Page 2 of Until the Stars Fall

I tried to take a deep breath, pulling a suitcase with my toiletries from the passenger seat, but gills would’ve been more appropriate for breathing in the hot, humid air pouring in from the outside. While San Francisco had vented surface tunnels in the heart of the city to deal with the building planetary heat, we were only able to be outside in New Orleans because it was November. Extreme areas of the planet still got cold weather, but here, all winter meant was the weeds had a chance to grow before the blistering heat of February through October hit, withering everything.

“Do y’all need help?” A young woman near Hannah’s age appeared from behind me. I got the impression of a smile and brown and blue curls just before she came in for a hug.

“Summer? Hi!” I returned her hug. “I’m so glad to finally meet you in person!”

“I’m so glad you made it safely! Ooh, I love your blouse,” she said to me before rushing to help my sister. “Here! Let me get that.” Summer’s dark brown eyes tinted warmer in the red morning sunlight, and she looked at Hannah like she was the rising sun, rushing to help her unload my most pressing things.

My heart squeezed watching them work together, so in sync, so in love. I didn’t know if I’d ever have anything remotely that good. I wanted love, dreamed of it. But I wouldn’t be worthy of it until I burned every trace of magic from my bones.

I wasn’t lying to Hannah about my magic just for fun, or because I was embarrassed of its volatility and my lack of control. I lied because it was responsible for the hover crash that killed our parents nine years ago, and I’d been trying to atone for it ever since.

Hannah checked her leather-banded watch again. “You made it just in time. Our launch slot’s in a few minutes.” She gazed out the ship door wistfully. “I guess it’s time to go in.”

Something that had been tickling my elbow rose to my full attention: a feeding mosquito. Gross. I slapped it against my arm where it left a smudge of bright red blood. God I hope that’s mine. I dug in my purse for a handkerchief.

Summer looked out too, the humidity frizzing her curls and pinkening her cheeks. “I can’t believe we’re never coming back here. It’s so hard to leave, isn’t it?”

“I guess.” I rolled my eyes a little. I couldn’t get off this planet fast enough. My blouse was already soaked with sweat, and damn it the filthy bloodsuckers were biting my legs now too. I slapped at my calf and scratched my ankle, wishing I hadn’t worn a skirt.

I was a few weeks away from twenty-seven, but I was still waiting for my life to begin. On the Tube ride in, I decided that Gaia was going to be my promised land, my long-overdue fresh start. As far as I was concerned, I hoped the door didn’t slam on Earth’s ass as it walked out. Okay maybe that didn’t make sense, but I meant it anyway. My magic was a worn-out siren song, and I was tired of stuffing wax in my ears. If my appointment with Madam Indigo went as promised, my magic would be gone, and it would’ve cost me nearly everything I owned, including the diamond ring my mother left me.

Worth it.

A loudspeaker crackled to life. “T-minus eight minutes,” a man’s deep voice called. “Time to go!”

“Let’s rock and roll.” Summer flipped up the kickstand with her foot, and I pushed it behind her and Hannah, trying to match the man’s voice to my knowledge of Hannah’s friends. Hopefully it wasn’t the guy she’d been trying to set me up with. I had no interest in a two-month-long blind date.

The leather handle of my knockoff Pia Casale bag pinched my sweaty arm as I paused to watch my last bit of Earth daylight glinting off a pile of console panels with their wires sticking out. Then the shield doors shut out my home planet with metal finality.

As the elevator doors closed behind us on Summer going up to the bridge, I pushed my luggage cart into the ship-hotel’s lobby behind Hannah. “You didn’t tell me the elevators were a time machine. Are we back in 2125?”

She laughed. “I thought you liked the art nouveau revival.”

“In art and architecture, not when it’s original to the ship bringing me across the galaxy.” I followed Hannah along the dull walking path on the bamboo floor which led to the paneled check-in desk, the launch room, and a few other doorways. Movement against the retro-stylized flowered wallpaper caught my eye. Smoke? An incense stick smoldered from the open mouth of a green ceramic dragon, right there on the desk. Safety violation number one. I paused to snatch it up and douse it in water from a flower vase.

Hannah was nearly to the launch room. “I can’t wait for you to meet the rest of my coven!” she called back.

Coven. The verbal equivalent of walking under a ladder. When I’d let my siblings believe that my grief over our parents stole away my magic, Hannah had only been fourteen, her magic strong and growing. Our older brother, Noah, took it upon himself to further her training in witchcraft, despite not having an ounce of magic himself. He’d even gotten engaged to a witch with her own coven, which only encouraged Hannah more. If he only knew how magic had torn our family apart.

I nudged my cart against the gravity wall three times before it latched on, securing my things gently against the wall—it probably needed a tune-up seventy years ago—and followed Hannah into the launch room, a large area with funky geometric hotel carpet and theater seating.

Summer’s voice boomed like a sky goddess over the intercom. “Five minutes, people. Strap in!”

A beautiful woman with a red scarf around her tightly coiled dark hair stood up in the launch room when we entered—Zola, my brother’s fiancée. She rushed forward, straightening her tight black T-shirt that read “Witchy Woman” in a runic sort of font.

“It’s so lovely to see you with my own eyes, Gemma,” Zola said, reaching out for a gentle hug, “and not over a screen.” She pulled back and held my upper arms. “I’m so relieved your work allowed you to accompany us, even with our early slot! We’re in dire need of your expertise.” Her eyebrows drew together and her dark amber eyes filled with concern, as if she saw something behind the facade of my smile. “Are you doing alright?”

I nodded, tightly shutting the windows to my soul. I couldn’t afford the breakdown that normally came the moment someone genuinely asked if I was alright when I really wasn’t. Not right now. “I’m great. Just ready to leave this stupid planet.”

Zola stared at me a moment longer, as if she was examining the edges of me. I looked to Hannah for saving, but Zola withdrew her hands. “Have you talked to Noah lately? They keep him so busy at the hospital.”

My brother was a cardiovascular surgeon and by all accounts the love of Zola’s life. I smiled. “No, but I think I need to see that ring in person.”

Zola’s whole face lit up as she extended her left hand. An oval-faceted natural emerald stone set in yellow gold and flanked by a round diamond on either side sparkled even in the low light.

“Oh wow,” I breathed, “Noah did good.”

Her smile brightened even more, if that was possible. “He did great.”

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