Page 20

Twenty

T he others were on her heels, but Kamine barely noticed their footfalls past the plummeting rocks. A boulder came down towards them but before Kamine could react, Janina threw it away. The others watched the skies closely for the next one.

As Kamine neared the cemetery, she used her powers to shake the ground behind her. She heard the others yell as they fell to the ground. It wasn’t that she was desperate to win, she just needed a moment to collect herself.

She skidded to a stop at the entrance. The headstones peeked from the earth, each of them a symbol of a soul lost. Many of them were cracked, but her mother’s headstone barely had a scratch. Fresh-cut flowers surrounded the stone—likely her father and Damien had visited.

“Oh,” Zoya quietly said, as she bounded up to where Kamine stood. She rested her hand on Kamine’s shoulder. “Do you need some time alone? I can hold them off.”

Kamine could barely muster a nod, but Zoya ran off. Kamine dragged herself to her mother’s grave, and fell to her knees. As she slammed down, the world bent with her. Grunts sounded behind her again, and she winced at the unintentional use of her powers.

“I made it,” she whispered to her mother’s stone. “I’m here protecting our people. I’m keeping our family safe.”

The wind blew by, settling into her hair and patting her cheek—an assuring gesture just like her mother had done when she had pulled Kamine out from under her bed during that Undertaking, and brought her in close. Her own mother put her fears aside to comfort her child as she rubbed her fingers into Kamine’s scalp to relax her.

Kamine now caressed her own fingers over the rough stone.

“I hope you're proud of me. I hope that you found peace.” Kamine sniffled, and wiped at her nose. “I think I finally found mine.”

That revelation, that truth, freed Kamine from so much of her resentment. She could let it go now. It had never served her, anyway. A part of Kamine would always find what her mother did painful. It would always make Kamine sad that she never experienced the woman that her father had first fallen in love with, but she didn’t need to keep that pain so close anymore. She picked up a weathered rock, and let her hurt and sorrow flow into it; then she smashed it into dust.

“I miss you so much,” she said through her tears. “But I’m going to bring home the light that was taken from you. I promise.”

“Kamine!” someone yelled from behind her. She was shoved to the side. She didn’t even care who did it. She understood that the others were on a mission for the Heart, and she was just a block in the road.

Franciz circled the headstone. “I don’t see it.”

Roz reached them, her usual pristine hair whipped into a complete mess. “Do you think we have to dig?”

Kamine swallowed down the acid bubbling in her chest. Could she allow them to disrupt her mother’s resting place? Could she allow herself to do it?

Then she thought of Kestra, the one responsible for hiding the Heart. She would do something like this. Although that wasn’t a fair assessment of the situation, Kamine knew that the Weather Gods had told her where to place it. Perhaps Kamine was cursed, then, too.

“Let’s dig,” Kamine decided.

The whole cohort had arrived it seemed. The others kneeled down beside her and used their hands to cup the soil, and pull it away. With eight of them, they worked quickly. The hole grew larger. Zoya stopped at some point to focus her attention on any oncoming rocks.

“Anything?” Magda gritted through their teeth. Their hands were caked in mud. Kamine’s own clotted fingernails made her cringe.

“Not yet,” Janina said. Kamine could tell that she was getting frustrated.

“If we keep going,” Zoya interjected, “we’ll hit the casket.”

“Somewhere it’ll hurt, right?” Kamine said, defeated. Silently, she apologized to her mother.

Kamine outstretched her arms and began digging again. The others followed, allowing her to take the lead. With each stroke, Kamine got closer to facing a reality she had ignored for so long. Even during her burial, Kamine didn’t dare look at the wooden box. She had stared at her hands the whole time. She had refused to accept it, because she was so angry at her mother. How could she leave her family? How could her mother not face the choices she had made?

Maybe the Weather Gods were offering her a second chance at something she regretted.

Roz hit something on her side of the hole. “We’re close.”

They all quickened their pace. The wood had barely decayed.

“You should open it,” Janina said to Kamine.

Kamine bit her lip, unsure if she could take that final step, but if she didn’t, one of the others would.

Kamine reached down and grabbed the handle. The door wouldn’t budge at first; the hinges were rusted. She pulled and pulled, but it still wouldn’t give. She had no idea how Kestra had gotten inside if it was in there, but Kamine wouldn’t question the Gods’ methods. Franciz stepped in and tried to help. With more force, they heard the wood crack around the lock.

Kamine took a deep breath and pulled it open. The stench hit her first. Kamine gagged, and the sight of her mother’s dead body made her stomach twist and seize.

A storm of small rocks began raining down.

“We need to hurry,” Zoya said. “It’s going to start again.”

“I see it,” Roz said, excitedly. Then her demeanor changed. “I see it, and I don’t feel any different.” She blinked, as if confused. “I’m this close to everything I wanted, and I don’t even care as much as I thought I would.”

Lycaster agreed. “It’s just a pretty rock. We’ve been training to find a pretty rock. And we’ve had to dig out a dead body for it.”

Janina rubbed Kamine’s shoulders. “I think what they’re saying is that you can have it. It’s yours.”

Kamine opened her mouth, but closed it again. She was ready to immediately dismiss it, and ask one of them to take it. She didn’t want it. She wouldn’t have survived the last few months alone, it was the work of a collective that had brought her the courage to do this.

So she wouldn’t take it. At least not on her own.

“We should all have it,” she said with conviction. “We take it together.” Confusion danced across all of their faces, so she added, “The Gods never clarified that there can only be one winner every year, so it can’t be considered cheating.” She shrugged. “Let’s change the game.”

A mischievous smile had taken over Roz’s face. “Let’s do it.”

The others nodded in approval. They had started this together as one cohort, and they would end it as one.

Kamine counted down as more rocks pelted down around them.

At once, they all touched the amethyst gemstone.

At once, the world around them stilled.