“I said I’m fine.” But Riya’s voice splintered, and her eyes—God, her eyes were stinging. She blinked hard, furious at the heat building behind them. But it was too late. A tear slipped down her cheek, hot against her skin, still chilled from the night air.
She swiped it away roughly—except another tear followed. Then another.
You’ve got yourself a soggy bottom, came a voice from the baking show.That’s why it collapsed.
“There’s chalk on your face.” Her mom’s voice came softly. “Riya, sweetheart—?”
“Don’t.” The word snapped out sharp, like it had teeth. She winced. “Sorry. I just, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
She couldn’t look at them. Not with everything falling apart inside her.
“What happened?” asked her mom, expression serious.
“I messed up. I—I swore I’d never use peri magic again.Not after... after what I did before. To Jake and those other boys. When I made them—” She closed her eyes, remembering Jake’s tear-streaked face.You’re a monster. “But then Mel asked for help, and I thought, just a little push. Nothing big, nothing serious. I thought I could control it this time.”
The words were tumbling out of her now. Her hands twisted in front of her like she was wringing the truth out of herself. “But then it turned into a love curse. On Kian. And if I don’t break it in five days, it’s permanent. He’ll be stuck like this because of me.”
She felt Nyra’s and Amara’s eyes on her. Riya already knew what they were thinking.
Her mother turned to Sirah khala. “And you knew about all this?”
Sirah khala didn’t flinch. “She asked me not to tell you.”
“So you listened to her? She’s seventeen, Sirah.”
“It’s not Sirah khala’s fault,” Riya whispered.
“But you could have toldus, Riya,” said Nyra, brows drawn together. “Instead of presenting it as some silly hypothetical.”
“I—I was scared. I thought I could fix it.”
“Alone?”
“How was I supposed to talk about it?” Riya said. “It’s not like any of you talked about magic with me, either. Not since...”
“We just didn’t know how to help,” her mom said softly. “We thought if we gave you space, maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much. But this”—she shook her head—“this was toobig to handle on your own, Riya.”
Riya looked down. “I know. I thought I could fix it by myself. And I almost did. But then when we finally figured out how to break the curse, Kian stopped me. Because—because I would have had to give upCaltech.”
She rubbed her arms, shivering. She felt cold all over again. “Isn’t that ridiculous? Why would he stop me? What am I supposed to do now?”
Nyra rubbed her back. “It’s okay. You’re talking about it now. That’s a step forward.”
“Is it?” Riya said, wiping her nose. “I thought magic was supposed to help people, but it’s like every timeItry to fix things, I make itworse.” Kian had sounded so sure they’d figure it out. But now, with him gone and the adrenaline fading, reality was setting in.
“You’ve been trying to fix this like it’s an equation,” said Sirah khala.
“Maybe. Because it’s what I know. Equations don’tchangeon you.” Her eyes stung. “I just thought if I stayed calm, calculated, maybe I could undo it without...” She trailed off, her hands curling into fists. “Without it turning intoa monster.”
“You’re not a monster. You didn’t mean to hurt anyone,” Sirah khala said. “Not then, and not now. None of this means you’re dangerous. It means you care.”
“Or maybe I don’t deserve magic at all.”
“Like it or not,” Amara chimed in, “it’s a part of you. You can’t carve it out and leave only the parts you like.”
Nyra sighed loudly. “Honestly, we should have known something was wrong. But you were still getting perfect grades, still running Student Council like it was a machine. We kept telling ourselves you were fine.”
They had all pulled back, thinking it was kindness. Maybe it was. But it hadn’t made Riya feel safer. Just... unreachable.
