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“What is it?”
“It’s a door,” Atlas said slowly.
“So that no matter where your journeys take you, my brother, you can always come home.”
“I told Bash about trading between the covens, and if you want, he’s going to help us build a route and trade agreements.”
“Really?” I asked, turning toward the king, unsure if I wanted to hug him or cower.
“Whatever you need, Ms. Stormborn.”
“Uh, about that. We might have to start with a horse.”
The king’s eyes narrowed on Atlas. “You mean my horse that you gave to the River Coven boy?”
Atlas flashed his famous crooked grin. “That’s the one. Glad we could clear that up. What’s that Tor?” He shouted over his shoulder, not in the direction of the giant man. “Be right there.”
* * *
I hoped I’d never get used to the soft sounds of a man snoring beside me, a heavy arm around my waist as he dreamed. Not because I didn’t want it, but because I didn’t want to forget how blessed I truly was.
As my eyelids grew heavy, sleep within a breath or two, the glow of something in the room startled me back to consciousness.
“Hello, witch.”
I recognized the voice of Past but not the face she took. A small girl stared up at me. Icy blue eyes and bone straight, fire red hair. She couldn’t have been older than ten.
“You were always my favorite little soul seeker. Did you know that?”
I tossed the blankets off me, sliding from under Atlas’ arm as I slipped out of the bed and tied a robe around my waist.
“Why are you here? I thought I was free.”
Her eerie voice echoed, though mine did not. “You are, but I have something to show you. Do you wish to know the sacrifice your lover made?”
She held out a tiny hand, tempting me to take it. I peeked over to make sure Atlas had not stirred awake.
“If he wanted me to know, he would have told me.”
“That is not what I asked,” she said, whipping across the room and snatching my arm.
The first time I’d witnessed a space around me change into another, it had been so unsettling, I’d nearly thrown up. Wrenching one’s body into a memory was far more jarring than one could anticipate. But now, I hardly blinked. Until a scene I was not expecting unfolded before me.
“Hello, Marley.” Past faded away, melting into the vacant face of Future.
But that was not what caused my heart to stop nor my breathing to cease. The room. The home. The faint smell of aged pears sitting in a bowl on a familiar counter.
“I’m sorry,” I heard myself whisper from the door.
Every bone in my body wanted to melt as I fought the urge to collapse to the floor. No matter how urgently I wished to escape this moment, no matter how briefly I’d thought I’d won and the Spirits were behind me, I was stuck. Here. In the moment I’d dreaded since the day I’d walked out that door.
“Turn,” Future demanded, her shadows creeping up frozen legs in warning.
I would do it on my own before I gave her that control.
Just inside the small door to their underground home, I glimpsed the backs of my parents, holding each other, weeping as they stared at me. Though my face held no color, Atlas stood behind me, quiet but there.
In seconds, they pulled me into their arms and held me, mumbling indecipherable words of forgiveness and love. I watched for only seconds before the room faded to black.
