Mother brightens. “Oh, but you do! Come with me—come, come!”
I cast Igor a bewildered look as I follow mom into her bedroom. He just gives me a lopsided grin.
Everything else aside, it’s really good to see him smile. To see both of them smile.
Mother is already lifting the threadbare rug and bending to the loose board where she hides all her most precious possessions. While she digs her treasures out with purposeful intensity, I take in the familiar room.
Like everything else, it seems much smaller and dingier after weeks in the castle. It’s clean, though, and the bed is made. Another sign of my mother’s improved health.
“Here,” she says, straightening with a familiar pendant in her hand. Sunlight catches on the opal as she holds it out to me, little shards of rainbow light glimmering from deep within the stone.
I open my mouth to protest, but something in my mother’s eyes stops me. I’ve never seen her gaze so clear—so insistent. Her hands tremble slightly as she holds the opal out to me.
“Wear it tonight at the ball,” she says. “It needs to be seen.”
“Needs to be seen?” I repeat, bewildered. “What do you?—?”
The words die in my throat as my mother’s eyes glaze over. My heart drops—I know that vacant stare all too well. But in another instant, it’s gone. Her eyes clear once more.
“Here, let me put it on you.”
My gaze is drawn to the pendant as she lifts it. It’s light against my skin, despite the stone’s size and the intricate gold work into which the opal is set. It’s clearly very old, tarnished with age and disuse.
It’s beautiful, and far nicer than anything else I own, but I know it will look antiquated next to whatever glittering jewels the other Rawbonds wear tonight.
When Mother places it around my neck and the opal settles over my sternum, I realize the stone is unnaturally warm.
It feels almost…alive.
My mother’s hands linger on the clasp, and I catch a rapid series of expressions crossing her face.
Relief, fear, and something that looks almost like triumph.
At the same moment, Anassa’s attention focuses on what we’re doing. Her sudden interest pulses through the bond.
“What do you care about a necklace?”I ask.
No answer. Just that sense of Anassa listening, watching.
Whatever. I don’t have time to question the wolf. The daylight filtering through the window says it’s already afternoon. I’ll need to return to the castle before long.
I set all other thoughts aside while Mom, Igor, and I sit down to a wonderful meal. It’s bittersweet without Saela there, but I tell myself that it’s only temporary. Soon enough, we’ll all be back together again, safe and sound.
When dusk begins to darken the sky outside, I make my goodbyes. Mother gets a little teary. Me, too, if I’m honest. Even Igor’s eyes hold a faint gleam of wetness, though he smiles and tells me, “Don’t get soft sleepin’ on those fancy castle sheets, eh?”
“Eat shit,” I say, laughing through my tears.
“Meryn!” my mother scolds.
Igor thumps me on the back and pushes me toward Anassa. “Get lost, kid.”
“I love you both,” I say with a final wave. “I’ll be in touch soon.”
I mount Anassa quickly, turning to look back at my childhood home one last time as we go.
Mother stands in the open doorway, one hand raised in parting. A piece of her hair has come out of her neat braid and is whipping around her face in the cold winds.
Nostalgia strikes me again like a slow wave, but it’s different now. It comes with a sense of mourning. Of something truly lost. My life has taken an unexpected path—one I never dreamed of, never wanted.
