The song of the sea was faint. But he would know it anywhere.
Griffin bit down on whatever it was he’d been about to say. A broad smile stretched over his face. It worked! He did it. And finally, finally, he was home.
31
GRIFFIN
THE FENN FAMILY sat on the sofa in the sitting room of the old cottage. A cozy fire crackled in the hearth. They watched the waves out the picture window, sipping their mugs of hot cocoa (with mini marshmallows in one, a nip of whiskey in another, and a dusting of cinnamon and chili powder in the third).
Suddenly the alarm blared from the cupboard against the wall. Philip leaped up, his cocoa flying through the air, sending chocolate drips streaming down the freshly cleaned wallpaper.
“We really need to fix that,” Katherine muttered, shaking the cocoa off her hand. “A friendly door chime would do.”
Philip disappeared into the kitchen, reemerging with a hand towel for each of them. “If we’re going to be having regular visitors through the portal—”
“Like Fi? How delightful. Not Arvid, certainly. Oh! How about one of those clocks with the bird that ducks in and out of those funny little doors.”
“You mean a cuckoo clock?” Philip squatted beside the wall and began wiping down the wallpaper for the second time that day.
“Exactly!”
“We don’t really even need an alarm anymore, do we?” Griffin hurried over to the entryway and drew his raincoat over his shoulders.
“I’ve got it!” Katherine leaned back into the sofa cushions, raising her cocoa to her lips again. “Glass wind chimes. Every time someone opens the portal, we get a friendly little chime to let us know. If only we knew any glassmakers who might be able to—”
“Mom. Dad!” Griffin rushed back into the sitting room, grabbed their arms, and yanked. “Come on. Let’s go get her.”
Katherine hauled herself off the sofa with a chuckle. “I’m dying to see Fi too.”
Griffin bounded out the door and down the cottage stairs. “She’s never even seen the ocean!”
* * *
The council between worlds met on the lighthouse lawn at midnight. The ocean is a stunner all the time, but at night, when you can’t see the thing that roars at you, it’s even more magnificent.
Only this ocean didn’t just roar. It sang.
The song had shifted in the days since it was first introduced to Earth. After all, it had different creatures to woo, and the strange sensation of rocks and sands beating at its edges. The song rose with each crashing wave, keening like humpbacks in the deep, and it fell back in each lapse between sets, gurgling and whispering, coaxing the critters on the beach to join in.
Griffin ran the last few steps, only to stop short of where Fi stood with Liv and her aunt Ada, suddenly overcome with shyness. Guyot and Seiche were there from Maris. Arvid had come from Somni, and Leónie from Caligo. Of course, Beatrix was there with the assembled Keepers. Griffin was about to cross the space between them to say hi to Fi when Beatrix stepped up to speak.
“Welcome, everyone. This is a day most of us never thought would come. A joyous day. But our work is not finished yet.”
“Indeed,” Arvid said. “We’ve come to ask the help of the greenwitches in bringing the sjel trees to the surface of Somni again. We have so few seeds stored—we worry we’re already past the tipping point.”
Liv countered, “And we would collect Vinea’s dead from Somni and lay them to rest in the green.”
Seiche stepped in. “We ask help rebuilding our boats.”
“And we can’t forget,” Katherine added, “Arida and Glacies are still waiting to be freed.”
“Well, someone should tell Stella the priests are gone. They may want nothing to do with us, but we should invite them to join the council, all the same.”
Beatrix held up a hand. “Yes. We will reach out to the lost worlds.”
The circle buzzed with noise as the adults dithered and demurred, not exactly arguing, but definitely not in agreement over how, exactly, they were going to accomplish all that. Griffin rolled his eyes. He’d seen this before, on every single world he’d visited. Only this time, he didn’t care what the adults decided. He had his parents back, Fi was safe, and the council wouldn’t stop until the priests had been defeated, on every world.
Things would never be the same again. Magic from Maris had saved Earth. Magic from Caligo had saved Vinea’s raze crews. And magic from Vinea would bring back Somni’s sjel trees. Who knew what Glacies might offer the council, or Arida, or Stella?
Griffin caught Fi’s eye and jerked his head to the side. He backed away from the circle, and toward the cliff’s edge. Fi ran up and threw her arms around him. “I heard what you did on Maris.” She pulled back just far enough that she could punch him playfully in the arm.
Griffin blushed. “Just trying to keep up with you—I mean, look at you. You glow. With, um, magic.”
She snorted. “Yeah, I guess I do. You have to come to Vinea and see the wildlands for yourself. It’ll take years to really come back, but it’s already started healing.”
Griffin laughed. “I get it, I get it, Vinea’s pretty great. But I bet they don’t have hot cocoa.”
They trotted down the path leading to the little cottage, but rather than racing between the trees as Griffin liked to do, Fi paused to inspect every single leaf and moss and vine along the way. Finally, his excitement to have her here erased the last of his shyness and Griffin grabbed Fi’s hand, tugging her along with him. Together they ran along the winding path, their laughter ringing through the forest and startling the birds from the trees. The highest branches stretched toward the girl with the green magic in her veins, while the song of the sea sang for the boy who’d carried it to this wondrous new world. And above it all, the lighthouse beams shone, winking as they whirled out of sight.
More from this Series
The Lighthouse between…
More from the Author
Three Pennies
A Nearer Moon
MANY THANKS TO
Reka Simonsen
Justin Chanda
Julia McCarthy
Jeannie Ng
Alison Velea
Debra Sfetsios-Conover
Kailey Whitman
Ammi-Joan Paquette
Lauren Sabel
Emily France
Meg Wiviott
Jennifer Bertman
Cammen Lowstuter
Whitney Walker
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MELANIE CROWDER lives on the Colorado Front Range, where she is a writer and educator. She holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the author of the middle grade novels The Lighthouse between the Worlds, Three Pennies, Parched, and A Nearer Moon, and the young adult novels Audacity and An Uninterrupted View of the Sky. Visit her at melaniecrowder.net.
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids
www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Melanie-Crowder
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Simon & Schuster, New York
Also by Melanie Crowder
The Lighthouse between the Worlds
Three Pennies
A Nearer Moon
Parched
Audacity
An Uninterrupted View of the Sky
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2019 by Melanie Crowder
Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Kailey Whitman
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The illustrations for this book were digitally rendered.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Crowder, Melanie, author.
Title: A way between worlds / Melanie Crowder.
Description: First edition. | New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, [2019] | Series: Lighthouse Keepers | Summary: Griffin and Fi must navigate magical worlds of mist, water, vines, and fire, seeking their own gifts as they try to save themselves and every single world.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018061502 | ISBN 9781534405189 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534405202 (eBook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Fantasy. | Science fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.C885382 Way 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018061502
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