Page 57 of Bonded Ever After

“Callum?” I say.

He glances over at me.

“Should we go back?”

He frowns. “I thought you said we need to see this thing through? That we needed to see the end of the Phoenix Trail?”

I bite my lip. “I know I said that. I’m just starting to wonder. What if… what if I’m wrong?”

He turns to me and takes my hands, his gaze locking onto mine. “I don’t know if I’m crazy, or if it’s just because I love you so much, but I’ve started to feel that nagging sense thatsomething is pulling us along too. We’ve come this far. I think we just need to keep going. To have faith.”

I smile. My heart aches. It’s like he knew exactly what I needed to hear.

Leaning up onto my tiptoes, I kiss him, and he melts against me, holding me tightly against him, until I have to break our kiss to breathe. “You always know just what to say.”

He smiles. “That’s because we’re made for each other.”

I return his smile, and we start walking again, hand in hand.

We start climbing up a hill, and I slow. Climbing has become more difficult for me, for some reason. Callum slows to meet my pace, and I place my free hand on my stomach. This baby, surprise that it was, is our whole world now. We just need to find a safe and wonderful place to raise them. Nothing else matters.

Reaching the top of the hill, we both freeze. My mouth drops open, and I stare. We’ve come to a large city of houses and shops that surrounds a stone castle. Below us, we can see people moving about the cobblestone streets, and the scent of cooking food comes to us.

And at the entrance to the city, our trail ends.

It seems we’ve reached our destination.

Callum squeezes my hand. “There’s no more path after this.”

“The trail ends here,” I say, the words sounding strange and foreign in my mind.

He turns to me, and I look at him as he speaks slowly. “Do we go to the town?”

My heart starts hammering. These people could be like the elves. We could be in danger if we go into the town. But… this is what we were looking for. This is the end of the trail. We’d be fools not to explore the place we’ve nearly died several times to reach.

“We should go. Carefully,” I say.

He nods. “The first sign of danger, we run.”

My legs feel tingly and wrong as we continue forward. We make our way closer and closer to the city, eyeing the large stone fence that encircles the city and its people. Every step of the way my nerves wind tighter and tighter until we’re approaching the gate.

I see the flash of movement on the wall. I flinch, expecting an attack. Maybe an arrow to our skull. But instead, the gate slowly opens in front of us.

On the other side of the gate, one guard stands with his back straight. He looks exactly like us, except his skin is slightly tinged with gold.

“You must see the queen,” he says, his voice loud, but his tone respectful. “Follow me.” Then he spins around and starts walking toward the castle.

Unsure about what else to do, we follow behind him.

There are golden people everywhere in the streets. Children run this way and that way. Every time they see us, they stop and stare, moving out of the way and smiling at us, like we’re long-lost friends.

I don’t know what to make of it, but I’m aware of the sword at my side. If we need to use it, we will. I’m just glad they haven’t given us a reason, because I’m not sure we could take down enough people to be able to escape.

We come to big doors that lead into the castle. The doors are promptly thrown wide open. Dozens of golden people line our path into the castle, all smiling at us in that same strange way.

We’re led to a throne room, where a beautiful woman with silver hair and deep golden skin sits in a silky golden dress. There’s a smile dancing over her lips, and she seems excited as her gaze falls on us. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or bad thing.

Is she excited to make a new friend? Or does she plan to eat the skin off our bones?It could be either: we’re here in Neverwood, after all.

---