Page 68 of Bound By Stars

Tar stares at the table, frowning. “I can’t remember if I locked up the bunny bots.”

“I’m sure they’re fine.” Curran takes a glass off the tray being offered around by a porter and hands one to Tar. A noisy group of middle-aged people all holding champagne flutes waves, urging him to join them. He takes a long sip and nods to the insistent group. “I’ll be back.”

Right, Jupiter mentioned he’s an heir, too. An important one with a powerful family.

Tar doesn’t seem to be listening, his eyes distant like he’s already left the party. “Yeah, I definitely left their pen open. I have to go check the lab.” He hops up and hurries for the exit, leaving me seated by myself at the large, round table in the middle of the enormous room.

Suddenly alone, I scan the party and weave my fingers together in my lap, which immediately feels wrong.

Shaking out my hands, I cross my arms over my chest.

Nope. Too unfriendly. Asha made a point to mention it when she was finishing my hair.

I uncross them and tuck my hands under my thighs to keep from fidgeting.

Vaguely familiar faces pass, some offering forced smiles, while others ignore me entirely.

My knee bounces under the table. This was a bad idea. I should just leave. There are so many people in here, I can probably slip out the door before anyone notices. Decided, I start to rise.

“Where’s Tar?” Curran stops with his hands on a chairback, scanning the table and then the room.

I don’t know what’s worse, being alone with a Big Six heir I barely know or being the lone Earther sitting solo at the party. I should have run when I had the chance. “Decided to check on his bots.”

“Oh.” Curran swallows and hesitantly pulls out a chair, leaving one empty seat between us.

I guess we’re doing this.

For half the length of a song, he watches the doors across the room, while my gaze wanders, searching for someone, anyone, who might join us. I hardly know anything about Curran aside from the fact that he’s from the oldest Big Six family and he’s Jupiter’s best friend. And he’s in some kind of a something with Tar, but, from what Asha and Jupe have said, it’s complicated. None of this exactly inspires conversation.

At the back of the room, Jupiter stands next to a regal-looking woman. Even if he weren’t at her side, I would know his mother just by looking at her. Same pale hair. Same delicate frame. Same golden-brown eyes.

He glances past her, catching me staring, and grins.

That contagious calm floods through me. Almost like magic, but it’s just Jupiter. It radiates from him. When we first met, I thought people treated him differently because of his family, but it’s more than that. It’s his sincerity that draws people in. He’s so damn kind. Not in a boring or cliché way. He embodies it. Like the word was invented to describe him.

Gesturing to a tall man in a teal suit, his mother shifts to block our connection like she can sense he’s distracted. Her form-fitting burgundy dress swings with the movement where it flares out from her knees, nearly brushing the floor. Twisted and pinned into a neat roll, her hair is as tight as her expression. She keeps her head tilted back slightly, enough that she perpetually looks down her nose over sunken cheeks and narrow lips.

A soft zipping noise pulls my attention back to the table.

Curran mindlessly runs his pendant back and forth along its chain. Catching my glance, he drops it against his chest and adjusts his posture, like he isn’t already sitting as straight-backed as me. He brushes the dark curls off his forehead, his gaze flicking between the tablecloth and the doors again. I wonder if I look that uncomfortable.

It’s almost impossible to get enough oxygen with the thick awkwardness in the air. I’m about to jump out of my chair and brave an interaction with Jupiter’s mother.

Curran clears his throat. “Did you and Jupiter finish your…er…presentation thing?”

Jupiter’s been talking to him about me? No, wait. In the library. He was working on a project, too.

“Yeah. Just finished. How’s your project going?” I brush the curls away from my face and then quickly retract my fingers and place them awkwardly in my lap again, hoping Asha didn’t see.

He frowns like he doesn’t know what I’m talking about and then nods. “Right. Yeah. All done.”

I shift in my chair and twist the champagne flute on the table in front of me. “What was it about again? Family history?”

He nods once, eyes flicking from my face to the doors again as more silence stretches between us. “Have you ever mapped your lineage?”

I shake my head. “Nah. Can’t imagine it would be worth—”

“There you are.” Skye slips into the seat on my opposite side, leaving the empty chair between me and Curran. “I can only handle so many stories about how these old people know my parents. Worst part of these events.” She swallows Tar’s untouched champagne.

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