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“No, that’s okay. I told her I was swinging by, so I’ll just go meet her.” I wander down the hallway and give the closed office door a quick knock.
“Come in!” Faye’s voice is clear and distinct, and I feel such relief at the sound of it. I grip the doorknob and twist it open, stepping into the tight office. It’s a box-sized room, one wall full of shelves, and no windows. A desk facing the door is in the center, atop with a Mac desktop, keyboard, and printer, and behind it is a cushioned rolling chair. Occupying the chair is Faye, who glances up from the book she’s reading and does a double take when she realizes it’s me.
“Willow!” she screeches, tucking a bookmark into the spine and then slapping it closed.
“Are you seriously hiding in your office to read?” I ask, laughing as she hops up and rushes to me.
“Yes! It’s slow out there right now. A few chapters won’t hurt.” She squeezes me tight, and I smile over her shoulder. I’ve missed her hugs. “Are you okay?” She pulls away, her hands on top of my shoulders as she assesses me.
“I’m okay. But I really need to talk to you.”
“Okay.” She releases me and steps back. “Do you want to close the door?”
I look back at the empty hallway before nodding and closing the door again. She makes her way back to her chair and sits, crossing one leg over the other and placing her elbows on the desk, waiting with anticipation.
I drag one of the folded chairs from the corner toward the desk and sit, then release a slow exhale as I close my eyes.
“Willow?”
I open my eyes to meet hers again. Her anticipation has faded. There’s nothing but concern filling her eyes now.
“So, this is going to sound crazy,” I start.
“Nothing ever really sounds crazy to me,” she says, shrugging. And it’s true. Faye hasn’t had the most decent upbringing. Her father tragically died when she was two and her mother had to raise her alone. One day, when she was seven, she came home after school and her mother wasn’t there. Then, two days passed, and she still hadn’t shown up. Fortunately, Faye was a very self-sufficient seven-year-old, so she fed, clothed, and bathed herself. But then her grandmother visited, and when she found out her mother had been missing, they put out a missing person’s report. Long story short, Faye’s mother was found in a motel, her face buried in a pile of coke. The only thing that stopped Faye from crying about the news was books. She still remembers the series she was reading—The Baby-Sitters Club. Her grandmother took her to the library every week, and there she’d stack up on books and stay in her room reading between school hours.
I don’t think much can shock Faye, but I’m worried that if I tell her about Caz and all of Vakeeli, this’ll tip her mind over the edge. There’s only so much a person’s mind can accept before they completely lose it.
“Okay, so let me start by telling the truth,” I say. “I didn’t go to a hotel to get away.”
Faye shifts in her seat, her eyes rounding out, waiting for me to continue.
“The truth is that…” I stop, shuddering a breath. My heart is beating so fast—my pulse is in my ears. “I…was in anotherworld, Faye.”
Silence wraps around us, and we both stare at each other. The only thing we hear is the indie pop music playing from the bookstore, and the murmuring from those in the shop, clueless of our conversation.
“Another world? What do you mean by that?” she asks, blinking slowly.
“I mean literally inanotherworld. I was…transported there. There was this purple light that took me there, to this other universe, and there was this guy who I’m apparently Tethered to, which means we’re basically soulmates. And his world he’s in iswaymore violent and darker than ours, and it’s not like Earth, you know? The food and technology are different, and they have guns—so many guns.And there are wolves who are connected to us, and I can actually still see him throughmywolf. My wolf protects me, and his protects him. And time is different there—it moves faster there than here, apparently because I spent nearly a week there, but only two days passed here, and they have this water that keeps them young, and some guy—he tried to take advantage of me, but Caz stopped him and now I’m back.”
I suck in a breath, release it, then clamp my mouth shut as I lift my gaze to Faye’s. Her eyes are still wide, and she doesn’t blink. She just stares at me, not as if I’ve lost my mind, but as if she’s trying to digest everything I’ve just told her.
“Faye?” I whisper. She probably thinks I’m insane. It does sound insane hearing it out loud. I’m not sure I’d believe anyone if they told me this. Not without proof.
She lifts a hand in the air, then slumps back in her seat, finally blinking. Her gaze drops to the desk; she’s still processing.
“I know it sounds crazy,” I continue. “But it really happened. I wouldn’t make something like this up.”
“I believe you.”
“You do?” I look into her eyes.
“Yeah.” She nods. “I—I mean, sure it sounds outrageous, but…surprisingly, I believe you.” She smiles and shakes her head. “Wow, I always knew there was more to the world than this.”
I let out a sigh of relief.
“So…how did you get back?”
I explain everything to Faye about Beatrix and the chant, and about how our Tether works.
