As quickly as we traveled, the journey was agony. Each hour that passed was one less hour that we had to accomplish our mission, and we only had three days. When we arrived back in The Shade, it would be a shock for everyone, but there wouldn’t be much time to explain. Although I would make time to see River, even if it meant shaving an extra hour.
Finally, we reached the island. And I was comforted to see that the sun had only just begun to descend in the sky. By my estimate, it was still early afternoon. I could only count my lucky stars.
“This could’ve been worse,” I muttered to Kailyn. “A lot worse.”
As soon as the familiar rock formation came into view, I lurched forward full speed… forgetting entirely about the boundary. I whacked into it and bounced off. I could barely even bring myself to be annoyed or concerned about how long it might take for us to attract the attention of one of the three authorized witches. To me it was only a joyous reminder that I was back. I was real.
Kailyn and I began hollering as loud as we could until, what felt like fifteen minutes later, Corrine emerged.
Laying eyes on us, she practically choked on her tongue. She seemed to even stop breathing as she gaped at us. She blinked several times, her mouth opening and closing like a fish as she looked from me to Kailyn to our other three companions and then, with eyes bulging like a frog’s, to Lucas.
“My God,” she rasped. “My God. This is not happening. This isn’t real.”
I hurried over to her, cutting off her rambling as I gripped her shoulders—a little harder than I’d intended. I relished the feel of her solid body between my hands.
“You need to take us inside,” I urged.
“Oh, no, no, no, no!” she shrilled, shaking her head. “I’m not falling for this. You are… jinn or… witches or… something!” With that, she turned her back and began to flee, but I held on to her. Apparently, Corrine has never encountered fae before. Glaring into her eyes, I had to get through to her before she decided to vanish into thin air.
“Perform the test on me,” I said, glowering down at her. “The same test you performed on River and Hero before letting them in.”
Corrine’s lips parted in a gasp. She narrowed her eyes on me and frowned so hard her forehead rippled. “Ben?” she breathed.
“Yes!” I said. “Test me!”
She did it immediately, placing her hands against my bare right arm. I felt a slight electric shock—similar to what I’d felt while inhabiting the griffin’s body. When I didn’t change form, the witch’s eyes filled with tears.
“Oh, my God. I can’t believe it!” She launched herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck and hugging me so tight I could barely breathe.
“Corrine,” I said, detaching myself from her. “There’s no time. You must let us in now!”
Corrine’s eyes roamed the others once again as I gestured toward them. “Test them all if you must, but I can assure you that they are who they look like.”
Corrine tested them all one by one swiftly, but as she approached Lucas—still gaping as though he had tentacles sprouting from his nostrils—Lucas caught my eye and shook his head. “As I told you, Ben, I don’t wish to come in.”
“Just come with us!” I urged. “God knows, we might even forget about you in all the rush if you stay up here.”
Without waiting for his response, I grabbed hold of his arm and guided it toward Corrine. She reached out tentatively, as one would to a wild animal, and touched his wrist. After she’d performed her test, I said, “Now please. Take us down.”
As the dazed Corrine instructed us all to form a circle, Lucas tried to pull away but I held on to him. Then the witch cast her magic, and all of us reappeared in the woods.
Lucas looked at me in agitation, and I thought that he might even shoot out of the boundary again. “If you want to see your son again, just stick with me,” I said. “We won’t have time to come looking for you.” With that, I faced Corrine. “Where are my parents?” I asked.
“I-I am not quite sure,” she stammered, gawking at Kailyn. “What happened to you all?”
“We don’t have time to recount the story twice,” I said, gazing through the trees surrounding us. I was trying to figure out where exactly we had landed. Not far from the Port, I soon realized. I began rushing in its direction without even bothering to look behind me to see if the others were following. If Lucas still chose to stay behind, then so be it. I wasn’t going to babysit him anymore.
Once we reached the clearing before the Port, we could reenter the forest via the main path, the most direct route to the Residences. The trees thinned, and as we emerged from the forest, my eyes darted immediately to the path on my left. I was about to hurtle toward it when Corrine yelled my father’s name.
I whirled to see her staring in the direction of the Port, and that was when I saw them. My father, mother, sister and aunt, standing on the jetty near a small boat. My heart leaped.
“Dad! Mom! Rose! Viv!”
I hurtled toward them and, as I neared, it was obvious that they’d just spotted Lucas. The four gazed over my shoulder as though they’d forgotten about their long-lost Ben coming back from the dead. They stood transfixed by Lucas. Even Kailyn, who was also supposed to be dead, was barely enough to hold their attention for long. I allowed myself to finally shoot a glance back at my uncle, even as I felt relieved that he had decided to heed my words and follow us.
He had halted, and he, too, stood like a fox caught in the headlights, staring at my family. His family. I had never seen him look so uncomfortable as I had now—not even when he’d been trapped in his pool in The Underworld.
When I reached my family, they managed to tear their gaze away from him to look at me breathlessly. My mom and sister started crying as they hugged me and kissed my cheeks, while my father held me in a tight bear hug. Vivienne joined the huddle, catching the side of my face with a kiss.
I couldn’t describe the happiness I felt, standing there, holding my family so close. I knew that I would never take their affection for granted again.
“What happened?” my mother breathed.
My father still looked too speechless to talk. After he relinquished me from his hug, his eyes were drawn once again to Lucas, as if he half expected the sight of him had been just a trick of the eye. But no, Lucas still stood there, staring and looking more awkward than a monkey in a tuxedo.
“You’re not seeing things,” I said quickly to my family. I was sure that this was a consideration that had gone through all of their heads. “I’m back. Kailyn is back. Lucas is back.”
“How?” my father breathed.
I was about to respond when a man leapt from the boat next to us and onto the jetty. What the… Jeramiah? What the hell is he doing back here? Kailyn’s fists balled. But my cousin barely even saw me or her. He was looking straight past us at his father.
From the expression on Lucas’s face as he laid eyes on the young man, he recognized him instantly. Lucas had seen him as a boy, after all.
“Father?” Jeramiah whispered, so quietly, I doubted that Lucas even heard him.
The two men staggered toward each other, stopping just a few feet apart. They were almost the same height—Jeramiah being slightly shorter. They gazed at each other with a mixture of shock and wonderment. To my surprise, it was Lucas who broke the ice. In fact, he broke down completely. His chest began to shake, and he appeared to be crying. He pulled his son close and held him so tight it was as though he never wanted to let go.
A stunned silence fell upon all of us as we watched this reunion, and it was as if time itself had stilled.
Then Kailyn, arriving by my side, whispered, “I need to go find Aiden.” With that, she rushed off into the woods.
I would’ve liked to have stayed longer to watch Lucas and Jeramiah’s reunion, but it was time that I too rushed off. Now that I had greeted my parents, sister and Viv, I needed to find River.
“What is happening?” my father asked
me, more confused than I’d ever seen him in my life. His eyes had followed Kailyn as she disappeared.
“I promise I’ll tell you,” I said, hating to leave them hanging like this. “I just have to see River first.”
I didn’t even give them a chance to respond. I had just come back, and the last thing they wanted to do was watch me turn on my heel and dart away, but I did. I have to find River.
I swept away, rushing toward the Vale with lightning speed. I arrived outside River’s front door in no time. My heart pounding, I knocked.
“River!” I called, even as my voice shook in anticipation. “River!”
The window on the top floor burst open and Nadia stuck her head out. She gasped, clasping a hand to her mouth. “Ben!”
“Where is River?” I asked.
“I-I don’t know,” she stuttered, eyeing me with utter confusion. “Sh-she wanted to be alone and went out for a walk.”
Having no time to exchange further words, I turned away and wound along the streets of the Vale in search of her. Humans noticed me as I rushed by, and some even called out, but I didn’t even stop to acknowledge their existence. I just continued forging ahead, searching for the girl I loved. Where would she have gone?
Derek
I couldn’t unglue my eyes from what—unless all of us were suffering from the same delusion—appeared to be my dead brother, standing in the clearing and embracing his long-lost son.
I had already verified with Sofia, Rose and Vivienne several times that they could see him and this was not a side effect of Herbert’s excursion into my brain. Although there was the possibility that I was imagining the three women too, and all this was a hallucination, right now I had no choice but to accept the sight before me.
We had just seen my son returned from the dead, then Kailyn, and now… here was Lucas.
We remained rooted to the spot at a distance while Lucas and Jeramiah embraced. Then, when they finally drew apart, I heard my older brother’s voice for the first time in almost twenty years.
“I’m sorry,” he told his son.
His voice sent chills down my spine, bringing back a swathe of memories. Then I frowned. In all the centuries I’d known him, I could count on one hand the number of times I’d heard him say, “I’m sorry.” That these were the first words to escape his lips was… jarring.
“How are you here?” Jeramiah asked, his hands shaking. “Is this… is this real?” Clearly, like me, the young man was also having doubts that this wasn’t all just the work of the ghoul.
“It’s real,” Lucas murmured.
“You never knew me. H-How did you even recognize me?” Jeramiah asked.
At this, Lucas averted his eyes to the ground. “I did know about you,” he replied in a low voice.
It looked like every muscle in Jeramiah’s body tensed.
Lucas breathed out deeply. “I even knew that your mother was pregnant,” he went on. “And I… I tracked you down when you were a boy. Though you never saw me, there were some years when I watched over you.”
Lucas’ admission dropped like a bombshell on Vivienne and me—he kept his son a secret from us all that time?—and I could only imagine what Jeramiah must be feeling inside.
“But it’s not true,” Jeramiah denied forcefully. “M-Mother said—”
“Your mother lied to you,” Lucas replied. “To help ease the pain of my absence, no doubt. She was a good woman. Too good for me… In fact, I was…” His shoulders sagged. “I was an asshole.”
Who is this creature and why has he assumed the form of my brother?
I couldn’t help but think that Corrine’s impersonation test had failed us.
“You… you knew about me all this time?” Jeramiah looked shattered.
Lucas hung his head—something that I could’ve sworn I’d never seen him do in all my life.
“I wasn’t fit to be a father,” he replied. “I was… a coward.”
If my eyes bulged any further, I was sure that they would pop out of my skull. Did he just admit to being a coward?
I looked at Vivienne in sheer bewilderment, hoping for some kind of enlightenment from her side. But she only shared my look of astonishment.
What is going on?
I couldn’t help but move closer. Maybe, as soon as I neared, this strange vision would vanish in a wisp of smoke. But as I closed the gap between my brother and me, this “vision” only became more convincing. I stopped three feet away from my brother, gaping like a moron.
“Where… What happened to you?” I managed.
Lucas looked at me with uncertainty, his blue eyes that matched my own roaming me from head to foot. Then his gaze passed over my shoulder toward Vivienne and finally settled on Sofia.
He swallowed hard before replying, “I had a… timeout.”
River
Since our visit to the oracle, I hadn’t been able to eat or sleep. I just wanted to be alone. Tired of my mother insisting that I eat something, I left the house, intending to go for a long walk. I found myself gravitating toward the least crowded areas of the island, away from the smooth, sandy beaches, and toward the shores that were lined with rocks. I began climbing over the boulders, my mind elsewhere as I gazed out at the dark ocean. I kept moving until I felt completely isolated, then sat down on the edge of a rock and slipped my feet into the mild water. The waves lapped around my ankles, providing some semblance of calm amidst my raging emotions.
I didn’t want to cry again. I was tired of it. All it did was drain me and make me feel even more desolate. I closed my eyes, and, panning my head up to the sky, desperately tried to drown out my fears that Ben was lost to us forever. Wishing there truly was a God above, I prayed that somehow, someday, my love would find a way back to us.
I opened my eyes after a few minutes of intense wishing. Roughly brushing aside an escaped tear, I focused on the rippling reflection of my red, puffy-eyed face. A breeze kissed my skin, and I breathed in deeply, allowing my eyes to glaze over.
However difficult it was, I had to focus on the positive.
Have faith in Ben. He’s survived until now, hasn’t he? At least, in a sense. Imagine how much worse if it would be if he had passed on like most other spirits do. Then he really would be lost forever. But he’s still here, in this mortal world. And he promised me that he’s doing his best to find a way back to us.
I fought furiously to pile good thoughts into my brain, one after the other, in spite of how little conviction I held. It was all I could do to keep myself from allowing depression to swallow me whole. But it was hard to light a fire in the rain. No matter how many pep talks I gave myself, my mind tossed them aside like trash, endowing my fears with free rein to once again rip through my tattered heart.
A warm glimmer in the water caused me to focus my vision. I stared down at it, and before I could turn around to discover its source, I felt something—someone—touch me. Arms slid around my waist. Then a kiss brushed my cheek. Twisting around, I found myself face to face with a beautiful, ethereal form I could only think to describe as an angel. An angel who was Ben.
I could hardly breathe, much less speak as Ben clutched me against him and stood me up. His dark brows knotted in a frown, his vivid green eyes intense as he examined my face. He trailed his gaze slowly from my forehead, to my eyes, to my nose, and my lips, as though he were cherishing every feature. His hands traveled up my back and rested at the back of my head before he leaned in and claimed my lips in a slow, tender kiss. My skin tingled at his touch. I kissed him more passionately, my own hands roaming him, relishing the contours of his body.
So lost was I in him, I couldn’t bring myself to part our lips for even a moment to ask him how and why he was here. All I wanted in that moment was to be as close to him as I could possibly be.
Too soon, his lips unclasped from mine and he stared deep into my eyes. Beneath his gaze, I felt that I was melting into him.
“Ben,” I managed. “You’re… an angel?”
At this, a small smile crossed his lips. His dimples reminded me why I had missed that smile so much.
“I’m more like… a fairy, actually.” His smile broadened, and it was infectious. I found my own lips curving.
“What?” I asked, my fingers tracing his jaw as I squinted, taking in his gorgeous face even more closely.
“How about I show you?”
His hands slid down my body, and the next thing I knew, he was scooping me up in his arms. My heart skipped a beat as he lifted us up in the air. The ground disappeared beneath us as we rose higher and higher into the dark sky, so high that the island stretched out beneath us in all its glory: the swaying sea of redwood trees, the regal mountains, the sparkling lakes, the lush meadows… but I could barely take in its beauty, for I was too enchanted by Ben, a far more beautiful sight to me.
As high as we were now, my heart was higher. It was up in space, turning somersaults in orbit. Closing the distance between our lips again, I whispered, “I love you, Ben. To the stars and back.”
His right hand loosened from its spot beneath my knees, and he guided me into an upright position. My arms wrapped tightly around his neck, his own arms engulfed my waist, keeping me flush against him, like we had been while still standing on the ground. Lost in his eyes, I soon forgot that we were hovering who knew how many feet above the ground. I’d never felt safer than in Ben’s strong grasp. Never more secure. Never more at home.
“I love you to the moon,” he whispered back, tasting my lips. “There was barely an hour that passed when I didn’t think of you… You’ll never know how hard it was to be so close to you, yet unable to touch you. To only be capable of reaching you in dreams.”