I turn back to my friends, turn to wave good-bye, only to find Miles, Ava, and the twins waving back, and Jude standing right there behind me.
And just as I’m about to explain yet again why I need to go it alone, Lotus stops, glances over her shoulder, and takes him in as though seeing him for the very first time. Her eyes moving over him as though she somehow recognizes him, taking me by surprise when she waves him forward, inviting him to join us.
“This is your destiny too. The answers you seek are now within your reach,” she says, her voice both sage and true.
I glance between her and Jude, wondering what the heck that might’ve meant, but she’s already turned back, and from the look in his eyes, he’s just as confused as I am.
She leads us through the muck, through a forest of burnt-out trees with cruel barren branches bearing no trace of foliage despite the constant supply of rain. Her feet moving with surprising surety as I struggle to keep up. Keeping my eyes glued to the back of her head, not wanting to lose sight of her, aware of the slip-slop of Jude’s feet as he trudges behind me.
And even though I’m grateful for the company, I can’t help but think it should be Damen instead.
Damen should be making the journey alongside me. Damen, who wanted to come, wanted to keep me safe—despite the fact that he disagreed with my coming here in the first place.
Having Jude here feels wrong in every way.
We push on, fol owing Lotus for what feels like miles, and I’m about to ask how much farther it is, when we reach it.
I know it the moment I see it.
The landscape is basical y unchanged, the ground is stil muddy, the rain stil fal s, and the surrounding area is as dreary and barren as ever—but stil , there’s just no denying it. The air is different. Cooler. The temperature dropped so low I wish I’d worn something a little heavier than an old pair of jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. But even more noticeable is the way the area just before us seems to glisten and glow—to glimmer and gleam. Looking less like the shimmering veil that marks the portal to Summerland, and more like a change in atmosphere. The space turned suddenly hazy, swirly, al owing for only a blur of shapes, a mere hint of what might lie beyond.
Lotus stops, lifts her hand to her brow, and surveys the scene, as I stand right beside her, and Jude beside me, wondering if he’l insist on continuing now that we’re here.
I turn to Lotus, hoping for some sort of instruction, advice, a heads-up, words of wisdom—wil ing to settle for just about anything she’s wil ing to give, but she just points straight ahead, motions for me to keep moving, to make that big leap between the space where I stand and the great unknown just beyond.
“But what wil I do when I get there?” I ask, practical y reduced to begging.
But instead of addressing me she turns to Jude and says, “Go forward. Learn. You wil know when it is time to return.”
“But … I’m going with Ever … aren’t I? ” He glances at us, his face a mask of confusion that matches my own.
Lotus gestures impatiently, gestures ahead, and as I fol ow the direction of her crooked old fingers, I’m forced to blink a few times to take it al in, to see what she sees.
Stil , despite my efforts, al I get is a blurry hologram. Like a shadowy mirage that could represent a vil age and its people, but could just as easily be something else entirely.
“Your journeys begin here. Where it ends is for you to discover.”
Jude grasps my hand, determined to support me, to go with me, but I’m not ready just yet.
Much as I care for Jude, Damen rules my heart. He’s the one I want beside me on this journey—on any journey.
Lotus touches my arm, presses a smal silk pouch into my palm. Curling my fingers around it, she says, “Everything you think you need is in here. You decide what that means.”
“But how? How wil I know? How wil I—” I start, a mil ion unanswered questions storming my brain.
Not getting very far before she looks at me and says, “Trust. Believe. It is the only way to proceed.”
She nudges me forward, nudges me with a surprising amount of strength. And I can’t help it—I glance back again. My eyes scanning the area, desperately seeking Damen, as if the sheer force of my longing wil magical y transport him here.
But not finding him anywhere, I square my shoulders, tilt my chin, and take that first step, Jude right beside me, my hand grasped in his.
The two of us moving tentatively toward something we can’t quite make out, thought it’s not long before we’re pul ed along by the irresistible force of it—like a whirling mass of energy, a vortex that’s sucking us in. And I’m just about to merge into it, when I feel it.
That familiar swarm of tingle and heat.
Soon fol owed by the plaintive cry of my name on his lips.
I turn, catching the flash of pain in his eyes when he sees me with Jude, assumes I’ve replaced him.