A part of her wonders how Caleb can sleep with that pendant around his neck. Meridian is peaceful at twilight, the sunset painting the sky in reds and golds and ambers, shades she has never seen back home on Earth. He looks so beautiful, his heartbeat slowing as they lie in the shade of a Zenda tree. Even so, Cornelia is fixated on the same crystal that trapped her best friend, the former Guardians, her boyfriend's mother…
There is so much she would like to ask. Does he ever think about what's going on in there? Can she see them through her glass prison? What would happen if it broke?
Could he ever make peace with Nerissa's downfall?
He rouses with a slow yawn. A thousand questions are poised on the tip of her tongue. There is nothing she could say that could ever make it better. She is powerless.
Caleb smiles, and she sees her reflection in his emerald eyes. Just a girl from the planet Earth with supernatural gifts, chosen to guard the infinite dimensions, falling in love with a boy from Meridian. She begins to consider, not for the first time, that she and Nerissa have more in common than she would like to admit.
It is the first time she hopes she will make a better mother some day.
a/n: fun fact: zenda trees are not a thing. since theres no info anywhere on meridian plant life, i simply rearranged the letters of elyon's bio dads name to make a tree. sometimes i think i have too much power.