That was what Sirah khala claimed love magic did, anyway.
“Oh, don’t worry. Thirty days is more than enough time. I’ve got this.” Mel beamed and shot her hands up in a victory pose. “Everything’s going to change from here on out!”
Riya smiled weakly, trying to ignore the fear pooling in her gut. She looked away, unable to look her friend in the eye.
The problem was, what happened if Mel was right?
Chapter 5
Riya had read Carl Sagan’sCosmoson her thirteenth birthday.
It was a gift from her parents, wrapped in shiny paper and neat little bows.Never lose your curiosity, her mom had written on the title page.
Riya devoured it in a single day.
She liked the way Carl spoke to her through the pages like an old friend, his love of space infectious. Most of all, she liked the idea of contributing to a growing repository of knowledge—of being part of something far bigger than herself. Something that actuallymattered.
A few months later, her dad surprised her with a lightly used Celestron telescope, and from then on, her world permanently narrowed to the sky above. Her dad had meant it as comfort; he’d given it to her right after the Incident, and Riya had used it as an escape.
After all, astronomy made sense. It didn’t bend to whims or emotions. Stars burned, planets spun, gravity held—fixed laws that never faltered. Unlike magic. Unlike people.
So after school, while other kids planned sleepovers or elaborate birthday parties, Riya rushed home to use her telescope, jotting observations in a notebook.Atmosphere unusually clear tonight. Saw two shooting stars, both blue—from magnesium? Or maybe it’s a trick of the light.If theweather was bad, she’d watch YouTube videos on black holes, or research colleges that could teach her even more.
Colleges like Caltech.
Not just any college—thecollege for astrophysics. The one with the deepest research, the most resources, the best professors.
It became a goal so sharp and clear she could hold it like a compass. Because if she could just get there—if she could survive long enough, focus hard enough, be good enough—maybe she couldprovesomething to herself. That she was more than a girl who’d let things spiral out of control. That she could build a future not built on instinct or emotion or chance—but on effort. Oncertainty.
Her parents had gifted her a Caltech sweatshirt for her next birthday.
Her sisters, too, had tried to join her world, in their own way.
“Teach us how to use the telescope! Ooh, but let’s bake spaceship cookies first!”Nyra had suggested, earning Amara’s scolding:“She’s fourteen, not a toddler.”
Riya refused. They’d only distract her, she reasoned. The truth was simpler: She hated the idea of obligation, of pity-driven interest. Just because Riya was their baby sister didn’t mean they needed topretendto care.
She preferred solitude, anyway. Sometimes, it was easier—certainly less exhausting—than trying to fit into her family’s orbit.
One evening, Riya set up her telescope in the backyard,adjusting the focus until the golden hue of Venus sharpened in the lens. The sky stretched above her, dark and boundless, an ocean of comforting silence.
A breeze drifted in from the house, carrying the scent of cinnamon and cardamom, the sound of her sisters’ muffled laughter through the open window. A familiar rhythm: a conversation she wouldn’t join, a world that would carry on without her.
Not that they wanted to leave her out. They never had.
She thought of Nyra’s impulsive, python-grip hugs, Amara’s head pats as she passed in the hallway, the way her mother always left tea on her desk when she was studying.
They had never tried to force her closer. But still, Riya had kept her distance.
It wasbetterto keep her distance. She had learned that lesson young: All magic—like love itself, like all emotions—was unpredictable. A storm that could spiral out of control without warning.
Sure, space had storms, too, but at least they followed discernable rules. Even chaos had equations. You could see it coming. Prepare for it. She told herselfthatwas why she’d chosen the stars.
And yet...
Riya gazed at Venus through the lens. At the stars surrounding it.
The problem was, even the most solitary stars weren’ttrulyalone.
