’s voice broke with a cough when he yelled out to tell me more. “You must protect it, keep it hidden. It has latched itself onto you for good reason.”
    Gaelan briefly glanced back at the man. “Ignore him. He’s not in his right mind. He is a mystical creature called a Dom. He sees alternate realities and is confused by his drifting in between different planes of existence. He is blinded by the life before him. His warnings are completely unfounded. Doms like to predict doom and gloom, and if there’s one thing I have little patience for, it’s irrational thought.”
    “Even so, he’s freaking me out. Last night I had this strange vision, I mean dream, that I was rendezvousing with a star,” I said at the risk of sounding as crazy as the Dom.
    “Before or after the solar flare?” Gaelan asked.
    “Before.”
    He paused and looked at me for a few seconds. “You’re starting to scare me. Are you sure you feel normal ?“
    “I feel great.”
    He pressed his lips together as he appeared to study my face. “Then don’t repeat