“Will she be executed?” I ask in a quiet voice.
“I don’t know, amor. I really don’t know.”
He pulls me close, and this time I don’t ask for another distraction. I let myself cry.
I wake up in darkness, Rumi’s arm draped over my side. I shift to face him and trace my finger along his profile. Moonlight streams into the room, and I can just make out the strong planes of his face, the sharp curve of his jaw. I drag my thumb across his brow.
“Hmmm,” he mumbles. “Why are you awake?”
“Nightmare, I think,” I whisper. “We’re sleeping in the same bed.”
He cracks an eye open. “That’s what your nightmare was about?”
“No,” I murmur. “I think it was about Catalina.”
“I should have asked you if it was all right,” he says, yawning. “To sleep here, I mean.”
I smile in the dark. “It’s all right. A little shocking, maybe.”
“I’m your healer.” The sheet rustles as he leans forward to plant a soft kiss on my cheek. “What if you needed me?”
“Of course,” I say in a serious tone. “You’re being a professional.”
“Are you always this chatty in the middle of the night?”
“I’m worried about her,” I say. “Where is she? I know she’s awake. Catalina reads constellations whenever she can’t sleep.”
He sighs and rubs his eyes. “She’s on this floor.”
“Will you take me to her?”
Rumi sighs again. But he sits up and assists me out of bed. He hands me a robe and helps me put on my sandals. He takes my hand and leads me down the hallway, until we stop at the very end, where two guards stand watch.
“I’ll wait for you outside,” he mumbles sleepily. He squeezes my hand and sits on the floor, his back leaning against the stone.
“I need to talk to her.”
One of the guards nods. “Whatever you want.”
I take a deep breath and walk inside. Catalina stands on the balcony, her head tipped all the way back. Her index finger is raised and moving slightly, as if she’s tracing the faint lines between the stars.
“I thought you’d come,” she says.
I join her outside but stand by the door frame. “I wanted to say I’m sorry.”
“Would you change what you did?” she asks, her voice hard.
“No,” I say. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t care that I hurt you. I wish I hadn’t.”
She keeps her back to me. “I’m not going to accept your apology, so you may as well leave, Ximena.”
“Don’t you want to knowwhy?”
“No,” she snaps.
I nod, swallowing hard. There is so much I want to tell her, but not if she doesn’t want to hear it. The words will be wasted. I want to talk with her, notather. Turning, I take a step back into her bedroom.
Her voice rings out. “Wait.”
