Something told me that that was the most Levana had ever talked about herself before.
Of course, I could be wrong.
“Old-fashioned.” This time, when Vesta repeated the words, she looked like she’d tasted something sour. “Old-fashioned is wearing last season’s shoes. A bond could never be old-fashioned. It is the single most sacred tradition the Court of Hearts has ever produced, and the fact that younger generations treat it like some dusty relic in a museum makes me want to live another eighty-three years just to give you all a piece of my mind.Hmph.”
How in the world was she eighty-three? She hadfire,I tell you. She was fierce.
And when she squeezed Levana’s hands, the girl winced.
“The bond is not a spell or a ritual to memorize—and it’s most definitely not old-fashioned. It’sa choice.The deepest choice a Heart can make.”
My tongue had remained in my mouth for too long, so I said, “What’s a bond?” Really, Ihadto know. I couldn’t wait. I just couldn’t.
Vesta gave me a smile, and it warmed me to my bones, even more so than the air in her house.
“Oh, it is the most fascinating thing,” she said, and she wastalking to all of us now, but she never once let go of Levana’s hands. “You see, when a Heart loves someone truly, with everything they are, they bind themselves to their loved ones by giving away a memory. Not justany—but a precious one, one that matters. One that they would carry to the Everstill if they could.”
Everybody was so mesmerized by the way she spoke that when she stopped to take a breath, nobody moved a single inch. It was so quiet I could hear the clock ticking in the other room.
“It’s easy as pie, I tell you. I should know—I’ve bonded three times,” she said and finally brought one hand to her chest. “You just find the memory inside yourself. Hold it—whatever it is, the joy or the pain or the love, and you feel the edges of it, and then you let it go.” She shrugged. Smiled so big her eyes glistened. “Not from your head but from your chest. You pull it out—like you would a thread from a tapestry, then you give it to the other person, and it stays with them forever.”
Something about what she said.
Imagines spun in my head, too faded, so blurry, but they were there. I almost saw them. Almost.
“Does it…does it hurt?” Levana asked in a whisper.
“Oh, no, child—no. It will feel like light. Like warmth leaving your body. A friend of mine once described it as a thread of light. Some will tell you it’s like pulling honey from a jar—but it is not painful in the least.”
Light, spinning, threading. Needles moving up and down.
Memories.
Time’s Teeth, it was like the whole house was suddenly balancing on my very shoulders, and I didn’t even know why.
“You must remember, though, that you lose the memory you give forever. That’s the price.” Vesta said. “Your memory is gone from you the moment it enters them. Youwill know that you gave something, but you won’t remember what it was. It’s why it’s so important to choose wisely who you bond to. You’re giving them a piece of yourself that you will never get back. You’re trusting them to carry something that you loved enough to let go of.” And she winked.
The rest of us weren’t even breathing.
Holy Hour, I felt so much more than those words should have made me feel. Isawso much light and the color red and even heardmusic.
Such strange, strange music…
“Now.”
I blinked, and a chime rang in my ears, like something from a long, long time ago.
Air filled my lungs and I looked at the others, and they all must have felt the same because they looked like they were just waking up from a deep sleep, too.
Time’s Temper,howhad she done that to all of us? Or was it just…us? Something we didn’t remember?
“Let’s try to find what was done to your mind, shall we?”
Her hands were small, skin covered in darker age spots, but her grip was firm. Vesta closed her eyes without another word, and Levana closed hers, too. The tension she felt was evident in her jaw, the way her nostrils flared with each breath.
The room went very still.
Most of us were still locked in our own minds, going over everything Vesta said, trying to figure outwhyit hit us the way it did, but that was okay. Because for a long time, nothing happened.
