Page 16 of Meet Me in the Stars

“You never know,” Clarence said.

“He’s in therapy still,” Teddy said.

“That’s personal,” Clarence shot him a dirty look, that was more kinship than actual anger.

While they bickered like teammates, I checked the box. The scroll vibrated and something akin to a QR code appeared on the bottom of the page under the check boxes. Clarence and Teddy fell silent and leaned in closer to examine it.

“Scan it with your phone,” Teddy said.

“My phone?” I asked.

I’d barely had time to get dressed before he dragged me into the kitchen at Duke’s house.

“It’s in your pocket. We kept it charged and on while you were out cold. We kept it in the pocket of the outfit we always kept ready for you. We didn’t know what you’d want when you woke up.”

I fished the phone out of my pocket. My home screen was still a photo of Lotus laughing at a joke I no longer remembered. I swallowed hard. Maybe she had died just yesterday and all this – the nap and the scrolls were just a fever dream of grief.

I unlocked the phone and ignored all the missed calls and texts. I scanned the code and the scroll vibrated again.

“Downloading now,” my phone said, and Clarence frowned.

“It’s not going to explode, Clarry,” Teddy rolled his eyes.

“We don’t know that,” he furrowed his brow.

“Projecting now,” my phone said.

“Projecting. Not exploding,” Teddy said.

“Shush, both of you and someone turn out the light,” I said.

Teddy told his Magi house system to turn out the lights and the house went dark except for a map projecting through my phone’s camera. It wasn’t an ordinary map. It was a star map. Between the stars were little yellow dots marking the path from Earthside to what I assumed was whatever planet the Starscales ended on.

“Yellow was her favorite color,” my dragon pointed out.

He still only had one eye open. It would take pounding music and at least a keg of coffee to get him on his feet.

“That planet doesn’t exist,” Clarence said, glancing down at his phone screen.

“Well, maybe it’s a prank then.”

“Let me take your phone,” he started, and I swerved before he could take it.

“No,” I shook my head. “This is my phone. This has my personal stuff on it. You try to take it and Cade’s going to have to leave Heartville sooner than anyone planned because you won’t be in any condition to lead anything.”

“Calm down,” Clarence sighed. “I don’t want to see your dick pics. I want to take it to the lab to be examined.”

“No,” I said. “My videos of Lotus and the kids when they were little---”

“Are stored in the cloud,” Clarence tried again.

“No. The answer is no. My phone goes where I go.”

Teddy stood up too.

“We’re not going to fight, Teddy,” Clarence said. “Don’t punch me again!”

“When did he punch you?” I asked.

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