Chapters (24)
“I didn’t take it because more rubies began to fall out when I touched it,” Grey said, his voice shaking slightly at the memory. “You’ll see when you look at it. There are more rubies missing. And the same thing happened when we were dancing, remember? Two rubies fell out. I feel like…” He didn’t know if he should say what he really thought.
Jaya waited, watching him without speaking.
Well, he’d told her so much already. What was a little bit more? Needing to get it all out, Grey continued, in a rush. “I feel like it senses my presence, and it doesn’t like when I get too close.” He laughed mirthlessly. “I know. I know how that sounds, believe me.”
Jaya stared out at the city lights, breathing steadily in and out. The slope was quiet now, almost deserted. Grey let her have her space. Finally, she turned to him, unsmiling. “I can’t convince you otherwise, can I?”
“No,” he said bleakly. “You can’t.” He paused. “Why did you bring it here, to Aspen?”
“I wanted to have some of the rubies replaced before my father saw I’d been careless with it.” Glancing at her watch, she added, “Though I don’t think I’ll have the time now.”
“You weren’t careless,” Grey said as the wind whipped against them. “It’s me. I’m the reason.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll be eighteen in just seven weeks, you know.”
“But…” He heard the edge of frustration in Jaya’s voice; she was holding back what she really wanted to say.
“But you think I’m doing this to myself? That the curse is just a fabrication of my imagination and my father’s? That this is all a self-fulfilling prophecy?”
“Yes!” she said, the word bursting out of her with the energy of her agitation. “How can you believe what he’s told you, in this day and age? Don’t you want something better for yourself?”
He turned on her, his temper flaring at the hypocrisy in her words. “Why do you care so much, anyway? What’s it to you?” She looked at him, taken aback, no answers to give. “And anyway,” Grey continued, anger like a flame inside his chest, “I could ask the same thing of you. Don’t you want something better for yourself? Or do you want to be your father’s puppet forever? What about that self-fulfilling prophecy, Jaya?”
She stared at him, her expression all ice and sharp edges, that earlier softness completely gone. “Here’s the difference between my self-fulfilling prophecy and yours, Grey. Mine hasn’t turned me into a thief. Mine hasn’t made me some twisted, perverted version of myself! How about yours?” And she stood up and skied off, leaving him sitting alone, encased by drifting snow and darkness.