It was cramped. A tiny cot sat in the corner, hidden beneath a pile of wrinkled blankets. A book sat open on the bedside table, spine pointing up at the ceiling. Unlike downstairs, decorations were sparse. There was only one thing on the walls. With black paint, she’d drawn a raven on the wall.
Nellie saw me looking. Tears leaked from her eyes as she leaned over the bed and traced the lines of the bird. “There’s a thing we always say to each other. ‘Fly away from here, like the ravens.’ She has always dreamed of an escape.”
Nellie kept speaking of Tessa like she was still here. I wasn’t going to correct her.
Clearing my throat, I gently laid my wife’s body on the bed. My arms got stuck beneath her. Or I couldn’t find the strength to move them. I couldn’t tell the difference. Fenella gently wrapped her hand around my arm and tugged me back.
My hands slid out from under Tessa. The weight of her vanished. I felt like a piece of me had fallen off my body.
For a moment, no one said anything. We just stood there, staring at the floor. Nellie sank onto the bed, perching on the edge of the mattress. She’d stopped crying now, and her eyes were distant, haunted. Distantly, I understood that she was feeling a lot like me.
From the doorway, Gaven cleared his throat. “We should have a chat downstairs. There are some things we need to decide moving forward, and we should talk about what exactly happened out there. I know this is a terrible time, but our people are depending on us to save them.”
I gave a noncommittal nod, but I couldn’t stop watching Nellie. She carefully moved Tessa’s braid to the side and tried to dry her face with the blanket. Her fingers fluttered here and there, gently brushing her cheeks and forehead. After a moment, her shoulders hunched, and she sighed.
“Nellie,” Toryn said. “Would you be able to join us downstairs and tell us what happened?”
She blinked up at him. “I don’t know if I can talk about it.”
“Of course. Just a few details would help, though. You can stop at any time.”
“If you promise not to let go of my hand,” she whispered.
He cupped her cheek, knelt beside her, and started speaking to her quietly.
I backed out of the door and went down the stairs. Gaven and Fenella followed. When we hit the ground floor, they quickly brushed a cloth across the table and chairs to clear the dust. They each took a seat, but I remained standing. A moment later, Toryn and Nellie joined us.
Nellie’s eyes were rimmed with red as she paced from one side of the room to another. She took a moment to speak. Finally, she said, “Andromeda wanted Tessa to use the gemstones. So that the power would infect her, like you warned us about. When Tessa told her she’d never become like them, no matter what Andromeda did to her, she—” Nellie coughed.
We waited for her to take a moment. Then she said, “I ordered the beasts to attack the gods. But it wasn’t enough. Sirius tried to take me.”
“Sirius?” Gaven looked surprised. “I thought he helped Tessa escape.”
“He told me he was sorry, but that he couldn’t go against Andromeda’s orders. He’d made a vow.”
Fenella nodded. “How did you get away from him?”
“He took the gemstones, then dropped me. Tessa saw. She tried to catch me, but…” A strange expression crossed Nellie’s face. She stopped pacing. “I…Tessa shouted at me to fly. So I tried. And I suddenly had wings. Like Tessa…”
Nellie gasped. She whirled on her feet and ran up the stairs. The thud of her steps was loud.
Toryn jumped to his feet. “Nellie?”
My entire body shuddered in realization. I took a step after her, not daring to hope.
“Kal, what’s going on?” Fenella asked.
“If Nellie can conjure wings, she has the same powers Tessa does.” Now that I’d spoken the words out loud, I couldn’t move fast enough. I threw myself toward the stairs, and my boots thundered against the wood.
I ran into the bedroom at the end of the hallway. Nellie was beside Tessa again, curving over her. She palmed both of Tessa’s cheeks. Nellie was quivering. She could barely hold her hands in place. Gently, I leaned over her and took her hands in mine to steady her. Breathing out, she nodded.
“Kal, Nellie,” Toryn said from the door. “It’s too late for this. Even if you’re right, Tessa can’t come back. Not into her own body. And I know you would never want to put her in someone else’s. We all know Oberon’s story. We understand how Tessa’s powers work. To bring someone back into their own body, it has to be done quickly.You know this.”
“Let them try it,” Fenella said.
“It’s only going to cause them more pain when it doesn’t work,” he argued.
“It will work,” I said through clenched teeth. “Go on, Nellie. You can bring your sister back. I know you can.”
