I stand before the big iron gate Damen unlocked with his mind, watching as he beckons for me to join him on its other side. And as tempted as I am to do just that (and believe me, I’m extremely tempted) if I’m going to start living normal y then I’m going to have to start here.
Now.
If I’m going to start living normal y then I’l have to stop relying on magick to free myself from al of my messes.
I shake my head, move past his bewildered gaze, and make my way toward the office, where I send the secretary into a complete frenzy of activity the second I approach her desk and say, “Hi. I’m Ever Bloom. I’m a senior here. And not only am I tardy, but I’ve pretty much skipped out on the last six months and I’m wondering how I might go about making that up.”
Her eyes grow wide as she looks me up and down, then she points toward a chair by the wal , tel s me to sit, to not move an inch, while she turns, simultaneously reaching for her computer and the phone. The hand piece wedged between her shoulder and ear as her fingers pound hard on the keyboard, alerting the principal, the vice principal, my teachers, and Sabine, who was wel aware of my plan and was waiting for this very cal . The fate of my diploma being decided with little to no input from me, and when my previous suspension is mentioned, I’m sure that I’m doomed, but then luckily, thanks to Sabine’s finely honed negotiation skil s they al ow me to attempt what I’m sure they al consider to be the impossible: tel ing me that if I make up everything that I’ve missed—every single test—
every last assignment—within the next two weeks, then they’l let me graduate.
Six months of neglected work that needs to be completed in just fourteen days in order to wear the cap and gown along with the rest of my classmates. Otherwise, I won’t be getting anywhere near it until the same time next year, if then.
With great emphasis on the if.
Clearly if there was ever a time for magick, and manifesting, and trips to the Great Hal s of Learning, it’s now. But, while I refuse to rely on my powers, that doesn’t stop me from relying on my friends—including a few people I didn’t even realize were my friends.
So when classmates I’ve barely even spoken to offer to lend me their notes, and when Stacia and Honor (prompted by Miles, but stil ) offer to help me catch up on al I missed in physics, I’m so shocked by the offer, I say yes. And for someone who’s avoided doing any form of studying or schoolwork for over a year, it’s a little hard to get back into the groove of doing so now.
It’s also impossible to stop myself from just automatical y intuiting the contents the second I touch the cover of my huge stack of textbooks. Mind reading I can control, al I have to do is lower my psychic shield or use my quantum remote, but tapping into the universal consciousness of just intuiting things is something I have no control over. So, instead of fighting it, I decide to use it to my advantage to get through a pile of reading assignments that would be pretty much impossible without it. Besides, I stil have to write the papers, and I stil have to solve al the equations and memorize the formulas, so it’s not like I’m total y cheating. Though, I admit, when it comes to the makeup tests, wel , yeah, al the right answers just automatical y appear. But then, there’s nothing I can do about that either.
Stil , even with the help of my friends along with my psychic powers, it’s a lot to tackle in such a short amount of time. So while I’m busy with schoolwork, Jude and Ava offer to do their part by reading through Roman’s old journals in an attempt to track down al the far-flung immortals—the orphans Damen turned as wel as the ones Roman deemed worthy enough to change through the years. While Romy and Rayne pool their twin talents by crafting handmade party invitations they mail out pretty much al over the globe, as Sabine handles my col ege applications that are so late it looks like I’l be forced to take a year off. Which is probably for the best since it’s been so long since I even thought about having a normal future, I don’t even know where to start.
Not to mention how I always assumed that wherever I ended up, Damen would be right there beside me.
I always assumed we’d head off together, just the two of us.
I never once considered I might end up going it alone.
But not having seen him since the day I left him standing at the gate, I have to admit it’s a real possibility. He’s avoiding school.
Avoiding me. And while I’m wil ing to give him the space that he figures he needs—I hope in the end, he’l decide to come join me.
Despite al the evidence pointing against it—I hope in the end, he’l make the right choice.
If he doesn’t, I don’t know what I’l do. And maybe that’s part of the reason I’ve welcomed the overwhelming volume of schoolwork—
it’s distracted me from the terrible, unavoidable fact that if Damen chooses against the fruit, I’l be forced to make an impossible choice.
Choosing between a misguided life as an immortal—where the universe wil conspire to keep us apart at every turn—and a life without Damen, which is just too horrible to contemplate.
So in the midst of al the studying, and reading, and exam taking, and essay writing, and getting next to no sleep in order to fit it al in, I final y take a little time out to visit Summerland.
Partly because I’m eager to find Lotus so I can tel her just how much I accomplished, and partly because, wel , I’m also eager to visit it while I stil can, while it’s just a simple matter of envisioning that shimmering golden veil and stepping through to its other side. I mean, even though I know plenty of mortals who can get there, I have no way of knowing if I’l stil be able to get there once I become mortal again, and so I’m determined to enjoy it while I can.
After spending a few wonderful moments in the vast fragrant field where I land, after a visit to the Great Hal s of Learning, where I stand before its ever-changing façade and re-experience the thril of being admitted inside, after visiting al of Damen’s and my favorite places—the replica of Versail es he once manifested expressly for me, the field ful of tulips that surrounds the pavilion he made for my seventeenth birthday—after returning to the place where the grass once turned to mud and where the trees were al barren—the former entrance to the Shadowland—after finding my way to the beautiful pond stil blooming with hundreds of the loveliest lotus blossoms—
after al that, when I stil can’t locate Lotus, I decide to tuck one of Romy and Rayne’s handmade pink-and-black party invitation envelopes under a large rock I’d seen her lean against, in the ho
pe that she’l find it.
Then I return to the earth plane, bury myself in my studies, and wait.
Wait to hear from Lotus.
Wait for the RSVPs from al the other immortals to come pouring in.
Wait to hear from Misa, Marco, and Rafe.