The Pendant of Hyacinth: Unearthed by Riley S. Quinn

Author:Riley S. Quinn
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Riley S. Quinn
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Thanks,” she sniffed, taking it and wiping her face. “I must seem so pathetic.”

“Talking about the past can be difficult,” Arael reassured her. “We have nowhere to be after this. Just take your time, okay? We can stop, if it’s too much.”

“No, I want to keep going.” She lowered the handkerchief. “Someone else ought to know.”

She looked down at the visual she’d created on the ground between them. She nudged the jewel a little further away from the leaves, then pushed two of them aside, so the one on the right was left all alone. “‘Don’t trust your Accompaniments, Thalia,’” she whispered, staring at the jewel. “‘I didn’t choose them for the same reasons I chose you. They don’t love you. They won’t help you. A real Guardian has to stand on her own. Harmony’s parents left her here. She’ll always act in her own interest, it’s the only way she knows how to survive. Jay is jealous. A third of the glory means you’ll get a third of his effort. They’re not your friends, and the second you think they are, they’ll bring you down. If you ever thought they cared about you, if you ever cared back, stop. They resent you, just like mine did, and they always will, down to the day you pass Guardian on yourself.’”

She picked up the lone leaf and crushed it in her hand. “Can you imagine hearing that from the person you admire most? About the people you grew up alongside?”

Arael was shocked. She was right; he couldn’t imagine it.

“And then she just looked up at the sky and smiled. ‘We should get back, Thalia, it’s almost time!’ Like nothing had happened. I don’t even remember what she said when her sword crossed over my shoulders. I don’t remember my parents’ faces. I just remember everything feeling so dark. Standing next to the two people Almana had just made me promise not to trust, and smiling at a crowd when all I wanted to do was, was, was run away screaming! And then everyone but us was celebrating, and Almana slipped away in the commotion without a single goodbye.”

“I am so sorry.” He meant it. What a horrible way to commemorate such a great achievement. He had to remember to apologize to Anyah for not giving her fair warning when he’d run away.

“But later that night, when I felt the most abandoned I ever had, one person pulled me aside, and it was the last person I could have ever expected. Jay. We hadn’t spoken in so long. I think he knew it was going to be me, even before I did. It would explain the silent treatment. But no, now he talked to me.” He’d looked kind of nice that night, but it might have just been how the lantern light danced on his face. It had softened him. “He pulled me aside and asked me why, on what was supposed to be the best day of my life, I looked so sick to my stomach.

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