CALLIOPE

  “I’ve got it!” Allura burst through my bedroom doors.

  “The lily?” I pulled my hand from Kai’s hair and got off the bed.

  She nodded swiftly, lifting the pale yellow flower up. The lily seemed to shimmer, glowing dimly. “Hurry.” She raced to the other side of the bed to help Kai.

  “Who found it?”

  “Raina.” My heart jumped.

  “She was searching?”

  “Everyone was searching, Calliope.”

  “Please tell me Brokk survived.” Allura blinked, trying to compute. “Tell me he lived, Allura. Tell me he’s alive.” Even if you have to lie to me.

  She nodded with assurance. “He lived. He was helping to find the pastelline lily like everyone else.”

  I heaved a sigh. Even after what I did to them, they were still trying to help me. I had to make things right for her and Brokk. No matter the consequences. The consequences didn’t matter anymore.

  Declan surged into the room, out of breath. “Two moments to thank her, Allura. Two. She just saved your brother’s life.”

  “I’ll thank her later.” Allura moved Kai to the edge of the bed.

  “Aww, sis, so determined to save my life,” Kai murmured, painfully attempting to smirk at her. “That’s love right there.”

  “Shut up, Kai. Or I might regret it.”

  Declan moved forward and lifted Kai into his arms. He lay drowsily, but rasped, “How kind of you to cradle me so gently, Declan. Do I look like a damsel in distress?”

  “You’re not nearly attractive enough,” Declan retorted.

  “I’m hurt,” he pouted until a fit of coughs cut him off. Blood pooled at the corner of his lips before he went limp.

  “Kai,” Declan barked, tapping his cheeks, but he didn’t respond. “Kai!”

  Nothing.

  “Where’s Lia? We’ve got to go now,” Declan said.

  “Down the hall in her room,” I urgently said.

  As we raced through the corridors, we bumped into Cameron and Sarai, who were talking, huddling awfully close together. I stopped to speak with them as Allura and Declan raced with Kai to get Lia.

  “Cameron, I want you to stay here,” I instructed. “Sarai, will you keep an eye on him, please?”

  They stepped apart. “Of course. Anything I can do to help.”

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can to take him home,” I said. “You and Lia, both.”

  Cameron nodded. I hugged him. “Don’t go crazy on me while I’m gone.”

  “I make no such promises,” he said dryly.

  “You think I’m kidding.”

  “Oh, I know you’re serious, but I don’t really think I have any control over that.”

  I turned to Sarai. “Just take care of him. Don’t let him get into any trouble.”

  Her eyes looked at him tenderly. “I won’t.”

  “Calliope!” Allura shouted from the end of the hall, Lia in tow.

  I broke into a sprint down the corridor and shouted over my shoulder. “Don’t go falling in love while I’m gone, either!” It sounded as though I was joking, but I couldn’t have been more serious. The last thing those two needed was to be star-crossed lovers, stuck in two different worlds.

  Again, Cameron repeated, “I make no such promises!”

  Oh geez…

  …

  The five of us arrived in front of the Waking Oak, thriving and back to its original state. Its gloriousness couldn’t be surpassed.

  Allura gently pressed her palm to the trunk. With her touch, a section of the giant trunk unwound as it twisted open. She stepped aside, and in darted Declan, securely holding Kai. Followed by Lia. I stared anxiously at Allura.

  “Well?” She gestured for me to go through.

  “I just walk inside? And I’ll be in Fortenberry?”

  “Wait. You’ve never done this?”

  I shook my head. “Waking Oak virgin.”

  “Here, take my hand.” She smiled. “The passageway to Fortenberry is already open.” Holding onto her hand, I followed behind as we walked through the opening, the creak of the wood gradually closing behind us.

  Stepping into the crevice was like stepping through a doorway. When we emerged onto the other side, we were in Fortenberry. While Faylinn was a woodland forest, Fortenberry was more like a mystical rainforest. The moon and stars were our guiding light. I stopped, and my eyes drifted up and up.

  Waterfalls scattered across the landscape, cascading over steep cliffs and trickling down green hillsides. To our left was a stone bridge with a waterfall running beneath it. Unlike Novalora, with thousands of bustling pixies, I couldn’t see a single troll. Granted, it was late; they could be sleeping. But there wasn’t a village in sight. Where did they live?

  “There’s got to be a troll around here somewhere,” Declan said, kicking the ground and surveying the area with unconscious Kai still in his arms. His head hung limply over Declan’s bicep. I wanted to reach out and hold it up, so he wouldn’t have a kinked neck when he woke up. Is it foolish of me to have such inconsequential thoughts? He would wake up. He would.

  A ball of brown latched onto my leg, and I shrieked. Kicking with as much force as I could, I tried to remove whatever it was.

  The head covered in a moss cap, looked up, and I screamed again. It looked like a fat, elderly man in a toddler’s body. His large, deep brown eyes blinked innocently at me. “Pretty faery,” he crooned, his voice gravely, and somehow guiltless. His chubby, wrinkled hands rubbed up and down my bare calf.

  “Get him off! Get him off!” I yelped. I kicked once more, but he didn’t budge.

  “I will end you, Troll.” Allura picked him up by the back of his brown wool coat, removing him from my leg and tossed him to the side.

  He tucked and rolled and looked as if he were just another moss-covered rock until he stood once more with his arms folded, pouting. “I just wanted to be near the pretty faery.”

  “That pretty faery will end you, too. We’ve got a mission to accomplish and don’t need any more obstacles in our way.” He frowned, looking at the ground in shame. His clothing hung in rags on his frame, sweeping the ground.

  “Allura,” I softly scolded. I couldn’t help feeling a little bad for hurting his feelings.

  Her dreads whipped around as she spun to me. “We don’t have time to console trolls, Calliope,” she retorted, hands on hips.

  “I realize that, but I might have overreacted a little bit,” I whispered. “We need him to cooperate with us. Being rude isn’t going to help us.”

  She sighed, but agreed.

  “Sir,” I knelt down to be at his eye level, but kept my distance. “What’s your name?”

  He slowly lifted his bowed head. “Grogin.” His voice was timid as if he was worried I’d start screaming again.

  “Grogin, we’re in a big hurry, and we need to get to Lake Haven. Can you please tell us where to go?”

  A smile gradually grew across his plump, wrinkly face, and I tried not to recoil. It wasn’t as if he was hideous. His teeth were just caked with dirt and grime, and I couldn’t wrap my head around this old man-child. He pointed toward the waterfall flowing below the bridge. “Cross the bridge and head north. Once you reach the purple tree, go east. Then at Cliffside Pass head north again. After that, you can’t miss it.”

  I could hug him, but I didn’t. “Thank you so much for your help.”

  “Anything for the fae.” He beamed, his gray goatee lifting with his smile.

  Before I could say anything more, the others were nearly across the bridge, leaving me behind.

  “Thank you!” I waved, darting after them. “Thank you so much!”

  “Until we meet again,” he hollered.

  “We don’t have any time to waste. Let’s go,” Declan said, and darted north.

  Fortenberry flew by in a haze as we rapidly leaped through the foliage. I could think of nothing but how fast Kai was fading. With a pounding heart, I pushed on. We felt so far from Lake Haven. It was hard to believe he’d even made it this far. What if he can’t hold out long enough to make it to the lake? No. I pushed that aside. I wasn’t ready for that answer. I’d never be ready for that answer.

  The purple tree would have been hard to miss. It had a dark purple trunk with wisteria-like flowers bursting from the branches. With our speed, it didn’t take us as long to get to Cliffside Pass as I thought it might. Declan led the way, and I’d never seen him move so fast. While I was grateful for his speed, his desperation to get Kai to Lake Haven did nothing for my nerves. Declan was supposed to be the one with all the answers. He was supposed to be the one who handled things calmly and reassured me that everything was going to be just fine. He’d yet to do any of those things.

  “How is he, Declan?” I called, following closely behind with Lia. Allura brought up the rear.

  “He still has a pulse, but it’s fading fast,” he gruffly hollered over his shoulder. I detected the strain in his voice. The exhaustion, the determination, the fear of losing another. We all felt it. Losing just one more would destroy us all. But not just anyone.

  This one.

  Without Kai, none of us would ever be the same.

  We raced through two steep cliffsides swathed in moss. I looked up, but couldn’t see the tops. They soared up higher than skyscrapers.

  “I don’t feel a pulse anymore!” Declan shouted. “Hurry!”

  Breaking through the end of the pass, we slowed down before we reached the water. The clear blue lake was placid, like glass. A towering waterfall flowed into it, gushing over the stony mountain before us. The moon and stars in the night sky sparkled across the water.

  Not wasting one more second, Declan, asked, “Who has the lily?” as he marched to the water’s edge. The water lapped up his ankles.

  “I do,” Lia said, coming forward. “But you’re going to have to hand him over, Declan. You can’t be in the water for this.”

  He turned to her, and, though he knew he had to, Declan didn’t want to give Kai up.

  “Lia, you’re going to have to hold him securely down there with you,” he said sternly. “If he wakes up while you’re submerged and doesn’t realize what’s happening right away, he’ll try and swim to the surface. He may thrash and fight it. Whatever you do, don’t let him go. If you do—”

  “I’m well aware of the consequences,” she replied curtly, setting her stare. This wasn’t her first rodeo. “My life is at stake as well.”

  “We need to call upon the Fallen to start the process,” Allura interrupted and extended her hand for Lia to give her the lily.

  Once Lia handed it over, Allura knelt on the sand. She murmured, swirling the pastelline lily in the water rolling up onto the shore. “Fallen embers, stars of the night, blessed be the dawning light...” As she recited, an orb of light materialized in the sky, hovering above the lake. Gently, it descended toward the center of the water. The brilliant glow was almost too bright to keep eye contact, but too mesmerizing to look away.

  When Allura was finished, the orb effortlessly absorbed into the water. A radiant glow of white spread across the lake, until the entire body of water illuminated like a luminary. I lifted the back of my hand to shield my eyes.

  Declan reluctantly passed Kai to Lia. Kai, who was really the only family Declan had left. Before he completely let go, he said, “Tightly, Lia. He’s stronger than he looks.”

  “And I’m stronger than I look,” she responded assertively. “Let him go, Declan. I can handle him.”

  Declan unwillingly stepped back out of the water as Lia walked into the white lake without looking back. She strode deeper and deeper, her flame-like wings fluttering for the last time, until they were completely submerged under the glowing water.

  There was a collective intake of breath when we could only see her as a fuzzy, dark figure. Bubbles and ripples appeared above them. Whether Lia was screaming or just out of breath, I couldn’t tell. It feels like you are drowning in fire. My father’s words repeated over and over as I watched her struggle.

  It was only a few more seconds when the surface above them rippled wildly. Kai must have begun kicking and flailing his arms, attempting to break free from Lia. As the water grew brighter, the more difficult it became to see them. Don’t let him go, Lia. Please don’t let him go.

  “Hold on, Lia. Hold on,” Allura repeated under her breath.

  On my other side, Declan didn’t say a word. He firmly latched onto my hand and didn’t let go. Minutes ticked by and the only thing the three of us could do was watch as the transformation took place. Watch them struggle in agony, and pray we would have our Kai back by the end.

  I didn’t know how much time passed, most likely only a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity before the water stilled and progressively faded back to its natural blue hue. But nothing happened. No one surfaced.

  “Is it safe to go in?” I asked anxiously, taking a step to the edge of the water. “Can we go in after them?”

  Declan held me back. “I don’t know, Calliope. We can’t take that chance.”

  Gasping for air, Lia broke through the surface. Desperately, she swam to shore, searching for land beneath her feet. She crawled out of the water, no longer a faery, and collapsed onto her back. Her chest rose and fell with each labored breath.

  I rushed to her and knelt down. I don’t know why, but it surprised me how grateful I was for her survival. “Lia? Lia, are you all right?”

  She rolled to her side and coughed, spitting out gallons of water. “Just give me a minute.” Shakily, she held up a finger.

  I looked up, searching for Kai, but he wasn’t there. Why isn’t he here? Declan, Allura, and I nervously looked to one another, waiting for him to surface. He didn’t.

  “Why isn’t he coming up?” I breathed. My fists clenched. My heart raced. Time slowed, stretching around my throat, strangling me.

  “He will,” Declan said, nodding with his jaw set tight. “He has to.” His tone was less certain.

  “He’s just being Kai,” Allura tried to convince herself, “and wanting to make a grand entrance.”

  This was not the time for his stupid antics. He knew that. He wouldn’t dare.

  “I don’t care,” I said, rushing to the water. “I’m going in.”

  “Calliope!” Declan bellowed, attempting to stop me. “Don’t!”

  The surface erupted as Kai stood, water trickling down his tan bare chest and dripped off his soaking brown shorts. Tossing his head back to shift the dark, wet hair from his eyes, Kai walked out of the clear blue lake onto the shore in full fae form—ears pointed, eyes vividly indigo. When our eyes locked, a slow, crooked smile formed, my heart swelled and my stomach flipped.

  My Kai was back.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  KAI

  Seeing Calliope through my renewed fae eyes was like seeing her for the first time. Her yellow curls fell around her petite frame. Those big green eyes of hers stared widely at me as if she didn’t believe I was real. I wanted to bottle up this moment, so I could save it forever. For the first time in… it didn’t even matter… I felt like life was worth living.

  When I smiled, she inhaled and ran to me, water splashing up all around her. She jumped up and wrapped herself around me. This time I didn’t stumble. I wasn’t weak. I wasn’t in pain. I could hold her and feel everything was right in the world again. I leaned back to look at her. Tears filled her eyes as she smiled so fully my heart could burst. Holding her steadily with one hand, my other dove into her curls, forming my palm to the back of her head and urged her mouth onto mine.

  “I’m so grateful. I’m so grateful,” she repeated between each kiss. “I’m so grateful.”

  I chuckled and pulled my lips briefly away from hers as much as I didn’t want to. “You’re grateful for me?”

  She nodded, and happy tears spilled down her cheeks.

  “Me too,” I teased. She shook her head at me with a smile. And I kissed her again.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  CALLIOPE

  For the night, the five of us slept on the shore of Lake Haven. There was no way we were going to make it back to Faylinn. The adrenaline of the last two days had worn off; in fact, I could probably sleep for days.

  I curled into Kai’s arms. He held me so closely, like he was never going to let me go. I wouldn’t argue.

  We woke with the sun and a dozen trolls lining the forest against the shore, murmuring as they observed us. Four faeries and a human—who probably looked like we’d seen better days—waking up on their land.

  “I hope you didn’t mind us borrowing your shore for a little shut-eye,” Kai said, sitting up.

  “No using the Lake for bathing,” one of the trolls piped up.

  “We’d never,” Declan assured, already on his feet.

  A couple of them wiggled their eyebrows at me, and I inched closer to Kai’s side.

  “That’s enough of that.” Kai pointed at the culprits, scolding as if they were children. Though they looked like old men, they really seemed guileless, like children. The trolls shrunk back in shame.

  “It’s okay, Kai,” I whispered. “Let’s just go. We need to get back.”

  As the rest of us stood, the trolls stepped back, almost afraid.

  “It’s okay,” I reassured, hesitantly approaching them. Kai’s hand held me back, but I urged him to let go. I didn’t want them to think we were a threat. “We’re leaving now. Thank you for letting us stay here for the night. It was very kind of you.”

  One of them bowed. “Queen Calliope,” he said, “For you, anything.” With that, every other troll took a knee.

  I looked to the others, perplexed. “How does he know me?” I whispered.

  “Everyone does,” Allura said simply, chuckling. “You’re the daughter of Finnian.”

  After she said his name, her amber eyes softened. I blinked back surfacing tears and pushed away thoughts of him. Not yet.

  “Thank you,” I said to the trolls and gestured for everyone else to follow me. I needed to get Cameron back home.

 

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