I blinked a few times. It was as if I was underwater, watching them through ripples. “I’m fine.”
Ridley stood up a few feet away, wiping her hands on her skirt. “Famous last words.”
Liv picked up her backpack and stood staring at the end of the almost endless dock. I pulled myself up next to her.
“This is it.” I looked at Liv. “I can feel it.”
I shivered. That’s when I noticed she was shaking, too.
6.20
Sea Change
It felt like we had been walking forever, as if the bridge in front of us only got longer the closer we got. The farther we went, the less we saw. The air became brighter and heavier and wetter, until suddenly my feet came to the edge of the weathered planks—and what appeared to be an impenetrable wall of fog.
“Is this the Great Barrier?” I squatted down, touching the place where the wood ended. My hand felt nothing. No invisible Caster stairwell. Nothing.
“Wait, what if this is like a dangerous force field or some kind of poisonous smoke?” Link pulled out his shears and gently pushed them into the mist, then yanked them back, perfectly intact. “Or maybe not. Still, pretty creepy. How do we know if we go through that we’re going to be able to come back?” As usual, Link was only saying what the rest of us were thinking.
I stood at the end of the bridge, facing the nothingness. “I’m going through.”
Liv looked insulted. “You can barely walk. Why you?”
Because this whole thing is my fault. Because Lena was my girlfriend. Because I might be a Wayward, whatever that is.
I looked away and found myself looking at Lucille, her claws digging into Ridley’s shirt. Lucille Ball was no fan of the water. “Ouch!” Ridley put her down. “Stupid cat.”
Lucille took a few deliberate steps across the wood, turning to look at me. She cocked her head.
With a flick of her tail, she took off and was gone.
“Because.” Turns out, I couldn’t explain. Liv shook her head, and without waiting for anyone else, I followed Lucille into the clouds.
I was in the Great Barrier, between universes, and for one second I didn’t feel like a Caster or a Mortal. All I felt was magic.
I could feel it and hear it and smell it, the air thick with sound and salt and water. The shore at the end of the bridge was pulling at me, and I was overwhelmed with an unbearable sense of longing. I wanted to be there with Lena. More than that, I just wanted to be there. I didn’t seem to have a reason or logic for it, apart from the intensity of the longing itself.
I wanted to be there more than anything else.
I didn’t want to choose one world. I wanted to be part of both. I didn’t want to see only one side of the sky. I wanted to see it all.
I hesitated. Then I took a single step and walked out of the fog and into the unknown.
6.20
Out of the Light
Cold air hit me, sending goose bumps up my arms.
By the time I opened my eyes, the brightness and the fog had disappeared. All I could see was a blur of moonlight pouring into a hole in the jagged cave in the distance. The full moon was clear and luminous.
I wondered if I was looking at the Seventeenth Moon.
I closed my eyes and tried to experience the intense rush I’d felt the moment before, when I was between worlds.
It was there, behind everything else. The feeling. The electricity of the air, as if this side of the world was full of life I couldn’t see but could sense all around me.
“Come on.” Ridley was behind me, pulling Link, whose eyes were squeezed shut. Ridley let go of his hand. “You can open your eyes now, Super Stud.”