“Are you scared?” I challenge, and moment by moment, Jessica Stone unravels like a piece of yarn caught on a snag. The room is loud and I can hear all of the songs in my head—

No. One song.

Bran hands me an iPad; I quickly select the tune and hand it back.

Harper eyes me curiously. “What did you pick?”

I smile at her. “You’ll see.”

The sweet trill of a violin rushes over the karaoke speakers. The view through the camera lens sharpens. I’m not supposed to really know this song. I’m not supposed to care. I don’t, do I?

Her eyes glitter. “I knew you’d pick this.”

I want to believe it’s true as the words to a song filled with perfect notes begin to spin over the TV screen. I don’t need to look at the lyrics. They’re as familiar as the fit of Amara’s corset, and the pinch of her heels, and the heavy tiara in her hair.

As the music begins, I remember the Amaras posing on the grass, and the passion in Imogen’s voice as she spoke of saving a lost princess, and the familiar exuberance in Dare’s face whenever he talks about this stupid show…

Most people only know the opening thirty seconds of the Starfield theme song, “Ignite the Stars,” but in a secret all my own, I’ve turned up the song a thousand times in my dented bumblebee-yellow Volkswagon Beetle and let the lyrics spill out from the windows into the infinite expanse of sky and clouds and stars—

I’ve never seen the TV series, but I’ve most definitely listened to the soundtrack.

But what if someone finds out? What if someone is filming? whispers that voice in the back of my head, and I miss the first word, but Harper saves it, singing in that brash and bold way she seems to do everything. She glances over, daring me to join in.

At the first bridge, she mouths, “Chicken.”

Like hell I’m chicken.

When the second stanza starts, I catch the words first, singing about all of the constellations and stars in the night sky, and being brave, and seeing your friends until the end of the line. Living boldly. Burning bright and lighting a way in the dark.

Igniting the stars.

I mean, I wish I could tell you it’s like High School Musical where we absolutely slay karaoke but…well. By the end of the song, we’re almost in tears because neither of us can sing and we’ve about broken everyone’s eardrums, but we howl the last note and mime the slick drum solo at the end—

And then the song dies, and the room crashes into silence. I’ve never done that before—just let myself have fun. Be uncool.