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“Not quite. The power she amassed would’ve passed down to you; the knowledge, however, you would need to gather. You have the potential, but need to learn how to use it.”
“Okay.” I twist my fingers together. “So my question stands.”
Tei crawls towards me on the bed. “What exactly is your question? Would I betray you too, if you became too powerful? Or would I betray you too, if you tried to betray me first and rule my kingdom?”
He’s inches away from me now, and my eyes fall to his lips. “I wouldn’t betray you. I don’t care about ruling any kind of kingdom, Tei. You can have it. I just don’t want you to break my trust.”
He smiles his wicked grin and runs his fingers through my hair, pulling me to him. “Exactly. Don’t you see, little gem? That’s precisely it. Your power, your magic, they have nothing to do with it. It’s about intention. Isabel’s intentions were wicked. Yours aren’t. Which is why I can trust you, and you can trust me.”
Then his lips claim mine in a searing kiss, and I forget all about my reservations. When we pull apart, I’m short for air, as always.
I would love to retreat into our kissing, get lost in him, but I haven’t gotten all the answers yet, and Tei owes me honesty. If he truly believes I should trust him, he has to prove it. “Tell me about what happened when she cursed you.”
He stiffens, the hand stroking my hair stilling. “What else is there to know?”
“I don’t know, Tei, everything? How did it happen? What did she say to you? One doesn’t just go about cursing people for sport. She had a very clear intention and a reason for doing it.”
Tei sighs, leaning back against the pillows and staring at the ceiling. I follow his gaze as he traces the patterns of the swirling moulding. “She showed up here, one day. Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t leave sooner, return to the Beyond. I think a part of me felt ashamed, and I didn’t want to return with my literal tail between my legs. Letting my Mother see my weaknesses was one thing, but the rest of the kingdom…”
He seals his eyes shut, and a muscle in his jaw ticks. “Whatever reason kept me here, it was my demise. She showed up looking twenty years older, like the magic she’d been using had literally consumed her. I was so shocked I didn’t move as she pushed the jewelry box in my hands, and once I touched it, I couldn’t let it go.”
His teeth grind, making a ruminating noise. He takes a long pause, then finally opens his eyes, pulling himself back up to a seated position and looking at me. “She bound my soul to this box and its contents, tied me to the mortal world until I could find the missing trinket. And then said she’d give me a hint, for old time’s sake — a piece of the puzzle I thought I could live my whole life without. A piece I cannot find on my own. That is mine, but someone else’s, too. That’s all she said before she turned on her heels, and I never saw her again after that.”
I run those three hints in my mind over and over again, directing them, but I come up short. Our working theory so far has been that the trinket would be a life event of Tei’s, a significant moment that would mark an important step of his existence. This turns that notion on its head, at least a little. It doesn’t sound like an event, it sounds more like a… thing. Although that doesn’t feel quite right, either.
“So where do we go from here, then?” I ask.
He taps the grimoire. “Study up. We need to figure out what spell Isabel used to craft the trinkets, so we can use it to create the last one.”
I nod, flipping noncommittally through the pages of the book. “Find the spell, craft the trinket, break the curse. Easy enough,” I say, without a whole lot of conviction. We have just about a month left to do so, and while I’ve been getting better at witchcraft, I’ve never done anything of this magnitude.
Tei pushes a strand of hair behind my ear before lifting my chin to look at him. “You, my beautiful gem, are going to break the curse and set me free. And then I’m going to hold my end of the bargain and bring back your mother. And we’re both going to get what we want.”
I do my best to paint a smile on my face and not let my emotions betray me. Because that is exactly what I asked of him, the bargain we struck. But if — no, when, I can’t allow myself to consider failure — I break the curse, Tei will go back to the Beyond. And maybe this makes me an absolutely horrible person, because while the thought of having my mother back is a warm one, my memories of a life with her in it are few and far away. But memories of life with Tei are fresh and abundant.
And the thought of losing him forever stings in a way I didn’t imagine it would.
chapter 45
when a door closes
esmeralda
Barcelona has been sunny and beautiful over the past week. Completely taunting me, because I don’t get to experience any of it, locked up in our bedroom studying up on Isabel’s — my ancestor, a fact I’m still getting used to — grimoire. I’m working my way up to more experienced spells, of course, but when I find one that promises storm clouds and heavy rain, I decide it’s worth trying out.
When a thunderous noise rips through the sky at my chanting, I clap my hands victoriously.
“Seriously, do you have to ruin it for the rest of us?” Mei’s voice floats in from behind me.
“It’s not like you have much use for the sun. You don’t tan. And you don’t get wet in the rain.”
“True. But I still prefer to look at the sun. Better people watching, too.”
I point to all the people soaked by my torrential downpour, rushing to take cover, bumping into each other. “You don’t think that’s pretty hilarious people watching?”
Mei comes to look out the window from over my shoulder with her head tipped far enough it looks like it might fall off her neck, and laughs. “Yeah, you’re right.” Then, she turns to me. “So, aside from ways to make the day of Catalans miserable, what have you found in that grimoire?”
“Actually,” I say, flipping through the pages of the book, “I’m glad you’re here. Isabel had a decent amount of spells to help spirits in here — I was wondering if maybe you wanted to try a few?”
