Page 14 of Meet Me in the Stars

Clarence rolled his eyes at the nickname, and I arched an eyebrow at him.

“Calm down. You smell like I’m trying to seduce him. We’re in the same air rugby league whenever we can get another team to play against.”

“Good,” I nodded. “I don’t care who polys, but don’t drag my kids into your politics.”

“Polys? That is not a verb,” Clarence shook his head. “Medwin and I do not poly.”

“Good,” I nodded again.

“This is why I wanted to talk to you alone,” Clarence said, setting his expression blank like he always had when he was getting irritated but trying to hold his composure to get the job done.

“Because you don’t poly?” I teased him.

“Because I remembered how easily distracted you are,” he said.

“Says the man with diagnosed shiny-mania,” I shrugged.

“Says the man who opened Glitter Bomb, the club that still has the GGB territory covered in glitter.”

“That sounds like a win to me,” I shrugged, happy to hear Feral still had the club up and running all these years later.

“Can we stay on the subject?” Clarence asked, a smoke ring escaping his nose.

“You’re doing it again. Medwin’s going to put you back on those mood vitamins,” Teddy teased him.

“What subject? The shiny-mania?” I asked because I couldn’t help myself.

“No!” Clarence huffed. “The fact that all the known Other World gateways had scrolls tossed through them.”

“Huh?” Teddy and I grunted at the same time.

“Yes, all of them that we know of. All addressed to the flight, but all about you,” Clarence pointed at me.

“About me?” I arched a brow. “Maybe it was an elaborate prank.”

“We considered that. Only the elves on either side of the gateways didn’t see anyone,” Clarence said. “No one gets past those elves that easily.”

“What did they say?” Teddy asked before I could.

“That they’re willing to give us the space flight path to them, but only if they get a response from Freddie Moonscale.”

“Freddie?” I arched my brow higher. “No one really calls me that anymore. Maybe Blake. Lotus always, but not the general population.”

“I know,” Clarence sighed. “We have our theories, but we’re not ready to share them.”

“Them maybe I’m not willing to help you,” I sank into the fluffy sofa back and crossed my arms over my chest.

“They think Mom might be over there, don’t they?” Teddy asked Clarence.

“It has crossed our minds. It’s been almost forty years since she died. We don’t know how long reincarnation takes. Hell, we’re not even sure there’s a set amount of time for it.”

“Why else would they ask for Dad? Why not Brendan Moonscale? He’s descended from one of their flight who didn’t leave with them.”

Clarence squeezed the bridge of his nose and for a second I almost felt bad for him. Then I realized that he wouldn’t have copped up to his theory if Teddy hadn’t called him out on it.

“You weren’t going to tell me?” I asked when he finally quit trying to break his own nose.

“I didn’t want to get your hopes up. We thought it was moot. Frederique, some of us resigned ourselves to the fact that you might sleep forever. We thought the missive was a lost cause because if you were asleep, you couldn’t answer anything. You woke up. You woke up so close to them being tossed through. I still don’t want you to get your hopes up. If it turns out that we’re wrong and maybe someone else you know stumbled there and they want you to come get them,” Clarence sighed and shook his head. “If it were Medwin and someone got my hopes up I’d burn down their whole fucking lives.”

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