Shimmer (Riley Bloom #2)(32)
“Hey! That’s cheating!” I cried, gaping at him in complete disbelief. “I can’t believe you did that—I can’t believe you forced him like that.”
But Bodhi just looked at me, shaking his head as he said, “No one forced anyone. That dog acted upon his own free will. He chose to go after that ball, just like you chose to exercise your free will when you chose to go after him.” He bobbed his straw at me. “Free will is a powerful thing, Riley. Sometimes it’s the only way to realize your true destiny, though it does require a fair bit of trust—in yourself, in the universe—as I’m sure you now know.”
I nodded, carefully collecting his words and storing them away for later. Knowing I’d want to go over them, review them, but at that moment, all of my attention was claimed by Rebecca.
Claimed by the way her jaw dropped, the way her eyes went impossibly wide, the way her face wore an expression of both outrage and surprise as she watched her dog happily sprint to the other side.
“Where’d he go?” she asked, her anger edged out by wonder.
“He went home,” I said quietly, looking right at her. “And you’re welcome to join him if you want. The choice is yours.”
She glanced between us, and the way she looked at that moment, well, all I can say is I was filled with hope for her for the first time that day.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, she still looked a little red around the cheeks, a little grim around the lips, but still, it was pretty clear that the fight was beginning to leak right out of her.
She stood facing us, locked inside a world she’d already spent far too much time in. Her fingers beginning to unclench, her hands to uncurl, as she stared into the glowing golden promise of light and whispered, “Oh my goodness … It’s all true!”
I admit, I totally misread that at first.
I was sure she was referring to the light, to paradise, the Here & Now, whatever you prefer to call it. It was an awesome sight, and once witnessed, the pull was nearly impossible to resist.
But I was wrong.
As it turns out, it was even better than that.
Rebecca wasn’t just referring to that awesome golden glow—she was referring to the truth she’d seen residing inside it.
A truth she’d resisted for so many years, centuries really, that was now projecting in a way that couldn’t be missed.
She saw the truth of her life—and that of Prince Kanta’s as well. But despite her horrible, selfish acts, she also saw it wasn’t the grim place of punishment she secretly feared.
It was a place of love and warmth and understanding of the deepest kind.
It was a place where she’d never again feel so alone as she had in her life.
She also saw the dim outline of her mother, waiting for her at the halfway mark.
And the next thing I knew, her entire world shattered.
Her globe broke.
Her bubble burst.
As a hail of glasslike shards flew about, hovering in the air for a moment in a way that resembled a shimmering blanket of stars, before softly falling to the ground where they landed at her feet and melted into the grass.
She moved toward the prince, and I couldn’t help but tense, but then Bodhi put his hand on my arm, Buttercup nudged up beside me, and I began to calm again. And just when I was sure she was going to curtsy before him in the way she’d done with me, she did something entirely different.
Something I wasn’t expecting.
She knelt all the way down to her knees and rested her head at his feet in the ultimate act of humility.
Refusing to rise again until the prince gently urged, “Child, please. It is not necessary.”
He reached for her hand and helped her to stand until she was once again facing him. Only this time her rage was all gone, having dissolved with the bubble, leaving a very sorry, very humbled young girl in its place.
“I am so very sorry,” she said, her voice faint, tremulous, “for what I’ve done to you—for what my father did to you…” She shook her head and winced at a memory she’d denied for centuries. Finally able to see the truth of everything—of every horrible act committed against him—and I knew at that moment that the old Rebecca had gone and a new one had taken her place. “I have no idea how I’ll ever make it up to you, but I promise I will. I’ll do whatever it takes, just tell me where to begin.”
Her eyes and cheeks glistened as a stream of crystalline tears spilled down her face. And I watched in amazement as the prince leaned forward, caught one of those tears on the tip of his finger, and turned it into a beautiful olive branch.
“There is no need.” He placed the branch into her outstretched hands. “I forgave you long ago. I was just waiting for you to rid yourself of your anger. Believe me when I say that the physical suffering I endured as a slave was nothing compared to the suffering of the bubble when I was tortured by my own mind, my own memories of the horrible things that’d been done to me, as well as the horrible things I had done to others.” He paused, making sure she understood, before he offered his arm and said, “So, what do you say? Shall we?”
She nodded softly and entwined her arm around his, the two of them stopping before us, as Rebecca looked at me and said, “I’m so sorry, I—”
But I just flashed my palm and stopped her right there. “No worries,” I told her. “Trust me, this is hardly good-bye. The Here & Now may be a pretty big place, but I’m sure I’ll see you again. I’ll just look for the girl with the bright yellow bow and the sparkly dress.”