“How did you know about this place?” She asks, turning back to me.
“I came here with my father many times over the years. I wasn’t included in the meetings, so I did a lot of exploring. This is one of their hidden gems.”
“It’s incredible! They’re like falling stars.” She makes her way over to the cascading stream of sparkles, and I follow.
“Come on.”
I grab her hand, dragging her with me beneath the falling galaxy. It runs like sand against our skin, and when she looks up at me, it’s almost as if she’s wearing a cloak of diamonds. I can’t read her mind, but there’s something behind those eyes of hers. I expect her to pull her gaze away, but she doesn’t. She just looks up at me like she’s trying to work something out.
A sparkle lands on her cheek and fails to fall away. It glimmers against her skin like a coin in the afternoon sun. I slowly reach up and wipe it away with my thumb. For a moment, her eyes close as if the feeling of my touch is something she has longed for.
What am I saying?
She’s probably just tired. I dip out of the waterfall before I do something stupid.
“Thanks for showing me this.”
She makes her way back to the middle of the glittering pool, laying back to float on the surface. Her dress melts seamlessly into the sea of diamond-like specks as if she were a creature born from it.
“This is what I wanted my life to be like.” I’m not sure if she’s speaking to me or herself, so I don’t say anything. A second later, she stops floating and stands back up. “When I died, I had so many regrets. There was so much I hadn’t done and so many things I hadn’t seen. It felt like I wasted mylife away, but now I’ve gotten a second chance to do things differently.”
“Is that why you got drunk at Hollows the other week?”
She falls back into the puddle in embarrassment. “How did you know about that?”
I laugh, thinking back to the conversation. “Akari told Artemus and me about Amaya’s little run-in with the flower bush.”
A burst of laughter explodes from her, and it might just be my favorite sound now.
How did that happen? How did this girl from the Sector come to steal away my thoughts? How is it that a part of me feels lost when she’s not around?
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to think of that and not laugh,” she finally says. “But yes, to answer your question, that was a big reason I drank too much that night.”
She doesn’t specify the other reason, and she doesn’t have to. She just found out she lost her father and that I had been lying to her. She had every reason to seek a temporary escape from it all. I’m only sorry I was the cause of it.
“Can I ask you something?” She moves in closer to me, and the energy has shifted to something more serious.
“Always.”
She pauses, trying to figure out how to ask her question. “Are you cursed?”
I nearly fall backwards.
“Why would you ask that?”
Reign shifts around uncomfortably, but she doesn’t avoid the question. “You know how I saw that memory of you with the wolf cub? Well, I saw another one. I mean, I didn’t know for sure if it was a memory or just an illusion, but when I saw the X carved into your chest, I suspected it might be real.”
I’m so taken aback, I’m not even sure what to say. No one knows about the curse. There were only the three of us in the room that night. If word got out that there would be no more heirs to the throne, there would be panic and disorder throughout the realms and surrounding territories.
“Yes, I’m cursed.” Despite her having just admitted to believing it was real, she seems shocked by my confession.
“So, you can’t fall in love, then?” Her voice is quiet, like she was working up the courage to ask me.
“That’s one hell of a memory you jumped into.” She looks at me with guilt, and I suddenly feel bad for making the comment. I’m not sure how she saw it, but it certainly wasn’t of her doing. “Not exactly. I mean, that’s what we thought at first too, and now, looking back, that would’ve been preferred.”
“So, youcanfall in love?”
“Yes, but it’s a lose-lose either way you cut it.” I idly run my hand through the shimmering pond. “I can either be physical with someone I have no feelings for, or I can love someone and never be able to act on it. If I were to fall in love and so much as kiss the person, they would die.”
