Riya let out a faint hum, distracted.
Mel noticed. Her smile faded. “Hey. I know there’s a lot going on. I wasn’t trying to—” She broke off, then leaned closer, her voice softening. “Have you figured anything out? About... what your khala said?”
As usual, she hadn’t planned to tell anyone—at least, not right away. But this time, the moment she hung up with her khala, she’d called Mel.
Riya smiled weakly. “Sort of. I... haven’t made a decision yet.”
Mel nodded but didn’t speak right away. She toyed with her yogurt spoon, then set it down, her fingers splayed on the table like she needed to steady herself.
“I’ve been thinking a lot,” she said quietly. “About the whole... sacrifice thing.”
Riya said nothing. The cafeteria buzzed around them like a distant ocean.
Mel reached for her drink, then changed her mind. “I think I always assumed magic was easy, like in movies. That as long as you willed it, magic could fix lives with a flick of the wrist.”
She took a breath.
“To be honest, I envied you. And I didn’t understand why you didn’t use it more. But now I finally get it. How everything, even magic, has a cost.” She gave a small laugh. “If I were you, I’d be hiding in the supply closet right now with Mr. Ben and Mr. Jerry.”
Riya’s throat tightened. She looked down at her untouched apple, too glossy, too perfect.
She pushed it aside.
“But,” Mel added gently, “whatever you decide—just don’t think that hurting yourself is the only way to deal with this guilt. What you want still matters, too. It should always still matter.”
The weight of it all pressed against Riya’s chest. Sirah khala’s warning hadn’t left her since the call. The math didn’t work. No matter how she rearranged the variables—Kian, the stars, her future—something had to be lost.
But now Mel had added a new variable.
What do you want?
“I’m glad you’re happy about the theme,” Riya said.
“I am,” Mel said, then paused. “I’m also happy about something else.”
Her face lit up again. “Andrew and I have been texting. Like, a lot.”
“Oh?”
“I think I’m going to ask him to Prom. Make my own little fairy-tale moment, you know?” She twirled her yogurt spoon like a scepter. “Say hello to our future prom queen!”
Riya managed a small smile, the motion automatic, as the sweetness of Mel’s strawberry yogurt hung in the air.
“But—where’s Kian? I wanted to tell him the news. All of this happened because of him, after all. I have to thank him.”
Riya’s stomach turned.
She hadn’t seen him all weekend, since Taboo and her call with her khala.
With seven days left, she could end the curse now. She knew the cost.
Maybe seeing him would make the choice clearer. She could already see it—his crooked grin, the way his eyes crinkled when he was proud of her, the way he leaned in too close without realizing. That ridiculous, spell-sick glow in his face that sometimes felt too real.
But what if, in that moment, she still gave in to her selfishness? Kept Caltech, only to let Kian spiral into oblivion?
What if that was who she was all along?
“Riya...?”
