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My eyes widen at that. I’ve always identified with the feeling, and at least in Hazel Creek, I’ve been ostracized for it, too. But I’ve come to associate that with being a witch, a creature more of the Beyond than mortals. The fact that another witch sees me that way too, now… what does that make me?
“It’s probably just because you have a part of me in you, and that’s what Marta is feeling” Tei jumps in. “Uncharted territory and all.”
I give him a gentle smile. Whatever the reason, I’m oddly at peace with it. I’ve spent all my life running from that feeling, but the past few months have taught me there’s nothing inherently wrong with me — in the right place, with the right person, my wrongness is just perfect.
Bringing the small cup to my lips, I take a sip of the scalding hot espresso.
“Are you ready to try the spell again, now?” Marta asks.
I take another sip of coffee before setting the cup down. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Under the table, Tei squeezes my thigh.
Marta nods and busies herself creating an empty space by pushing furniture around. In the meantime, I retrieve the jewelry box from my backpack.
“We meet each other again,” I whisper to it, running a finger along the ornate gold filigree.
“I almost forgot,” Marta says, walking over to me with the dragon key held between her fingers.
I grab it from her and hold it out in front of me before pressing it to my chest, right where Tei’s mark is. Knowing there’s no way Mei can hear me from the Beyond, I still feel compelled to say, “thank you, friend. I’m not going to forget this,” before pressing a kiss to the dragon head and returning it to the jewelry box with the others.
The spot Marta freed up for me is in the middle of her shaggy bedroom rug; her bed and nightstand have been pushed against the wall, and the dining table is against the front door. I take my place in the middle of it and set the jewelry box to my right. Marta and Tei stand to the side, giving me space, but I can feel their eyes trained on my every movement.
I close my eyes and attempt to shut the rest of the room out, focussing inward, on my steady heartbeat. While consistent, it thrums faster than it did yesterday. Finding the right shard of soul is easy, in this case; every part of my heart beats for Tei. To conjure it, I choose the moment I realized I was on the precipice, and decided to step forward; the day I found my grandmother’s ring. His words sound in my ears clear as if he was whispering them to me right now.
“You had a problem, and I had a solution. And the idea of letting you struggle with something I could so easily fix… I didn’t see the point. So I took care of it. Because there’s something incredible about you. Because no matter how hard I try to keep away, you reel me in. Because if you ask me whether I care… It’d be easier if I didn’t.”
Looking back, I feel silly I didn’t see this, the mark, coming. Problem, meet solution.
Because Teizel, the Prince of the Beyond, the creature who was taught from a young age that love is for the weak and that one’s value comes only from the utility they bring to others, is the first person to love me the way I’ve always wanted, the way I deserve to be.
Wholeheartedly, no armor, no shield, and with a constant willingness to put each other’s happiness first, above all else.
“Amb trossos d’ànima, jo tesso petites joies, brillants fragments del meu ésser, amb amor aglutinats, creacions que fan vibrar l’ànima, com melodies. De cada trencadís de l’ànima, en trec un bocí, amb paciència i cura, els modello amb art, convertint-los en talismans de gran valor i magia subtil.”
When I open my eyes, the shard of soul feels sharp against my fingertips. I pluck at it, coaxing it to come out. It gives, inch by inexorable inch, and I keep pulling, with the gentlest of pressure, knowing even the slightest movement too sharp could shatter it. The shard dislocates from my chest, shining in the morning light, catching the sun rays from the window and refracting them across the room in a rainbow of color. I wrap both hands around it and start to mold it gently. It feels as though the added heat of my skin is making the shard easier to handle, less brittle. I keep rolling it until it feels pliable, then begin shaping it.
I’m no artist, but I do my best to be detailed, molding the shard into the teeth of a key. Once those are done and look accurate enough, I move on to the stem. My heart lurches in my throat when the shard begins to resist, to feel like it might tear against my pulling. I close my eyes again and channel power not only from my core, but from the mark Tei gifted me with, and let it seep through the object, warm the material until it’s once again malleable, and continue shaping. With the stem done, I move on to the bow. Every other key has gotten a head shaped out of the challenger’s death.
But I’m not going to die today.
So instead, I shape this head out of the thing that brought us here, the thing that is going to carry us to victory. I turn the shard into a round bow, and press down the middle of it until it forms a heart. It’s not elaborate, but it gets the message across. Judging by the way Tei’s breath hitches, he’s caught onto the meaning of my key, too. Looking down at my creation, I chant the last part of the spell for the first time in all my attempts.
“Que retorni a la seva essència, lliure i enfront, una ànima ja serà un objecte inert, sino un ésser ple de màgia, dansant i vibrant.”
The shard vibrates in my hands as if being shaken by an earthquake, and my heart stammers as I do my best to hold impossibly still, praying to whatever higher force of the Beyond not to let the shard shatter. But it doesn’t. Not this time. Instead, it hardens into a true object, a key molded of the same brassy metal as the twenty-nine other ones that could not open the lock. Except this one is going to work. Not quite daring a full breath yet, I reach for the jewelry box and splay out the trinkets in front of me.
The egg. “Your birth.”
The crown ring. “Your title.”
The skull. “Your family.”
The coin. “Your betrayal.”
The locket. “Your heart.”
The keys. “The people who couldn’t open it.”
