Page 23 of Golden Star

Zoey pulls overat the sign that shows we’re leaving Presque Isle and heading into the town just north of us, Caribou.

“Time to see if my loophole works,” she says, and we hop out of the car, looking ahead.

“I guess I’ll just walk?” I ask.

“Yes,” she says. “That’s generally a good way to cross from one town to the next by foot.”

“Right.” I take a deep breath and step forward, bracing myself for that awful frost to start crawling over my body.

Nothing happens.

I take another step, and another, and everything seems to be okay.

“We’re out of Presque Isle,” Zoey says next to me,looking down at the map she pulled up on her phone. “It worked.”

“I can’t believe it was that easy.” I take out my phone to double check, and sure enough, I’ve crossed the line that separates Presque Isle from Caribou.

“Maybe Riven wanted you to come back,” she says. “He just wanted you to prove that you were fae enough to think around the deal.”

“Then he’s going to be thoroughly disappointed. Becauseyou’rethe one who was ‘fae enough’ to think through the deal. Not me.” I put my phone away, ready to head back to the car and keep going. “Anyway, we’re going there to find the bracelet. There’s no reason to think we’ll run into him again.”

“Do you want to see him again?” Zoey asks, teasing me.

She knows I do.

“Does it matter?” I ask. “He doesn’t seem to want to see me.”

“You really do an excellent job at dancing around lies,” she says, walking to her car before I can say another non-lie. “Are you coming?”

“Of course I’m coming,” I say, and an hour later, we’re back in the clearing where we watched the meteor shower last night.

Where Mattproposedto me last night.

An ick feeling travels through me at the memory. I can’t believe he thought I wanted that.

“Where did you go from here?” Zoey asks, looking around.

“That way.” I point to the place where Matt left the clearing. The path is a bit left of where we came in, but he’s always had a decent enough sense of direction that I’m sure he was fine. Especially because we didn’t see his car in the parking lot.

“Then let’s go that way,” she says, and as we walk, she somehow manages to not chatter, so I can listen for the stream.

Eventually, I hear it.

“There.” I point through the trees. “Do you hear it?”

She looks at where I’m pointing, listening carefully. “No,” she says. “But I trust you.”

“You’re about to travel with me to another realm,” I tell her. “I sure hope you trust me.”

As I follow the sound of the stream, I realize how crazy this is. There are creatures in this realm who’d kill me for what I am. Zoey’s human—assuming she also doesn’t have any unknown magical heritage like I do—which means she has no powers to defend herself with, and no rapid healing ability.

Yet, here we are. Trying to go to the Winter Court so I can find abracelet.

I do care about the bracelet and want it back. Buttruthfully, this is about far more than a piece of jewelry. Because I can’t just continue with normal life after everything I learned last night. It’s insane that Riven would expect me to. I can’t just magicallyforget.

Well, for all I know, there’s a potion or spell that could make me forget.

But I don’twantto forget.

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