It was growth.
She seems to read all of this on my face. It brings a smile to her lips.,
“I didn’t think it would be this hard to come.” She presses kisses all over my face once more and then pulls back. “Mikal is alive. Please, get him. You need to escape the night of the coronation.”
Tears pour down the sides of my cheeks. “But my collar. That’s the worst night. I’ll be at Rholker’s side and—Oh gods,mamá, he’ll take me to his room, and…”
Perhaps, then I will stop feeling bad about the pain I’ve caused to those I now miss.
She shakes her head. “No, no, no.Mi amor?5, calm down.”
I bite my tongue hard enough to draw blood and wonder if she heard my thoughts.
“You have the power to break free. Take this,” she presses something to my hand. “Labradorite,” she says in Enduar. “Sing to it, and it will free you from the chains, but wait until the night of the coronation. You can’t leave before then.”
I look down at the blue-black stone that shines iridescent between yellow and orange. It reminds me of a distant place in the sky—nearly a star.
“Estela, listen, if you use it before then, it will break. Crystals can only absorb so much. Be careful.”
I nod to her. “But I don’t know the song.”
She pulls me close once more and touches the Fuegorra. As she does, a new song sings to life. “Sing this.”
As the music plays around us, my mind starts to clear. Instead of a crumbling place full of broken memories, it begins to build itself back up.
Not completely, but enough.
When she pulls away, the song remains.
“Te amo,?6Este,”she says. “Please, release yourself of this pain and forgive.”
And then the dream fades.
When I wake up, I’m still in the cold cottage, specifically, in the corner of my cage near the dying fire, and the tub, which has been fixed.
But now… when I look down at my hand, there’s a crystal resting atop the book I cradled in my sleep.
I gently set the book atop a blanket and wonder if it’s one of the gems on my necklace. I pull it out of my pocket, where it’s been since Melisa gave it back yet again.
Closer inspection shows me that there are no other pieces of labradorite. But I recognize a few others, like opal. An unharmedmemory surfaces, and I see lepidolite, which is a brilliant, sharp purple.
I write down the letters I already had.
A S E R O M.
Suddenly, more names come: morganite, tiger’s eye, iolite.
I write them as fast as I can.
I look harder at the letters in the dim light of the Fuegorra, frustrated by my lack of learning. My stupidity. I should’ve…
And a message starts to form.
I will always come for you, no matter the distance.
It’sTeo’s voice..
“Dioses míos,”?7 I say, dropping the necklace in my lap.
