The Last Fallen Star

by Graci Kim

  “We can solve this on our own. My parents have enough on their plates as it is. I got us into this mess, and I will get us out. I can do this. I will do this.”

  He frowns, and I can tell there’s a lot more he wants to say.

  “Just one more day,” he finally says. “One day, and then we get the adults involved.”

  “Five.” My heart is racing.

  “Two. And that’s my final offer.”

  “Fine,” I say, relenting. “Two days.”

  He squirms, but nods. “Then tell me, Sherlock. Where do we start?”

  I think of Hattie. What would she do in this situation?

  “When Hattie and I do jigsaw puzzles, she always starts with the edge pieces,” I say. “We need to do the same thing now—start with the edges, or what we know, and work our way in.”

  Emmett rubs his temples. “Okay, Emmett Harrison, think. Think. You’ve conquered fifty planets on Battle Galactic—you’ve got this. What do you know about stars?”

  He closes his eyes for a moment, and then turns to me. “For starters, I know there’s no such thing as a fallen star. There are falling stars, but they’re just streaks of light you can see from the Earth when meteoroids enter our atmosphere and burn up. They’re not really stars at all.”

  He closes his eyes again, then bites his lip. “Man, if only we could get into the Griffith Observatory. There are some amazing resources there.” He looks up at the sky, where the sun has only just started to rise. “But it won’t be open yet. It’s too early.”

  A small flicker of hope kindles inside me. “Em, I overheard Cosette Chung, one of the girls at Saturday School, say she was going to be at the Griffith Observatory all week. Some type of sleepover summer program for budding astronomers. Maybe she’ll let us in.”

  Emmett’s eyes brighten. “Now you’re talking. Can you text her and double-check?”

  I reach into my damp pocket to DM Cosette on Instagram, only to realize my mistake. “Darn it!” I say, pulling out my phone. It’s dripping like a tap. “I…I guess I forgot to leave my phone behind when I went into the ocean.”

  “Sorry,” says Emmett. “I’d offer you a bag of rice to dry it in, but I’m fresh out.”

  I press the phone’s power button, already knowing it won’t turn on. “It’s ruined.” I want to collapse on the sand and cry.

  “And mine is out of juice,” Emmett reminds me.

  “What are we going to do?” I ask, on the verge of panic.

  “We’ll just have to turn up and hope this girl lets us in.”

  “But how are we going to get there? Without a phone, we can’t get a ride….”

  I look over at the small scooter, still lying in the sand where Hattie left him. “I guess we’ll have to take the dragon-on-wheels.”

  Emmett makes a face. “But he’s so creepy. We could walk?”

  I pull Hattie’s heart vial from under my sweater and dangle it in Emmett’s face. “Do you think we have time to walk right now? It’ll take us half a day just to get there.”

  He swallows. “You’re right. But I’m not touching him. You drive, and I’ll hold on to you.”

  “Wimp.”

  I carefully unfold Boris and turn the handlebars left and right to get a feel for him. He’s kind of slimy to the touch, and I wonder how we’re both going to stay on. “Sorry in advance for being so heavy,” I say to the scooter. “You probably aren’t used to carrying two people, but we need to get to the Griffith Observatory as fast as we can.”

  Boris’s tail wags in response, and with that encouragement, I gingerly step aboard. Emmett quickly gets on after me and wraps his arms around my waist like a baby koala. Boris lets out a groan but stays upright. Then he bounces slightly, as if testing the new weight.

  “Here goes nothing.” I go to lower my right foot to push off, only to realize that it’s stuck on the scooter. “What the—?” I look down to see Boris’s blue scales spreading over my feet. They unfurl like a second skin, until the cold sliminess has swallowed me right up to the calves. It feels like I’m encased in wet concrete. But at the same time it seems secure, as if I’ve been strapped on tight to a snowboard.

  “Ahh!” Emmett shrieks, hopping from one foot to the other. “He’s eating you alive!”

  Boris’s ears and wings start to flap, and I grip the handlebars. “Hold on tight, Em!” I yell. “I don’t think I’m the one driving!”

  And sure enough, as soon as the words escape my mouth, we start to move. Fast. So fast I don’t even get a chance to close my mouth. The world blurs past us in dark blues and greens, and I’m glad it’s too early for any saram to see us. I’m pretty sure I swallow at least three flies.

  We make excellent time and, thanks to the whooshing air, our clothes are now mostly dry and sand-free. I really can’t complain, but I wish we hadn’t left my stomach back at the beach.

  When we eventually come to a stop at the pointy obelisk outside the Griffith Observatory, the sun has almost fully risen. It’s hard to tell without our phones, but I’m guessing it’s almost six a.m. I hope Cosette is an early riser.

  The blue scales retract from my skin, and Boris lets go of my feet. And it’s a good thing, too, because as soon as Emmett and I stumble off him, we both hurl the contents of our stomachs onto the monument. I guess I didn’t leave mine at the beach after all.

  Emmett groans and looks up apologetically at one of the faces carved into the Astronomers Monument. “Sorry, Galileo. But you’ll be happy to know the Earth still orbits the sun.”

  With Boris tucked under my arm, Emmett and I make our way to the entrance of the cream-colored domed building. As we’d guessed, the main doors are shut tight. But taped to one of them is a poster advertising the Summer Camp for Future Astronomers program.

  I study the building and grounds. “Let’s go around,” I say. “Maybe there’s a back entrance.”

  We walk the perimeter of the structure, trying every door in sight, but each one is bolted shut. Eventually, there’s only one left to try.

  “Here goes nothing.” I give the handle a slight tug, only to find that this door, like the others, is locked. “Nooo!” I cry, banging my head against the glass.

  “Um, Riley?” a female voice calls out. “Riley Oh?”

  I look up, startled.

  A beautiful K-pop apparition has appeared on the other side of the glass door, already dressed for the day in a navy camp polo over pressed khakis. She looks at me with wide eyes. “What are you doing here?”

  I squeal. “Cosette!” I point to the door handle. “What are the chances! Let us in, please. We need your help!”

  Cosette looks behind her, as if checking that the coast is clear. Then she cautiously opens the door but doesn’t invite us in. She narrows her eyes, and all I see are her ridiculously long eyelashes. “You’re not allowed in here,” she says, giving a quirk of the eyebrow when she sees Boris. “Everyone’s going to be awake soon.”

  “Please!” I say. “We won’t tell anyone we saw you. We just need to get inside.”

  “But why? Just come back after noon, when it opens to the public.” She gives Emmett a look as if to say And who the heck are you? before glancing back at me. Her forehead suddenly creases as if she’s just remembered something. “Besides, my parents will kill me if they find out I talked to you.”

  Wow, news travels fast around here. I don’t think I saw Cosette at Hattie’s ceremony, but it’s obvious she knows I’m one of the cursed clan.

  She goes to shut the door, but I wedge my foot into the gap before she can close it completely. I open my mouth to quickly change the subject….

  But Emmett talks first. “Hey, where did you get that?” He points to the shiny silver badge on Cosette’s shirt that reads SPACE PIR8S RULE THE GALAXY. “How do you know about the Space Pirates?”

  Her frown transforms into a proud grin. “Because it’s my squad. We’ve conquered fifty planets in the galaxy, and we might even get external sponsorship this year. We
’re that good. Why? Do you play Battle Galactic, too?”

  Emmett’s jaw drops open. “No. Way. No freaking way!”

  Cosette scowls. “Hey, don’t knock it before you try it. It’s an amazing game.”

  His eyebrows twitch in concentration. “Cosette…Cosette…” he mumbles under his breath. Then he freezes. “Cosette as in CasetteTape99?!”

  She puts her hands on her hips. “Wait, how do you know my username? Are you some kind of spy for the Darth Invaders? Because we will destroy you.”

  “It’s me!” Emmett exclaims, waving his hands in excitement. “I’m BakersDelight. My real name is Emmett.”

  This time it’s Cosette’s jaw that drops. “No. Freaking. Way. Are you serious right now?! I can’t believe we’re finally meeting in real life! And like this!”

  They high-ten and grin at each other like clowns.

  “Uh, care to explain?” I ask Emmett.

  He slaps me on the shoulder. “She’s the captain of our spaceship, Rye! We’re on the same squad!”

  Cosette jumps up and down. “Your friend Emmett is my chief commanding officer.” She tosses her hair and flashes a perfect-toothed smile. “Wow, what a small world!”

  “I know, right?!” They give each other another round of high tens and I genuinely can’t recall the last time I saw Emmett so pumped. I feel a weird pang of jealousy.

  I elbow Emmett in the side. “We’re kinda in a hurry right now,” I remind him, tapping the vial underneath my top.

  That sobers him right up. “Yes, of course, totally. I’ve got this.” He turns to Cosette, all business. “Captain, remember the time the Darth Invaders ambushed us on Planet Kangshee and we had to risk everything to go on a rescue mission to save Cadet PJO4eva?”

  She nods solemnly. “That’s a day I will never forget, Commander.”

  “Well, Riley and I are on a similar rescue mission. One of our crew is in grave danger, and we need to save her. We are willing to do whatever it takes, and we need your help.”

  Cosette listens, then looks over at me contemplatively. She frowns slightly, but eventually, she offers Emmett her hand. “I will do everything in my power to help you, Commander BakersDelight. You have my word. Fly or die.”

  Emmett shakes her hand and grins. “Fly or die.”

  She opens the door wider and invites us in, putting a finger to her lips. She leads us on tiptoe past an exhibit with a large pendulum ball hanging over a hole and then ushers us into a small meeting room. “We should be left alone in here.” She takes a seat and leans her elbows on the table. “So how can I help, team?”

  “We’re looking for some information,” I start, resting an exhausted-looking Boris against the wall. “About…stars.”

  Cosette nods. “Well, you’ve definitely come to the best place for that. What do you want to know?”

  “Have you ever heard of the Godrealm’s last fallen star?” I ask.

  “Hmm.” She cocks her head. “Can’t say that I have. But you’re not going to find anything about the Godrealm here. It’s strictly saram stuff.”

  “You’re sure?” I press. “Nothing about falling stars?”

  She taps her fingers on the table. “It does kind of remind me of something my sister performed in the Saturday School talent quest last year.”

  “What was it?” Emmett asks.

  “One of the old legends. About back when there were two suns and two moons in the sky. I’m pretty sure it mentioned something about the Godrealm’s stars.”

  Emmett and I look at each other.

  “You don’t happen to remember the story, do you?” I ask. “Any part of it at all?”

  She takes out her phone and puts it on the table. “No, but I have something even better. Adeline uploaded it to a private Vimeo so the family could watch it.”

  Emmett and I wait eagerly as Cosette searches for the link.

  “Bingo!” She props up her phone at an angle so we can all see, and we huddle around the screen as the video loads.

  Adeline looks just like Cosette but a few years older and taller, with wavy dark hair flowing down to her waist and that same creamy, flawless complexion. She’s dressed in a beautiful long robe of Gumiho silver that shimmers and sparkles as if made of stardust. In the clip, Adeline walks onto the stage and then waves at someone off-camera. She closes her eyes and takes a big breath before beginning her performance.

  “Our legends tell of a time when two suns and two moons adorned the sky. There were no days, no nights, no passage of time. They called this the Age of the Godrealm.”

  Adeline’s voice is deep and velvety, and I’m immediately drawn in.

  “One day, upon considering the luminous sky, the six goddesses asked the mother a question. ‘Mago Halmi, why are there two suns and two moons?’

  “The mother of all creation responded, ‘They are each a pair—a dark sun for a light sun, a dark moon for a light moon. They represent a balanced set of scales, like the eum and yang, built in perfect equilibrium, as you are.’”

  Adeline uses her glamour magic to turn the stage into the night sky, and then creates the illusion of the two suns and two moons floating majestically above her. The backdrop makes her look ethereal, and my eyes are glued to the sight. I’ve always known about this legend—it’s where the gifted mark originated, after all—but I’ve never heard the end of the story, and how we got the sky we have today.

  The performance continues.

  “But the goddesses did not understand, and so Mago Halmi thus explained, ‘There is light within us all, as there is darkness within us all. These two absolutes make us whole. This is the way of the universe.’”

  I lean in even closer toward the small phone screen.

  “This revelation, however, distressed the six goddesses. They could not accept that divine beings such as themselves could be flawed. They deemed the dark sun and dark moon—symbols of their inner darkness—an unsightly reminder of their weakness. So they hatched a plan. They commanded Mago Halmi’s guardian pet, the Haetae, to leap into the sky and devour the dark sun and dark moon.”

  Adeline waves her hand, and suddenly the dark sun and moon floating above her explode, sending a shower of light falling down onto her shoulders.

  “When the uni-horned lion beast bit into the dark sun and dark moon, shards ricocheted to all corners of the sky, peppering the wide expanse with twinkling pockets of light. Some smaller fragments fell to the Mortalrealm—our Earth—to be lost to the Godrealm forever.”

  Emmett breathes out, and I look over to see his eyes all wide and curious. I know he’d never admit it, but he’s enjoying this gifted legend as much as I am.

  “Mago Halmi was saddened by the goddesses’ actions, because their selfish vanity led them to destroy her precious creations. So the Mother punished them by closing the doors between the realms, thereby preventing the goddesses from entering the Mortalrealm at their will. This is why the gifted clans came to be, to do the will of the goddesses on Earth.”

  Adeline turns to the audience and raises her arms in a final flourish.

  “And so Mago Halmi left the twinkling shards of the dark sun and dark moon in the sky—what we now call the stars—to serve as a reminder of what the world had lost.”

  The clip ends, and Cosette leans back in her chair. “She’s good, right?”

  “That’s pretty epic.” Emmett gives Cosette an approving look. “Your sister’s really talented.”

  As they excitedly discuss whether or not Adeline should get an agent, one line from the monologue keeps playing in my head.

  Some smaller fragments fell to the Mortalrealm—our Earth—to be lost to the Godrealm forever.

  I slap my palm on the table. “Oh my Mago! That’s what we have to find. The last fallen fragment of a dark sun or moon!”

  The color drains from Emmett’s face. “Holy shirtballs, how are we supposed to find that?”

  Cosette puts her phone in her pocket and swivels in her chair a few times. “I’m get
ting the sense that this is a need-to-know mission, and I respect that.” She stops spinning and faces us. “But if I wanted to know more about the star, I’d try the gifted library. According to my mom, it’s a treasure trove of info. I know no one’s been able to activate the sacred texts since the Horangi left, but I dunno—maybe you could figure it out?” She glances meaningfully at me and I quickly look away before Emmett can pick up on the subtext. “That is, if you can get in. It’s still restricted entry.”

  I swallow. It’s actually not a bad idea. But the library’s inside the temple, and Emmett isn’t allowed to enter—not since his dad had the council ban him from the grounds. Plus, after what happened at Hattie’s initiation, I won’t be welcome there, either.

  Then there’s what Jennie said at Saturday School. The strongest Miru are guarding the entrance. Even if we managed to enter the temple, there’s no guarantee we could get past the protectors.

  Emmett and I both grimace, and Cosette pauses, reading our expressions.

  She pushes back her chair and rises to her feet. “I shouldn’t be doing this, but”—she puts her hand over her Space Pirates badge—“I promised I’d do everything in my power to help. So, if you want, I’ll glamour you both as Gumiho so you can get into the temple. The effect will only last an hour or so, though, so you’ll have to be quick. And once you’re there, I won’t be able to help you access the library. For that part, you’re on your own.”

  I’m rendered speechless. I’d always kept my distance from Cosette because of her closeness with Jennie. But maybe I’d misjudged her. If she’s willing to go this far for Emmett—and all the while knowing I’m Horangi—then she’s definitely a good egg.

  “Thanks, Captain CasetteTape99,” Emmett says, rising to his feet, too. “Space Pirates forever.”

  “Space Pirates forever.” Cosette rubs her Gi against her skin. “Are you guys ready? This might feel kinda weird at first, but I promise it won’t hurt.” She closes her eyes and starts chanting.