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When I thought of our times at the arena, I realized that those memories were full of excitement. Not anxious worry or fear, but excitement... I knew why. I could not deny it while looking into myself. All those memories had Kieran in them. That was why.
But these were not the memories I needed. Neither were the memories of laughter, joy, fear and fighting. Not the memories I had with my friends...
Then, I knew.
The sun was up in the sky. The memory-me was looking up. There was wind, and yet, I was as warm as anyone could be.
“This is our home, Cari,” my mother said, holding my hand tightly. When I turned my head her way, I saw her short black hair and coal-black eyes that looked warmly at me. “We are safe here.”
I knew we were. My hand was small, so I could only hold one of her fingers, and that was how I showed her that I understood. The field of corn was broad and tall. No one could find us here.
I smiled.
The memory was a simple one, but as soon as I found it, I knew it was not mine. I remembered being that little, and the safety in the memory was one I’d never felt, not then and not since.
Cari. So that was her name. The dark-eyed girl must have hidden this memory inside of me to keep the connection between us.
I grasped onto the fuzzy edges of the warm memory and saw that it was partly somewhere else. The rest of the memory was not with me. It ended abruptly with Cari feeling safe, and knowing that this safety would be her last was the connection she’d kept between our minds. I held onto it, and I found the darkness changing the memory she had tried to keep safe inside of me.
It was with her.
Cari, I said as I got inside her mind. Where are you?
She pushed me away with so much force that my thoughts hurt from the sudden violence. I had seen nothing when I had been in her mind, no visuals or smells to tell me that I had indeed managed to go to her. But her touch as she pushed me away was familiar. It was her. The dark-eyed girl. Cari.
Don’t, she said as I opened my eyes back in the forest. She’s here. Leave me be.
The queen... My insides twitched with fear, and I felt ashamed of it at once. Cari had left me because the queen was there, close enough to smell the forbidden connection between us.
I made myself very small inside my mind and hoped the queen had not noticed.
