Was I cursed?
I didn’t know where the thought came from, but I needed to know. It was the only thing I hadn’t thought of. It was the only thing that seemed to make a little bit of sense. Three little dots appeared to signal she was messaging back, but then theydisappeared and didn’t start again. I was left alone to figure it out.
“Ouch!”I exclaimed as a pin shot through the fabric and pierced my side. I peered down at my mother, who was doing alterations on my suit for the Halloween ball, and scowled. “Can you watch where you’re putting your needles? If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were trying to get my blood for a spell.”
She rolled her light eyes and smirked. “I don’t have death magic, so there’s no reason for me to use your blood, you know this.”
She might not have death magic, but she was a powerful diviner, and I knew that if she got hold of my blood, she coulduse it. Not that she would, but she would never say it out loud. Blood magic was strictly prohibited. It usually came with the hefty price of one’s life.
She tugged the fabric tighter and stuck another pin dangerously close to my ribs.
“Besides,” she said, “if I needed blood for a spell, I wouldn’t take it from you during a fitting. I have more class than that.”
I snorted. “Class, but not subtlety.”
She raised a brow. “Subtlety is for people who don’t have power.”
I didn’t argue with her—mostly because she was right. “I suppose you have a point.”
“How is Maple doing? Have you seen her much this week?”
I knew exactly what my mom was doing. She was meddling because she’d seen more of Maple than I had.
I stared at myself in the full-length mirror. “I’m sure she’s fine.”
It wasn’t what I really wanted to say, but it came out anyway. I wanted to say that I missed her, and all I wanted to do was hear her laugh, but the moment I told my own mom that, I was toast.
Ancestors, I was burnt toast.
“You can say fine all you want to, but I don’t need to touch your skin to know how you’re really feeling.” She smirked as she stabbed another pin into the fabric at my ribs.
“She’s in the library every night,” she said casually as if I didn’t know. I always knew where she was. I was trying my hardest to keep tabs on her, even if I couldn’t be with her as much as I wanted to be.
My mother paused, one hand resting on my shoulder. “Space is noble. But when the woman you love is unraveling and thinks she has to do it alone?” She met my eyes in the mirror. “Space becomes neglect.”
My throat went dry. “I never said I loved her.”
My mother’s eyes met mine in the mirror. “You can fool yourself all you want to, but you can’t fool me.”
I heldher gaze for a breath too long, something raw and unspoken twisting behind my ribs.
“I didn’t mean for it to be like this,” I said, voice low. “I just… I have responsibilities. The wolves. The full moon. The search teams.”
“And none of those things will matter,” she said softly, “if the girl who was meant to help you walk through them decides she’s done waiting.”
That landed like a punch.
“She wouldn’t leave,” I said—but it came out as a question. “She has nowhere to go.”
“She wouldn’t want to,” my mother corrected. “But hearts break, Rune. Even the strong ones, and she doesn’t have to leave physically to be gone forever from you, don’t forget that.”
She stepped back, giving the suit one last tug. “You’re done here.”
I stood there for a second, unmoving and uncertain.
There was only so much silence someone like Maple could bear before it became the only thing they heard, but I felt so overwhelmed by everything in my life. How could I tell her that?
“I’ve never been good at saying the right thing,” I muttered.
