I gave her a slow nod, feeling my eyes sting. “What is she up to, in there?” I asked, caressing Kailani’s soft and cold cheek with my knuckles. My hands were trembling.
“I can’t—”
“You can’t tell me,” I cut her off, my tone flat.
“I can’t tell, period,” she replied. “When I did my apprenticeship, I went through several blackouts before the Word opened up to me. Thing is, the Word opens up differently to each of us. What it says to me won’t make sense to her, and vice versa. It’s like it’s using separate languages for us. That way, I’ll never be able to give her secrets that the Word wouldn’t give her, otherwise.”
“What’s that got to do with Kale, now?”
“When I formed my bond with the Word, I had to be specific about a few things. Most importantly, I had to be absolutely, one hundred percent sure that I wanted this. What I wanted it for was just as crucial. If I’d gone into this with any kind of doubt in my heart, I would’ve exposed myself to the Word’s deadly rejection,” Lumi explained. “There’s a thousand ways in which this could work out. The Word might accept her. It might reject her, and remove everything she’s learned from her memory. Or, worse, it might kill or maim her. One of the first swamp witches betrayed the Word, for example, and lost her tongue and eyes.”
That just turned my stomach inside out. Thankfully, I’d barely eaten anything, so there wasn’t anything to puke out. I swallowed back a knot, then looked at Lumi.
“What do you think will happen to her, then?” I asked.
“I have faith in her. But I cannot predict what the Word will do. I’m sorry. All we can do right now is be by her side and hope for the best,” she replied.
There wasn’t anything I could do to help Kailani. Any kind of magic used to help her could end up killing her. I resorted to simply holding her close and whispering sweet things in her ear, hoping she might hear me, wherever she was.
“She needs to set her priorities straight. If she does, she’ll come out of this more powerful than ever,” Lumi added. “She’s a tough cookie, you know? I wouldn’t have taken her on if I didn’t think she’d make it.”
“But you also think she might die.”
“She might not.”
“Ugh!” I groaned, rolling my eyes. “You’re not helping, Lumi.”
“I’m not here to help. I’m here to tell you the truth and prepare you for every possible outcome, Hunter. It’s what a swamp witch does, and Kale knows it. If she doesn’t come back from this, we need to make sure that her death isn’t in vain. We must pick up and keep going. The universe is at stake.”
I planted a kiss on Kailani’s forehead. She felt cold, in a dramatic contrast with the rage simmering inside me.
“Wherever you are, baby, whatever you’re doing,” I whispered, “come back to me. I’ve only just found you the way I should’ve, years ago. I can’t lose you.”
Of course, she didn’t answer. But a part of me thought that maybe, just maybe, she could hear me. So, I listened to my instinct and tightened my embrace, pressing my lips against her cheek.
“Come on, Kale. You’re a natural-born witch. You’ve got the juice to win this. Get back here, so we can kick some Perfects’ asses, then go on a gazillion dates until you ask me to marry you,” I mumbled, tears streaming down my cheeks. I didn’t care that Lumi was watching me, that she could hear me. Every word coming out of my mouth was true, and I had nothing to hide. “You know you’ll be the one to pop the question, right, Kale? You’re not going to let me do it. I know you…”
Kailani was a comet. A tornado. A jumble of intensity wrapped up in splendid curves and chocolatey curls. Fires burned in those amber eyes, and every smile she wore told a different story of her. She was my witch, and she could tear down mountains to get what she wanted.
If I thought about it, the Word didn’t stand a chance in front of her. She was too strong, too damn stubborn to let herself get stuck in limbo. On top of that, she loved me. I knew she did. There was no way she’d get lost so far away from me. No matter what Lumi said or tried to prepare me for, I had to put my faith in Kailani. She was a warrior in her own way, and a resourceful one at that. No way the Word would be able to keep her from me for too long.
What Kale wants, Kale gets.
Kailani
The moment everything went dark, I knew I was headed for another blackout. I expected to find myself surrounded by nothing—just pitch black, as far as the eye could see, and luminescent threads of text fluttering past my head, like before.
But this time, I seemed to be lost in a dream of some kind. Before I could even rationalize what was going on, I became a part of this dream. I lived it. I was Kailani, and I was walking through the redwood forest of The Shade with my parents.
From the looks of us, we’d been out for quite a while now, talking and laughing as we breathed in the fresh air of an early morning. I couldn’t tell when this was, whether this was a memory or a mere fabrication of my strained mind. But, in the absence of other options, I rolled with it.
Being back in The Shade felt good, given that my last flicker of consciousness involved a shock collar around my neck and the dusk light filtering through the diamond dome. Here, I could feel the wind brushing through my curly hair, loosely cascading down my back—it felt longer than I remembered it. As if I’d never bothered to cut it.
Mom and Dad looked at peace, smiling at each other and at me, while the starry sky beyond the redwood crowns began to light up. That was weird, since there was only one area where the sun could break through, and it wasn’t the forest. Maybe this was my version of The Shade.
“Have you heard from Hunter lately?” Mom asked me.
I stopped to simply stare at her. I’d never seen her look so beautiful. It was as if no trouble had ever drawn fine lines at the corners of her eyes. Her hair was long and smooth, glistening in shades of caramel, in perfect harmony with her tanned skin. She wore a long white dress, seemingly made of diamonds, and warmth practically radiated out of her.
My dad was equally stunning, his green eyes glimmering in a solitary ray of moonlight. He, too, wore white—a linen shirt and pants, the kind of stuff I’d never seen on him before. The more I looked at them, and the more I took in my surroundings, the more surreal it all felt, a reminder that this was still a dream.
But my heart felt at ease. I laughed lightly.
“Yeah, he’s getting over Sarah remarkably well,” I replied. “He’s dating Laura, now.”
“Laura… Laura who?” Mom asked.
“Laura Ingram. She’s a human from the Vale,” I said. For some reason, it didn’t bother me at all. It felt natural. I expected this of Hunter, but it didn’t cause me any kind of ache.
How could this be? I was supposed to be in love with Hunter. We’d found each other in the middle of this hot mess on… Wait, where were we? A foreign planet.
Parts of me felt absent. Memories lost.
Knowing that Hunter was dating some human here in The Shade had zero impact on my emotions. It felt strange, but I couldn’t put my finger on why.
“Oh, I know her,” Dad replied, resuming our walk through the woods.
Birds chirped from nearby branches. Deer watched us from between the trees. And the smell of night-queen blossoms flooded my senses. This place was amazing. Why did I ever leave it?
