Page 46 of Until the Stars Fall

The sparkles fell onto my outstretched hands where they tickled, bounced, and disappeared. Across the deck, Hannah stood in Summer arms, both of their faces lit up with the spell’s display.

While the purple shower was still pouring from its source, another white ball rocketed from the cauldron, popping open into a shower of silver.

“Joy!” they shouted.

“One more,” Beck said softly into my ear, sending sparks of an entirely different nature skimming straight to my core.

The last shooting star blasted into the air and burst open into a shower of red stars.

The crowd whooped and crowed. “Love!” they shouted.

As the word left Beck’s lips, I felt his hand on my back softly caress me where the others couldn’t see. Then Zola and Eyre pulled me to dance with them among the spellwork’s still-bubbling, still-falling stars.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

When the spell had run its course, and the women were tired of dancing, I noticed Beck putting dishes on the kitchen cart, talking to Eyre. Through the music and the others’ gaiety, I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Eyre said something to him, and he glanced in my direction and winked at me when he caught me looking at him.

“Well, girl, I’ve gotta go back to the bridge and keep us flying straight, since I am the designated driver,” Summer joked, coming in for a hug.

“Thank you so much for everything!”

I approached Zola and Hannah where they were cleaning up the cauldron. “Can I help pick up anything?”

“Absolutely not,” Hannah said. “Zola and I pulled dish duty, and we’re gonna leave the decorations up for now. You go do whatever it is you want to do, birthday girl.”

She hugged and kissed me, and went off with Zola and the cart, right behind Eyre, who disappeared onto the bridge.

Beck looked up from his turntable across the room, sleeving the record that had last been playing. “And then there were two.”

“Seems that way. Need any help?”

“No,” he said. “Absolutely not. I’ll get this in the morning.” He stacked his last record in its crate. “How about I walk you home, and if you’re up for it, give you that tarot reading I promised?”

“Sure,” I said, stars spinning in my heart.

As we walked side by side into the stairwell that let out nearest my room, he scooped my hand into his.

“Did you have a good time?”

“I did!” I exclaimed. “It was absolutely magical. My best birthday yet.”

“I’m glad,” he said, opening the door to my hall.

I slipped my key into my lock and flipped on the entry light. He followed me in and pulled off his jacket before sitting at the table he’d made and sliding the plant to the side. He pulled a black velvet pouch from his suit pocket, about the size of a wallet, and eased open its drawstring as I slipped my heels off by the door and headed into the kitchenette.

“Want something to drink?” I asked.

“Water would be great, please.”

By the time I brought the bottles out, he had a stack of cards in his hands.

“How did you know to build my table? Really?”

He took a sip, eyes a little bleary under the drop lamp. “Hannah came to me back in August. She was so worried about you. Just had a bad feeling. She asked me to do an astrology chart and a tarot reading.” He looked at me for a second too long for it to be casual. “I dunno. I just...sometimes I know things before they happen.”

Sometimes, like now, I wondered if he knew more about me, about us, than he was letting on. I cleared my throat and steered the subject in a different direction. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know if he did.

“Great, you can tell me what to do when I get to Gaia. I’m probably blacklisted from every astrotech firm on the new planet.”

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