I try to look pleased, though the truth is I have no idea what I’l do with them, or if I’l even be able to bring them where I’m going—
wherever that is. The thought extinguished the moment Rayne steps forward, motions for me to lower my head, and drapes a smal silver talisman dangling from a tan leather cord around my neck.
I grasp the pendant between my forefinger and thumb, lifting it to where I can better see it, unsure how I’m supposed to interpret the message behind it, especial y considering it came straight from her.
“An Ouroboros?” I gape, my voice sharp, my brow raised in question.
“It’s from Romy and me,” she says, eyes wide and serious. “It’s for protection. Damen was right. It’s not at al evil and we’re just hoping it’l remind you of where you started, where you’l end up, and where we hope you’l find yourself again.”
“And where’s that?” I ask, my eyes never once straying from hers.
“Back here. With al of us,” she says, her voice ful of sincerity. Her dual nature, her ability to run so hot and cold, especial y where I’m concerned, is so confusing I can’t seem to get a grip on her. Reminding me of the old man I ran across that time in Summerland, the one who insisted the twins bore opposite personalities to the ones I’ve grown used to. Claiming Rayne was the quiet one and Romy the stubborn one, and I can’t help but wonder just how often they play this game.
Before I can formulate some kind of reply, Ava comes forward and hands me a smal shiny crystal ine stone made of a blue-green so bril iant it reminds me a bit of Jude’s eyes.
“It’s cavansite,” she says, studying me closely. “It enhances intuition and psychic healing. It also prompts deep reflection, inspires new ideas, helps rid oneself of faulty beliefs, and aids in inducing the memories of one’s prior lives.”
Our eyes meet and hold as she shoots me a meaningful look, and I can’t help but wish Damen were around to hear that.
I nod, slip the stone into my pocket, and turn toward Jude. Not because I’m expecting something from him, but because I can tel by the way his aura flares, the way his energy radiates, that he has something to tel me.
“I’m coming with,” he says.
I squint, unsure I heard him correctly.
“Seriously. That’s my gift. I’m making the journey with you. You shouldn’t have to go it alone. I don’t want you to go it alone.”
“But—you can’t,” I say, the words slipping out before I’ve even had a chance to stop and consider them. But for some reason, it seems like the right thing to say. If Damen can’t go, then Jude can’t either. Besides, there’s no need to involve him in this any more than I already have. “Trust me, I appreciate the sentiment. Real y, I do. But Lotus’s instructions were clear—I need to do this alone. Without you, without Damen, with no one to rely on but myself. It’s my destiny, only I can make the journey.”
“But I thought our destinies were entwined? You said so yourself.”
I pause, unsure how to reply. Glancing from the twins, to Miles, and then over to Ava and back to Jude, about to reiterate what I just said, when I sense her.
Lotus.
She’s here.
I turn, my gaze instinctively finding hers, noticing how she looks even older than the last time I saw her, more delicate, frail, somewhat feeble even. Her m
ovements slow but determined, her slim frame stooped slightly forward, her hair freed from the braid she normal y wears, left to hang loose around her shoulders in long silvery wisps. The waves floaty, springy, providing the usual halo effect—its color blending into skin so pale it makes the blue of her eyes pop like two startling chunks of aquamarine dropped into a snowy-white landscape. And unlike the other times I saw her, this time she leans heavily onto an old carved wooden walking stick. Her fingers wrapped around the curved handle, arthritic knuckles blanching and bulging. Yet her face stil lifts as she makes her approach, her rheumy old eyes taking me in as her lips curl in delight.
“Adelina.” She bows, stopping just a few feet shy of me, her gaze fixed on mine as though she’s yet to notice I have company. “You are ready? Ready to make the journey? Ready to release me?”
“Is that what I’m doing?” I study her closely, her words planting a seed of doubt that has me second-guessing my purpose al over again.
“We’ve been waiting for so long now. Only you can make the journey, only you can reveal the truth.”
“But why only me?” I ask. “Why can’t Damen come—or Jude?”
“Please,” she whispers, voice low and throaty, pressing her left palm to her heart as she bows toward me, a thin gold band she wears on her ring finger glinting in a way I can’t miss, and I wonder if she’s always worn it, and if so, why I failed to notice it until now. “You must choose to believe.”
For the first time since she arrived, I glance back toward my friends, seeing them looking upon her with such awe and reverence I can’t help but wonder if they see something I miss.
But when I turn to Lotus again, I see it as clearly as they do—the beautiful golden glow that emanates deep from within, growing and expanding until it glimmers al around her.
“You are ready then?” She looks at me, her face so luminous I just nod, unable to resist.
Lifting one gnarled old finger, she beckons for me to fol ow—to take the first step toward a destiny I can’t yet imagine.