But this day, right as Tella slid on the ring, she noticed something else. The chandelier above her stilled as if it, too, had been caught by surprise. Tella knew every item in her mother’s jewelry case by heart: a carefully folded velvet ribbon edged in gold, blood-red scarlet earrings, a tarnished silver bottle that her mother claimed held angel tears, an ivory locket that wouldn’t open, a jet wristlet that looked as if it belonged on the arm of a witch rather than her mother’s elegant wrist.
