Running up the sidewalk in the garden, Addy’s shoes had come untied. She stumbled a few times and finally tripped, falling down and skinning up her hands. Gage dropped his toys and came over to pull her up off the sidewalk.
“Geez, tie your shoes tighter,” he said, turning back to what he was doing.
She rubbed her stinging hands on her pants. “Yep.”
She started to run off but stumbled on her still untied laces again. Frustrated, she sat down and pulled her shoes off.
“It’s too cold for no shoes,” Gage said, lining his cars up in a row on the sidewalk. He glanced up at the main house. “Put your shoes back on before you get in trouble.”
“I’m fixing these.”
Gage grabbed more cars and dumped them on the sidewalk. “You’re weird.”
Addy stuck her tongue out at him and started pulling the laces out of her shoes.
Gage watched her for a minute then crawled over to where she was sitting.
“Stop being a pain and put your shoes back on, Addy.”
The sidewalk was freezing under her feet as she stood up in her socks. “I’m getting my slippy ones. I’ll tell Molly to tie these ones more better next time.”
“Can’t you even tie your own shoes?”
“I’m gonna get my nother ones with no ties.”
“Watch.” He untied his shoe and retied it. “You try.”
She sat down, slipping a shoe back on, and tried unsuccessfully to tie it.
“Pay attention,” he said, showing her again.
Addy sat up in bed and glanced at her surroundings with a sigh. She studied her hands closely. They stung as though they really were freshly scraped on the sidewalk and her feet felt like she’d been walking through the snow barefoot. She flopped herself back down on the pillow, realizing she was just dreaming again. They were so vivid lately that it was hard to tell what was real and what was only in her head.
Tugging the blanket from the bed, she wrapped it around herself and slowly stood up. She quietly walked to the terrace across the room. It had no doors and was wide open with only thin curtains that were pulled back on each side. The floor was made of stone and felt cold on her bare feet. Creeping closer, she could smell fresh air and the sweet scent of flowers.
Leaning forward, she checked both ways before stepping through the door. It was dark outside and she heard the faint sound of music from the city below. There were chairs with ivory colored pillows off to one side and a table with four chairs on the other. Looking up, she saw two moons in the sky; one of them was small and pale blue. Moving out further, she walked to the railing and stared down at the city she’d been trapped in for what she thought had to be at least a week.
Addy crouched down and rested her chin on one of her hands at the railing. She wrapped her other hand around the charm Gage gave her that hung from her neck. She had no idea where Juliette and Jax were. She only knew Tanner wasn’t far away because she could feel his presence.
She figured that destroying the stone had somehow connected them like Andrew and Eva had been. It was a strange feeling and she wondered if he felt it too. Knowing she wasn’t alone was one of the only reasons she’d been able to cope so far.
When she woke up the first time, she only vaguely remembered being on the hill with Tanner, Jax and Juliette. After having time to get her bearings, it all started coming back to her.
Juliette and Jax kept fighting about how they’d ended up there in the first place, while Addy and Tanner were incredibly sick. Both of them had been down on their knees at opposite sides of the hill vomiting and couldn’t stand.
Akori symbols covered the backs of their hands with leafy vines that twisted up their forearms to just below their elbows. The realization that she really was an Akori like Tanner and didn’t know it hit her like a ton of bricks.
Tanner had managed to get himself together enough to sit on the grass and pulled Addy over to him, holding her on his lap. The pain from the symbols on her arms was unbearable and she couldn’t stop crying.
Seeing Gage so close and being ripped away from him was overwhelming, and she was inconsolable. The guilt of asking Tanner to help break the stone, only to get him stuck in some strange place suffocated her. She continuously apologized to him between sobs, but he just kept whispering that he’d get her back home and not to worry.
After she and Tanner sat lapsing in and out of consciousness for hours, several Akori appeared in front of them. The last thing Addy remembered was hands marked with symbols reaching out and touching her forehead.
“You shouldn’t be awake again.”
Addy whipped around to see a tiny girl who looked like a child standing in front of her. She was the only one Addy had seen since waking up for the first time.
“I can’t help it,” Addy said.
The little girl smiled sympathetically. “You’re confused, scared.”
Addy was fighting back frustrated tears. “I still don’t understand why we’re here.”
“You opened a portal to come home.”
“This isn’t my home!” Addy wrapped the blanket tightly around her and headed back inside.
The little girl calmly followed her. “Please don’t get upset.”
“I need to see my friends.”
“I’ve told you, your companions are fine.”
“Tanner—where is he? I know he’s close.” Addy started to go for the door, but the girl was in front of it before she could blink her eyes.
“You’re not supposed to be awake yet, please come back and rest.”
The same thing happened each time Addy woke up. The girl came in and touched her, making her go back to sleep.
“No!” The symbols on her hands started to glow brightly. Rushing power like when they destroyed the stone filled her. In all the times she’d woken up and been put back to sleep that had never happened. She shook her arms like she could somehow shake the symbols off. “What’s happening to me?”
The girl’s eyes got big and she quickly put her hand on Addy’s arm like she’d done all the other times. Addy braced herself to black out again but it didn’t happen. The symbols dulled and she felt calmer. Soothing feelings washed over her.
“Come sit with me,” she said, taking Addy by her index finger and leading her back out to the terrace. She sat next to her on one of the chairs.
Addy figured the girl must not have been able to put her back to sleep and looked at her. She was tiny with pale skin and blond hair that was perfectly straight. It was parted down the middle and hung just above her shoulders. Her eyes were clear blue and she wore the traditional Akori gold robes.
“My name is Leeli,” she said, smiling at Addy.
Addy took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. “Please tell me what’s happening, where are we?”
“We’re in the Palace of the Shepherds; it was Eva and Andrew’s home.”
“Eva and Andrew were Akori Shepherds?”
Leeli nodded.
Addy looked up at the little blue moon. “But where are we exactly?”
“The earth has layers, one on top of another. We are in the layer called Greystone. It’s where Akori come from.”
Addy shook her head, feeling more confused than ever.
“Think of it as just another view of earth, one that humans cannot see or cross-over into.” Leeli smiled over at her. “You grew up in the layer we call Tremain.”
Addy tipped her head back, staring at the sky. “We’re not on earth. I’d remember two moons.”
“Look closely. Those are the same stars and moon you know. The small blue moon is called the Shepherd Moon. It’s not visible from Tremain.”
“I don’t understand why I’m here,” she said, putting her hands on her head.
“You have the symbol on your neck, is that correct?”
Addy reached up and touched it. “Yes.”
Leeli bowed her head. “I serve you.”
Addy stood up, looking for an escape rout
e. “No, not happening. I need to get home. I have a cat.”
Leeli took Addy’s hand and again the calming feelings washed over her. She tugged her back to sit. “You don’t know who you are.”
It wasn’t really a question but Addy shook her head.
“Eva and Andrew had the marks when they left, but you and the boy came back with them. They were passed to you.”
“Why’d they give the marks to us?”
“They didn’t pick you.” Leeli folded her hands in her lap and stared down at them. “They gave up their power.”
Addy didn’t fully understand but she was starting to wonder if Andrew and Eva lost the Shepherd marks when the Overseers stone was created.
“Once they gave up the marks, they were passed to the next generation of Shepherds,” Leeli said. “You and the boy were the next in line.”
“Yeah, I don’t know about that.”
“It’s true, that’s why you’re here.”
Addy remembered Andrew saying that Shepherds were rare and Tanner was the first he’d seen in a long time. “We’re in the Palace of the Shepherds, so how many Shepherds live here?”
“All of the Shepherds left with Eva to Tremain. You and the boy are the only ones,” Leeli said.
“But Tanner, the boy, was the only Shepherd who’d been around Tremain. Andrew said so himself.”
Leeli waved her off. “No, he was wrong, there are many.”
Addy was beginning to panic thinking about Juliette saying she and Jax had Akori blood. She looked down at her hands and wondered if Jax had marks too.
Standing back up, she decided it was time to get Tanner and find Jax and Juliette. The strange looks and comments everyone was making around them at the estate were playing in her mind and she needed to sort them out.
“I need Tanner, where is he?”
“Sleeping, as you should be. He’ll wake up knowing everything he should; you’re making it difficult by continuing to wake up.”
“Let me see him now!”
“That’s not possible.”
Addy stopped just short of throwing a temper tantrum when she realized that yelling wasn’t getting her anywhere.
“If you serve me, doesn’t that mean you have to do what I say?”
Leeli looked surprised. “I suppose—”
Addy cleared her throat. “Leeli, you are to get me some clothes and take me to Tanner.”
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