Lucina #2
“Hi, Cin.” Jude’s answering grin is brief but bright, then he’s right back to Ivy. “Guess what,” he tells her, folding his arms across his chest.
Ivy doesn’t hesitate. “You’ve finally decided to date someone your own age?”
“How old are you again?”
I nearly choke on my drink, and Ivy seethes beside me. He thinks it’s fun to rile her up. Ivy’s got a beast under her skin, and Jude likes to poke it.
“Too old for you.”
Jude shrugs, that big goofy smile back on his face. “Maybe you’ll change your mind next year.”
“I won’t be anywhere near you next year,” Ivy bites back.
Suddenly, the alcohol sits in my stomach funny, and any remnant of a smile is wiped clean off my face. Ivy leaves for school at the end of the summer. Flitrose. The most prestigious university in West Draycott.
And Ivy got a full fucking ride.
She’s the smartest person I’ve ever met in my life.
Her memory is eidetic; she can skim a book once, then recite it back to you.
Ivy has the type of mind that could change the world.
I’m happy for her, really, I am… but I have no idea what I’m going to do when she’s gone.
I can’t afford to live in West Draycott.
I can’t even afford to visit. Not with Catherine and Merrill charging me rent now.
If it wasn’t the cheapest I could find, I’d leave.
Jude’s gaze cuts to me, and I flash a bright smile that he frowns at. He must have caught the twist of emotions on my face a split second before I locked them up. He worries about me just as much as I worry about him, but I hate when he looks at me like that. Like I’m lost.
Jude turns to Ivy, “Actually, you will be.”
She snaps straight up in her chair. “What did you do?”
“I got into Orison.”
All of me goes numb. All at once.
Orison is a military academy in the south of West Draycott, and I knew he was thinking about applying, but I was hoping he’d wait a few years like Ivy did. I thought I had more time.
My mouth somehow musters up the words, “Congratulations, Jude—"
“You made yourself my new neighbor?” Ivy snaps. “Do you think that’s cute or something?”
“No, Ivanna,” Jude drawls, and Ivy jumps to her feet.
She finishes off her drink and slams her cup down in the sand. “I’m getting us some boards.” Jude watches her leave, turning to face me when I clear my throat.
“I’m proud of you. For Orison,” I tell him, and the next breath I take is deep. “When do you leave?”
“End of the summer.”
“Hm,” I mumble, fidgeting with the silver charm around my neck, a nervous tick that Jude knows all too well. It’s a habit I’ve had for as long as I can remember.
“You should come with me,” he says. “Get a place near campus.”
“With what money?”
“I could pitch in—"
“Nope.”
“But Cin, I—"
“Not gonna happen, Jude. Focus on yourself, I don’t need you taking care of me.”
“Like you ever listened when I said that to you.” His blue eyes are soft as he says it, the breeze catching a few golden waves curling around his flipped-back hat.
Jude and I are bonded through similar horrors, but I managed to take the brunt of it when I could. It felt like the right thing to do as an older sister. To counteract the nightmares, I flooded him with dreams. I gave him as many good memories as I could. But he deserved more.
I put my drink down. In a few months, I’ll be completely alone in a town I hate, living in a house built on eggshells. The two most important people in my life are about to move across the state without me, fortunate enough to have found their dreams, and brave enough to chase them.
I’m happy for them.
But what about me?
It’s not jealousy that asks that question, and it’s not a cry for sympathy, it’s not even my voice, I don’t think. It comes from somewhere deep in my chest, deeper than my heart.
What’s my dream?
The stars above us flicker, and our gazes snap to the sky. “It’s almost Aura time,” I say, standing with a jolt and shrugging off my jean shorts.
Jude and I walk to meet Ivy by the water line. There’s a large paddle board tucked under one arm, and a treadless tire looped around her opposite wrist. My eyes roll when Jude shamelessly stares at Ivy’s small black one-piece.
“Close your mouth before I knock out your teeth.” Ivy jabs Jude in the crotch with the tip of the board, and he hinges at the waist, guarding his precious manhood with both hands like that would stop Ivy should she really want to teach him a lesson.
“Your brother’s a pervert,” she mutters in my direction, pushing the old tire into his chest, and Jude snickers.
We make it past the shallow waves, Ivy and I on the paddle board while Jude drags his tire behind him, complaining the entire time.
“Here,” I declare, having found what I deem to be the best spot, far enough away from everyone else but still a perfect view of the northeastern sky. Ivy sits behind me, and Jude paddles up to her side.
“I just don’t understand why I got the tire,” he groans, the rubber tucked under his armpits and his long limbs bent at the elbows.
“That’s all that was left,” Ivy says plainly, and I crack a smile.
“No, it wasn’t,” he snaps back, and Ivy kicks her foot out, shoving Jude’s tire a good three feet away. “Very mature, Ivanna,” Jude gripes, paddling back to the side of our board. “Lucina, trade with me.”
“Absolutely not,” Ivy replies before I even have the chance. I’m too focused on the sky to answer, squinting at the stars that have started quivering. And I bet if we’re quiet, we can hear the deep rumble of—
“Why?” Jude taunts, gripping the edge of the paddleboard when Ivy tries to kick him again. “Scared to sit too close to me?”
“No, dumbass, scared I’ll accidentally drown you and then your sister will never forgive me. Now shut up and let her watch the planet thing.”
“Aura’s Crossing,” I correct her.
“Yes, that. Shh.”
The stars dim as if a shadow has fallen over them, and even Jude snaps his big mouth shut, but his fingers still grip the paddleboard, and Ivy makes no attempt to move them.
Everything falls silent. The music from the shoreline has faded off, the paddling stops, and even the current seems to freeze, the water going eerily still around us.
There’s a faint rumbling sound, like an approaching stampede just over the horizon, and excitement shoots up my spine as the rounded edge of Aura comes into view, just above the water line.
There she is.
Aura. Heaven. Matron of the Elysian Fields. She claims pure souls after death. All three planets in the Chiaros are so close together that when they pass like this, we’re near enough to make out the bountiful fields and icy blue oceans of eternity. Paradise.
The waters tremble and the surrounding coastline quakes as Aura rises fully into view, moving along her orbit like the big hand of a clock. There’s a ripple of gasps when the leagues of her bright blue seas shimmer along her surface, melting into a lavish green that takes my breath away.
The grass there would always be lush and warm, demanding you to be barefoot, and the sky would always be blue and full of clouds. Never enough to hinder the sunlight, but enough to provide shade.
Aura’s crossing is celebrated and viewed as a blessed spectacle, but when the third planet crosses, people hide.
Pyra. The Matron of the damned and the third planet in the Chiaros. That’s where the rotten go, sentenced to an afterlife of suffering. When it’s time to face judgment, your soul will either be lifted to Aura or dragged to Pyra.
I’m not sure where I’ll fall between the two, but I hope it’s the leagues of bright blue sea and fields of wildflowers cresting over the horizon.
I hope one day I’ll get to watch Vita pass with both feet planted in Aura’s lush greenery, quenching my curiosity of how things look from the other side. Greener grass and all that.
The glow of the Elysian Fields tints the dark water golden, the shimmer from the surface reflecting on awe-ridden faces as Aura descends, falling just below the horizon line.
A blanket of darkness smothers the Cove as Aura disappears, leaving us with only the moon to light the waters around us.
I hadn’t noticed that my eyes had welled with tears until everyone began cheering, jumping off their boards and into the water to race back to shore.
Jude is yanked out of his tire by one of his friends, who barely has time to laugh before he’s ripped off his feet and thrown under the surface.