My formerly sightless eyes suddenly fil ed with a vision of a beautiful golden veil I can’t wait to merge into. Stil , I strain to hold on for just a few seconds more—I need to reach Alrik, need to convince him that it wil al be al right.
My tongue bitter with the useless concoction they insist on feeding me. Wasting precious time, choosing to focus on absurdities when there are far more important things.
Alrik! I concentrate on his name with every last ounce of my being. Alrik, please, can you hear me?
But my plea fal s on deaf ears. He misses it entirely.
His attention is claimed by his grief.
And now it’s too late.
I can’t ignore the pul . Can no longer fight it. Don’t want to fight it. And so I heave my last breath and al ow myself to soar. Hovering up near the ceiling as I gaze down upon the scene, seeing Heath drowning in anguish with his head bowed low, the older female stil feeding me the elixir, while her two young apprentices, who bear such a striking resemblance I’m sure they’re her daughters, hover over me, whispering a long string of words I cannot decipher. And final y, Alrik, my dear Alrik—frantical y grasping the hand that bears my wedding band, futilely searching for signs of a life that no longer exists.
Letting out a bloodcurdling howl when he realizes the truth.
My body’s been reduced to an unoccupied shel .
My soul has been freed.
He empties the room, wanting to be alone with his grief. Then numbed, broken, completely defeated, he throws his body over me. His lips seeking my mouth, desperate to bring me back, unable to accept what he knows deep down inside to be true.
So lost in his sorrow he has no idea that I kneel right beside him, longing to reach him. Desperate to assure him of a truth he couldn’t even begin to imagine—that I haven’t gone anywhere—that I’l never truly leave him—that the body may wither, but my soul, just like the love that we share, never dies.
But it’s no use. He’s shut down. Unable to hear me. Unable to sense me.
Convinced that he now walks alone in the world.
And it’s not long before I feel the pul again. This time so strong there is no way to escape it.
Yanking me away from Alrik, out of the lodge, and into the sky. Sending me spinning, soaring, racing through the clouds, flying over mountain peaks, peering down upon an earth so different from the way I used to see it, becoming a place where everything shimmers, where everything vibrates and glows.
The truth of our existence so clearly revealed, I can’t imagine why I failed to see it before.
Every living thing, from plants, to animals, to the very people who populate the planet—are al connected to each other.
We are al one.
And though we may pass in and out of existence, our souls, our energy, our essence, never fade.
We are infinite beings—every last one.
The realization dawning like a lightning bolt crashing overhead, and I instinctively know this is it.
This is what I’m supposed to learn.
This is what I must never al ow myself to forget, no matter what happens from this moment on.
And then, before the next thought can form, I pierce through the beautiful shimmering golden veil of light and find myself right back in a place I instantly recognize.
twenty-one
I land on the riverbank. Land with a thud.
Toes caught in the wa
ter, butt caught in the sand—the events of a lifetime, my first lifetime, stil swirling through my head.
Aware of a soft rustling sound coming from somewhere behind, I turn to see her smiling as she makes her approach, offers an old gnarled hand, and helps me to my feet.