I wrapped my arm around her shaking back and held her hair up. She spat in the pot and sobbed. “That damn wine…made me feel…I want it to stop. I want it to stop!”
Annalisa had gotten sick from the wine from the Ashmore kitchens before, but never so bad that she cried. Maybe I could distract her.
I looked over at the bed and what I had mistaken for a canopy was actually a large tree painted on the wall—but it was not a normal tree. Streaks of red and pink formed the bark. The leaves were blue, violet, and orange. Doves with periwinkle feathers perched on the branches. Two lilac chipmunks poked their heads out of a hole in the trunk. Green fawns with white-dappled backs nibbled on orange grass near the baseboard.
I spied a golden vixen that peeked out near the bottom of the bedpost. “Why are none of the animals their normal color?”
Annalisa sniffed. “Why should it be? The ugliness of the real world does not belong in my bedroom.”
With Annalisa’s poetic babble, it was a wonder that she and Brietta were ever enemies in school.
My eyes wandered up the painted tree where the leaves morphed into flying birds on the ceiling. I found two ravens flying over the bed, their black feathers highlighted with green and their beaks a shining gold. Ravens painted in green and gold? How very…Ravenwood.
Maybe it was a sneaky tribute to her grandmother, Ilsa Ravenwood.
I could not help myself. I had to know. “Look at those ravens, they are lovely—”
“No!” Annalisa shrieked. She skittered away from her bed until her back slammed into a chair. Tears crept down her cheeks.
I dropped to my knees in front of her. “Anna? What is wrong?”
Her lip trembled as her eyes stayed bolted forward. “The wine made me forget…but it all came back. It all came back again!”
Her breathing quickened and I grabbed her hands. “What came back? Anna, tell me!”
Annalisa slammed her eyes shut and cried. The patter of raindrops echoed in my ears. I glanced out the window—it was a clear and cloudless night.
Though if Evereon let me into his mind with the song of a sad violin and Astrid did the same with the flutter of butterfly wings…
I looked back. The light between Annalisa’s eyes that only I could see shone like a tiny beacon.
She was calling for me…
My Nordingaard crystal started glowing on the vanity and my heart leaped into my throat. I had to break the magical connection. What if Annalisa saw the crystal’s light?
I pulled my hands away and my white flame quieted. Annalisa quickly grabbed her knees and pulled them tightly into her chest.
“Raindrop, Raindrop, make the rain go away,” she sang into her knees. “Your rainbow will come some other day.”
I let out a silent sigh and gently guided Annalisa to bed. She protested when I eased her onto her back, so I rolled her onto her side in case she got sick again.
I crossed the room to the vanity and snatched up the crystal like it would run away. My trunk was nowhere in sight. I had a room prepared somewhere, but I could not just go around opening doors around the palace looking for it.
Looks like I had to stay with Annalisa.
I silently climbed into bed. I stuffed the crystal beneath my pillow and settled in next to her.
I was no stranger to sleeping beside Annalisa since we used to be dormitory mates. On her sixteenth birthday, she had cried into her pillow for so long that I even let her sleep in my bed.
I had just wanted her to finally be quiet, and hopefully write to her twin that I had been kind so I could curry some favor, but a shared bed became part of her birthday ritual every year.
She just hated being alone, though she would never admit it.
Her twenty-second birthday was in two days, might as well start the tradition early.
I rolled over and faced Annalisa’s back. “Just like Ashmore, huh?”
Annalisa was still sniffling softly. Maybe I could change the subject to something more pleasant. “What were you singing earlier?”
