Stars Dancing [Dreams-To-Lovers Romance]

RORY

"Hot damn! And when I say 'hot,' I mean it in alllll the ways! Look at this, Sly! Just look!"

"Smmmmokin!' You're not wrong, Rory. What is that?"

"Red Phoenix, and I can't believe this snippet from the author HC Maron. I mean, listen to this, Slydar. This guy is pitching me his story and sayin' all the right things. How am I not going to make his ebook into graphic novels? Sly! This is everything we need for Known Cosmos Earth Press' last punch. The next few decades can be carried on the wings of the Red Phoenix."

We thought it was over. Yes "we." My wife and I.

It was a car crash. A literal one. It separated us, but not by death, by realities.

Ariel in one world, me in another, weeping and lost.

But it didn't end there. I found breadcrumbs and discovered my niece was a dreamer seeing across realities.

Belief was what came next, and once it took root in my soul, nothing could stop us. Yes, "us."

Because I wasn't the only one who hadn't stopped fighting. Ariel was on the other side, making her way to me. Against all odds and with foes unimaginable, she overcame death to find me again.

And if you think that's impossible, well, I feel for ya. Because you don't yet know the full shape of things. If you want to, then keep reading our story. Yes, "our." For it's not just me who's gonna tell it to you.

Turn the pages to meet the Red Phoenix.

"Haaaaa. Haaa!" Slydar roared. "Hot damn is right, Rory, that guy can write a hook! When do we sign him?"

But the thought couldn't be completed because we heard something that wasn't quite right. It was Bitsy singing to her mirka Lola, but it was off. Sounded flat— no, couldn't be. Bits had perfect pitch. What was she singing? Grandpa Ren's song to Ryst Nova.

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"You find in me the music. Then find what you look for. Promises made. Promises kept," but Bitsy was singing in a minor key, not the upbeat major that her great-grandpa had written it in. Her voice rose, and chills went down my spine as I heard her song and looked at the Red Phoenix in my hands.

Switch was in the next room, and his tenor floated down the hall meeting her soprano, then the two of them shifted into the major key the way the song was written.

"I heard you on the breeze, just like always. I feel how near you are. You are all love and all things."

I couldn't sing. I could do nothing but be captivated and haunted by the moment. Because my grandpa Ren's song had always felt more like foretelling than music.

Those lines, "You find in me the music. Then find what you look for. Promises made. Promises kept" just weren't song lyrics. They didn't flow properly. They were awkward, but Ren didn't write lines without purpose.

Sometimes it was decades before the meaning in his songs was clear. He'd written "The Legend of Sibsil Creed" in the exact moment Ryst Nova and Nayth Carmidee left the Known Cosmos for worlds beyond, and it was more than a year later before he'd understood what it meant. It was that song that'd told us what we needed to do to spread the word about the Unknown Cosmos, after all.

So, why was Bitsy singing his oddest lyric in a minor key while I was holding Red Phoenix?

Babe, Slydar whispered across my mind. Look at the title.

I looked down at my pad and saw what HC Maron's story was called: Quiet Magic. Hadn't I just said those words recently? About how life with my children was full of good memories and quiet magic? What did it all mean—

My thoughts broke off as the window curtains were lifted by a gust of wind, and on it was the scent of costamelon, fresh mountain springs, and somethin' skunky. Slydar guffawed.

"Back again, guys? Twice in one trip. Holy fuck balls, Rory, our family in the Unknown Cosmos keep comin' around on the winds, and we've got a new book, and our kids are singing Ren's prophecies. I guess we better buckle up 'cuz shit's gonna get real, innit?"

All I could do was laugh back at him 'cuz those sorts of things never made sense in the moment; they had to be lived. I looked down at the image on my pad, shaking my head.

Okay, HC Maron, you hooked us. Now, you better fuckin' deliver 'cuz my kids are involved, and you know what a momma does when her kids are on the line? Trust me, you don't wanna find out.

You tell stories of triumphant women who overcome against impossible odds. I need those gals in your imagination to help me break everything everyone has ever understood about the way the Known Cosmos works.

I know books, and I know how to sell them. This one's gonna be called Red Phoenix, and she's gonna soar.

You've got yourself a contract HC, now show me what Quiet Magic truly is.

And I signed him, took his small-time ebooks, and turned them into graphic novels that'll rock your world. Only, I didn't understand that it was a literal rocking until decades later when my grandson Pitch started dreaming, and the foundations of everything shook.

Pitch knew exactly who the Red Phoenix was and what she meant to our family.

Oh don't worry, we'll get to that part of the story when it's time. Bitsy's only twelve years old right now, so her child is a long ways off. You just keep turning the pages 'cuz this story's only gonna get better.