Page 41 of Golden Star

Zoey’s more of a mess than when I left. Her skin’s pale, her teeth are chattering, and there are little flecks of ice in her thick, dark hair.

“You’re freezing,” I tell her, and I take off Riven’s jacket, wrapping it around her. “Take this. It should help.”

She snuggles up inside the jacket, and as she does, she looks at me like I’m a ghost.

“You were dead,” she says softly. “And then this jacket… it justappearedon you. Right when you woke up.”

“I was here?” I ask, the cold hitting me all at once now that I’m no longer wearing Riven’s jacket. “The whole time?”

“You were dead,” she repeats, and she’s wary as she looks me over, as if she thinks I’m going to disappear at any second.

“I wasn’t dead,” I tell her. “I teleported down to the base of the tower. I rode on Ghost’s back to find us help.”

She shakes her head, pulling the jacket tighter around her. “You were here,” she insists. “You collapsed, and you were so still. I couldn’t even tell if you were breathing.”

I stare at her, the weight of her words sinking in, and a cold knot forms in my stomach.

If I didn’t teleport, then what on Earthdidhappen?

“I touched things. I brought back this jacket.” I gesture to the fur-lined coat wrapped around her. “How could that happen if I wasn’t really there?”

“The jacket justappearedon you when you woke up,” she says again. “But you were here the entire time. I’m not making it up any more than you made up everything about being fae and coming here through the portal.”

Her words strike a chord with me, and I don’t push back. Because Zoey believed me when I told her every crazy detail about last night. She came here with me.

This realm—and my magic—is unknown. Unpredictable.

I need to give her the same respect she gave me, and take what she’s saying as truth.

Which means…

“How could I be here and there at the same time?” I ask.

Zoey frowns, still shivering. “It’s just like what you said happened when you died in that fall the first time you came to this realm,” she says. “You were in those trees, looking down at yourself when Riven found you. In some sort of in between state. And then, you snapped back.”

“But I wasn’t in an ‘in between’ state,” I tell her. “I was there. In Riven’s room. I talked with him. Ibrought back his jacket.”

“You were in Riven’s room?” she asks.

“Well, I teleported down to the base of the tower first. Then I rode Ghost’s back to the palace, climbed a tree, and jumped into Riven’s room.”

“You didn’t teleport,” she corrects me. “You left your body, and some other part of you—maybe your spirit or something—went on this whole adventure to Riven’sroom.” She pauses, then adds, “You were really in his room?”

“Yes.” Memories of that kiss flash through my mind—the desire I felt when he touched me, and the horror I felt about what he was asking from me.

I wanted to get away from him.

And then Iwasaway from him. Back here, where mybodyhad apparently been this entire time.

“So, if I didn’t teleport, then I duplicated myself?” I ask.

“That’s what it sounds like.” She bites her lip, like she does when she’s working through a tough math problem. “Did your… duplicate feel different from your real self?”

“When I landed in his room, Riven attacked me,” I tell her, putting the pieces slowly into place. “He ran his sword through me. Except it wentliterallythrough me. As if I was a ghost.”

“He tried to kill you?” she asks, anger swirling in her eyes.

“He didn’t realize it was me,” I instantly go to his defense, even though I’m supposed to be mad at him. “It was an accident.”

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