Page 30 of Bonded Ever After

“I don’t know…” I say.

The Mist Realm doesn’t feel like home either. If it was just Callum and I, maybe that would be where we’d go, but our baby deserves better than that. A safer place. Besides, there’s this nagging feeling in me… a feeling that’s telling me we have to keep going. That there’s something better out there for us.

“I-I think I want to try to find the end of the Phoenix Trail.” The source of all goldarium. The thing of legend that our fathers likely went in search of.

“You’re hoping to find them,” he says simply.

Our fathers.Myfather. So what if I am? Would it be the worst thing for our child to have a loving grandfather in their life?

Tears sting my eyes. “They’re all we have left now.”

He takes a ragged breath. “And you know there’s a chance we won’t find them, no matter how far we go. And a chance that whatever is further down the path is worse than where we’ve already been.”

I swallow around the lump in my throat. “I know, but I feel like we have to take the chance. We have to provide our baby with the best life we can, even if it’s in Neverwood.”

He’s quiet for a long moment.

I look back at him, and his expression is thoughtful before his gaze slides to me, and he kisses me. “Okay. We keep going. As soon as we can.”

“As soon as we can?” I ask.

He nods. “Honey, you’re just going to get bigger, and traveling is just going to get harder.”

I hadn’t thought about that. “You’re right.”

It’s weird. My gut says this is the right move, but I’m full of nerves. We’ll be traveling into uncharted territory, pregnant, and with only Callum at my side. There’s no heading back to Paradise Falls to rest. There’s no cheeseburger and fries waiting for us at the end of a long day. There’s only… Neverwood.

“Do you think our friends will be okay?”

He kisses my head again. “Teth and Beva will be leaving on the first flight out of there tomorrow, so they should be fine.”

My mind keeps working. “What do you think is going to happen to Paradise Falls?”

He hesitates.

“Be honest.”

He nods. “Paradise Falls only has one resource: goldarium. That’s what they use to trade with the outside world. They don’t grow their own crops. They don’t have their own stock of animals. Without goldarium, everything will descend into chaos. There will be no food, no electricity, nothing.”

My heart’s racing. “So then they’ll fly everyone out?”

He hesitates again. “No, the wealthy will probably fly out. The rest will probably be left behind.”

I turn in the bed to face him. “They’ll just leave most of the population behind?”

“Flying people out will cost money. Money that will be precious to them,” he says, as if that justifies everything.

So, everyone will be left there to die? With no food? No resources? And no way out?

“I–”

He pulls me closer to him and tucks my head under his chin. “They’ll probably have some time before everything falls apart, but it’ll be better if we don’t think about it. At least our friends will get out.”

That’s true. Our friends will be safe. And as much as I hate thinking about all those people just being abandoned, my focus needs to be on Callum, our child, and myself. If I don’t stay focused, we might not survive.

“You’re right,” I say, even though my heart is aching, thinking about all the people who will likely die in that valley, or die in the mountains trying to get out.

He clears his throat. “Also, something I don’t want to say but need to: we got what we found of their goldarium. We can hope it’s all of it, but it might not be.”

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