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“That’s what you meant by saying Father’d never hurt you. You were in the mines because you could talk to him, even though he was a Neem?” Gavin’s skin had turned as white as the wall behind him. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Father wasn’t working there when he got killed. He bought my necklace from a miner weeks before the incident.” Thalea wrung her hands, swallowing as tears streamed down her face. “I didn’t know about the necklace then.”
“Why was he there, then?” Violet’s sore throat where a signal of her undoing. For once, she didn’t wipe the tears away. No point hiding how all this broke her every bit as much as it did Thalea.
“The week the Crows sealed the mine, so many spirits visited our house. I must have been their only hope to communicate with their loved ones one last time. All the miners who perished right after the collapse requested my help. And I was so frazzled by the news, and was feeling so guilty that I still had my father when so many had lost theirs…”
“So I went to a few people and told them what the spirits had said to me. Some of the families were thankful, others too sad to even see me. Then there was one that hated me for it.”
She sighed, brushing down her cheeks. “A few Crows stayed behind to make sure no one tried to open the cave back up. One family must have told them about what I did.” She slumped forward, her chin wobbling. “They told me if I didn’t show them my magic, they would kill Mom and Dad, and… I really tried to do what they asked of me.”
“But they killed him.” Violet felt hollowed out. Empty. Where was her anger when she needed it?
“I told them I might be a medium, able to see and talk to spirits but not able to do magic. They came here, and there were no Neems or ghosts to show them my gift—so they took us all to the mines. No spirit appeared there either. They hurt Mom and Dad so much… They must have known I couldn’t do what they demanded.
“One of them killed Dad. Right where you found him yesterday. I’m so sorry, Violet. You have every right to hate me because I know it was my fault. I really tried to do something.”
“It’s not on you, Lea. What happened then?”
“They left. Father’s spirit told me about the necklace afterwards. He’d hidden the necklace under my mattress. It was his way of shielding me from the spirits that used to visit me while I was in bed. I guessed it’d work.”
“Did he speak to you when he was a Neem?”
“Yes, but it wasn’t like when he was alive. It’s different, they are jaded and come in and out of conscious thoughts. He did make me promise to never take the necklace off. He insisted the Crows would come back for me.” Thalea pulled out the shiny green stone from underneath her simple dress. It caught the candlelight, casting a rainbow of colors on the table, and Violet’s breath stuttered in her throat.
Right there was the key to her freedom. It would be so easy to reach out and take it from Thalea’s hands. The magic of the artifact buzzed like a void, distorting the air around it.
“Do you need this to escape the Crows?” Thalea moved to pull the necklace off her neck.
“No!” Violet launched herself across the table, sending food flying everywhere. “Never take that off!”
Thalea withdrew, her face twisting with shock and fear. “W-why not? When I go to the mines to talk with Dad, I’ve been removing it. I still have no magic. I feel nothing.”
“You have magic, Thalea,” Gavin said gently. “You have spoken to spirits, many times. That’s not common.”
“I have been able to do that since I can remember. Violet knows this. Yet when the Crows took her to join the army, they left me here. They didn’t see any magic in me, not then—and not when they killed Dad.”
“It’s not the Society that’s the problem,” Violet blurted out. She sat back down, dusting the mess of food off her clothes. “One of our ancestors promised the God of Shadows the second magical-born of our bloodline. And if you have been speaking with spirits all this time—that’s you.”
“How do you know that?” Her sister rose and began to pace around the room.
“He’s sent three of his emissaries to me, claiming that he owns my future child.”
Thalea paused, twisting her hands together as she stared at the flames in the wood-stove. Then she burst out laughing. Gavin and Violet exchanged puzzled looks. “That’s funny,” she said. “You almost had me.”
“Thalea…”
“No, don’t mock me. I will take it from this town, but not from you.” She trembled, and yet she stood taller, lifting her chin just like Violet did whenever she was feeling especially insecure. “I’m not magical, and my foolish attempt to pretend I was special, even for a second, was what got our dad killed.”
“I would never tease you about this.” They stared at each other for a long moment. Violet could have screamed at the top of her lungs about how unfair life was. The three people she loved the most were all inside this home, but she couldn’t keep them safe. Her mother was only a shell of who she’d once been, and her father was dead.
Fate really had a way of knocking you down when you were already on the floor weeping.
“Do you still want me to come with you?” Thalea sniffed. “Even though I’m to blame for our father’s demise?”
“If anyone is at fault, it’s that bastard that sold you to the Crows five years ago. I wish I had more time.” She’d show them what it meant to mess with the Elders. Slowly and painfully. “Do you know who it was?”
“Violet…”
