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Her eyes widen like saucers. “To help spirits? Like…”
“You know. Move on. Enter the Beyond.”
She quickly drops her gaze. “Oh.”
I flip the grimoire to one of the spells and show it to her. It’s in Catalan, so I don’t expect her to be able to read it, but still want to involve her in the process. “Would you like to try?”
Mei chews on her lips like a dog on a bone. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”
“Why not? You still want my help to get unstuck, right?”
“I do, but…” she lowers her head, her short black hair acting as a curtain over her face. “What if it doesn’t work? What if I’m stuck here, forever?”
“We’ll never know if we don’t try. And if these spells aren’t right, we’ll just look for other ones. But we’ve got to start from somewhere.” When she continues to look down without giving an answer, I insist, “this gives me a chance to test some spells, and I need the practice. I’m still not sure how to break the curse, and the more training, the better.”
She still doesn’t seem fully convinced when she looks back up, but at least she’s not as concerned. “Ok, let’s try it.”
I clap my hands together. “Great!”
“You still don’t know what to do to craft the trinket?” she asks. The real question doesn’t go unnoticed — do I realize how much time I have left? Obviously, I do. The inexorability of my own demise is not something I tend to forget easily.
“It’s not just that I don’t know how to craft the trinket,” I explain, though that’s a big part of the puzzle. “I have an idea of the general spell I’d be looking for to do that — it’s something that represents a life event, or a piece of a person, so I’m going to be searching for things along those lines. The bigger issue is that I’m not fully certain what the last trinket is supposed to represent.”
Mei floats to hover at the foot of the bed, and I can’t help but feel she’s trying to stall. “Isn’t it meant to represent the next important event in Tei’s life?”
“That’s the theory, but even if I’m right there, how am I supposed to know what that is? I’m not clairvoyant. All the trinkets Isabel created were events from the past.”
Mei taps a finger to her lips. “That’s a good point.”
“It will come to me. In the meantime, I can strengthen my magic.” Setting the grimoire on the crook of my elbow, I pat the page. “Shall we?”
She takes a deep breath. “Let’s do it.”
I read the spell a few times over to make sure I understand it thoroughly. Then, I ask Mei to stand and place myself in front of her.
“Obro la porta amb un gest delicat, un pas cap a l’inconnit que m’espera, entre expectació i nervis, segueixo endavant. Un gir de clau, i el món es desplega, el vent m’acaricia, l’horitzó s’estén, la porta oberta em convida i em pega.” Following the instructions in the grimoire, I use two outstretched fingers to draw a door around her, from one side of her feet to the other.
As I’m drawing the door, I chant the other stanza of the spell. “Em llanço cap a l’abisme d’allò que vindrà, amb coratge i somriures d’esperança, la porta oberta, l’aventura em crida ja.”
Chanting in Catalan gives me much more power than doing so in Spanish or even in English. It’s like the language belongs to me, like the magic inside me recognizes it. I feel the power inside my veins thrum, come awake. It’s an intoxicating feeling.
As I finish chanting, the door I’ve just drawn begins glowing. Both Mei and I stagger away from it, cursing.
“Did it work?” I ask.
“I don’t…”
The glow only lasts for a moment. When it subsides, all I can see is a faint outline. “Mei? Can you see the door?”
Mei reaches her hand forward. “I…” her lip trembles.
“So?” I can barely contain my excitement.
“I can, yes.”
I want to squeal, jump up and down, but something in the tone of her voice keeps me from doing so. “What’s wrong?”
“The door is there. But it’s bolted shut.”
