“Whatever you do, do not tell her you’re Greek. She’ll kick you out of the house and never let me see you again.”
I turn around to find him staring at me, his blue eyes twin pools of happiness.
“So, you’re seeing me?”
My fingers trace the jade oval of the scarab on my bracelet, the bracelet that saved more than one life today. A rebirth. Hope. “Maybe.” I let a corner of my mouth go up in a smile. “For now. But don’t think this means I buy any of your fate nonsense. I’m not committing to anything.” Other than being happy and brave and willing to let temporary things feel permanent until maybe, just maybe, they become permanent.
He stands and wraps his arms around my waist, and the shock and joy of his hands on me overwhelms my senses. I wonder if I’ll ever get to the point where being touched doesn’t do this to me. I hope not.
“Fortunately for us, I’m both persistent and persuasive.” He leans in, and I smile against his lips, finally give up and let his love flood in and carve the last of my stone heart into a new shape I’m only just discovering.
Somehow it doesn’t feel like a surrender.
It feels like a victory.
I wander the dark landscape, contentedly tracing the new constellations of my night sky. There, Isis, my mother—still infuriating but also beloved—and in her arms Dora, the first daughter named after someone other than herself. In the distance, farther than I can reach right now but in my future, my father’s stars. Between us, Sirus and Deena’s stars, even Tyler and Scott’s. The stars and guiding points of my life, each in their place.
And of course, directly over me, Orion, with his new brilliantly blue stars. I reach up and trace my fingers along the milky swirls of the galaxy, decide where I’ll paint my own stars onto the sky among these people I love.
Some things, the best things, do last forever.
Acknowledgments
FIRST THANKS, AS ALWAYS, TO NOAH (GOD OF making my whole life happy and having—you guessed it—amazing blue eyes), who is everything I know about love. Elena and Jonah (goddess and god of asking for snacks and being really adorable), thank you for being proud of what I do and usually helping me have enough time to do it.
This book would not have happened without Michelle Wolfson (goddess of delivering amazing news and gently shoving her clients in the right directions). It was her constant encouragement that gave me the guts to attempt this book again and again and again, even when I was ready to give up.
As always, huge thanks to my editor, Erica Sussman (goddess of obscenely cute dogs and much-appreciated exclamation marks). She never fails to take what I have actually written and show me how to turn it into what I wanted to have written.
Endless gratitude to Tyler Infinger (goddess of letting me name characters I like after her) for assisting editorially and always being awesome, Christina Colangelo (goddess of fake karaoke) for being funny and delightful and super good at her job, Casey McIntyre (goddess of answering my stupid emails in a professional and friendly manner) for being a phenomenal publicist, Jessica Berg (goddess of fixing other people’s mistakes) for being my stalwart copy editor, Kathryn Hinds (glorious goddess of abhorring alliteration) for helping my sentences make sense, Alison Donalty and Michelle Taormina (goddesses of creating beauty where nothing existed before) for continuing their streak of cover-art brilliance, and everyone else on the HarperTeen team (goddesses and gods of paper and words) for taking the art of making and selling books to such great heights.
Natalie Whipple (goddess of maintaining friends’ sanity through daily chats), who always believed in Isadora and read every attempt at every draft of this book: you are amazing. Jon Skovron (god of indie bands you’ve never heard of but wish you were cool enough to know about) gave me excellent editorial advice when I was desperate for guidance before sending Isadora out into the world. Stephanie Perkins (goddess of baby sloths and adorability), who doesn’t read every word I write, but helps me write all of them regardless.
Special thanks to Lorna Oakes and Lucia Gahlin, whose beautiful book Ancient Egypt was the foundation for my renewed interest in Egyptology as an adult.
Most especially, I am grateful to my parents, Pat and Cindy White. I wanted to write a book about that strange and terrifying space when you realize your parents aren’t perfect. I’m so glad mine are imperfect in such perfect ways, and that they allowed their children to grow up as imperfect but perfectly loved people.
And finally, always, thanks to my readers: gods and goddesses of awesomeness and extremely good taste in fiction.
About the Author
KIERSTEN WHITE is the New York Times bestselling author of the Paranormalcy trilogy, as well as the psychological thriller Mind Games. Long fascinated by world mythology and ancient religions, she loves Egyptian stories for their epic family struggles and humorous frankness about the things that make people tick. Kiersten lives with her family in San Diego, California. Visit her online at www.kierstenwhite.com.
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Also by Kiersten White
MIND GAMES
PARANORMALCY
SUPERNATURALLY
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Credits
Line art © 2013 by Johanna Basford
Cover art © 2013 (Starry Window) by Aleksandra Buczeluk
Cover design by Michelle Taormina
Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
The Chaos of Stars
Copyright © 2013 by Kiersten Brazier
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-0-06-213592-6 (trade bdg.)
ISBN 978-0-06-229412-8 (int’l. ed.)
EPUB Edition JULY 2013 ISBN 9780062135889
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FIRST EDITION
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Kiersten White, The Chaos of Stars
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