by Teresa Roman
“Then why don’t you guys get along better?”
Devin touched the tip of my nose with his finger. “That’s a story for another night. You need to get some sleep, or you’ll be too tired tomorrow for our trip.”
I didn’t want to sleep because I liked talking to him. I held my instinct to groan at bay and got into bed. Devin sat beside me and stared down at me. The room was dark, but I could still see his eyes glowing.
He leaned forward and rested his head on my forehead. His hand came around the back of my head and he pressed his lips on mine. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him down beside me, my lips never leaving his.
“Stay with me,” I said.
Devin nodded and lifted his legs onto the bed. “I’ve seen you every day for almost the past six months, and it feels like it’s never enough.”
“Every day?”
“Well, I had to make sure you were safe. Somehow, I could never get to sleep at night unless I knew you were home and in bed first.”
“And how did you do that?”
“I teleported into your backyard and waited for you to turn your bedroom light off, then I waited a little longer until I was sure you were asleep before coming into your room.”
“And how long did you stay?” I asked, fearful that I’d done something embarrassing.
“Long enough to get a glimpse of your face, but not long enough that I wouldn’t be able to peel myself away.”
Devin’s confession left me speechless. Had he really been that concerned for me that he would do something so risky? I wondered for a moment what I would have done if I woke up and found him in my room. The normal reaction would have been to freak out, except I don’t think I would’ve done that. Seeing him would have probably made me happy. I rested my head on his chest with my ear pressed against his heart.
“I just confessed to breaking into your room every night. Shouldn’t you be angry with me?”
“Maybe, but I’m not. I’m just curious—what made you do it?”
“The idea of something happening to you scares me.”
“Besides my dad and my aunt, you’re the only one who’s ever truly cared about what happens to me.” It was my fault. I’d never allowed anyone to get close enough to me. Not even Emma and Tim. How could I when I’d kept so many secrets locked inside?
Devin shook his head. “That’s not true. Your mother cares, more than you can imagine. You’ll see. But for now you need to sleep, my beautiful flower.”
I didn’t think I could, but eventually I closed my eyes and the thumping of my heart slowed enough that I was able to drift off.
Chapter 17
Devin left in the morning with a promise to return later. He wanted to scout out the trail we’d be taking later. After he left, I busied myself with cleaning and laundry. In the afternoon, I packed a change of clothing into a backpack. We wouldn’t be staying in the Wilds a second longer than it took for me to meet my mother and get my questions answered, so there was no need to bring more than that.
A little after six, the doorbell rang. Devin brought dinner, and despite my nerves I managed to eat. As the sky got darker, my eyes began to dart back and forth to the clock that hung on the wall just above the TV. If Devin noticed, he didn’t say a thing. It wasn’t until almost midnight that he stood up from the couch, pressed the off button on the TV remote and said, “C’mon, let’s just get this over with.”
I ran upstairs to retrieve my backpack. When I came back down I found Devin waiting in the driveway beside his car.
“We’re driving?” I asked.
“At least part of the way.”
I got in, and Devin drove off. Silence hung in the air, heavy, like an oppressively hot day. I tried to think of the right words to get a conversation started, but nothing came to mind.
“Where are we headed?” I finally asked.
“You’ll see,” Devin replied, abruptly.
After a while he turned onto Howland Hill Road, an unpaved road that headed east toward the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. Eventually, he pulled into a parking area, and the two of us got out.
Devin held my hand as we started to walk. “C’mon,” he said, heading for the woods.
I slung my backpack over my shoulder and followed him. I’d hiked most of the trails near Crescent City, but it was too dark for me to recognize where we were.
We walked in silence. The only sound came from the babbling of the Smith River, which ran through the woods. We started out on a trail but then Devin veered off, pulling me along behind him. “It’s this way,” he whispered when I hesitated.
“Is this the way you got here when you came to Crescent City?”
“No,” he said, without elaborating.
“Then how do you know we’re going the right way?”
“Bloodhound, remember?”
How anyone could make heads or tails of which direction to take was beyond me, but I trusted Devin. Walking off-trail through the woods in the dark was not a pleasant experience. I could barely see a thing. More than once, I stepped wrong and cursed under my breath as I almost slipped and twisted my ankle.
“How much longer?”
“Another few minutes, I swear,” Devin said.
“If this isn’t the way you came to Crescent City, how do you know about this route?”
“There are pathways into the Wilds all over the human world. I found this one earlier when I came out here to map everything out.”
“Will I know when we cross into the Wilds?”
“You will. There’s an energy there; it almost feels like even the air is alive.”
I had no idea what Devin was trying to describe until the feeling hit. Eventually, the trees and dense forest undergrowth thinned out, making the trek easier. I knew we’d crossed over into the Wilds when I felt the strangest sensation run through me, almost like a power surge. I began to notice things I hadn’t before, the way the tree branches danced in the wind as if they were having a conversation with the air. I hadn’t noticed any animal noises before, but now they were everywhere. Birds crowing, wolves howling; it was frightening and awesome at the same time.
“We’re here,” Devin whispered. “Are you okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“It may be another hour of walking before we get to Rayden’s.”
“I can handle it. I grew up hiking and jogging on trails, this is nothing.”
We walked mostly in silence. Every so often I heard Devin whisper under his breath. I wasn’t sure what he was saying and when I asked, he only reminded me that I’d promised to trust him. Despite my insistence that I could handle things, after some time I found myself getting tired. It was probably close to two in the morning, but I’d stayed up longer than that in the past. I guessed it was a combination of things that had me so fatigued. Devin took my backpack, refusing to let me argue with him that I was fine. I wanted to take a break, to rest for a few minutes. I stopped when I spotted what looked like a fallen tree. It was the perfect place to sit. Devin turned around.
“What’s wrong?”
“Can we sit for a minute?”
“The faster we get to Rayden’s the better,” Devin said. “If you’re tired, I can carry you the rest of the way.”
“Umm . . . I don’t think so.” The idea of being carried like a helpless child mortified me.
“Just let me do this.” Devin handed me my backpack and hunched over so that I could get on his back.
“No way, I’m fine,” I said, and got up to prove it to him.
Devin laughed softly. “Too bad for me you’re so stubborn. I would’ve enjoyed you being so close.”
He took my backpack from me and we started walking again. I was about to ask how much farther when we reached a clearing in the woods.
“There it is, your cousin’s house.”
All I could make out was Devin, the stars, a hazy sliver of moon behind dense clouds, and the ground beneath my feet. Seconds later, the clouds move
d on, and a beam of moonlight outlined the silhouette of a cabin. Devin led me up the stairs to the threshold.
He tapped on the door once, then paused before tapping two more times. It was so quiet outside, I could hear my own heartbeat. No longer whispering, his voice cut through the silence.
“I’m almost looking forward to Ray’s reaction when he sees you.”
“What if he doesn’t answer?”
“Oh, he will. We have our own special knock.”
It took a few more seconds, but Devin was right.
At last the door opened and a head poked out. “What in the worlds are you doing here in the dead of night?”
“Open up, I’ll explain inside.”
Once Rayden opened the door wide enough for us to enter, Devin pulled me inside behind him, closed the door, and locked it. From somewhere a light came on flooding the room with a soft glow. As I examined my surroundings, Rayden gasped.
“It can’t be.” He walked up to me and touched my cheek with his open palm before turning to look at Devin. “Is this some sort of trick, or is she who I think she is?”
Chapter 18
Once Devin finished explaining everything, Rayden turned to look at me. His lips curled into a smile and he pulled me into his arms, twirling me around and lifting my feet off the floor as if we were family reunited after a long time apart rather than the strangers we actually were.
“Rayden, put her down, you’re scaring her,” Devin said, sounding like he was half-teasing and half-serious at the same time
“Is that right?” Rayden asked after my feet were firmly on solid ground again. “Did I frighten you?”
“Scared, no, but maybe a little bit startled.”
“Things are very different where the humans live, Ray. Families aren’t as close. Give her time to get acclimated.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what Devin meant. I made a mental note to ask him later when things had settled down a bit.
“The two of you must be hungry and thirsty,” Rayden said.
I watched him as he made his way to the corner of the large room. It was obviously the main room of the house. A long table crossed the distance between a makeshift kitchen and an enormous glowing fireplace. A metal bar was suspended from one end of it to the other and a kettle hung from it. Rayden walked over to the fireplace, brought the kettle to the kitchen, and poured its contents into three cups. Devin helped him bring them over to the table.
“Sit,” Rayden said, pulling out a chair for me. I was so dumbstruck by everything that I hadn’t realized I’d just been standing there staring gape-mouthed the whole time.
“Thank you.” I wrapped my hands around the warm cup before bringing it to my lips.
“I still can’t believe this.” Rayden said, staring at me. “Not once did Naiara mention she had a daughter. I understand why, but still. And I can’t believe my best friend is in love with her. I’m almost afraid to go to back to sleep in case I wake up and this whole thing turns out to have just been a dream.”
How he knew that Devin and I were a couple, I had no idea. And neither of us had used the L word yet. “Wait . . . it’s not exactly . . .” I began to correct him, but Devin cut me off.
“It’s no dream, Ray. Believe me, when I first saw Lilli I was just as shocked as you are now.”
Rayden shook his head. “You shouldn’t have brought her here; it’s too dangerous.” He looked at me and smiled to cover his abruptness. “Not that I’m not pleased to have met you. I am. But I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“It was either I bring her or she would have found a way to get here on her own. She didn’t give me much of a choice."
“Neither of you are to leave this house until tomorrow night when it’s time to return to the human world.”
“Of course,” Devin said. “You should know that I’d rather die than let anything happen to Lilli.”
“Well, I prefer not to lose either one of you.” Rayden got up from the table. “Come on, you two. It’s late; you need to get some rest. I’ll show you to your rooms.”
Rooms? Maybe it was custom here to sleep in separate rooms if you weren’t married. I’d never thought to ask Devin about that. I glanced at Devin, he reached for my hand sensing my unease.
“We only need one room,” he said.
Rayden stopped and turned around. “Is that right?”
I nodded, still shy, but also relieved. This place was strange enough. I didn’t think I’d be able to get much rest without Devin’s arms around me.
“Do you live here alone?” I asked Rayden as he led us down a narrow hallway just off the main room.
“Yes. I lost my parents a few years ago. My sister and I stayed on here, but she has a family of her own now.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. About your parents, I mean.” They would have been my great aunt and great uncle, and even though I’d never met them, I felt sad to hear that they had already passed.
Rayden turned to open the door at the far end of the hallway. A dim light to the left of the doorway that looked like a glowing orb flickered on as we entered. I laid my backpack on the floor by the entrance and turned to thank my cousin for his hospitality.
“Think nothing of it.” Rayden shook his head and smiled wryly. “My best friend and my cousin, sharing a bed. I still can’t believe it.” He kissed my cheek, then Devin’s, before wishing us a good night and closing the door behind him.
“Are we not supposed to be doing this?” I asked.
“Doing what?” Devin looked confused.
“Sleeping in the same bed together.”
He smiled and walked over to me. “It’s perfectly fine. Rayden was just trying to figure out exactly how close the two of us have become. You can imagine his surprise finding out that not only does he have a cousin he never knew of, but that she’s with his best friend.”
I was too tired to think about bathing. Instead, I slid my jeans off but left the rest of my clothes on and got into the bed that hugged the corner of the room. Devin just stood there staring at me.
“Are you coming?” I asked.
He shook his head, as if my question had pulled him out of a trance. “Yes, of course.”
He walked over to the light, turned it off somehow, and lay beside me, fully clothed. I waited for him to pull me into his arms like he usually did when we slept beside each other, but instead he just lay there, rigid.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s just that . . . every time I’ve slept beside you, you were wearing pants.”
I smiled and inched closer to him, throwing one of my legs over his body flirtatiously. “You don’t like the way I look?”
“Um . . . that’s definitely not the problem.”
Suddenly, I wasn’t tired anymore. I pulled him into a kiss, threading my hands through his hair and pressing my body against his.
“Lilli,” he whispered when my lips left his and traveled to his neck. “I want to touch and to kiss every inch of you, but it will have to wait. A lot is at stake here. My focus needs to stay on one thing, and that is keeping you safe.”
“Can you at least hold me until I fall asleep?” I didn’t want to lie in bed beside Devin without feeling his arms around me. They made me feel safe, like nothing in the world could go wrong.
Devin put his arm around me, I lay my head on his chest and eventually drifted off to the quietest sleep I remembered having in a long time.
A few hours later, sunlight flooded the room through an enormous picture window that covered practically half of one of the bedroom walls. It wasn’t the light that woke me, though, it was the heavenly smell of fresh baked bread that wafted into the bedroom. I sat up, looked around, and began to notice details that I couldn’t when there was only a dim lamp lighting the room.
The walls and floor were all fashioned out of smooth giant wood planks. In the opposite corner of the room, there stood a giant wardrobe. The bed I lay on was covered entirely in white linen, giving
one the impression that they were sleeping on clouds. I spotted an entryway into what looked like a bathroom.
I pulled back the blanket and began to crawl over to the edge of the bed so that I could peek out of the window. Devin’s hands wrapped around one of my ankles, and he pulled me back toward him.
“Oh, no, you don’t.”
“I just want to see what it looks like outside.” There was an eerie beauty to the way the light filtered through the trees. Perhaps my perception of things was altered because I knew we were in the Wilds. I couldn’t help but feel enchanted by what I saw through the window.
“Things may work a little differently here, but one thing is the same—if you can see out of the window, someone can see in.”
I considered Devin’s warning and lay back down beside him. “Isn’t it considered rude to look through other people’s bedroom windows?”
“Sure, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, though,” he replied. “And I’m not willing to take any chances.”
I took a look around the room again. No clocks. “I wonder what time it is.”
Devin glanced outside. “Before eight, but not by much. We should get dressed and eat before we send Rayden to look for your mother.”
Knowing that I’d be coming face to face with my mother sent a wave of angst through me. I’d memorized the questions I wanted to ask her, and now I could scarcely remember a single one. I quickly washed up and changed my clothes before heading into the main room.
I noticed a seating area that I hadn’t the night before. Giant overstuffed chairs that almost reminded me of bean bags, but with more structure to them, were clustered on the opposite side of the room from where the kitchen and fireplace stood. The coziness of Rayden’s home reminded me of the log cabin vacation homes around Crescent City that tourists rented. Dad and I had done it once for fun. Unlike Rayden’s home, those had appliances. My cousin must’ve baked the bread in the fireplace.
Rayden’s home felt larger than it was because of the high steeple ceilings. The curtains were drawn over the windows, but so much light came through the skylights that the room was bathed in sunshine. As I stared up I could see enormous trees through the glass ceiling and I imagined for a moment that I was in the largest, most comfortable tree house ever built.
