Page 21 of Until the Stars Fall

“Oh, um, I suck at auras too,” I said.

“No.” He didn’t look at me as he cleaned up the sink area. “I meant, are you seeing anybody? I haven’t heard you talk about a girlfriend or boyfriend. Hannah didn’t say you were.”

My skin prickled with the pleasure of his interest, and I tried to keep a neutral smile. “You throw me a few smiles, and you get cheeky all of a sudden. How about I go back to the spell box, and we can each mind our own business?”

He laughed. “That works. Listen, you wanted to know about sigils and crystals. I asked Summer and Eyre to sit with you tonight on the Star Deck to go through things for the grimoire.”

I made a “sounds good” face at him and went back to the spell box. But I smiled all the way there.

“Hannah did not want to jump off the cliff with me,” Summer said, her deep brown eyes glimmering with happy memories in the low light of the Star Deck after dinner. Summer’s aura—if I even believed in that stuff—was a cozy blanket in a cold world. I was almost glad Eyre was running late to our meeting so I could spend this time getting to know her.

“She agreed to hike up to the falls, she was happy to watch the rest of us jump, but no way was she going to do it herself. But when we got up there—and I don’t even know what changed her mind—she jumped right off after Beck and Noah.” She laughed, continuing the story. “After, she said we were right. It was amazing! The churning waters break your fall.”

She looked down and back up. “While I have you, I wanted to tell you how much I love your sister.” She smiled soppily, stars in her eyes. “Hannah’s my forever,” she said, pressing her hands to her heart. “It’d mean the world to me if you and I could be close too.”

I smiled and hugged her. “I would love that.”

The elevator dinged. Footsteps mingled with voices approached us. Eyre’s voice. And Beck’s? I sat up straighter and adjusted my hair. He hadn’t said he was coming.

They walked up, each holding a little mismatched ceramic bowl with a spoon in either hand.

“We thought ice cream would make this a party,” Beck said, his smile settling on me like warm sunlight. I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Zohmygod,” Summer exclaimed, bouncing on her cushion as she reached up for the bowl Eyre offered her. “Are those chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough?”

“For sure.” Eyre settled onto the rug on my right with a wink and a grin at me. I had to admire her. I thought I was careful with my appearance, but even I’d resorted to leisure wear on the trip. Not Eyre. Every day she dressed like Vogue Witch was coming for a photoshoot. Tonight, she wore a corset top that hugged her figure and a long, black velvet skirt, her makeup perfect.

Beck sat close to me, his wet hair pulled into a messy bun. “When’s the last time you ate real ice cream?” he asked, handing me a bowl.

“A really long time,” I breathed, taking it carefully from him like the priceless work of art it was. I dug my spoon in and took a bite. The chocolate and vanilla ice cream was stuffed with brownie pieces and chunks of cookie dough. I forgot all my manners and spoke with my mouth full. “This is phenomenal. Thank you.”

“Eyre makes the best ice cream,” Summer said.

I couldn’t disagree. I savored several chilly, delectable bites, but still no one spoke. Maybe they were waiting for me?

“So I won’t keep you all too late,” I said, balancing my ice cream bowl while I pulled out my notebook. “I just want to know more about your contributions to a few key spells around the ship.”

“We mainly worked on sigils and crystals,” Eyre said, waving a red-tipped finger between herself and Summer, who was already almost scraping the bottom of her bowl.

“We collaborated on the sigils with Beck. They’re the primary function by which the spells tie into the machinery. And crystals are Eyre’s thing.”

I’d had a fondness for working out sigils when I was a teenager. There may have been infinite ways to make the symbols that focused magic, held spells together, but the ones I’d found in the box didn’t look anything like what I used to make.

“My sister Portia helped us kickstart the forest not long after we got the ship,” Eyre continued. “She’s a very talented green witch, which is funny, considering her aversion to putting down roots.”

Summer gave Eyre a sad smile. “Kickstarted our forest, and then went dark again. Do you think she already left for Gaia?”

“Who knows.” Eyre rolled her eyes, but her expression was pained. “I guess she’ll deign to contact me again, one day.”

The silence after Eyre’s family drama reveal was even more awkward than the ice-cream-eating silence. “Tell me more about the sigils,” I said. “I found some sketches in the box, but they didn’t all match up to spells I could find on the ship.”

Eyre pulled out a tablet. “So a sigil is a line drawing, basically,” she said, misinterpreting my question as complete ignorance. I wasn’t going to let her think otherwise.

She tapped at her screen until she got to a canvas. “But it carries a lot more meaning behind it. They’re usually short phrases, or intentions, that when activated by magic, make something come into being.”

“Or repel something,” Summer cut in, “whatever your desire.”

“Our coven’s settled on one main way to draw them that works best for us.” Eyre unhooked a stylus from the tablet and began writing on the screen.

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