54. Cori
Cori
S he blinked her eyes open, her vision still out of focus. As she raised her hands to her face, a tug pulled around her arms. Silver threads encircled her wrists, exuding a glow akin to starlight. She traced the threads to their origin at the bolt on the wall that emitted the same silvery sheen.
As she studied the physical manifestation of her magic, tiny specks of light turned as though in orbit around the bolt.
The room was dark, the eerie glow cast from two bolts on the wall the only illumination. The door of the room was slightly ajar. Shadows passed along the corridor—singular shadows not attached to a living being, whispers of a light only she could see. They passed with an eerie sense of calm as the spirits in the hall paced up and down in the ominous quiet of the old home.
She squeezed her eyes shut as she prayed a desperate plea to the Mother.
Please don’t show me what happened to them here in this house. Please bless them with peace and silence so they don’t notice me .
She watched with a still heart, refusing to breathe, as the spirits passed by, one after another. As time slowly passed by, the spirits dissipated, and the hallway was empty and silent. “Thank you,” she whispered into the silent room with relief.
Sheets rustled from across the room in response to her voice in the air. A lamp clicked on from the nightstand of the four-poster bed, illuminating the face of someone Cori had seen only in her dreams for far too long.
“Mama?” she whispered, tears stinging her eyes. “Is that you?”
Astrid practically floated across the room. Her mother’s arms wrapped firmly around her. She pulled back and held her daughter’s face in her hands, regarding her as if she were made of glass.
“My starlight,” she whispered, her eyes wide with awe and fear. “I was beginning to think I would never see you again.”
Astrid’s voice, once light and airy, felt dense and heavy on her ears. With each syllable, Cori felt the weight of the past decade upon her mother. Her heart broke as she stared into the face of the once effervescent woman who sat next to her.
Her mother had always been petite, but her exuberant personality had made her look stronger, taller. This woman’s light had been bled dry, cut down by solitude and worry for her children.
Wrinkles etched her face with a subtle furrow on her brow, and her lips were outlined as though permanently pursed in contemplative thought. Her eyes, pale blue and bright, shone against her porcelain skin like jewels, her head haloed by platinum blond hair that was frosted in pearly white strands.
Somehow her mother looked even more beautiful than she had remembered in the eerie light of their magic, her features a stark contrast to the wisdom of her worry.
Her mother’s hand slid over her own and squeezed. “You’ve been captured as well, then,” she said with resignation.
Cori nodded, trying to hide a smile. “What a way to be reunited,” she joked. “But I have something for you, Mama.” She pulled the skeleton key from the hem of her bra strap, passing it to her mother as a smile tugged at Astrid’s mouth.
“Fin is a clever kid,” she said, holding the heavy key in her palm. She ran her fingers over the smooth metal. “It was heartbreaking to see what Calvin did to him.” Her voice broke. “Now we can get out of here,” she said, her blue eyes gleaming.
Cori stilled. “Mama, now you can get out of here.”
The color drained from Astrid’s cheeks. “We need to leave together,” she explained in a panicked whisper. “Cordelia, they’re going to kill you.”
“I know,” Cori whispered back, her words dry on her tongue.
“Your brother?—”
Cori held up her hand. “I know about Enzo, Mama.” Astrid's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. “Papa came to me. He explained everything.” She didn’t think her mother could get paler.
“You saw Paolo?” Tears glistened in her eyes. Cori nodded. “What did he tell you?”
“He told me I needed to be present here today.”
Tears fell from her mother’s eyes as she spoke, and at that moment she realized she was not here to simply set her free from this bolt on the wall. She was here to set her free from the worry, the anxiety, that her daughter would be found.
Free from the gripping dread at the thought that her own son would be the one to take her daughter’s life. Tears stung her eyes as she squeezed her mother’s hand. “I know Papa died to save me,” she continued. “I’m going to make sure his life did not go to waste. I’m going to face Enzo and make sure I save him from his prophecy, too.”
Astrid's shoulders shook silently in the darkness of the room as her head fell into her hands. Cori had come here to free her mother of the greatest burden of her life—the truth.
“Your father,” she whispered, “loved Enzo more than the Earth and sky. When he delivered his prophecy, it was like the ground had opened and swallowed him whole. He didn’t eat for a week.” Astrid stood and walked to the window, looking up into the sky as though Paolo himself would be written in the stars. “For a while he seemed OK, like he was learning to cope. He told me about taking the plane out, and I thought nothing of it. He loved to fly; it helped him clear his head.” She swallowed her words thickly. “I knew the moment the plane crashed. It felt like someone was ripping my soul in half. My body shook with the vibration of it. I found the note tucked into my dresser drawer. ”
Tears cascaded down her neck as her mother confessed her worst memory.
“Mama,” Cori asked in a whisper. “Does Enzo know?”
Astrid sighed heavily as she wiped her tears. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “There were so many times I almost told him. Your brother was in a relationship a few years ago,” she said arching her brow. “Did you know?” Cori shook her head, her chest clenching. “Vanessa was so sweet. She brought out the best in him—encouraged him to open his restaurant. Sofia was born soon after.”
Cori let go of a breath. The little girl with the golden hair. A giggle whispered in her ear as the smell of cotton candy danced under her nose. “I have a niece.” Cori said with affirmation.
Astrid’s eyes twinkled now. “You knew, didn’t you?”
At this, Cori nodded. She had sensed the familiar presence of the little girl in the photo with Enzo long before she had known the truth.
“Sofia is Celestial, Cori,” Astrid said, her eyes glittering knowingly. “I knew when she was a baby. She was just like you—smiling up at the stars and playing with spirits only she could see.”
Cori stood up and sucked in air, overcome with simultaneous joy and grief. This little girl shared the same magic that was passed to her from her father and yet—she didn’t know her.
They shared everything, yet she was a stranger. She wasn’t there to watch the moon with her or teach her about the Little Dipper. She missed her first steps, her first words. And she would never get that time back.
“When his restaurant failed, Enzo got desperate,” Astrid continued. “Vanessa had postpartum depression, and they were at risk of losing their home.”
If Cori knew anything about Enzo, she knew nothing could hurt him worse than his own pride.
“I offered them a home with me, but Enzo resisted. That’s when he reconnected with Calvin.” Astrid’s lips puckered at the name as though it left a sour taste on her tongue. “He had solutions for Enzo. He fell in step with the wrong ways of doing things. Vanessa didn’t know at first, but when she found out, she left. She went back home to live with her mother near Sonoma. Enzo only got to see Sofia on the weekends, and Vanessa only felt comfortable if I was there to watch over him.”
“Just like that, he was the bad guy.” Cori shook her head.
“Just like that,” Astrid agreed, gazing out the window again. “His worst nightmare had come true. He would never be the kind of man his father was.”
“Mama, I saw visions of you. You were arguing.”
Astrid shook her head with sorrow. “I learned of what the LARC planned to do in September. I sent you that note shortly after I found out about Enzo’s involvement. All along, he assured me he was only getting close to Calvin again to try to stop them from getting to you. At first, I believed him.”
Cori nodded in understanding. “You wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Astrid nodded, her lips pursed. “I knew he could never harm you, Cordelia. I thought—I hoped—that your father’s sacrifice would protect him from the darkness. I did not know it would get this far.”
Cori took a deep breath. “I understand now. It needed to get this far. I need to face the reality of my prophecy.” She paused, turning her charm bracelet absent-mindedly. “And my brother needs to face the reality of his.”