Page 157 of Magical Mission
“I’ll be here when you return.”
“What if I don’t?”
“You will.”
“How do you know?”
His gaze was steady and sure. “Because I believe in you more than you believe in yourself.”
Tears stung at the edges of my vision, fast and unwelcome.
“Keegan—”
“Go,” he said gently.
And I did.
I stepped forward.
And the path swallowed me whole.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Keegan?”
My voice slipped from my throat before I could stop it, thin and uncertain as it left my lips and floated into the mist ahead.
“Keegan,” I said again, louder now, more insistently.
Only silence answered.
And then, a moment later—
My voice echoed back, warped by distance and something far older than mere space.
Keegan… Keegan… egan…
The sound twisted through the shimmer like thread unraveling, tugged by unseen fingers.
My chest tightened. The air had changed. I hadn’t noticed when, but it no longer carried the scent of dew and grass. It was now thinner, brittle, dry, and metallic.
The golden shimmer of the path had fractured. I hadn’t shattered, merely split into trails. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, appeared.
Each one curled in a slightly different direction, glimmering with the promise of something thatmightbe true.
I turned in a slow circle, trying to center myself, but every path looked almost the same—familiar, inviting, false.
A chill traced its weight down my spine.
“Keegan?” I called again, a little more desperate.
No answer.
I took a step backward.
But the way I’d come had gone.
It wasn’t hidden, it was gone.
