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“Fine.” Armand frantically waves a hand at Yugo’s gaping gash. “Now, will you just fix this already? Hurrying would be in your best interest. With how differently time works between our worlds, we both know you don’t have any to waste. Literally every minute you stand here and argue with me, you’re pissing away Valora’s chances of survival.”
He’s not wrong, and we have no choice but to put our faith in him. Which is fucking terrifying.
Approaching the couple, Kai unceremoniously holds his hand several inches away from Yugo’s chest. A subtle glow illuminates the inches between them, and some clicking and popping follows as the tissues repair.
Seconds later, Yugo goes limp, sighing because his pain is gone.
Coming back to me, Kai asks Armand, “The Gatekeeper will be waiting for us outside your walls, right?”
“Yes.” Armand’s answer is absentminded because he’s too busy inspecting Yugo.
Without another word, Kai collects his sword and machete from the floor, then he holds out his arm chivalrously. “Shall we?”
I take his elbow. “We shall. Let’s go home.”
Our exit from the broken castle is uneventful. On the cobblestone path, we walk at a quick pace. The stroll is free of panic but filled with the desire to get the hell away from here as soon as possible.
When Kai opens the door to the exterior walls, Ellister is waiting for us like Armand said he would be. Obviously, he can see that we made it out alive, and the shocked lift of his eyebrows tells me he didn’t think we would.
“To the Night Realm,” Kai demands tersely. “Delaveria.”
“All right, then.” Ellister doesn’t delay the process.
He instantly opens a vortex behind him, and Kai wraps his arms around me as the force sucks us in. Holding onto Kai tightly, I shut my eyes and brace myself for the violent swirling.
I’ve traveled through Ellister’s vortex before. When he kidnapped the girls and me, I remember fearing I might die during the travel. It’s like getting caught in an undertow in the ocean. Falling, spinning, drowning.
But this time is different. With Kai as my rock, it’s not as frightening, and after all the dangerous events we’ve overcome, being tossed around is more like a minor inconvenience.
Soon, things slow down. The atmosphere changes. The air becomes fresh and cool.
I open my eyes just in time to see a dark opening at the end of the tunnel. We’re hurdling toward it. Fast.
Turning us, Kai gets horizontal, putting himself on the bottom to make sure he’s the one who receives the brunt of the landing.
He grunts when his back hits a grassy knoll, and although he’s there to break my fall, I’m not immune to the force of it. All the air leaves my lungs in a whoosh on impact.
My face is smushed against his chest, and our fronts are mashed together.
Groaning a little, I push up to look at Kai. As my fingers curl against cool, supple handfuls of grass, I study my husband’s features. His eyebrows are furrowed, and his frown is in place.
“What’s wrong?” I’m pretty good at reading his facial expressions, and I don’t see pain. Maybe he’s just really disoriented from the drastic change in locations. “Are you okay?” I ask, toying with his long braid. “Did you hit your head?”
Sitting up, he gasps a little before replying, “I’m fine. I just… do you feel that?”
He rubs his chest, and I begin to register a fluttery sensation behind my own sternum. My brain is also buzzing, and all the hairs on my body rise.
A strange, all-encompassing warmth fills me, and then a rush of happiness sweeps in as a deep contentment clicks into place.
My soul.
The soul that’s been missing for so long just returned to me.
To us.
I’d almost forgotten about the best part of leaving the Lost Land—we get to be whole once again. We get to be connected to God, to fate, to magic or whatever it is that ties us to our spirits.
Kai and I release happy sighs, but within the next second, another bewildering event happens.
