“I’m not trying to fight with you, Desiree. You care about him, and I am confident enough in your love for me not to let that anger me, but I am not about to dampen my feelings for you to spare his. Are you sure you even have the whole story?”
I roll over, propping myself on my elbows. “I’m worried about him. He isn’t himself.”
“Maybe he’s changed.”
I blink. “Vane …”
Vane sighs. “Jaxson has been your friend for a long time. But, Desiree, you two are adults. You are allowed to move on, and so is he. If that bothers him, then you owe him no explanation. You are so afraid of losing him that you don’t see that one day?—”
My stomach twists. “Wait. Are you mad at me?”
Vane frowns. “I just want you to remember you are living foryou.Not me or even him.”
“I-I know that.”
“Good.”
I nod, no longer wanting to waste any more breath on Jaxson. “Should we kiss and make up? I want to go back to five minutes ago when we were tangled up together and everything was perfect.”
Vane captures my lips in a tender kiss that evolves into much more. He nudges my thighs apart, torturously pushing inside me once more. The pace is tender, languid, as our fingers intertwine beside my head.
The gentle knock of the headboard against the wall punctuates our soft yet firm beat. I moan into his mouth. Anyone sleeping on the other side of that wall likely hates us, but that won’t stop us from spending the night worshiping each other like the monsters we are.
I’m falling through darkness,scrambling, swimming, trying to find a way out of this underwater prison. The pressure against my chest squeezes the air from my lungs. No sound comes out when I scream. My heartbeat slows to a crawl. I’m surprised I’m still alive. How many mistakes do I have to make before I learn? Maybe witches can’t traverse the rift.
If I don’t find air in seconds, I’ll drown between worlds, my mission unfulfilled, and Fynn will be doomed to remain in Mictlan, just like Aradia.
The tremors in my limbs are already fading. Numbness creeps through my extremities.
No. This can’t end here. My wedding is tomorrow. Wilder is waiting for me at the altar. Closing the portal has to happen now. I need to reach Mictlan.
Fynnneedsme.
I glimpse what might be light, and I kick harder. It might be imagined, but still, I swim toward it with what’s left of the adrenaline in my veins.
Please be real.
The light intensifies, and suddenly my chest expands.Yes.
Breaking the water’s surface, I gasp for air. My limbs are leaden as I tread water. Dread pools in my belly. I’m still at the lake.
Am I still in Glaucus, or does Mictlan resemble my world? I vaguely remember Ravi mentioning a passage from Aradia’s journals that described Mictlan as a dark mirror of our realm. But this place feels cruel, somehow. It’s definitely colder. My teeth won’t stop chattering. Trees surround the lake, just like at home, but these are skeletal with branches like gnarled fingers.
It’s creepy as hell.
An unearthly cry pierces my ears from above. I’ve never heard a sound like that before, like a bird but bigger. The cries grow closer, circling like a predator hunting its prey.
I can’t remain exposed.
I swim to shore and drag my body onto the muddy ground, collapsing into the dirt. I can’t catch a long enough breath before the screeching caws again, sounding just overhead. I scramble to my feet and reach for my shoes, only to find they’re gone. I look behind me. I must’ve lost them crossing the rift. Is this a joke? I don’t want to run around barefoot. The ground is icy and wet.
Typically, one of my ancestors’ ghosts would offer a snarky response when I do something stupid like this, but for the first time since my Emergence and without the help of suppressants, the voices in my head have gone completely silent.
“Hello?” I whisper.
Nothing.
Shakiness returns to my limbs. The ghosts are fucking gone.
