Stars Dancing [Dreams-To-Lovers Romance]

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RORY

Muller tends towards the paranoid, so I don't know him well. I suppose some would say that I met him by chance at the Cavern of Lights decades ago, but to me, it was a thing that needed to happen, so it happened. And you already know the story of how he met Slick, Uncle Ronnie sent me.

Mental nod. Yeah, I knew. I'd read Known Cosmos Book 3, the story of my Auntie Shah and Uncle Euri. Yep, it was an erotic space opera, and I'd read it when I was eighteen. How did I get through all the dirty talk? Well, before I read the book, I changed their names to Vicky and Ben. So, it wasn't about my family. It was just a dumb smut book I had to proofread for work.

So, I knew that Shah and Euri had match made Slick Joon and Muller Welcoll on the telepathic plane, and had gone to their pyrotechnic wedding a year later, but other than that, I knew nothing about Slydar's life. Apparently, he was on Dliptonia in Maglen Galaxy, which we were headed for aboard the One Star. But it would take us two weeks to get there, so I had all the time in the world to research the home sphere of my mysterious telepathic lover.

Was he still on Dliptonia? I couldn't tell. Ronnie and Cyn weren't positive, but their senses seemed to be telling them that Dliptonia was at least the correct direction. No one but Slydar was palpable to us, and he was only a barely-there whiff. He hadn't ghosted me again, but he was only a faint presence. As though he was sleeping, but 24/7. This was a technique we telepaths used when we wanted privacy, but didn't want to be rude to the people we cared about.

I was used to it because it had happened to me a lot when I was a nosy kid who liked to pop in on the telepathic adults in my life. But I wasn't particularly fond of Slydar doing it to me.

Uncle Ronnie continued, We haven't seen them since their wedding, but we used to hear from them every now and then. Usually when they added to their family. There are four kids, and Slydar is the youngest. All strong telepaths. None of them born documented. They used unlicensed adoptions or surrogates and off-the-books midwives. It's not barbaric; it's just outside the system. That's why you can't find Slydar's name anywhere, and that is exactly how Muller likes it.

Mental nod. If you were a family of telepaths, slightly paranoid, you'd want to hide. And off the books was appealing, even if it made life more difficult in some ways.

About ten years ago, Muller got melanoma— you know he's an albino, right?

Mental nod.

I don't know what happened, how the treatment went, but I know he lived. I haven't been in touch with them since then, so I don't know what they are facing right now, but it could be any of those things coming back around to bite them, Rory.

Mental nod. That or any number of other things. Thanks Uncle Ronnie.

We'll figure this out, Rory. I know it's a lot of time crossing the galaxy, and I know this isn't easy, but Cyn and I are here. And Etta too.

Mental smile. Etta was Ronnie's latest mirka pal. I'd bonded one of the sweet rodents as a child, but at ten, he'd died and the heartbreak wasn't something I wanted to experience again, so I didn't have a furry companion now. Etta peeked around my doorframe, and I motioned her over. She jumped up on my lap, and her thrumming calmed my nerves in a heartbeat.

I sent my senses questing towards Slydar. Still that same "I'm sleeping" presence. I wanted to feel his warmth wrap all around me. I wanted to hold him again, tell him that I loved him, no matter what was going on. But maybe it was better that he didn't know I was hurtling across the Cosmos on my way to find him. If he thought I should stay away, maybe this mental distance was for the best.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

I pulled up a file and started reviewing copy. No, I wasn't an editor or a writer. I was a marketer. Two more University terms, and I'd have my degree, but I'd been working in advertising since I was fourteen. Just for the family businesses. Yeah, both of them.

Produced by Peydran was my pop-pop's design firm, and the Known Cosmos Earth Press was the family's secret identity. Ohhh, yeah, this story has all kinds of mysteries layered within it. Aren't you excited now? "The Press" as we called it for short was in full swing, producing cartoon erotica, animating miniseries for family and adults, and publishing graphic novels.

All of that was just basically advertising. Mostly, teasers, tastes of what was to come. My pop-pop's best friend Ryst had vanished from the Known Cosmos decades ago and left instructions to publish her diaries in 150 years. So in 2860, the Press would open the Ayela Arcana Sanctuary to the public. And inside would be the books of the Known Cosmos series, telling people everything that had happened to Ryst Nova and exactly what was wrong with the reality we all lived in.

And the truth about people like me and my family: that Talented were real and hiding in plain sight. We hid, but we told true stories in animation and graphics and encouraged people like us to come to Five Spheres if they wanted camaraderie.

How's that for a secret identity? Yeah, so that was my side job: advertising for the Press while I was employed by Produced by Peydran doing regular 'ole marketing for contracted projects.

Marketing, yep, that's what I did. Because I knew how to get people to look twice: I made them feel. Art wasn't just images, it was what arose in the person when they looked at it.

If you want people to read your book, make them feel when they see your cover. Your character's a rage head? Your reader sees fury in the cover. You got a smut book? Evoke lust. Comedy? The viewer smiles at happy faces.

Emotion. Yes, emotion was my super power.

That's where being a telepath really helped me shine: because telepathy is all about feeling. I know I'm typing this in text so it looks like my conversations with Ronnie and Cyn were words, but in real life, it wasn't like that. It wasn't really words. We could use words, yeah, and we did at times, but the real communication was the feelings. It was all about subtext.

I tried to put that in this book, but I don't know if I was able to really show you what it's like to feel another person and to use that to communicate.

But I used that sense, that constant awareness of feeling to market our products to the masses. And it worked. We did a lot of good with the Press. Thousands of Talented migrated to Five Spheres where Uncle Ronnie's parents were. Millions of Shurwinn went just to get the colonies started, and over time, telepaths, animal communicators, and augments who'd hacked their cybernetic relays found their way there too.

I visited sometimes— a sudden thought struck me.

Uncle Ronnie! I realized I was mentally shouting and toned it down.

Humor. Openness.

Why didn't Slick and Muller go to Five Spheres? They could've raised—

He cut me off. A paranoid person doesn't see that as a safe option, Rory. It's a target, not a home, from his point of view.

Mental nod. I got that. I could see how it could seem more fearful than welcoming. Troubling, though. How was I ever going to pry Slydar out of that level of distrust?

Should I? Or was I the one who was out of touch with reality? I'd never felt unsafe in my life. I'd always been cushioned by people who loved me and understood me.

Uncle Ronnie?

Openness.

Are we unsafe? Is it risky? Is Five Spheres a target?

There's a difference between possibility and probability. Is life safe? And what constitutes safety, Rory? At what point is something undesirable a threat?

I thought about it a minute.

Well, if someone takes away my ability to choose for myself. I don't want to be put in a lab and studied. I don't want to be forced to spy telepathically for a greedy, unscrupulous corporation. I don't want to steal secrets for someone else's gain.

Pride.

So, are we at risk, Uncle? Is Muller right? Is Five Spheres a target? whispered my insecure mental voice.

Tenderness. Kindness.

The Known Cosmos can be unkind, Rory. There is always risk that the dishonorable will use and abuse those around them. It doesn't matter if you are different, it only matters that you are beside them as they scheme. So from that perspective, every living being is at risk, and no one is safe.

Mental nod. There was no shortage of trauma in the 9 Galaxies, and if I opened by mental senses wide, I'd been inundated with the emotional impact that fact had on the quadrillions who resided here. Biting my lip, I mulled this over.

So, is it a safer life for everyone gathered on Five Spheres? Or would it be better if they didn't retreat there? If all the Talented lived separate lives, disjointed from each other?

How would they answer that question?

Well, they chose it, didn't they? It was what they wanted, so if someone said they should disband and go their separate ways, well, then, they'd probably feel suffocated. For them, maybe the risk and the fear is worth the life they can have living freely and openly with who they really are. Relief filled me as I thought it.

Pride from my uncle.

Was that something that could appeal to Slydar's family? Was the distrust too ingrained to get them to consider it? Or was something else entirely going on with them? Was there something actually dangerous happening? Or was it engrained paranoia?

I wasn't gonna find out just by sitting back and letting Slydar put me on snooze. No, it was time to switch tactics with my confounding man. You get ready Slydar Joon, 'cuz I'm about to change the game, sweetheart.