The scent of ground coffee beans envelopes me as I step into Lit and Latte’s. The bell above the door chimes, and the warmth of the shop wraps around me, combining with the moisture that has accumulated on the back of my neck and upper lip. Nervous sweat.
Two employees stand behind the checkout counter, one working the café, chomping on a piece of gum as she shoves a pastry into the toaster oven. People are seated at tables by the window with books or laptops, peacefully sipping their drinks. It’s all so simple, and I wonder if any of them realize there’s a bigger world out there. There’s so much more than we know. Hell, I bet Vakeeli isn’t the only other universe that exists. There are probably thousands more waiting to be discovered.
I shake the thought away and make my way to the book checkout counter, where a girl with green hair and a septum piercing smiles as I approach. Her name badge is covered in Harry Potter and Twilight pins, and her name is Valeria.
“Hi. Is Faye in?” I ask.
“She is. I believe she’s in the office. Do you want me to get her for you?”
“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 another world, 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 in another world. 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 is way more 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 through my wolf. 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.
“A Cold Tether?” she repeats after I say it.
“Yes.”
“I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
“Me neither. But it’s real, and apparently when we’re together for too long, it can kill one of us.”
That causes her to frown. “That doesn’t sound right.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean if you’re meant to be someone’s soulmate, it shouldn’t kill you to be together. This can’t be a Will Smith and Charlize Theron in Hancock situation. Clearly the universe created this Tether for a reason. Why would it create such a bond just for it to result in death?”
“That’s what I’ve been asking myself.” I scratch the crown of my head. “Something just seems off about it, but I don’t know how to do research on something that doesn’t exist here.”
“Then that means you need to go back and find out more about it, right?”
I flinch as I look at her.
“What?” she asks. “What’s wrong?”
“I—I don’t know if I can go back there, Faye. That place is dangerous. Plus, the guy, Caz? He can be a real asshole.” But man, do I want that asshole. I want him so bad it hurts. Literally.
“Well, how else are you supposed to find answers?”
“I don’t know.” I chew on my bottom lip. “What if I’m wrong, and I go back and it ends up killing him this time?”
“Well, you have to find out how this Tether thing works. Maybe there’s a way you can go there and not be around him. Then you can figure it out.” She taps her chin. “Wait…if it’s as dangerous as you say, and he’s such an asshole, why do you want to figure it out so badly? Wouldn’t that make you want to forget about it?”
Her question punches me right in the stomach. I draw in a breath, ignoring the thoughts swimming through me. Sure, Caz is an asshole, but I care about that asshole. I care about him more than I want to admit, and it’s strange because I hardly know him. I know some things, but not enough that I should care for his well-being, yet if something happens to him, I feel like it’ll break me. If he’s unhappy, I’m unhappy, and I can’t shake that feeling, no matter how hard I try. I may not be able to hear him right now, but I feel him. I feel his pain, like a dull ache in my chest that won’t go away, no matter how much I stretch and no matter how many ibuprofens I take. It’s still there, and it lingers, proving that we are one. We’re connected and we need each other, no matter how we feel about it.
I lock eyes on Faye again. “I have to get back to him before he does something to hurt himself.” Then a reality hits me. “But he was so ready to send me back home.”
Faye pushes out of her chair as I look up at her. “Well, we aren’t going to find answers by sitting in here, sis.”
“What are we supposed to do?”
“You say that Beatrix woman gave you a chant. Do you think if you say it again, that it’ll take you back?”
“No. Caz made it clear it was a one-way chant. He doesn’t want me coming back.”
“And you don’t know how you got there in the first place?”
“I was really, really high,” I admit, huffing a laugh. “And I was in my bed, and I saw that light.” I pause. “Oh—and that time in the basement when I was supposed to bring the wine to you. I was suddenly in a forest, and I could hear his voice. He was calling out to me, but it all went away when you came to find me.”
“That’s what that freakout was about?” she exclaims.
“Yes… that.”
“I knew I wasn’t overreacting! Why didn’t you just say?”
“Because I would’ve sounded crazy! Hell, I feel like I sound crazy now!”
“I mean, you do, but also…I believe you. So I’m not sure what that says about us.” She makes a warped face, then she’s at the door as she says, “I guess we should go to the basement again. Maybe there’s a connection there we can find.”
