Page 76 of Shattered Vows

“What’s that?” Rapsody asks, pointing over my head.

I turn and look over my shoulder to see the orange glow floating up through the sky. Perfect timing. “That’s what we’re here for. Just watch.”

A minute later, a few more lights dot the sky.

“It’s beautiful.” Her voice is full of awe.

“It’s something the people in town do every year. This is the day the town was founded. The founder used to send lanterns up in the sky so that his star-crossed lover a few miles away would know he was thinking of her.”

“That’s so romantic.” Rapsody’s attention is still pointed skyward, but all I see is her.

“My mom thought so. She’d come out here on the pond every year to watch them float by. Sometimes she’d bring us boys.”

“Your mom…” Her voice trails off as though she’s just putting something together in her mind.

We watch in silence as the number of floating lanterns grows until it looks as if the sky is full of stars, and we’re within arm’s reach of them. Then they trail off until the last one disappears in the distance, out of view.

“I have a confession,” she says.

It isn’t Rapsody’s soft voice that makes me stiffen but her words.

“A confession?” I tilt my head, and she meets my gaze, nodding.

“I’ve seen something like those lanterns before.” She seems nervous, chewing her bottom lip.

My forehead wrinkles. How is that even possible? “Where did you see them?”

I watch her throat contract as she swallows hard. “In the manor.”

Her words float into the night like the lanterns, but instead of floating away, they hang between us. “I don’t understand.”

“The night I escaped from the tower and found you sitting by the shore”—she motions with her hand to the edge of the pond—“I woke up to a warm glow under the door, and when I tried the handle, the door was unlocked. I followed the light, and it led me to you. That’s why I didn’t just run away when I could have.”

“You followed a light?” I’m still trying to wrap my head around what she’s saying.

She nods. “It looked just like those lights we saw in the sky. And then the night I found you on the patio by the pool, drinking and upset about something… the same thing happened. It led me to you.”

I glance away from her at the reminder of what I’ve been struggling with lately and whether I should reveal it to her.

When I don’t say anything for a beat, Rapsody says, “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”

“No, no.” I take her hand. Lord knows I’ve seen some strange shit in my time living in the manor. I am curious about something though. “How did you know you should follow it? What if it was leading you somewhere bad?”

Her gaze flicks up to the sky as though she’s pondering my question. “I don’t really know. It just felt… right. It felt friendly, as if it was trying to help. That sounds stupid, I know.”

“No, no, it doesn’t.”

Was it my… mother? Is that even possible?

“What do you think it means?” she asks.

“I honestly don’t know.” I squeeze her hands. “But I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”

Maybe my mother was trying to help me from beyond the grave.

We’re quiet for a moment, both deep in our own thoughts. My stomach tightens until it’s painful, and I know it’s time. This is a moment that will either bring us closer together or tear us apart. And if she chooses to leave me after I tell her everything, I won’t even be able to blame her.

“Speaking of confessions, there are things I need to tell you. Confess… about myself.”

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