When The Stars Align

chapter twenty | i'll follow you to the graveyard

I nodded, even if I had no idea what he felt.

"Soph keeps me happy. She keeps me on my feet. I'm grateful for that." He looks back at me for the first time since we started talking. "I know you're probably annoyed as I talk about this, Vera, and you might think love is hopeless for you, but there has to be someone, right?"

"I mean, there's a whole story about my love life, and since everything else is coming true, hey, what about that?"

Lysander smiles a legitimate smile as he gives me a gentle shove. "Maybe Atticus will finally realise he's giving the gaze of love to you and not Mikayla and then the two of you could live out your happily ever after."

"What?" I said, not quite sure if I heard right.

Lysander let out a laugh. "You know what I said, little sister. It's obvious to whoever sees it with their own eyes." He paused, thinking again. "You know, that story, about your supposed love life, it's Aurora's favourite."

It used to be mine too, until I figured out it was about me.

He swings an arm around me as we walk through the graveyard. I didn't think that they were buried this deep, until Lysander says that he likes taking the long was to their graves, through the other ones. I didn't really get it, but I didn't question my brother's motives.

And then suddenly, he stops, looking down at two tombstones. My parents' names stare back at me, wildflowers growing around the ground where they now lie. Lysander takes his arm off my shoulders, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

We were all affected by their deaths, but I'm sure Lysander took it the hardest. After what he told me, I'm sure it took a while for him to get back onto his feet, without sulking around. Sure, maybe having a kid knocked some sense into him, but there was sure to be more to what happened to him. I don't force it out of him.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. He knew now that it wasn't entirely my fault, that it was my own parents that took my dagger and sunk it into their hearts, but I still felt that I was responsible. And I was. I should've just taken my chances and ran when I had the chance.

Lysander shook his head. "It's not your fault, Vera. It's not your fault. I'm sorry, again, that I lashed out at you. I just... yeah, I'm sorry, too."

I take a closer look at the tombstones, my parents' dates of birth and death engraved in it, permanently in stone. One day, though, it was going to fade away. Erode. Nothing is forever. Nothing is set in stone.

Lyra Josephine Astor-Carmicheal

"The stars in the sky are watching over our family."

I read the quote on mom's gravestone again. And again. And again. That wasn't what's typically written on tombstones, are they? Isn't it something like "in loving memory" or something similar to that, right?

"How'd you choose the quote for Mom's stone?" I asked my brother. "I mean, why that? I don't remember Mom ever saying anything like that." To our family as a whole. She's told me a bunch of other random shit similar to the quote on the gravestone, simply because of what she had to teach me.

Lysander furrowed his brow. "I think it was in her will, right at the top. Write this on my grave. I think that was the notes attached to the quote. Never knew why."

I said the quote in my head, over and over again. "The stars in the sky are watching over our family," I muttered. Lysander probably questioned me, wondering why it bothered me so much.

I closed my eyes, picturing something. Watching over our family. Literally or something else?

I mean, there was always our family picture, hanging on the wall above the fireplace, not moving an inch since I was an infant. That was our family... and the stars watching over us...

"Vera?" Lysander finally questioned. "Vera, you're up to something."

"I'm not up to something, I'm just trying to connect the dots." What was above the family portrait? Maybe this wasn't for anything, maybe it was. Maybe I'm just overthinking...

I close my eyes, picturing the fireplace, our family portrait above it, and then...

The six-pointed star above that. Black as night. The colour of the blood of Noatra.

I'm about to open my eyes, ready to exclaim my thoughts to Lysander, ready to find that goddamned amulet once and for all. It's been way too long. But its rushed footsteps heading towards me that makes me open my eyes, Atticus attacking me, tossing his hands on my shoulder.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Att, what's wrong?" I can tell his out of breath. Where did he come from? How'd he know I was here.

"I..." He drew in another deep breath, trying to regain what he lost. "I can't explain now but basically I visited my birth parents' grave-" I glance briefly at Lysander. He didn't know that Att found out Olivia wasn't his birth mother. His eyes grew wide, filled with confusion. "I know where the white amulet is."

My ears perked up. "What?"

He nodded. "We have to head to Auxillium."