The Last Fallen Star, Graci Kim [books to read in your 20s .TXT] 📗

her the truth, Emmett will find out about my Horangi heritage, and that’s the last thing I can deal with right now. Not when we need to save Hattie. My lying streak is just going to have to continue for the time being.

“The truth is, Goddess, my adoptive parents are being charged with the crime of protecting me because I am a saram. I wanted to summon Mago Halmi so I could ask her—like you did once—to be reborn, but as a Gom.” I wipe my eyes and get on my knees. “But now, none of that matters. All that matters is that my sister be okay again. Please, Goddess, I beg of you, please help us save her. I’ll do anything you ask. Anything.”

The goddess pats my back. “What a burden you have been carrying, child. I’m sorry you are hurting. But I admire your honesty. It’s not an easy currency to come by in these troubled times.”

I wince. Honesty is not a virtue I can claim today.

“Unfortunately, I am not allowed to interfere in issues of the Mortalrealm. Mother Mago’s rules.” She looks sadly at Hattie. “As much of a shame as it would be to lose a baby witch—”

“But you must!” I plead, the hysteria building inside me again. “This is all my fault. She wasn’t supposed to get—”

She holds up her open hand. “Let me finish.”

I snap my mouth shut.

“I am moved by your love for your sister. I also have sisters—five of them, in fact. And I, too, would stop at nothing to protect their interests.” She affectionately traces Hattie’s face with her fingers before addressing me again. “Like I said, I’m not allowed to interfere. But since I was summoned, I can offer you a job. And jobs, my dearie, must be compensated, even under Godrealm law. Would you be interested in doing a wee task for me?”

“Yes!” I shout. “Whatever you need!”

The goddess claps, and the moon flickers bright like a ruby. “Wonderful! All you need to do is find me the Godrealm’s last fallen star. It’s a piece of my world that doesn’t belong here. While it can only enhance beauty in the Godrealm, on Earth it can grant its user divine power. That power has driven humans mad with greed and wrought only destruction and despair. I want to remove this evil from your world. If you bring the star to me, I will reward you.” She smiles at me. “You, my child, will be reborn in my image—as a Gom and a healer. And I will restore your sister’s life. This I promise you.”

Emmett squeezes my hand, and I squeeze back with all my might. I have no idea what the Godrealm’s fallen stars are, what they look like, or how we’d go about finding the last one. We are completely out of our depth, and I am terrified. But right now, all that matters is Hattie. And if we have a chance to save her, we must take it.

“I accept!” I blurt out, figuring the goddess will supply more details. “I will find the Godrealm’s last fallen star and bring it to you.”

The goddess grabs her ladle and jumps up to her feet. “Well, isn’t that delightful news!”

“But how will we find you once we have it?” Emmett asks. His voice is trembling, but I’m glad he had the guts to ask, because it’s a good question. Without Hattie, we won’t be able to summon the goddess again.

“Don’t you worry your pretty little heads about that,” says the Cave Bear Goddess. “I will find you.”

She lifts her sand-covered ladle to the sky, and Hattie’s limp body rises from the ground and levitates. “I will take your witch with me for now, for safekeeping, but leave you with a memento of her. However, you should know, the Godrealm is no place for a wee mortal, even if she is a witch. She won’t last long there. When your time is up, the memento will help me locate you.”

The goddess snaps her fingers, and suddenly Hattie’s body disappears into the night air. Emmett and I gasp and leap to our feet.

“Wait…How long—?” I start.

“Well, I’d better be going now,” she says. And, as if on cue, her stomach rumbles. “My stew awaits. But it was a treat meeting you today. I really mean that. And I will see you two very soon.” She gives us a little wave of her ladle, and then just like that, she vanishes, too.

“But you didn’t…” I look at where she was standing a moment ago, and my mind reels. “Em, can you believe—”

But Emmett’s eyes are locked on a spot on the beach.

I follow his gaze and drop to my knees. Something under the sand is glowing.

“What is it?” I dig inside Hattie’s still-fresh outline.

Emmett picks up a small, dark object. “My ring’s here, but I don’t know what that is.”

I keep digging. My fingers land on something hard. I brush off the sand and hold it up to the moonlight. It’s a glass vial, small enough to fit in my palm.

It’s warm, and casting a red light.

And whatever is inside is beating.

I gasp, nearly dropping it back onto the sand. Floating inside the clear glass is a miniature human organ, veined and bloody and pumping steadily.

“What is it?” Emmett bites his lip so hard, a drop of blood blooms on it. “It looks like—”

“A heart. It looks like a heart,” I whisper, the words sticking in my throat.

“Ugh!” Emmett shrieks. “But how? Why?”

“The goddess said she’d leave a memento of Hattie with us. This must be it.”

Emmett undoes his black cord necklace and throws it at me. “Here, use this.”

I tie the cord around the contoured nape of the vial and put it around my neck. Hattie’s shrunken heart hangs like a pendulum next to my own, and suddenly it all hits me like a ton of bricks.

“Em,” I whisper, my voice hard and jagged, “if we can’t find the last fallen star, and