The Last Fallen Star by Graci Kim (ebook reader with highlighter .txt) 📕

his mouth to disagree, but I nudge him in the side. “Trust me, Em, that’s definitely what you want.”

He mumbles under his breath but doesn’t argue.

“Coming right up.” The woman disappears from the window, and when she returns a few minutes later, she’s holding two large boba teas. They’re more expensive than the rest of the teas, but luckily, I have the money Hattie grabbed from the swear jar. We pay, and she passes the drinks over to us with a wink. “And if you speak a word of this to the council, I will hunt you down.”

The woman gives us a beaming smile and we scurry away with our teas. Who knew infusers were working with the Horangi and selling illegal potions on the black market? And in broad daylight, no less.

We carry our drinks over to the tiger enclosure and stand there taking long sips of the creamy goodness. Mine tastes like taro milk tea mixed with the sweet banana milk you can get from the H-Mart. Yum. We chew happily on the sweet little balls of tapioca, enjoying the momentary respite from the Cave Bear Goddess’s assignment.

“So what now?” Emmett asks.

“I’m not sure. I—”

I frown. Something is off. I scan Emmett’s body from top to toe. And that’s when I see it. Or in this case, don’t see it.

Emmett’s right foot is gone.

“Ahh, your foot!” I shout, pointing at the empty space between his shin and the ground.

Then, before my eyes, more of Emmett starts disappearing. It’s as if someone has taken an eraser and started to rub him out. His other foot goes poof! and then the invisibility spreads up his legs and torso, engulfing poor Boris along the way. Soon, Emmett is nothing more than a floating head.

“OMG, it’s happening to you, too!” Emmett shrieks. I look down to see my limbs have gone AWOL, and my boba tea is floating in midair.

As Emmett turns from a weird bobbing head into nothing at all, I find my eyes blurring until the tiger enclosure and the zoo have faded to black.

When my vision clears again, dense forest surrounds me on all sides, and the sounds of cicadas and birdsong fill my ears. The sun is drooping in the sky, painting a warm golden hue over the trees, and the smell of pine is strong in the air. We aren’t in the zoo anymore—we’re in the mountains. It reminds me of where my family went on a camping trip in the Angeles National Forest a few years ago.

Emmett appears next to me, looking stunned. “I know she said it’d be a trip, but I didn’t think she meant it literally.”

I shake out my limbs, grateful I can see them again. “Be on guard, Em. We don’t know where the Horangi might be hiding.”

“Or what they might do to us,” he mumbles.

Judging by how low the sun is, it’s already late afternoon. If we don’t find the scholars in the next few hours, we’ll have to find somewhere to camp out for the night.

I think of our family trip again and smile when I remember how stubborn Hattie was about putting up the tent by herself. It took her two hours, but she somehow managed to do it before sundown. Which was great, because my blood was half-drained by mosquitos by that point. Eomma and Appa let us roast s’mores on the campfire, and afterward Mong slept with Hattie and me, tucked in tight between our sleeping bags.

A vision of Eomma’s and Appa’s worried faces pops into my mind, and I wonder how they’re dealing with our disappearance. Have they told the police? Will anyone in the gifted community (besides Auntie Okja) help them when they’re in so much trouble with the council?

I sigh. I miss them so much. I miss Mong. I miss our house. I even miss the toilet-sin.

“Let’s start walking,” I suggest to Emmett, heading toward the pine trees. “The quicker we complete this job, the sooner we can go home. Maybe the scholars will be—”

“Riley, help!”

I turn around and stop dead in my tracks. A giant hand made of soil has reached out and started to engulf Emmett in its grasp. It’s like one of those claw machines at the arcade, but upside down; Emmett is the plushie, and I don’t know who’s controlling the game.

“Emmett!” I scream. I try to run to him, but my legs are bolted to the spot.

I look down to see the roots of a pine tree wrapping themselves around my feet.

I wriggle and writhe, trying to free myself. But the more I struggle, the tighter the tree’s hold becomes. Its limbs wind up my legs, and soon my entire body is trapped in its embrace. As black spots appear in my vision and my breath gets shallow, my blood turns cold.

We’re never going to get out of these mountains alive.

WHEN I COME TO, THERE’S A sack over my head. At least I think it’s a sack. It’s heavy and rough and smells like rotten potatoes. I try to rip it off, but my arms are tied behind me. And my hands feel…wet? When I move my feet, I realize they’re also bound and wet. Huh? I try to stand, but I find my butt is stuck firmly to a chair. I’m completely immobilized.

“Let me go!” I scream. But the sound gets absorbed by the stinky sack. Instead, I get a big mouthful of l’eau de potato.

Footsteps sound behind me, and the sack is wrenched off my head. I take a huge gulp of air, and it feels so fresh and satisfying it almost tastes sweet. I glance down at my feet and realize why they feel wet. They’re submerged in water. And what I thought were ropes tying my legs to the white wicker chair are ribbons of water. Wait, water?!

“Riley!” Emmett cries out.

I turn my head to discover him in a chair to the left of me. His is also made