Page 14 of Until the Stars Fall

“Now that we’re in flight,” Hannah said, wrinkling her nose playfully at Eyre, “we could use a good inventory, go through the packing lists.”

“You just want to play in the spreadsheets,” Summer accused with a smile.

Hannah laughed, nodding. “I do!”

Beck cleared his throat. “I’ve been thinking that someone should go through the spells in the box, write ’em all out, keep a grimoire for the trip. I thought Gemma could help me with that, if she doesn’t mind?”

He’d asked the question innocently enough, but I knew the full context of the request. I turned a fake smile his way.

“Sure,” I said through gritted teeth.

Hannah’s smile perked up into full bloom as she looked between me and Beck. “That’d be a huge help. The box of spells is over on the stage. It’s a mess. It’ll take you a long time to go through it together.”

Beck spared a glance for me. “What’s our first order of business tomorrow, co-chief engineer and grimoire writer?”

I swallowed my last spoonful of pudding, considering a civil reply. “I guess go through the spell box. And has anyone inventoried the engine room yet?”

He shook his head. “I did one early on, but the past few weeks flew by. I grabbed as many promising-looking parts I could find at Al’s and threw ’em in the storage area. Getting everything organized would be a great place to start.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt. Eyre, I’m done if you want me to help with your hands,” Zola said. “But catch me right now because it’s been a long-ass day, and I’m already ready to go to bed.”

Eyre scrambled up with her dinner things and nodded her head to the other side of the seating area. “Thank you! I’ll meet you on the poufs.”

“Good deal,” Zola said. “I’m about to try and catch Noah over StarTalk again. The network’s been out since yesterday, but maybe it’s back up again. Anybody who wants to talk to him, let me know.”

I said nothing. My big brother was the last person I wanted to talk to. I didn’t need him evaluating my life and asking a million questions, uncovering the truth about my job.

Hannah turned to Summer. “When Eyre’s done, let’s go over the overnight checklist with her and make sure we’re not missing anything. After that, I think we’re done for the night. Oh, and Gemma?”

I looked up at the sound of my name.

“I’ve got stuff to do tonight, but I hereby claim sister time with you tomorrow. Deal?”

“Deal.” I smiled into my sweet sister’s face. I’d missed her so much.

Hannah hurried off, and I lost track of the others’ conversations as I watched Zola sit across from Eyre on a cushion on the other side of the rug. Eyre put her hands on her thighs, palms down, and closed her eyes. Zola held her open palms above Eyre’s hands without touching them. She held her hands there for several minutes, and every so often she waved her hands to the side, as if wafting something away from Eyre’s body.

“Can I get you anything else?”

Beck’s voice startled me. I turned to see him standing before me with his hands outstretched. He pointed at my lunchbox and dishes.

“Oh!” I scrambled to pack everything neatly into the lunch box for him, and handed it off as I stood. “No, thank you. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Well, Eyre’s got dish duty,” he said, loading our things onto the cart. “But do you wanna go look at the box of spells?”

“Sure.”

He placed all the items on the cart and headed toward the stage, scooping up my friend the tabby on his way. He kissed his head and held him against his chest.

“Who’s this?” I asked.

“This is my sweet boy Oberon Galileo Breaux, but his friends call him Oby. He’s a real love machine.” Oby sniffed Beck’s face, nose to nose, before Beck poured him onto the stage and pulled the beat-up cardboard box to the edge.

Oby came to me and rubbed his whole body against my hand. “Hey Oby,” I cooed, “you are a sweet, fluffy baby.” Oby purred like a ’56 Vespian hovercycle.

While I was giving Oby scratchies, Beck pulled the box, overflowing with rolled up papers and notebooks, off the stage and sat it on the floor, crouching in front of it to lift some papers out and show me the contents.

“We were in such a rush. It’s a big mess.”

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