He held something in his hand. The book. Thefreakingbook that showed every terrible thing I didn’t want to know.
I frowned. “I don’t want to see what’s happening in the human world,” I muttered, capping the polish. “Especially now that I can’t do anything about it.”
Luke dropped to his knees in front of me, resting the book gently in my lap.
“It shows the present—anywhere,” he mumbled. “You can see your family.”
My heart stuttered as I stared down at the worn, ugly brown stitching along the spine. It didn’t look like much. It never did.
“You can’t talk to them,” he added. “But I think…you need to see them.”
He cracked the spine, and the once-blank pages shimmered with light. The soft golden glow spilled across the parchment, and images formed. Grim’s woods.
Then—there they were.
One by one, my siblings appeared. Alive. Solid. Working in the human world.
But it wasn’t like before.
The mortal realm was different now—tainted. Demons walked freely. Even though the Devil hadn’t crossed,demonshad. The fabric had changed.
And yet…my family remained.
Fighting. Rebuilding. Surviving.
I flipped through more pages, watching each of them. The ache in my chest eased slightly.
Then Luke turned the page one last time.
My mother.
My stomach clenched, dread tightening through me. I didn’t want to see her grief—couldn’t bear to watch what losing both me and Dad had done to her.
But what I saw instead knocked the breath from my lungs.
She wasn’t alone.
Sure, the light in her eyes had dimmed, but there was strength in the way she stood. And beside her—
“Dad,” I whispered, trembling.
Fat, hot tears slipped down my cheeks and fell onto the page. They blurred the image, but I didn’t need clarity anymore. I had it.
My parents were together.
They were alive. Safe.Home.
And the weight I’d carried since the moment the crossover opened began to lift, slow but certain. Like light breaking through the cracks.
I cried—ugly, silent sobs of relief and gratitude. Luke didn’t speak. He didn’t touch me. He just stayed there, kneeling beside me while I wept, letting me be.
It was like a weight had lifted off my shoulders.
Then, slowly, everything changed.
Hell opened back up, little by little.
It was another week before we could return to the red forest—where everything happened. The odd animals were still there, but everything seemed…lovelier.
