Stars Dancing [Dreams-To-Lovers Romance]

SLYDAR

Well, you already know how this book goes, right? It's a Known Cosmos story, and you've read a bunch of them already. Rory and I wrote the end of Book 3. Our kids grew up and joined the family secret identity business, writing crazy, funny, emotional stories and cartoons for Known Cosmos Earth Press, some of them naughty.

We were the next generation of Sibsil Creed, and we didn't let the public down. We were the last ones keeping watch on the count down after all. It's 2854 now. On Ryst Nova's birthday 2860, the Ayela Arcana Sanctuary will finally open to the public. Only six years to go.

You've already met my kids Switch and Bitsy. Yeah, you don't know that much about them— just teaser stuff to get ya hooked, but they were cool. Of course they were; they were mine.

Oh! I can tell you how my brother Dav got me back for the nappies. Haaaaa. It's a good one. Remember that story where I put used diapers in his closet to ferment like the worst gift ever? Well, he repaid that kindness in turn.

Shakes head. Is glad the past is in the past.

Date night. Everybody knew about it. I thought the locks on our doors were good. I didn't know my stinker of a nephew, Tyke, had put his thumbprint into the lock, but my brother knew. Shit, it was bad.

It was the attic.

And ten pounds of hamburger.

In summer.

While we were on holiday.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

For two weeks.

It was worse than death.

I didn't prank anyone after that. Yeah, me, Sly Fox, I gave up, and let my brother have the last laugh.

Until I didn't.

It was his sixtieth birthday party. All fancy like. Caterers. Big yard party. Candles and streamers.

I put little popper fireworks all over the yard in the dark so people kept thinkin' gunshots were going off every time they stepped on one. Not really a great idea for people at that age, if I'm being honest. No heart attacks, though.

But I think the potty got a lot of use.

I'm not sure if Dav ever figured out it was me. We buried him ten years after that.

Well, what did you expect? It's the last chapter, and I'm eighty-seven years old. What else do people my age talk about? Wanna hear about my creaky joints, or my prostate?

Heh. It's six more years 'til the Ayela Arcana Sanctuary opens to the public. We've got everything ready. This is the last book I know about. Unless my kids pony up and right theirs. Dunno if that's gonna happen. They had their hands full with all the graphic novels and animations.

We did so many seasons of Eclipse Chasers that it got outta control popular, and a big station in Milky Way picked it up. It'd been on stream for decades, then it blew up as a serial on a major outlet. That's not even mentioning what happened after Red Phoenix made her debut, but that's a story for another time.

Bitsy had the best talent for writing really funny animated scenes then smashing hearts with deadly emotion, and she had sixteen seasons under her belt when she stepped away from it. I don't know if she'll ever want to tell her personal story in a book. You'll have to ask her if you wanna hear it.

I'm plannin' to hang on 'til the deadline is up, and I think I'm gonna make it. Rory's still kickin' it too. We've got great-grandkids now, so our lives are full. You had to wonder why this book was so short, right?

'Cuz a life. Life is what happens in between the lines on the page. We try to write it down, but sometimes all you get are these broad strokes.

We lived happily, well loved, and wrote a lot of stories. People found us and came to Five Spheres. So far, it's been safe and life is good here, at least as good as it is everywhere else, and better for us 'cuz we know who we are, and we know where we're going.

We're gonna live out our lives in Nineton, but that's not where it ends. All our family who's moved on? Our friends? They're not gone. They're in the Unknown Cosmos, and we're gonna join them.

Just not yet.

When the time is right. Whenever that is.

Oh, and I didn't mention the earthquakes, did I? Oops.