Birthright

Lovely sentiment, indeed. Shit aside, God, why had she said the rest of it out loud? It was this cavern, she decided, rubbing at her elbow with the hand that Cian didn’t hold. It was possible to feel that you weren’t real here, that the world had gone away. While he picked up a crystal and weighed it in his palm, Rhiannon softly touched her stomach and hoped to heaven she didn’t throw up. In the midst of that nervy near-catastrophe, she looked at the collection spread before them. Some she recognized as chips of turquoise, others as crystals of malachite, olivenite, and gypsum. Light glistened on a small piece of blue stone, which she picked up and held carefully between her thumb and forefinger. “Azurite. In ancient China, they thought this opened celestial gateways,” she said. “I know it as the rock I used to stare at for hours trying to reach a meditative state.”

A small smile at the confession.