Star Daughter(105)

Minal groaned. “Oh, gods, it’s like a virus. Soon the whole universe will be infected by all these puns. Thanks a million, Dev.”

Dev sneaked a lick of Sheetal’s ice cream. “You bet.”

Sheetal elbowed him. “Get your own.”

“Maybe later.” He held out a hand. “Can we take a walk?”

Sheetal gestured toward Minal and Padmini, who were too busy gazing at each other to notice. “I think we could walk to the North Pole and back, probably.”

She took another bite of ice cream, but there was no way she was finishing this behemoth without dying of sugar shock. She gave the cone to Vanita. “It’s all yours.”

Then she laced her fingers with Dev’s, and they strolled along one of the curving paths between the stalls.

“So,” Dev asked lightly, “how are you doing with everything?”

“About like you are,” Sheetal admitted. “I mean, I’m so glad my dad’s okay, and he seems really happy to see my mom. But what’s going to happen now? Will I age super slowly? What if Nani’s so mad, she’ll never listen to me?”

It wasn’t enough to have won the competition for her nakshatra; Sheetal couldn’t pretend she didn’t belong up there anymore. But she couldn’t throw away everything down here, either.

And that meant splitting her life between two worlds.

She didn’t add that if she did age slowly, Dev would get older way before she did, but he didn’t need her to.

“We’ll figure it out,” he said. “Keep checking the Night Market, keep looking in old books. Maybe there’s a spell or something. You can’t be the first star who wanted to stay here and live out her mortal life. Besides, your nani needs you. She’ll come around.”

Sheetal hoped so. Nani had made it clear she wouldn’t give up without a fight, and Sheetal was still upset about having been treated like a pawn, but she did want to be part of her starry family—and that meant finding ways to work things out.

Besides, someone had to be there to help Kaushal remind the stars why humanity mattered.

As for Charumati, she actually seemed proud of Sheetal. Like mother, like daughter, I guess?

“Don’t force me to make the obligatory wish-upon-a-star joke,” Dev threatened.

Sheetal burst out laughing. “Okay, okay! Just no more puns for at least the next twenty-four hours, all right?”

“No promises,” he said. “Anyway, Minal’s right, and I hope you’ll sing with me. I mean, ice cream taller than you are should be worth at least one duet, right?”

Sheetal nodded. “I will. Any word from Jeet?” Jeet had been ignoring all Dev’s text messages, calls, and e-mails. When their family tried to intervene, Jeet had warned them to mind their own business or he’d cut them out, too.

It wasn’t fair that the other contestants didn’t remember anything about the starry court or the competition, but both Dev and Jeet always would. At least Priyanka had apologized for doubting Sheetal before they’d left the starry court. For her part, Sheetal had promised to do what she could to help Priyanka’s family.

Not that Priyanka even knew who she was now.

Dev’s smile crumbled. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I’m so sorry,” Sheetal said again, knowing how useless it was even as she said it.

“It was my decision, too,” he reminded her.

They stopped in front of a stall illuminated by glowing jasmine blossoms. The proprietor stared, as though trying to place Dev. Sheetal quickly cupped his face in her hands and kissed him hard, kissed him like he was the air and water and earth to her fire, letting her lips say everything her words couldn’t.

When they pulled apart, she whispered, “What are we going to do about the inspiration thing? I can’t inspire you. Not after all that.”

“I’ve been thinking.” Dev ran a thumb over the back of her hand. “You know how your dad never got inspired by your mom after that first time? Well, I asked her about it, and she said you can control it.”

Sheetal wanted so much to believe that. She thought back to Dev’s dream, to the pitiable people who had physically fallen apart as they forgot anything outside their work and their muses. Who had burned away from too much inspiration.

But Dad had never been like that. The only flame in him was the torch he kept burning for his wife. He nurtured her memory and grieved her absence, and he still lived.

It hurt to accept, but maybe he’d never wanted more from his career. Maybe all he’d ever wanted was to spend his days studying the sky and dreaming of the stars. “Go on.”

Dev hummed a few bars of his birthday song. “You didn’t notice I wrote that one without your help?”

Sheetal didn’t even try to hide her doubt. “How do you know that, though?”

“There’s nothing like a star’s inspiration. It’s this stupid, impossible high that you just ride to the end of. There’s no struggle. Nothing standing in your way. That’s what makes it so addictive.” He gave her a bashful grin. “Let’s just say writing that song was, uh, not like that.”

“Okay, so? How do I not inspire you on purpose, then?”

“Whenever you’re down here and feel like doing it, just inspire someone else instead. Energy needs to flow, right, so instead of fighting it, redirect it! The world’s full of blocked people.”