Caraval (Caraval, #1)(87)

Scarlett didn’t realize she’d asked the question aloud. And perhaps Caspar’s response should have made her feel better.

It didn’t.

Scarlett looked down at the letters once again. “How did my sister know all of this?”

“I can’t speak for her,” Caspar said. “But I can say Caraval is not the only place where people trade secrets for things. Your sister must have bargained away something valuable to learn so much.”

Scarlett’s hands trembled. All this time Tella had been working to save them both. And Scarlett had failed them. She’d tried to wish Tella back, but she must not have loved her enough.

On the other side of the oval window, the world had faded even more. Whatever magic held Caraval together was quickly turning to dust, taking all the buildings and the streets with it. Scarlett watched everything outside disappear as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. “Foolish Tella.”

“Personally, I think clever is a more appropriate word.”

Scarlett spun around.

A girl with a devil’s smile and a cherub’s curls.

“Tella? Is that really you?”

“Oh please, I’d think you could come up with something better than that.” Tella’s curls bounced as she glided farther into the room. “And please don’t cry.”

“But I saw you die,” Scarlett sputtered.

“I know, and trust me when I say, plummeting to the ground is not a good way to go.” Tella grinned again, but her death, no matter how short-lived or how fake, still felt too real—too soon—for her to joke about.

“How could you—put me through that?” Scarlett stammered. “How could you pretend to kill yourself while I watched?”

“I think I’ll leave you two alone.” Caspar edged toward the door with a parting look to Scarlett. “Hope there’s no hard feelings about everything. See you at the party?”

“Party?” Scarlett asked.

“Ignore him,” Tella said.

“Stop telling me what to do!” Scarlett lost control then, sobbing once more, the sort of hysterical tears that made her hiccup and sneeze.

“I’m so sorry, Scar.” Tella closed in and gathered Scarlett into a hug. “I didn’t want you to go through that.”

“Then why did you do it?” Scarlett pulled away, hiccupping as she moved so one of the tufted chairs stood between her and her sister. No matter how relieved she was to see Tella alive, she couldn’t shake how it had felt to see her die. To cradle her dead body. To believe she’d never hear her voice again.

“I knew your love could wish me back to life,” said Tella.

“But I didn’t bring you back. Legend never gave me my wish.”

“A wish isn’t something someone can give,” Tella explained. “Legend could give you a little extra magic to help you along, but the wish would only work if you wanted it more than anything.”

“So you’re saying I wished you back to life?” Scarlett still couldn’t fathom it. When she first saw her sister, alive and breathing and irreverently joking, she imagined Tella’s death had somehow been an elaborate trick. But there was no humor in her sister’s expression now. “Tella, what if it had failed?”

“I knew you could do it,” Tella said firmly. “No one loves me as much as you do. You would have leaped from the balcony if Caspar had convinced you it’d protect me.”

“I don’t know about that,” Scarlett muttered.

“I do,” Tella said. “You might not have been able to see me during the game, but I snuck out to watch you a couple of times. Even when you didn’t pass the tests, I knew you would still be able to save me.”

“Tests?” Scarlett asked.

“Legend insisted we put you through a few trials. He promised he could provide a bit of magic, but you had to want the wish enough, or it wouldn’t happen at the end of the game. That’s why the woman in the dress shop asked you what you desired most.”

“But I failed that test.”

“You didn’t fail all of them. You passed the most important one, and that was enough. If you hadn’t, I wasn’t supposed to jump.”

Scarlett remembered what Caspar had said as he made her walk to the edge of the balcony. If you’re not willing to do this, you’ll never be able to save her.

“Please, don’t be mad.” Tella’s heart-shaped mouth pulled into a frown. “I did this for both of us. Like you said, Father would hunt me to the ends of the earth if I ran away.”

“But not if you died,” Scarlett finished.

Tella nodded grimly. “The night we left, I planted a pair of tickets for him, with a note from Legend saying Father could find us at Caraval.”

Scarlett took a shaky breath as she pictured Tella sneaking into their father’s study. Scarlett was still tempted to scold her sister for devising such a dangerous and horrible plot, but for the first time Scarlett could see how much she’d always underestimated Tella. Her younger sister was brighter, smarter, and braver than Scarlett ever gave her credit for.

“You could have told me,” Scarlett said.

“I wanted to.” Tella cautiously stepped around the chair, until the sisters were face-to-face. She’d changed out of the ruined dress she’d died in; she now wore white—a ghostly shade of it, and Scarlett wondered if she’d chosen the gown for that very reason. As if a little more drama was needed.