“Helloooo?” came Mel’s singsongy greeting.
“Hi.”
A pause. “Who died?”
“What? Wh—no onedied.”
“Really? But you’re calling me! On your own volition! How do I even know it’s really you and not an impostor?”
Despite herself, Riya smiled faintly. “I just... wanted to talk.”
That was all it took; Mel’s voice softened. “What’s going on? Tell me everything.”
Riya couldn’t find the words at first. Saying it might make it real.
“I think I’m going to do it,” she said finally. “The sacrifice.To break the curse.” She took a long, shaky breath. “I’m going to give up Caltech.”
“...Oh, RiRi,” Mel whispered. “Are you sure? That’s... that’s terrifying. “But—are you sure there’s no other way?”
Riya slipped off her glasses, massaged the bridge of her nose. “Yeah.”
“So what does that actually mean? You giving it up?”
“I haven’t submitted the full application yet,” Riya said. “It’s due on Halloween. I’ve got everything else ready to go—transcripts, letters, test scores. The only thing missing is the supplemental essay.”
Mel made a small pained sound. “You’ve been killing yourself over that essay. So you’re just... stopping?”
Riya shook her head, eyes on the beat stack of materials by her desk. “Peri magic cares about intent. If I just walk away, it’s not a sacrifice—it’s avoidance. I have to choose not to send it. There’s a ritual—mostly symbolic, but it marks the choice. It tells the magic I’m letting it go.”
Sirah khala had warned her after that, the magic would keep the path closed. If she tried to go to Caltech anyway, all sorts of horrible things would happen: Emails wouldn’t send. Transcripts would vanish. Roads—literal and metaphorical—would refuse to open.
“Okay.” Mel exhaled. “Butwhy? Talk me through it.”
Riya blinked at the shining thread of a balloon ribbon, still dancing in the dark. “At first, I thought it was because it’s the right thing. Because it’s my fault. Because I should’ve been more careful, more ethical, more responsib—”
“Riya.” Mel’s voice was soft but firm. “Is that still why?”
Silence.
Riya thought of Kian at the café and what it would mean to undo it all. He could forget her. He might never look at her like that again.
Still, she would do it.
“...No,” she said.
Mel didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to.
“I think it’s because... even if he forgets me, I’d rather that than trap him in something that isn’t real,” Riya said quietly. “I’d rather let him go than keep him like this. Even if he’d choose differently, I have to do what’s right for him. Even if it makes me feel guilty. Even if I...”
Mel’s breath was soft on the other line. “That doesn’t sound like guilt anymore, RiRi. That sounds a lot like love.”
Riya flinched. “What? No. No. Of course not.” She thought of Mel, curled up in bed with her ridiculous strawberry-print comforter, blasting TWICE’S “What Is Love?” and smiling with her whole face as she talked about Andrew. Writing his name in the corners of her notebooks.Thatwas love. Big, obvious, messy. A sun you couldn’t look at directly. “I’m not like you. I don’t—I don’t think I even know how to feel that way.”
“Maybe not in the way I do,” Mel said gently. “But letting him go because it’s best for him? Think about it. Maybe love just looks different for you. Doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
The balloons creaked faintly in the dark. Hovering by Riya like overzealous friends.
“You’re doing something really brave,” Mel added. “And you’re not doing it alone, okay? I’m with you.”
