From inside his coat, he pulled out a small box. The dark velvet glimmered faintly in the fading light as he placed it before her. “A gift,” he said quietly. “To prove what words cannot.”
Mira’s fingers hovered above the box before she slowly opened it. Her breath hitched. Nestled inside black satin lay a necklace so delicate and fierce it seemed impossible to carry both at once, it was unlike any she had ever seen… a slim chain of white-gold thread interwoven with a soft glimmer of moonstones and sapphires with a pendant that held a single, tear-shaped stone. The gem wasn’t purely white nor purely the blues of deep water; it seemed to drink in light and give it back softened. Tiny delicate vines wrapped the stone in silver, intricate enough to have been made by a jeweled hand that knew t
