Page 56 of Until the Stars Fall

“Maybe a little.”

“I know you have a lot to deal with when you get to Gaia. Please don’t let me stress you out. We can go however slow you want to.” He pressed a warm kiss to my forehead. “All I want is to be with you.”

“Thanks.” I hugged him so I could hide my face while I corralled all my guilt back inside my body.

At seven o’clock, Beck and I went up to the Star Deck, and Zola met us all at the elevator with a smoking bundle of herbs.

“Everyone has to be here, and everyone has to be clear,” she said, taking her time to cleanse us each individually. “Even you, Gemma.”

The comfy rug and floor pillow area were put away for the night. Someone, probably Eyre, had sketched a sigil in chalk on the hardwood floors that looked like three butterflies intertwined. I sat to the side where I wouldn’t interfere, and the members of the coven each took their place at a rounded outer edge of the sigil.

Eyre slid a hammer around the lip of a bronze singing bowl and set it down in the center, and Hannah began the ceremony by speaking in that odd language the others had spoken in before.

“Nisefe lish, leastre wosu.”

The others chanted the words in response, and they held their hands out toward one another. To my astonishment, beams of light connected like flashlight beams from one person’s hand to the next until they were all connected by a circle of light. They smiled and laughed with each other, their faces glowing in the light of their own making.

The magic inside of me was awed. It didn’t push its way out; instead, it stood like a street urchin outside the window of a warm home, looking in on a life they could never have. Was this what my life would’ve looked like, too, if I’d stayed? If my magic hadn’t wrecked my parents’ hovercar, I probably wouldn’t even have gone to school for astro-engineering. Wouldn’t have accepted the position at Noble. I might’ve stayed home with Hannah and our parents, and maybe Hannah and I would’ve figured out the secrets of the witching world together. Or would our parents never have allowed that to happen?

Maybe I would’ve met Beck sooner. Maybe I would’ve been his dream witch instead of the haunted woman he somehow cared about who was ready to ditch her magic at the first opportunity. My heart squeezed looking at him now. He seemed like someone I’d already missed out on, even as he turned to me and smiled.

After the ceremony, we feasted on a cheesecake that Hannah made for the occasion, and we fell into different groups, chatting. Hannah slipped her arm through mine and pulled me toward the elevator.

“Do you have time for a sisterly chat before your man pulls you away for the evening?”

“Of course, silly. What do you want to talk about?” I followed her into the elevator, and she pressed the mezzanine level.

“Let’s go chat on the diving platform,” she said. “What are your plans when we get to Gaia? I’ve been talking to Summer, even before we knew about you and Beck. We’d love for you to stay on the ship with us while you figure out your next steps.”

“Thank you.” My intense time with Beck had pushed a lot of those questions out of my mind, but that lovely bubble burst the moment Hannah found out about us.

“Of course, sweetheart. You know we’d do anything to help you. It’ll be so much fun to have us all together, under one roof again! And now with you and Beck!” She didn’t finish that thought, but her excited tone said it all.

The elevator opened on the mezzanine, and we made our way up the platform to the cozy spot where Beck and I had lain and looked at the stars. No way was that three weeks ago.

“Noah’s been renting an apartment, but he’s moving onto the ship when we get there.” She lay down on her back, and I lay down beside her. “Did Beck tell you about his parents’ land?”

“Yeah, he mentioned it.” And it scared the shit out of me. I’d thought about it all day, about sharing a life with Beck, on land, outside this ship. It was everything I wanted, and everything I couldn’t have.

“We’re building a witching community there, not just our little coven, but all of our extended families. Have you decided where you’re going to apply to work? I hear AstridCo’s building a facility in the area.”

“I guess I could put my application in.” AstridCo was a great choice, but now I was afraid to apply. What if that got me on Evander Noble’s radar, and he sent the police for me? And having this break from the sterile laboratories and artificiality of a big city had me longing for something simpler. Porch swings and family dinners I didn’t deserve.

Beck with his wonderful heart would still want me around after I had my magic taken away, but he’d resent me in time. He’d said himself that things wouldn’t work out if I didn’t have my magic. Well, he didn’t say it quite like that, to be fair, but that’s what he meant.

But staying around to watch him be with someone else? That was out of the question.

Not to mention I’d been low-key avoiding my siblings for years. Could I even live near Noah and Hannah with the weight of what my magic did to our parents hanging around my neck? Could I ever find the courage to tell them?

Hannah grinned. “Maybe you and Beck could live together on his parcel of land,” she said, elbowing me. “Turns out he was your type after all, huh?”

“You were right.” I smiled, but I was about to cry. “Beautiful and brilliant, also sweet and loving. He’s almost too good to be true.” He was too good to be true, for me, at least.

She turned to me. “So do you think he’s the one?”

I studied the stars overhead. “I hope so, Hannah.”

She scooched closer to me and rested her head on my shoulder, and we lay in silence for a few moments.

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