Page 90 of Shadow & Stars
Darcy closed the boarded door, leaving us in candlelight. “Now we plot our next move.”
We gatheredaround a central electric candle, still soggy from the rain. Liza stayed on the sofa, Xavier, Darcy, and me on the floor. Margarite and Lizard Guy stood over in the corner, while Grandma and Teen Me waited upstairs to keep the two parts of me apart.
The dagger buzzed a little, but no pain floored me at this distance.
Darcy held the talking stick. “With this latest development, we can now see time is super unstable. We must play this carefully. Removing the dagger now is unsafe due to the wishing problem.”
I cleared my throat, putting a plan forward. “Okay. After I let Teen Me take the dagger out, I’ll head back to Grandma’s house. Get through the time door, alone, and wish for the time jar.” I scratched at my cheek. “None of you will be there with me, so you’ll be safe. Then I open it. Or I try one big wish to make everything right. Either way, I’ve got to be quick.”
Darcy blinked at me. “Good plan. I think it can work.”
“I’ll take you to the door on my back,” Xavier chimed in next.
“Bingo!” I declared. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
We kept putting our hopes in the piece of time like it would wipe the slate clean for a big reset. The more I thought about it, the more doubt crept in, wriggling in my belly like a ball of worms.
“What if it doesn’t work?” I came in with the negativity. “What if nothing happens?”
Shit. Negativity really sucked the energy out of the room.
“There isn’t really a choice, sweetheart.” My grandma stood in the doorway, her face painted by candlelight. “By the sounds of things, this is the only choice you have.”
Slowly, I got to my feet. “Grandma…” Now I knew how Xavier felt after seeing Ismael, but in a different way. With her alive and in the same room, my most selfish side wanted to stay here and throw caution to the wind. At least here she was alive. At least here she wasn’t ashes and memories.
My shoulders sagged under the weight of my grief. “Shit…”
“Let’s give them a moment,” Darcy said
Everyone left the room.
Any moment now, I’d be crying again. “I can’t take this.”
“I’m sorry I’m causing you so much pain.”
I shook my head vehemently, approaching her. “It’s not like that…”
“Itislike that, sweetheart. We shouldn’t be seeing each other like this. I’m not of your time. None of this is real, as I understand it. You’ve already been that boy upstairs. You’re a grown man now, and my time is over. I wish it wasn’t, but it is.”
Fuck. Hearing that was like taking another bullet to the chest. “Grandma…”
“How can something have happened yet still exist?” She sighed. “This is magical interference. You have to do whatever you can to make this right. Whatever suffering has taken place and will take place, it must be stopped. The world can’t be like this.”
Man, she deserved the biggest of hugs. “I…I really miss you.”
Her smile could chase every shadow away. “What I need you to know is I love you. I know we’re apart in your time, but onlyphysically. I’m always here.” She pointed at my chest. “Never forget that.”
“Grandma…”
“There is nothing I can do to stop it. Death is inevitable. Time never stops. Even though things are in this pickle, time still marches onward. I understand that all too well. I lost your grandpa too early, along with your mum and dad.”
She’d lost her husband the year before her daughter. My dad died from cancer, my mum stepping in front of train a week after, unable to handle his passing.
I was three at the time. I didn’t remember them, only saw their faces in photos, heard the stories Grandma told me.
“My dear Rina,” she said. That was my mum’s name.
