Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices #2)(32)

"Will it?" Cristina spoke softly, her eyes on the horizon along with Emma's.

"I don't know," Emma said. "I've made a lot of wishes by now." The sun sank another few millimeters. Emma tried to think what she could wish for. Even when she'd been younger, she'd understood somehow that there were some things you couldn't wish for: world peace, your dead parents back. The universe couldn't turn itself inside out for you. Wishing only bought you small blessings: a sleep without nightmares, your best friend's safety for another day, birthday sunshine.

"Do you remember," Emma said, "before you saw Diego again, you said we should go to Mexico together? Spend a travel year there?"

Cristina nodded.

"It'd be a while before I could go," said Emma. "I don't turn eighteen until the winter. But when I do . . ."

Leaving Los Angeles. Spending the year with Cristina, learning and training and traveling.

Without Jules. Emma swallowed against the pain the thought caused. It was a pain she'd have to learn to live with.

"I'd like that," Cristina said. The sun was just a rim of gold now. "I'll wish for that. And maybe to forget Diego, too."

"But then you have to forget the good things as well as the bad ones. And I know there were good things." Emma wound her fingers through Cristina's. "He's not the right person for you. He isn't strong enough. He keeps letting you down and disappointing you. I know he loves you, but that's not enough."

"Apparently I'm not the only one he loves."

"Maybe he started dating her to try to forget you," Emma said. "And then he got you back, even though he didn't expect to, and he didn't know how to break it off with her."

"What an idiot," said Cristina. "I mean, if that were true, which it isn't."

Emma laughed. "Okay, yeah, I don't buy it either." She leaned forward. "Look, just let me beat him up for you. You'll feel so much better."

"Emma, no. Don't lay a hand on him. I mean it."

"I could beat him up with my feet," Emma suggested. "They're registered as lethal weapons." She wiggled them.

"You have to promise not to touch him." Cristina glared so severely that Emma raised her free hand in submission. 

"All right, all right, I promise," she said. "I will not touch Perfect Diego."

"And you can't yell at Zara, either," Cristina said. "It's not her fault. I'm sure she has no idea I exist."

"Then I feel sorry for her," Emma said. "Because you're one of the greatest people I know."

Cristina started to smile. The sun was almost completely down now. A year with Cristina, Emma thought. A year away from everything, from everyone that reminded her of Jules. A year to forget. If she could bear it.

Cristina gave a little gasp. "Look, there it is!"

The sky flashed green. Emma closed her eyes and wished.

* * *

When Emma got back to her bedroom, she was surprised to find Mark and Julian already there, each of them standing on opposite sides of her bed, their arms crossed over their chests.

"How is she?" Mark said, as soon as the door closed behind Emma. "Cristina, I mean."

His gaze was anxious. Julian's was stonier; he looked blank and autocratic, which Emma knew meant he was angry. "Is she upset?"

"Of course she's upset," Emma said. "I think not so much because he's been her boyfriend for a few weeks again, but because they've known each other for so long. Their lives are completely entwined."

"Where is she now?" Mark said.

"Helping Diana and the others fix up the rooms for the Centurions," said Emma. "You wouldn't think carrying sheets and towels around would cheer anyone up, but she promises it will."

"In Faerie, I would challenge Rosales to a duel for this," said Mark. "He broke his promise, and a love-promise at that. He would meet me in combat if Cristina consented to let me be her champion."

"Well, no luck there," said Emma. "Cristina made me promise not to lay a hand on him, and I bet that goes for you two, too."

"So you're saying there's nothing we can do?" Mark scowled, a scowl that matched Julian's. There was something about the two of them, Emma thought, light and dark though they were; they seemed more like brothers in this moment than they had in a long time.

"We can go help set up the bedrooms so Cristina can go to sleep," said Emma. "Diego's locked in one of the offices with Zara, so it's not like she's going to run into him, but she could use the rest."

"We're going to get revenge on Diego by folding his towels?" Julian said.

"They're not technically his towels," Emma pointed out. "They're his friends' towels."