“I forgot to turn those off,” she said. “They’re battery operated and wonderful! You should get some.” Gem sat down on the sofa and began unlacing her skates. “I never light the fireplace because of all the fabric, so I put the couch here instead. It seems weird facing it the other way with my back to the door.”
Gem had truly made her living space a reflection of her personality.
She tossed her skates in a corner and patted the seat cushion next to her. “Come hang out.”
I silently treaded across the floor, which was carpeted by red and gold area rugs overlapping one another. Her canopy bed was alongside the right wall, purple curtains tied to each post. In front of the window closest to the sofa was a small shelf with all kinds of rocks and raw gemstones. Because the shelf didn’t have a back, the light caught every facet and cut on the rocks. Each of the four shelves sparkled.
I took a seat next to her, noticing all kinds of painted and bejeweled mason jars beside the bed and around the room. One area near the windows had nothing but oversized pillows, and since the windows ran from ceiling to floor, she had an amazing view of the courtyard.
“Did you do all this by yourself?”
“I decorated, but I had help getting the curtains up. I’d love to put a chandelier in the center of the room, but not if that means using candles.” She played with the pendant around her neck. “Our bedroom is the one place in this house that’s truly ours, so don’t be afraid to decorate it the way you want. Seeing a person’s private quarters is like looking into their soul.”
I crossed my legs. “If that’s true, Christian has a dark and empty soul.”
“I was lucky to get this room,” she continued. “The first of us got to choose our rooms, but then Viktor was afraid it would show favoritism if the early birds got all the good ones, so he started choosing rooms that look similar. Except for Christian’s. Viktor took into consideration that light hurts his eyes, so he gave him a room without windows.”
Gem covered her legs with a thin blanket of crushed velvet, tassels dangling from all sides. If this was an extension of her soul, then she had a strong penchant for surrounding herself with color, which I found intriguing. Whether it was her clothes or makeup, something on her always sparkled and stood out. Today she had on gold lipstick, and though she usually wore makeup, she never covered the beauty mark below her left eye. It was a dark little imperfection amid so much loveliness.
“How old are you?” I asked.
“Not very. Just around fifty, but I don’t count anymore. When you’re immortal, there’s no point in remembering your age.”
I bent my knee and turned to face her. “Was it hard letting go of your old life?”
Gem reclined her head, and something penetrated her casual façade. “I didn’t have a human life like you did. I was born and sold on the black market.”
I gaped at her. “How is that possible? The black market doesn’t sell human babies.”
“I don’t talk about this with the others. Only Viktor knows.”
I knew how scary it was to confide in someone, especially when your life could become the subject of gossip. “You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to, but I promise it won’t leave this room.”
She worried her lip and flashed her violet eyes up to mine. “I think some have their suspicions, but I’m not human. I never was. I was born a Relic.”
My brows rose in disbelief. I knew Relics were genetically similar to humans—except for their ability to pass down learned knowledge to their descendants—but I’d never heard of one becoming a Mage.
She played with one of the long tassels on the blanket. “That’s why I have this special gift with ancient languages. It must have been what my ancestors specialized in. Do you know much about Relics?”
I shrugged.
“Well,” she continued, “Relics are all different. Some focus on certain Breeds, some specialize in magic, others in medicine, and each generation adds more knowledge to the pool. I didn’t discover my gift until I was older. The more people I met, the more I realized I could understand foreign languages people were speaking without having to think about it. And it was more than just generic languages like Chinese or Arabic. The more I researched, the more I discovered just how deep the rabbit hole went. Breed languages. Extinct languages. But I had this insatiable desire to learn more, even though I wouldn’t have children of my own to pass the knowledge down to.”
“How did you become a Mage? I thought they only turned humans.”
She brushed her hair away from her eyes. “Well… I guess you know how genetically similar Relics are to humans. That means they can become immortal, but most won’t. The whole point of their existence is to acquire more knowledge with each generation. So kids are important to them, you know? Plus the Mageri has all those rules about who they bring in, and I doubt they’re eager to let in many Relics. It might open up Pandora’s box.”
“In what way?”
She shrugged. “Relics could easily go extinct if they all decided to become an immortal, and they play an important role in our society. I’m sure the Mageri makes exceptions, but they probably choose older people who don’t have any kids. They’d also need a good reason. It’s not like a restaurant where you can just make a reservation for immortality.”
Even though she was trying to make light of the situation, I couldn’t crack a smile. Not after what she’d revealed to me. “So you were sold as a baby on the black market to become a Mage?”
She shifted in her seat. “Lots of immortals out there like raising their own Breed. They see them as trainable. Some just want a servant to juice from or drink their blood. I was born a slave, so I don’t know what it’s like to leave family behind. I never had one.”
The sparkling stones in the window caught my attention. Gem’s room felt like a palace where a princess would sleep. Now it made a little more sense. I felt guilty for complaining about my upbringing after hearing her story, and I’m sure that wasn’t the whole of it.
She twisted her hair up into a messy knot and tied it with a band from her wrist. Her hair poked out in different directions like a little tornado sitting atop her head. “I didn’t turn for a long while, and my Creator showed me that a good life was possible. I had the choice to stay a Relic, but my Creator offered immortality as a chance to reclaim the years stolen from me. I knew what I was giving up,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “Kids and all that. But I never wanted children. I wouldn’t know how to be a mother or raise a baby with love that no one ever gave me. That kind of thing has to be learned.”
