When You Wish upon a Star by Elizabeth Lim

Author:Elizabeth Lim [Lim, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-04T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Esperia had crossed winter’s threshold, and even the stars were cold. But Chiara hardly shivered as she hurried down the silver-dusted path to the violet house across from her own.

Five months under Agata’s tutelage, and her resolve to train with the fairies had only strengthened with every mission, every wish granted, every visit to Esperia. Until today.

Today, when she’d woken and looked outside her window, the sight of the kaleidoscope of fairy homes, the glimmering brooks, and the argent trees brought a pang to her heart. She missed seeing the sun crawling over her sill. She missed seeing Papa sweeping the old cobblestone road outside their home, missed hearing children screech that they were late to school, missed resting her eyes on the ever-blue Lyre Sea.

Before coming to the Wishing Star, she had never spent more than a day away from her family. Now she had spent the entire autumn without seeing them. Occasionally she would steal a glimpse at Pariva through the map over her well, but it could not show her parents, her brother, or her sister as anything other than specks of light. Every day, Ily’s grew dimmer, and Chiara couldn’t let go of Larissa’s taunts:

Would you like to see how miserable you’ve made your dearest Ily?

Chiara’s hands closed into fists at her side. Branches of wisteria swayed above the Violet Fairy’s crystal door. Carved along the edges were canal boats drifting down a narrow river. Such hints of Agata’s past were present throughout her home, and in the months Chiara had resided on the Wishing Star, she had just begun to notice them.

She thought of the wooden dove she kept in her bedroom, the sheet music she’d brought to remember Ilaria, and the slice of almond-blackberry cake she asked for every morning to think of her mamma’s baking. She wondered whether one day soon, she’d sprinkle traces of her own past into her home. Whether it’d make being away from her family harder—or easier.

Or whether she’d never come back to this place again, and it’d become only a distant memory.

Her hand trembled as she lifted it to knock on Agata’s door.

One rap was all it took before the Violet Fairy appeared. She seemed to be expecting her.

“Well, good morning, Chiara. You’re early for your lesson.”

Chiara entered Agata’s home quietly, taking her usual seat beside the window. Agata’s home always smelled like the sea, with a hint of orange—and chocolate, if Chiara inhaled deeply enough.

“Something’s on your mind,” Agata observed. “I take it we should address it before discussing the itinerary for today.”

Chiara gathered her courage. “I haven’t seen my family since coming here,” she confessed. “It’s been five months as of yesterday, and today is my sister’s birthday. She turns seventeen.”

“You’re right,” said Agata, clucking her tongue. “It has been five months. You’ve acclimated so well to our ways I half forgot you were an apprentice, Chiara. I suppose this means it is indeed time for you to go home.”

Chiara gave a nervous nod.

“That isn’t all, is it?” Agata sensed.

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