The Last Fallen Star by Graci Kim (the mitten read aloud .TXT) 📗

So I believe my work here is done. It has been a pleasure doing business with you.” He starts walking toward the door.

“No, stop!” I yell. “What do you mean I’m already in possession of it?”

But he’s already gone.

I hear a birdlike squawking faintly in the distance. I listen harder, and I can hear Eomma’s and Appa’s voices, too. The sounds are getting louder, closer, and now I feel someone’s hand on my shoulder, shaking me. I must be waking up back in the real room.

And the thing is, I should be grateful that this nightmare is ending. But instead, all I feel is doom.

I have lost everyone I love, and for what?

No, this is a nightmare I would rather not wake from.

“WELCOME BACK, RILEY OH,” Areum greets me when I wake. I’m lying on the bed, and the lamps are no longer glowing blue. I must be back in the real room 44.

I rub my eyes and sit up. The inmyeonjo knows my name! Thank Mago, it was all just a horrible dream.

“Who are you?” Appa asks, frowning at me.

Six sets of eyes are staring at me. The rest of the crew must have come into the room while I was out.

A sharp pain stabs me in the chest. “It’s me, Appa,” I say, my voice shaking. “Riley. Your daughter.”

Eomma furrows her eyebrows. “We only have one daughter, and her name is Hattie.”

And just like that, the nightmarish deal I made with the goblin becomes a terrible reality. I gave up my newfound magic, as well as the Gom and Horangi clans’ memories of me, in exchange for the last fallen star. Only the dokkaebi didn’t keep his part of the bargain. Now, thanks to his tricks, I have nothing—no star and no family. Not one that remembers me, anyway.

I take out Hattie’s heart vial and hold it up for them to see. My hand is trembling so much the cylinder swings from side to side. “I know this must be confusing for you, but I have been working with you to find the last fallen star to save Hattie, and to sever the Gom’s link to the Cave Bear Goddess.”

“How does she know our plans?” Emmett asks suspiciously.

“And why do you have our Hattie’s heart?” Auntie Okja says.

Taeyo studies me. “If what you say is true, why don’t we know who you are?”

“Because,” I explain, “I met with the dokkaebi. And I had to give away your memories of me as payment for conjuring the last fallen star.”

Their eyes widen, and Sora searches around me. “Then where is it? Where is the last artifact?”

I gulp. It’s a good question. The dokkaebi played me. “Um, he said I was already in possession of it. But I don’t know what that means.”

“I don’t trust her,” Austin says, as he starts rubbing his wrists together. “We need to neutralize her before she becomes a threat.”

Hiccups erupt out of my throat and I start to panic. Think, think, think! If I can’t convince them we need to work together, our plans will be ruined. I will have given up everything for nothing.

I look at the inmyeonjo. “Areum, tell them,” I urge. “Tell them who I am.”

“She is who she says she is,” the bird-woman confirms. “She is Riley Oh.”

But suspicion still lingers in everyone’s eyes. They don’t know a Riley Oh anymore.

Austin starts approaching me, and I anxiously fiddle with the ring on my finger. Do I run? Hide? What are my options? Then I realize…The ring.

“Em,” I say, walking up to him while holding out the ring. “You might not remember me, but until a moment ago, when your memories were wiped by the dokkaebi, you were my best friend. You gave me this before I got initiated into the Horangi clan.”

I pass the ring to him, and he takes it, studying it from all angles. When he sees the secret compartment inside the band, his forehead creases into a frown. “I have no idea who you are, but this is my ring, and I never take it off.”

“And that’s Boris,” I say, pointing to the dragon-on-wheels lying on the ground next to him. “Noah lent him to us the night of the summoning, and Taeyo souped him up.” Boris’s tail wags as if to verify my statement.

Emmett sidesteps and stands protectively in front of the scaly blue scooter. “How do you know his name?”

I turn to Eomma and Appa. “I know you can’t remember me, either, but I promise, I’m your daughter, too.” I point to Auntie Okja. “Auntie O brought me to you when I was a newborn. And you raised me. Hattie is my sister.”

They both study my face and then share a confused look between themselves. And it feels like a hundred little cuts. My parents really have no idea who I am. I swallow my tears and shove my hands in my pockets. This is it. I’m done for. I wish I had my onyx stone.

That’s when my hand lands on something round and cold and hard.

The compass!

“Taeyo,” I quickly say before Austin activates the metal stars on his jacket. “You gave me this. For good luck. This is proof I am who I say I am.”

He comes over to examine it. “How weird. It looks just like my gold compass, but why would I have given it to you?”

His gold compass.

Suddenly, the final two lines of the prophecy ring like a bell in my ears:

In the one last divine, a weapon shall rise;

Unless the gold-destroyer ends the soul who lies.

“This is it!” I scream, holding up the compass. “This is the last fallen star.”

“What are you talking about?” Taeyo asks, stepping back in alarm.

I try to contain my blossoming excitement so I can explain clearly. How did I not see this earlier? “The dokkaebi told me I was already in possession of the fallen star. I thought he had duped me, but I see now. The gold compass is