The Three Lockets [Chapter 5.3]

Author's Note: I know I've said this about the last two chapters, but this is my favorite chapter yet. I loved getting to write this personal moment between Cass and Aspen, and I loved how it was building the way for future Caspen interactions. There's also a little something else that happens in this chapter that I'm particularly proud of, but I won't say what it is to avoid spoiling it for you guys. <3

As a little aside, I completely forgot to include Cass taking off her backpack and putting it behind her on the bed in the previous chapter. Since it would be awkward to suddenly throw that in now, let's all just pretend that she did that when she first sat down.

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Last Lines: Then she was gone from the room, her footsteps echoing out in the hallway. Cass knew that the need for the clothes wasn't that desperate - Lira just wanted an escape from the awkwardness of seeing a stranger cry.

And Cass, who didn't want a stranger to see her cry, was perfectly fine with being left with Aspen.

It was only when Lira's footsteps faded that Aspen started talking to her again, whispering in quiet, hushed tones that everything was going to be alright. Cass didn't argue. She just let Aspen holding her gently, rubbing her hands up and down her back much in the way that her mom had done to comfort her when she was little. It took several more minutes, but the sobs that shook her body were reduced to sniffles and stray teardrops rolling down her flushed cheeks.

That was when Aspen let go.

Cass wanted to continue to cling to her, but she let Aspen pull back from the embrace. "Where do you keep your tissues?" Aspen gently asked, leaning over towards Cass' backpack. Her hand hovered over the front pouch; it was a lucky guess.

Cass hiccuped and bit back another wave of tears. "I never told you I had them."

Aspen gave her a small smile.

"You're always prepared," she said, "and that seems like the type of thing you'd be smart enough to pack."

She tried her best to return the smile, but it faltered as soon as her gaze landed on the silver locket hanging about her best friend's chest - a painful reminder of the differences between how this world treated Aspen and her. Her lips quivered. Aspen's magic was a gift. Hers was a curse. It was the same with their lockets. And then she thought of the times they had spent together in school. Everyone loved Aspen. They loved her confidence, her beauty, her personality - everything about Aspen Lovelace was incredible, and everyone knew that.

But Aspen was the only one who had bothered to pay attention to Cass in a long time. She didn't have a plethora of lunch tables to sit at before Aspen; she'd just pick whichever one had a few open seats on the end. She had never been invited to parties before Aspen, and part of her had always suspected that the only reason she had been invited now was because Aspen had gone right to the party-throwers and asked that Cass be invited as well. Clubs never vied for her membership, and she didn't have half as many followers as Aspen did on her social media.

Aspen was everything she couldn't be.

Just for a moment, Cass found herself wishing more than ever that she could be like her.

There was a sudden flash of warmth - a familiar, beautiful warmth that made her heart give an excited flutter when the feeling registered. Aspen, who had finished digging through the front pouch of the backpack and pulled out the small pack of tissues, leapt back in surprise. The tissue pack went tumbling from her hands, but she didn't even make a move to catch it before it silently hit the wooden floor. She was staring at the space between the two of them with wide, wide eyes.

"Look," she whispered.

Cass did as requested.

What appeared to be moving shadows had burst out from the sheets all around Cass, forming a perfect little circle. None of them went too high, but the sight of them was enough to send Cass into a frenzied panic. This had to be the magic that Lira had been referring to. She stared at the tendrils eagerly licking the air around of them. The darkness suddenly shot up. Cass cried out. Aspen did, too, and both of them stumbled back from the wild magic.

But Cass couldn't escape from the circle - when she tried backing up, she only ended up bumping into the wall of darkness that had shot up behind her.

Aspen hesitantly raised her hand. Cass opened her mouth to protest what she knew Aspen was planning on doing - it was too wild, too cursed, too likely to hurt her - but Aspen was already reaching out towards the darkness. Cass hoped with all of her might that it wouldn't harm her best friend, even though she knew thinking so was pointless. She closed her eyes. She didn't want to see what would happen.

Then a giggle left Aspen's lips.

"You're tickling me, Cassie," she said as another giggle broke free.

Cass hesitantly opened her eyes.

The darkness around where Aspen had reached her hand out had parted away. There was enough space for her hand to be untouched, but little strands had branched off and were currently brushing against the bare skin of Aspen's hand. Cass took a shaky breath. The darkness began to recede into the sheets behind her. When she noticed the change, she took another. The darkness became smaller on her right and left. She took a third deep breath. Now the darkness before her was becoming less chaotic, sinking like its brethren back into the safety of the sheets.

Aspen looked up at her as the darkness - and the warmth - faded.

"I love your magic," she said, her voice filled with awe. The tissues lay forgotten on the floor.

Cass shook her head. "You can't. It's-It's not good." A fresh batch of tears began to roll down her cheeks, accompanied by the darkness rearing its ugly head once more. The sight of the darkness was all that she needed to be sent into another downwards spiral. "It's going to make me turn out just like that king and-and then you're going to be even more scared of me and leave me all-all alone and I don't want to be alone again, Aspen!"

Aspen furrowed her brow. "What are you talking about?"

She sniffled.

"You-you're scared of me," she said. The darkness grew, as if it was in agreement with what Cass was saying. "You got scared when I knew Aldonius, and when I said that I recognized Rey."

The silence that followed her accusation was heavy and uncomfortable. Aspen just stared at her and the darkness, her expression impossible to read no matter how hard Cass tried. Cass let out a sob and buried her face into her hands; she should have never mentioned it. Now that she had, Aspen would be unable to skirt around how her true feelings towards the changes that Cass had undergone since they got together that morning.

She heard Aspen take a deep breath.

"I'm not going to lie," she finally said. "I'm definitely a little freaked out right now."

Cass sobbed even harder.

"And I might have been a tiny bit scared when I heard what you said earlier," she continued, her voice remaining at the same quiet level. "But I'm not scared of you, Cassie, and I'm never going to leave you."

She lowered her hands and looked up at Aspen.

Her best friend had slipped off of the bag and was in the middle of grabbing onto the tissues. Straightening, she held out the small pack out to Cass. "You're my best friend, Cassandra Hughes. If being your best friend means dealing déjà vu, magical lockets and supposedly cursed magic, then I'll just learn to get over my fear." She grinned at her. And even though it didn't fully reach Aspen's eyes, Cass found relief washing over her in waves. The darkness receded back into the bed. Just hearing those words was enough to quell her fears.

Cass took her tissues out of Aspen's hands.

"And I meant what I said earlier," Aspen added. She hopped back onto the bed and looked her in the eyes. "Your magic really is beautiful. I know Lira says that it's dangerous, but it doesn't feel that way. It felts warm and safe, like a nice big blanket being wrapped around me on a cold winter night. It felt like you."