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

The accusation cuts through me like a knife. He’s right. I dragged him to the clan that made him motherless, only for him to find out I’m one of them…. I’m the definition of selfish.

Emmett turns toward the scholars again. “Which one of you killed my mom?”

“What are you talking about?” Sora asks. She disarms the scholars and sends them away. “Why would you think we killed your mother? We don’t even know who she is.”

Emmett storms up to Sora and points his finger in her face. “But you did know her! And yet, you killed her anyway. Do you know how much my dad is still hurting? You stole the love of his life from him! You ruined both our lives, and you don’t even know it.”

With that he bursts into tears, and I immediately feel tears welling in my eyes, too. Emmett never cries. But today, his carefully built shell is cracking.

Sora and Taeyo look at me for answers. “Emmett’s mom used to be the Gom elder on the LA council,” I explain. “She died in the attack you guys orchestrated.”

Sora gasps. “Sookhee Harrison was your mother?”

Emmett nods and clutches his head in his hands. I run over to him and hug him hard, and he must be exhausted, because he doesn’t push me away. He just sniffles into my shoulder.

Sora sighs deeply and holds her chest. “I’m sorry for your loss, Emmett. And I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. Sookhee was a good colleague and friend of mine.”

He angrily wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. “Then why did you do it? Why?”

She massages her temples and pauses as if trying to choose her words carefully. “Sookhee wasn’t…herself near the end. She was obsessed with the sunstone ax, and when we tried to protect her from it, she turned violent. It was almost like she became someone else. She fought anyone who stood in her way, and innocent lives were lost at her hands.” She glances at me and at Taeyo, and something in her eyes makes me feel uneasy. “So we had no choice but to defend ourselves. I’m sorry, Emmett. I really am.”

Emmett sobs harder, and I pull him closer to me. Could the person who gave birth to my best friend really have been corrupted by an artifact and driven mad with greed? I don’t know what to believe anymore.

Sora comes over and puts a hand on Emmett’s shoulder. “But the thing is, I don’t believe Sookhee meant for any of that to happen. I’ve been thinking about that day for a long time now, and something she said before she passed has stayed with me.”

“What was it?” I ask, and Emmett looks up, too.

“She said, ‘She made me do it—I thought she was my friend.’” Sora pauses thoughtfully. “The council pulled the strings—there’s no doubt about that. But I believe someone else was involved. Someone close to her, whom she thought she could trust.”

A shiver runs through my body. Emmett’s mom and Auntie Okja used to be best friends. And Auntie Okja took over as Gom elder after Mrs. Harrison died….

I quickly push the thought away. This is my auntie, the gracious, selfless healer we’re talking about. She would never. Not in a million years!

Eventually, Emmett pulls himself together. “I’ve heard enough. The only person who could clear this up is my mom, and she’s not here anymore. That leaves us with one option: Find the last artifact and destroy it ourselves.” He wipes his face and sniffles away his last tears. “Regardless of whether your story or the council’s is true, a fallen star is the reason for my mom’s death. So I will destroy the last one before it can ruin anyone else’s life. I won’t let her death be in vain.”

I squeeze his shoulder. Yes. Finding and destroying the last fallen star is our solution to everything. The Cave Bear Goddess will be pleased, we’ll get Hattie back, and Emmett will have avenged his mother’s death. And if the prophecy’s to be believed, we’ll have saved the entire world from the end of days.

“He’s right,” I declare to Sora and Taeyo. “Let’s work together. Let’s find the eighth artifact so we can destroy it.”

A part of me still wonders if the Horangi have fabricated this entire story in order to get their own hands on the last artifact. But time is running out. We have to take the risk.

Emmett turns to me. “I don’t know if I can ever forgive you—you realize that, right?”

I lower my eyes and nod.

He clenches his jaw. “But Hattie needs us, and this is finally something I can do to make my mom’s death meaningful. So for now I’m gonna pretend things are okay. For them.”

I nod again. It’s a start, and I’m willing to work with that.

Emmett turns to Sora. “How do we find the last artifact? What do you know?”

Sora considers her words carefully. “I respect your bravery in coming here for answers, and your courage in telling me your truth. We Horangi uphold knowledge and truth above all else.” She raises her wrist to me. “But we have suffered too much to enter into new partnerships lightly. Unless you are willing to officially initiate into our clan, Riley, I am afraid we will not be joining hands with you or your friend.”

“Me?” I point to my chest.

“You are of Horangi blood, and you were taken from us,” says Sora. “It is time for you to return to your rightful clan.”

I am stunned into disbelief. “But we’re after the same thing!” I say. “We both want to find the last artifact and destroy it. You don’t need me to become a scholar to do that.”

Sora shakes her head. “Oh, but we do. We lost too many of our own during the last conflict. We can’t take any more chances. You are either one of us and we work together as a team, or you’re on your own.”

Emmett fidgets with the