It took all my strength to look Jon in the eye as he gently touched my side, giving me a confused look.
“Sylv?”
8
Sylvia
Our sanctuary.What a sick joke that turned out to be.
I gazed around the swirling, surreal expanse of the spectral realm. My grief had turned the pinks and gold of the misty sky here into bruised purple hues, darkening further with each passing moment.
Squeezing my eyes shut against the sight, I couldn’t shake the knowledge that Jon would never have influence on our sanctuary again. He would never paint the sky as his own. He would never evenseeit again. The realm felt utterly empty without him beside me, running his fingers through my hair and murmuring his dreams about our future.
A weight sat upon my chest, leaving me without air. The sensation had been unbearable in the real world, where my hand trembled its way through tracing the rune in the scattered dirt from a potted plant. The others gave me space in the guest room to venture to the spectral realm—alone, this time. There had been no time to process everything out there, not with the heist barreling toward us. But here, where time flowed differently, Icould wallow in peace without ruining the plan. I wouldn’t cost everyone more than a few minutes.
But I’ve been costing Jon his life.
The unfairness rattled me. Another sob clawed its way past my throat. I thought I’d be cried out by now, but the suffocating loop between shock and hopelessness wouldn’t stop dragging me along.
And the fuckingguilt.
I had saved his life those months ago, only to make him pay for it bit by bit.
A fresh, feverish urgency sank its claws into me. If I didn’t become human, would it have all been for nothing? Our time falling in love, our timehurtinghim, all a waste. Rather than inspire me, my hopes sank to a new low.
If this wonderful dreamscape had gone so wrong, what terrible news might come with the addition of a gemstone and a transformation spell? If itdidwork, what if it wasn’t permanent? We wouldn’t even have our sanctuary to retreat to if that happened.
The stars didn’t grant me luck. They seemed to take joy in dangling happiness in front of me, only to snatch it away when it was within reach.
“Jon wasn’t kidding when he said this place was fucking trippy.”
Startled, I whirled.
Cliff.
Cliff!
Wiping my face, I urgently climbed to my feet. “You shouldn’t be here!” The sky sharpened into harsher hues as my grief was replaced with a far more present fear. “It’s dangerous for humans, you idiot!”
“Yeah, I heard.”
My breath caught as I looked up at him, drinking in the surreality of our shared scale. I’d gotten used to Jon, but that didn’t make looking into Cliff’s familiar yetunfamiliarface any less astonishing. He was only a head taller than me here, and I found myself hypnotized by the sight.
He was drinking me in the same way, cocky smile nowhere to be seen. Cliff’s eyes widened slightly as he looked me up and down, and his lips parted in a gentle line.
I sniffed, wiping my tears on the sleeve of my blouse. “You’re looking at me like you’ve never seen me before.”
“Kinda feel like I haven’t,” he said. He looked at my wings fanned out at my back, my flats laced up to my calves, the traitor mark on my cheek.Everywhere.
A part of me wanted to squirm, feeling so studied. Another, more molten part of me,wantedhim to see me. I wanted him to remember.
“How did you even get here?” I asked.
“Come on, I’m not an idiot. I’ve seen you and Jon come to this place a dozen times, at least,” Cliff scoffed, but his eyes softened on me. “All I had to do was touch the rune you made.”
He was still wearing his tuxedo pants and the crisp white formal shirt that matched it—a far cry from his usual stonewashed blue jeans and cotton tees. He must have slipped into the guest room of the suite to check on me. My heart squeezed at the image of our prone bodies on the carpet of the room, each with a hand brushing the sigil of soil.
Cliff craned his neck to look at the impossible landscape stretching around us. I followed his gaze, finding that my swell of affection had made a gold mist enter the swirling purples that my brooding thoughts had conjured earlier. The horizon perfectly mirrored the sky, making it appear like we were standing on nothing but shimmering, immaterial clouds.
