“How though? Jude, we watched her explode.”
Same with Ivy.
Rafe disappeared, too.
Then he showed up in that mirror.
What the heck wasthatabout?
“How does someone vanish into nothing, then reappear a week later, fully intact?”
Jude pulls at his chin. “I have no idea.”
A chilly breeze rustles the leaves at our feet.
A crow caws somewhere in the trees.
The two of us look at one another, and then, as though coming to an unspoken agreement, we move toward the rift.
It distorts.
Visibly changes shape.
Then it sparks like a live wire.
I jump.
Jude takes my hand and very slowly, like two people approaching a wounded but feral animal, we creep closer.
The seed grows hot inside my pocket.
I can feel it all the way through my puffer vest.
We take one more step and the doorway combusts.
It explodes like Lainey.
Like Ivy.
It vanishes into nothing.
The cawing crow takes flight.
The heat in my pocket goes cold.
I blink at the spot where the rift once was.
“What just happened?” Jude asks.
I reach forward, moving my hand through the air.
It’s warmer than it should be.
“It feels like Halloween,” I say.
“What do you mean?”
“After we broke the curse, right after you destroyed Seraphina.” I realize I never explained to him how we got out, how we returned here, to this dimension.Ourdimension. “Whatever veil exists between our world and that one disappeared. We got booted and the rift slammed shut.”
