Chapter Eleven
Kira
They walked the rest of the way back to Kira’s in silence.
Stepping through her front door and locking it behind her was soothing to Kira.
She wanted Lula to go.
And as if Lula could read her mind, she said, “I’m going in just a second, but first, I wanted to tell you that I’m doing some work in Qatar.
” Uninvited, Lula took a seat back on the couch and reached for the glass of water she’d left there, drinking some down.
“I stopped by to see London. She’s very lucky to have your family. They treat her as one of their own.”
“Yes, well, we spent summer vacations for many years at the family compound. She became good friends with my cousins, and my aunts are very fond of her. Even my mother likes her, and my mother isn’t a person who likes people.” Kira perched on the side chair. “How is she? London, I mean.”
“When is the last time you saw her?” Lula asked.
“At the hospital, before they flew her to Qatar. I’m not willing to visit right now.
I don’t think it’s wise of me to be under the nose of Uncle Nadir.
I hate that my uncle puts a wedge between my beloved family and me.
But I don’t trust him. I agreed to marry Omar because I would at least be close to my family.
Then I realized Omar was from Saudi Arabia, and I would be required to go wherever Omar told me to and speak to whoever he chose for me to speak to.
I might never see my family again, which was the threat that Uncle Nadir wielded like a sword against me. ”
“I would agree. It’s better to stay away for now.”
“London?” Kira whispered.
“So London walks robotically. Sometimes her short-term memory is difficult. She wears an AI pendant that listens to her all day long and synthesizes everything down into notes for her to review at the end of the day. It’s quite remarkable, really.
She comments on her day as she goes, I’m putting my phone on the kitchen counter.
I’m eating lunch. And then she can ask the device things throughout the day.
‘Where did I put my phone?’ ‘On the kitchen counter.’ ‘I’m preparing soup and a sandwich for lunch.
’ ‘You ate lunch at eleven thirty. Snacking on a piece of fruit is a healthy choice.’ It’s interesting.
I’m sure it’s enormously helpful as she’s building back her health. ”
“Is that level of disability permanent?” Kira’s voice was barely audible.
“London says she’s making progress. They’re doing all the things that help build brains. Did you know that if you put rose oil at a .5% dilution on your clothes for thirty days, researchers have found that it increases the volume of gray matter?”
“I’m sure that finding jazzed you.” Kira stopped to focus on the scents around her. She preferred her house to smell like lemon verbena, fresh and herbaceous. She hadn’t smelled any scent connected to Lula. “You don’t seem to be taking advantage of that finding.”
“Not a fan of roses, to be honest,” Lula crinkled her nose.
“London loves it. She gets hers from the Valley of Roses near Kazanluk, Bulgaria. The Damask rose is used by all of the major fashion houses. London always wondered why someone would dilute it with other scents.”
“She uses it therapeutically now. The oil particularly helps the posterior cingulate cortex—the part of the brain that does the heavy lifting when it comes to processing emotions.”
“Speaking of emotions, how is she doing with Archie?”
“A nanny has to be with him twenty-four seven because London forgets that he’s in the bath or loses focus when he’s doing something that requires attention. It’s really quite dangerous.”
“London dreamed of being a mom. She wanted to do her art and love her babies. This must be torture for her.”
“She’s pregnant again.”
Kira stared at Lula, then shook her head. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“She’s pregnant.”
“On purpose?” Kira gasped.
“I asked the same thing. London doesn’t remember.”
Kira gripped her abdomen and pulled her lips into a deep frown. “I’m sick to my stomach.”
“William is thrilled. If that’s any information for you.”
“Yeah. It is. William is exactly who I thought he was. And London loves him for who he is. So, there’s that.”
“She doesn’t remember if she’s talked to you recently.
She didn’t check her notes. I will say, though, that she has a sense of self-preservation—not the precise word—but you’ll understand it when I tell you that she speaks in code.
Things from when she was younger come more easily to her.
And from my observations, she uses those earlier memories so she understands what she’s talking about, but no one else would have context. ”
“It makes me sad that that’s necessary.”
“Everyone wants a little privacy,” Lula said. “If I were depending on a device to take notes about my life and I knew that they could be reviewed by my medical team and my husband, I think it’s healthy that she’s figured out how to maintain some dignity.”
“Yeah.”
“I told London I’d be traveling in this area. I have a meeting at the fort. She asked her device about you, and she came up with a note that she needed to get something to you from the time you met the witch.”
“Witch?” Kira said as she reached for the white box that Lula pulled from her bag.
Kira wrapped her fingers around the box top and started to lift. She stopped and looked up to catch London’s gaze. “Do you know what it is?” She lifted her brow. “Did you open it already?”
“You’re my friend. I don’t spy on friends.”
Kira tipped her head. “Really? Is that how you see me?”
“I do. I understand why you wouldn’t feel the same.”
Kira sighed. “I do actually. It’s complicated, that’s for sure.
But I also know that, through everything, you had my back and tried to protect Ty.
You were doing your job.” She patted the base of her throat.
“I sound so self-pitying. My logic says that’s ridiculous because my life was headed along an untenable trajectory.
” She pressed her lips tight and released. “I’m conflicted.”
“Fair.” Lula nodded toward the box. “Aren’t you curious?”
Kira lifted the lid to find an antique ring. She blinked at it then focused on Lula again, her voice wobbling. “London sent this to me?” Of course she did. But this was shocking.
Kira slid the ring onto her ring finger, where it was entirely too big. She moved it to her index finger and looked at it.
Lula turned and looked out the window, taking a deep breath, then closed her eyes.
Kira appreciated the moment of privacy that gave her to look at the ring.
She remembered the scene so vividly. Kira and London had flown to New York City to catch a flight to Qatar to spend the winter break with Kira’s family.
Kira’s family had always invited London and paid her way so that Kira, as a single woman outside the protection of a male relative, could travel with decorum.
Not perfect, but certainly better than alone, according to her mother.
Ice and high winds grounded the planes. Kira had made hotel arrangements, but given the number of people stuck in the city and unable to fly out, she and London ended up at a hotel in Greenwich Village.
They decided it would be fun to sit in the cozy lobby with the blazing fire, watch the weather, and read vintage paperbacks.
At the suggestion of the front desk host, they dashed three doors down, bursting through the doors of the eclectic secondhand shop, brimming with the kinds of things that one might find in the attic of a house that had been passed down through the generations.
The woman behind the desk, wearing massive gemstone rings on gnarled, arthritis-ridden fingers, looked from London to Kira.
She pulled off the ring, so tiny in circumference that it only passed the first knuckle of her pinky finger.
“That’s why I wore it this morning. I was wondering.
” She said it to London as if they were old acquaintances, and London would understand.
“It’s rather pleasant, don’t you think, when you can, years after your death, still have a hand in the workings of Fate? ”
“Fate?” London took a step closer.
“Try this on and see how it fits.” The elder pushed the ring toward London.
And London immediately complied as Kira stood by the rack of vintage hats, feeling her nose buzz.
The sensation wasn’t a warning; there was no tinnitus, but it had started when the elder looked at her, then swept her gaze to London.
“You see here, this catch? It is a ring that women wear with snuff. Do you know what that is?”
“Like tobacco?” London asked.
“Exactly, finely powdered for the woman to sniff. Sometimes, there were other medicine powders within. They were not, as popular storylines go, for poison pills to plop into someone’s drink.
I see it fits your ring finger perfectly.
Isn’t that nice? I am giving this to you as a gift.
There is only one thing I ask: at some point in your life, you will come to know that this ring could protect someone you hold dear.
There will come a day when you must betray someone you love to save someone you love.
At that moment, you will not hesitate to use this ring. And you will know exactly what to do.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.” London’s face turned bright pink even in the dim store.
Kira and London put their paperbacks on the desk to be rung up, then they scurried back to the hotel where they’d fallen onto the sofas in peels of nervous laughter. “Can you imagine?” London had asked. “What could that possibly mean that I must betray someone I love to save someone I love?”
“Oh, she was just having fun. She probably buys them out of China for three dollars a pop, and that’s her way of entertaining herself.”
London’s laughter stopped, and she examined the ring. “I really don’t think so, Kira.”
Here it was.
In her hand.
The ring that would change a fate years after the elder’s death.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Lula said. She’d opened her eyes and focused on Kira when Kira was lost in her memory.
“I’m overwhelmed that London sent this to me.
” She cleared her throat and, for whatever reason, wanted to distract Lula from the ring.
“My cousin said that William had been working in Singapore, but his work wrapped up suddenly, and he took off for this compound in Tanzania to check on things,” Kira said. “Did London go with him?”
“She’s in Qatar,” Lula said. “You still call home to Qatar?”
“To talk to my female relatives when they’re in the women’s wing of the compound.”
“Not your Uncle Nadir?”
“No, he dislikes small talk. He would only speak to me of important developments. And I don’t want to hear any of those from him. Last time I spoke with him on the phone, he’d arranged a marriage for me.”
“He doesn’t know you’re dating Ty?”
“No,” Kira whispered, because Uncle Nadir knowing about Ty would be entirely too dangerous.