The sun climbed on the horizon as they slept fitfully, exhausted from the events of the night before. When Katie finally opened her eyes and glanced at her watch, it was almost noon and Yuli was gone. She sat up in the opulent bed, the lightweight down comforter tucked around her, and glanced around, still drowsy. The room had been thoroughly cleaned as she’d slept, the shards of glass from the mirrors removed, and for a few minutes, Katie wondered if it had all been a vivid nightmare.
She tugged off the blanket and stood, stretching her arms as high as they could go. Every muscle in her body ached, and she bent forward, sweeping her arms down and then around the backs of her thighs, shaking out the tension that remained.
She took a quick shower and then exited the suite, her stomach growling, and followed the scent of bacon wafting up from the kitchen below.
At the table, Yuli was seated and sipping on a cup of coffee.
“Good morning,” Katie said brightly.
“That remains to be seen,” Yuli said.
“Has she come down yet?”
“No,” Yuli answered. “I suspect she’s been in the meditation chamber for the last several hours, trying to restore her beauty.”
“You would be wrong.” A raspy voice drifted down the staircase. Katie’s shoulders tensed in anticipation as Zoya finally rounded the corner and swept into the dining room. The sun beat onto the wooden floor through the bank of windows as Katie glanced at the approaching Zoya out of the corner of her eye. She was hunched over and grasping a cane with one gnarled, arthritic hand. Reduced to shuffling her steps, it took much longer to cover the distance than usual, and when she reached her chair, she let out a groan as she fell into it. A sheer black veil draped over her head and obscured the view of her face. Not paying attention to the other women, she hooked the cane on the edge of the table and rang the bell that was next to her empty plate. When nothing happened, she rang it again with more irritation and fervor.
“Finally, you’ve decided to grace me with your presence,” she spat at Terrance, who obediently rushed to her side. “Bring out the coffee and sweet rolls.”
“Yes, My Queen.” He averted his eyes as he rocked forward into a downward-facing dog position before scampering off to fulfill her request.
She leaned forward, propping up her elbows and steepling her fingers together. Katie was astonished at the frailty of the long skinny fingers and knobby knuckles and the sheer volume of dark spots that now covered the backs of her veiny hands. “Don’t stare, darling. It’s rude.”
Katie jumped and then offered a weak apology. “Sorry.”
“I guess life still had one twisted lesson to teach me,” Zoya muttered. She gathered the fabric of the veil in front of her and rolled it up, letting it sit on the crown of her head. Katie gulped and had to fight her urge to gasp at the dramatic physical transformation. It had been one thing to see it illuminated by the soft, forgiving light of candles in the meditation chamber, but now, in the bright Floridian sun, the change was jarring.
“What did you expect? I’m almost a hundred and fifty years old! Without the divine magical intervention of the glam chamber, this is the result.” Her tone was embittered. “I’ve become the prime example of the dangers of skipping sunscreen in the tropics.”
Yuli started to chuckle under her breath, quivering with repressed laughter. She pressed her palms to her mouth to stop it. The giggles became infectious, and Katie started to titter, and finally, Zoya cracked a smile that revealed yellowing and chipped teeth.
The door to the kitchen opened and a maid pushed a trolley laden with pastries piled high, a silver coffee pot, a plate of sunny eggs studded with ham, sausage, and bacon, and another bowl of brightly colored fruit.
Placing them in the middle of the table, Terrance said, “Is there anything else we can fetch for you?”
“Fetch?” Zoya harrumphed at his choice of word. “No. This is perfect. You may go.”
He barked once and then ran away with the maid in tow. Zoya stood to shovel an impressive amount of the steaming egg scramble onto her plate and added at least six strips of bacon. On a separate plate, she piled a cinnamon roll, an apple Danish, and a chocolate eclair. Not bothering to pass the pastries, she bit into the eclair first and sighed in delight. “At least food hasn’t lost its pleasure.”
Katie picked up the plate of remaining breakfast rolls in front of her, added a caramel cinnamon bun to her plate, and then passed it to Yuli. The women ate in silence for a few long minutes before Katie broached the subject that had been on her mind.
“So, what now?”
Zoya wiped the corner of her mouth with her cloth napkin and then set it next to her plate. “Unfortunately, you will need to carry out the ordin rituals required for death and burial on your own. Are you going to be able to play the part of the devoted, grieving grandchild?”
Katie thought it over with a wince. “The deception that will be required is not part of my factory settings.”
“I suggest you upgrade then, dear.”
“Do you feel that?” Katie asked several hours later, sitting on the edge of Yuli’s bed. They’d spent the remainder of the day resting in their suite, and Katie found she couldn’t bear to leave Yuli’s side. Absentmindedly, she tugged at the purple amulet at her throat that cast a glow of purple light onto her neck. She pointed at Yuli’s amulet. "Is mine glowing, too?”
“Yes,” she confirmed.
“It’s getting warm,” Katie said.
“We’re being summoned.” Yuli got up and lumbered around, looking for her shoes.
“Are you sure you’re up to it?” Katie asked, concerned. She was still drained from the events of the last few days.
“I feel surprisingly refreshed, and I can’t bear to sit in this bed anymore,” Yuli said. “I’d rather be useful.”
A few minutes later, they climbed onto a golf cart and Katie closed her eyes and conjured an image of Zoya in her mind, connecting with the flow of energy that was omnipresent at the compound. She turned the key and pressed down the accelerator, being pulled to the path that led to the archives. The cart felt magnetized like it was driving itself to the destination, and Katie let go of the steering wheel to let it.
“It worked like you said it would,” Katie said, relieved the amulets connected them to each other, no matter where they were.
Yuli patted her hand. “Of course it did. You can always trust the magic.”
At their destination, the cart puttered to a stop. They climbed out and walked the short distance to the small metal building on the property that contained the archives. Katie pulled the brush away from the door and turned the handle, surprised when it creaked open. It took a long moment for her eyes to adjust, but when they did, she caught her first glimpse of Zoya. The black veil still obscured her face like an evil bride, and she was seated sipping on a vodka gimlet, presumably from the shaker next to her. On the table was a single box and a pile of ashes. A thin, wispy tendril of smoke curled up from the charcoal and remnants of wood.
“What have you done?” Yuli asked, her voice barely a whisper as she walked closer to Zoya.
“Just taking a stroll down memory lane,” she answered flippantly, lifting the veil and bringing the full glass to her lips for a long sip. Her words were slurred, and it was painfully obvious she’d been inside the archives for a long time. Another beautiful box glowed with stunning pink light that refracted around the walls of the archives, awaiting its destruction.
Yuli rushed to her side and pulled the box away before she could make another life-altering mistake and destroy the memory forever.
“Hey! Gimme that.” She warbled, reaching out to grab the box back, and stumbled when she misjudged the distance between them. “I wasn’t finished.”
“What memory is this?”
“The day my Nadia was born.”
“You can’t go inside. You’ll destroy it forever!”
“I miss her so much. I wanted to feel the joy again. Just one more time so I could say goodbye and let her go before I move on to the next place.” She crumpled and began to wail.
“I cannot let you do that,” Yuli said, guarding it with her life. The thought of losing the archive of her precious mother’s birth was a price too high to pay.
Katie bent down next to an inconsolable Zoya. She’d never seen her powerful great-great grandmother so fragile before, and it was unnerving. “Do you need to wear that over your face?”
“I’m disgusting.” She sniffled. “I scared Terrance at breakfast and neither of you can stand to look at me.”
“That’s not true,” Katie said as she stepped closer and gently asked, “May I?”
Under the veil, Zoya nodded once. In her lap, her hands were curled into fists. Katie reached forward and gingerly lifted the delicate lacy fabric up over her face and then gently pushed it behind her bony shoulders as another clump of brittle hair drifted to the floor. Zoya’s face was a network of lines, as aged and cracked as broken-in leather. Her eyes shone like two jade-colored jewels, and her full lips were wrinkled and loose.
“I think you’re even more beautiful than you were the first time I saw you,” Katie said, remembering the first real glance she’d gotten of her great-great grandmother at the warehouse.
“You’re a liar,” Zoya argued feebly.
“For one, you aren’t coming in hot with the force of a hurricane and threatening to destroy everyone in your path.”
Katie’s joke elicited a wary chuckle from Zoya. “Seriously though, the lines add a uniqueness and character that wasn’t there before. Isn’t it better that your mind is the most beautiful part of you now?”
“I guess.” Zoya sniffed. Her usual vanity taking a back seat, she reached behind her head and yanked the veil off, letting it fall on the floor. “It is easier to breathe without this thing hovering over me.”
Zoya forced herself to unsteady feet and stumbled to the shelves. Then she climbed a ladder while Katie held her breath as Zoya reached up on one foot to access a box on the highest shelf. When she climbed back down and it was still contained safely in her hands, Katie let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.
It was a magnificent butterfly-shaped box. Zoya brushed her hands against it, and it began to brighten and then glow. A soft smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she reminisced about the memory inside.
She held it out to Katie and Yuli. “This is my most precious memory,” she whispered, her voice filled with longing. “I can’t go inside or I will lose it forever, but it lives inside my mind and brings me joy whenever I revisit it. Time has blurred the memory and the fine details are harder to recall. Or perhaps, parts of it have been rewritten like your mind does when someone you love passes away. You don’t remember the squabbles or the frustrations you had with each other; you only remember the magical moments. The moments you hang on to when the darkness haunts you.” Her forehead wrinkled as she tried to explain.
She locked eyes on Katie and Yuli. “Time is running out, and I want you to know me. To really understand the woman I became when love transformed me so you can reconcile that version with the one I became after I lost my beloved Salvatore.”
In Katie’s hands, the butterfly warmed even more, and she was drawn to the crank.
“Wait!” Zoya pulled a bell out of the pocket of her floor-length black cloak, and a few minutes later, Terrance led Higgins into the room to collect his inebriated mistress. Higgins swept her up in his arms, and over his shoulder, she called out further instructions. “Remember every detail so you can describe it to me when you return.” Katie waited until she heard the door latch firmly behind her, then reached out for the silver crank on the side of the butterfly. She gasped with delight when the wings slowly flapped in response, and then the box opened and pulled them both inside.
They floated down into a verdant forest teeming with life at the golden hour.
“This way,” Yuli directed as she followed a pathway that seemed to glow brighter with every step they took down it. Her gait was lighter, and Katie had to hustle to keep up with her. They rounded a bend that opened into a field of aspen trees, golden in the fall, their leaves a vibrant yellow against their peeling white trunks.
A small clearing opened up and, inside it, peals of nervous laughter rang out from a younger Zoya. Dressed in cobalt blue, her black hair fell down her shoulders in thick, bouncy curls, and the hereditary white streak darted from her widow's peak and down the middle of her part. Standing next to her was Sally wearing a black three-piece suit with his sunny yellow carnation pinned to the lapel. They were lost in each other like they were the only two souls in the world.
Puffy cumulus clouds turned into cotton candy as the last rays of the sun lowered behind the grove of trees. Its soft light bounced onto Zoya and Sally’s faces. On the branches of the trees, scores of brilliantly colored blue butterflies gathered. Their wings were aflutter as they rested on the arms of the branches. It was a surreal experience, seeing so many gathered together, flitting up and down and around as if they were invited guests. Captivated, Zoya pointed up at them. “Look, Sally! Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?”
“Yes,” he said, never taking his eyes off of her. “I’m looking at it right now.” A soft smile lit up Zoya’s features as she reached eagerly for his hands. “This is perfect.”
Katie’s eyes locked on Yuli, who was as entranced as Zoya by the scene. Yuli couldn’t tear her gaze away from Sally, a man who had shown her kindness in her childhood. She hastily swiped away tears that ran down her plump cheeks. Katie wrapped her arm around her grandmother. “I know. It’s hard to see him again knowing how it ends, isn’t it?”
Yuli nodded. “I never got to see this side of her. She only gave her love to him.” Katie squeezed her closer, wanting to heal the crack in her heart. “It’s water under the bridge, Katia, and I have forgiven her, but darn it if these moments don’t still sting.”
“That’s understandable,” Katie murmured. They’d come so far, but it seemed the mortal wounds you received as a child cut deeper. Your scar tissue formed a protective layer around the wound, but you were forever changed. Katie wondered briefly who her grandmother would have been if she’d been as loved and wanted as a child as Katie was.
The leaves of the trees began to glow like they were illuminated from within, and it transformed the curving bank of trees swaying in the breeze into a breathtaking natural cathedral. Sally hummed the bars of a song that felt familiar, but Katie couldn’t place the tune. He twirled Zoya around, and her dress fluttered out around her. Laughing, she pressed her lips to his and swayed in the soft breeze without a care in the world.
“Ready?” Sally asked and Zoya nodded eagerly. “Zoya Ana Castanova. My life forever changed the day you stole my wallet, and then my heart.”
A soft chuckle escaped Zoya’s lips, remembering the moment they’d met.
“You challenge me in every possible way. Tonight, in front of this forest of beautiful witnesses, I promise to love you in this world and beyond. You are my soul mate, my one true love, and whatever this life has in store for us, from this moment forward, I vow to face it with you… together.” Zoya’s lips curled up as happiness bloomed over her features, making her even more luminescent and beautiful.
“Salvatore Theodore Gabriano,” she whispered as tears rolled down her high cheekbones. “You are the one I adore. There will never be another heart as perfect for mine as yours. I promise to love you with all of me, every day, and honor this sacred commitment today and forever after.”
He reached into the pocket of his suit coat and pulled out an enormous diamond ring that sparkled when twilight’s final rays hit it. Zoya gasped and both of her hands flew to her mouth when she laid eyes on the sparkler. “It’s obscene,” she declared with a throaty laugh. “And I love it.”
He offered her a rakish grin as he pulled her left hand down and placed it on her finger. “This is the real deal, doll face.”
“I know.” She whispered, her eyes brimming with tears. He laced his fingers through her hair and drew her in for a long kiss. When their lips met, the butterflies launched into the air and began to circle them, funneling up into a swooping helix and then back down again. Their gossamer wings tickled the couple in a sort of choreographed ballet as they spun in a slow circle, their arms wrapped around each other as they kissed passionately. When Zoya finally pulled away, Sally pulled her back into his arms, hugging her to him from behind. The butterflies rushed over and caressed them once more as they both laughed up into the sky, lost in the joy of the moment.
“I will never forget this day, doll face,” Sally whispered into her hair as Zoya tugged him by the hand and spread out a blanket under the first twinkling stars. They disappeared onto it a few minutes later, lost in each other.
Hidden by the trees and the darkening night, Katie reached out for Yuli’s hand and squeezed it. “Did you know they married themselves like this?”
“I had no idea,” she admitted. “Zoya always liked to do things her own way. Laws of man never applied to her.”
“She’s an original.” Katie barely got the sentence out before she felt the first flutter of butterfly wings brush against her forearm. The sensation tingled where they touched, and she watched in awe as more and more of them surrounded her and Yuli.
“It tickles.” Katie giggled as they were swept away, being lifted up by the hundreds of synchronized wings as if they were weightless. They climbed higher and higher as the leaves rustled in the darkness and then dissipated into the starry sky.