The Chaos of Stars

A hand comes down softly on my shoulder and I scream, sitting up straight.

“It’s me! Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Ry holds out a hand to help me out of the car.

I stare at him. “What are you still doing here?”

“I said I wasn’t going to leave until you told me that Sirus was here and everything was okay. I meant it. I’ve been sitting in my truck researching concussions.”

I take his hand and almost fall getting out of the car. “I need to get to the airport. I have to go to Egypt right now.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re going to kill my mom! Hathor and Anubis are going to kill her, and she’s not answering her phone, and if she dies there will be no one strong enough to bring her back to life.”

“Come on,” he says, grabbing my hand and running with me to his truck. He peels out, dialing his phone. “Mom, we need the Lear. Isadora’s family is in trouble.”

“I don’t know how to buy a plane ticket,” I say, desperation and despair washing over me.

Ry looks at me, the phone still to his ear. “You don’t need to. We’re going to fly you to Egypt. My family has a plane; it’s gassed up and ready for a trip my parents were going to take tomorrow.”

“But—”

“It will take a fraction of the time flying a normal plane would. I’m going to get you there, and we’re going to save your mom. I promise.”

He goes back to the conversation and nods. “Okay, yeah, tell Aunt Iris we need her there now. Thanks, Mom. I love you.” He hangs up, then hands me the phone. “Keep trying your mom.”

“Thank you.” My voice cracks. “Thank you.” I dial the number I now have memorized, then listen, each ring sounding longer and farther away. It rings and rings and rings.

A bump jars me awake. I don’t know where I am or why the whole world is dim and shaking. There are leather seats that look like armchairs, and wood paneling, but it’s narrow and . . .

My mother. The jet. Ry. I rub my eyes, my stomach roiling with motion sickness. The combination of concussion (I will never admit to Tyler that I actually have one) and the sleep-aid pain meds I took has left me utterly disoriented. Ry tried valiantly to keep me awake, but I dropped off several times.

“We’re getting close,” Ry says, opening the shade to look out the window. Another bunch of turbulence makes my teeth rattle.

“Is it always this bumpy?”

He runs a hand through his hair and smiles sheepishly. “Well, we’re getting a little help. Iris, the pilot and my, uh, aunt? She’s married to Zephyrus. He’s kind of the west wind. So he’s been speeding us along.”

I can’t get past how weird it is that he has the same type of family I do. He must have as many crazy stories as as me. I think I’d like to hear them someday.

“Did my mother call?”

“No. I’ve tried calling her every fifteen minutes. No answer.”

I nod, pursing my lips and gritting my teeth.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Get home. Warn my mother. That’s about the extent of it.”

“And if Anubis and Hathor are there?”

I finger the amulets in my pocket, rubbing their contours like I can will the magic toward my mother. “I’ll figure something out.”

He looks like he wants to say something else, then he nods. “Okay.”

I wish I were still asleep. Sitting here in the air, doing nothing while my mother could be dying right now, could already be dead . . . “Can we go any faster?”

“Not without risking the whole jet falling apart.”