Mated in the Stars (Starscale Mates #6)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Nelum

Everyone had outdone themselves getting ready for the party. The house was decorated with tons of memories and snack tables everywhere. Medwin and Zoey really did know everyone in London, but it was Daliah who’d come up with the idea for what I’d wear. It was a ‘suit robe’ meant for such occasions once worn by Lotus’s father. She was right. It fit me to a T, and I loved how soft the material was. The bottom floated around my feet, making me wonder if dress wearers always felt this free. Who knows? Maybe their bits got cold sometimes.

I stood front and center of the open doors of the house, with Fred and Elio on either side of me. I’d never been the life of any party but man, did it feel good, to see everyone celebrating Lotus. They came from everywhere near and far on Earthside. Laken had even managed to get a letter to my parents who showed up for the event. Remembering how everyone joked that Fred didn’t get along with Lotus’s dad, I worried for a moment, but apparently, Fred knew agriculture too and had a few funny farm animal stories to entertain my parents with.

I flitted from conversation to conversation, nearly being squeezed to death in hugs meant for the person I used to be. Maybe if reincarnation became more transparent, there would be more parties like this. We could all welcome each other back time and time again. Maybe we could outsmart whatever system and learn lessons quicker that way. Minter stayed glued to my leg as if he needed to protect me from all the strangers. Teddy watched me more than the others. He’d been polite upon his arrival and helpful as always, but he was distant tonight, and I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t know how to befriend them anymore than they knew how to befriend me. Daliah and me only hit it off during the little time we had to work on decorating her and Rosemary’s new home. I wasn’t Lotus. Our styles weren’t the same, but I’d seen enough of her stuff that I could give suggestions and offer an ear for frustrations.

When the time came for Lotus’s last gift to them, I herded everyone into the very room where her last will and testament had been screened. This time she was on the screen again – laughing and narrating old home videos of her, Fred, and the kids. Her parents and her friends were there too. I sat on Fred’s lap with Elio holding onto the kids next to us. The woman on the screen wasn’t well but she was happy. Heavy bags hung under her eyes and her skin was grey, almost translucent. Still, she laughed as she narrated through the kids’ firsts and all the concerts where she might or might not have tossed her bra at the Grim Howlers before she knew two of them were going to be true-mates to her friends. There were snatches of her and Freddie’s wedding and of her father’s retirement party. Old Man Cromwell had moved on since she died but he gave a pretty memorial speech about overcoming adversity by searching for the tiny things that made us happy. If my life was half as happy as Lotus’s had been, I’d be set forever.

Freddie kissed my temple as the screen faded to black. The others stood up, clapping for the movie Lotus had made on her laptop. If anyone deserved a standing ovation it was her. I breathed a sigh of relief. Her life had been honored and her final wish fulfilled. I was her and wasn’t all at the same time.

As the guests slowly wandered home, Zoey talked about starting up a marathon for Vulpine Degenerative Disease research. A lot of ground had been covered while Freddie and Old Man Cromwell searched for a cure or at least a treatment to ease the symptoms and slow down the disease’s progression.

We all talked about hanging out again sometime after we relocated to the house Freddie bought in the Guardians of Glitter Bomb Territory. I left them all to ramble about the details and the weather and ducked out the back door to find myself some fresh air. Much to my surprise Teddy followed me. Part of me felt like I should apologize for not being Lotus but that was beyond my control.

“Just wanted to check on you. I’ll go back inside if you need space,” he said from the doorway.

“I don’t mind the company,” I said, sitting down on the steps and motioning for him to join me.

“Sorry I’ve made things so weird for you guys,” Teddy said, avoiding my gaze.

“We’re okay. The most awkward thing you’ve done to me is send my dinner back through the door,” I chuckled trying to ease the tension. “Really, I understand. If my carrier died, I’d be Daliah trying to jump on the funeral pyre. They’d have to bury me too. I’m sorry that happened to you and to her. I’m sorry that everything got cut so short for all of you but she was happy. She was so happy while she was alive. None of us know when our doors will show up. Anything can happen. ‘Anything’ happens every day to someone. So, all we can do is try to be happy and try to help those we love be happy. I think that’s all she wanted. She wanted to leave behind a way for all of you to be happy. I think she did pretty bloody well on that account.”

“She did,” Teddy nodded, staring off into the garden.

“Grief is okay. It takes time for those holes to be filled in. I know I don’t really know you, but I think things will turn out okay for you. You have an oracle predicting you’ll meet your true-mate soon. You have a friend who doesn’t care to give up their couch for extended periods of time for you. You have Freddie and your siblings. Though, the last ones are barely getting along except for Duke. Though, Duke is in a whole other stage of life right now. True-mate, kids, grandkids.”

“He was like that even as a kid, I think. That whole figuring out how to make the best of everything.”

“It’s a skill we learn. No one’s born knowing it,” I glanced up at the sky, now shining with stars. “Are you going to go to the GBB with us?”

“The GGB and no,” Teddy grinned. “I’ll be back for Dal’s wedding, but I need to make it up to Sunny for being on his sofa so long. Over there just feels like home now. I tried to convince Sequin to come back with me. I think he’d love the purple district, but he’s determined to never leave his house out of stubbornness and just to prove a point to Daliah.”

“He’s stubborn but he means well. Maybe he’ll keep hanging out with Teal. That one’s going someplace. Maybe straight onto his grandsire’s most wanted list, but some place,” I chuckled.

“At least then he’d out bad boy Cobalt and Indigo for a while. They date siblings or friends and break up with them at the same time like clockwork. They plan it.”

“That’s horrible,” I shook my head.

“Eh, they know how to stick together, at least,” Teddy shrugged. “Besides they’re running out of people willing to date them in Heartville. They’ve built up a bit of a reputation for themselves.”

“Well, at least you don’t have to deal with that,” I shrugged. “Eventually, they’ll get their hearts broken.”

“I love them. Not as much as Sunny loves them, but they’re family, but I don’t know if they have hearts to break,” he laughed.

“They just haven’t found them yet.”