Page 32 of Daughters of Sea and Storm

“It’s not a riddle, Rhi, it’s a will, and it’s supposed to make sense!” Mom cried. “How are we supposed to figure anything out when she’s dead? She didn’t leave us an explanation!”

“I can’t believe you two are being so obtuse!” Rhi shouted. “If you could see past your own indignation for a second, you’d realize she left us a way to get an explanation!”

“What are you—”

A silence descended so suddenly and completely that I dug my finger into my ear, convinced for one wild, sleep-addled moment that I’d lost my hearing. But then the silence was broken.

“No.”

“But—”

“Absolutely not.”

“How else are we supposed to—”

“I’m not doing that, and I can’t believe you’re even suggesting it.” My mom’s voice was shaking now.

“My God, what happened to you? You used to be fun,” Persi said.

“Fun?! This is your idea of fun?” Mom cried out.

“Okay, maybe fun is the wrong word. You used to have a goddamnspine.”

“Persi, shut up,” Rhi snapped.

“Oh, great, so you’re taking her side, now? I knew you would,” Persi snarled.

“I’m not taking anyone’s side. I just don’t think you’re being fair. This isn’t about fun or what we want to do. It’s about a duty to understand and carry out Mom’s wishes.”

“Oh, but Idowant to do it. I have a few choice words I’d like to say, and this is the only chance I’m going to get to say them,” Persi said. “They aren’t exactly fit for the eulogy.”

“We need clarity, not revenge.”

“Says you.”

“So, you want to do this, too?” Mom asked, her voice quietly dark now as she turned to Rhi.

“Honestly, no. But I don’t see how else we’re going to solve this. She left this for us for a reason. It was the only other thing in that box. We can’t just ignore it. If we want to understand why she did what she did, we’re going to have to use it.”

A realization fell heavily into my brain like someone had dropped it there, and I finally understood what they were talking about. There had been another…somethinginside the box Lydian had brought with her, an object wrapped in blue velvet fabric. I struggled to remember what Lydian had said about it.

Your mother wanted to make sure I put it into your hands at the reading, just in case.

In case of what?Rhi had asked.

In case you need to use it, Lydian had answered.

This didn’t make any more sense to me than it had during the will reading, but I was sure, at least, that this was the object they were arguing about using. But what the hell was it? I wished I could creep further down the stairs to try to get a glimpse of it, but I knew I couldn’t risk getting caught spying on them. Then my mom spoke again.

“This is… I can’t believe this is… I knew coming back here was a mistake.”

“Oh, believe me, we all knew that,” Persi grumbled.

“Fine. Fine.” I heard a creak followed by footsteps and I knew my mother was pacing the living room now. “Well, we’ll have to wait for the full moon—”

“It’s the full moon tonight,” Rhi said quietly.

“Seriously?”

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