Page 33 of Lifebound

And I wondered what would have happened if I’d left before these men found me—but when I saw the front of my house and the lights burning in the darkness, my mind was wiped clean.

“Holy fuckity-fuck-fuck,” Betty said, and we both stopped on the sidewalk, just as her mother opened the door and came out on her porch.

A lotof the neighbors had their doors open, and many were even coming closer to my house to see the man standing in the driveway, waving his glowing hands around as butterflies made of golden light flew around him, leaving behind a trail of golden glitter.

“Magic,” I whispered becausethat’swhat the hands of that boy had looked like, too. It was magic, like melted gold that was stuck between liquid and gas, and it couldmakethings that weren’t there.

“Come on!” Betty grabbed my hand and dragged me across the street where the butterflies now flew higher, and the people, about twenty of our neighbors, watched in awe. The guards remained in front of him, and Dad and Fi were behind the uncle.

“Sorry about throwing my shoe at you, handsome,” Betty said as she walked between the guards, but the guy didn’t even turn his head. “Holy shit, Nil, they’rehot!”

They were, but that wasn’t important right now.

“What are you doing?” I asked the uncle, and the golden light coming from his butterflies fluttering in the air about him made him look even more like a dream.

“I asked him to show them,” Fiona said, stepping away from Dad’s side. “I asked him to show the people that you were always telling the truth.”

“It’s no bother. Magic is a wonderful thing. All beings should witness it at least once in their lives—even mortals,” the uncle said.

Evenmortals.

The boy had called me that, too, all those years ago. Something about that word that I didn’t like.

“It’s not working,” Betty said, and I turned to find her with her phone in her hands. “My camera’s not working!”

“Oh, your technology can’t pick up magic yet,” the man said. “Only the eyes are sophisticated enough.”

I realized others were trying to get their phones to work, too—Mr. and Mrs. Adams from the house next to ours, and the Jenkins from farther down the street, and all six kids of the Anthony family three houses down from Betty’s.

“That’s enough,” I said, feeling strange as hell now. “That’s…that’s enough.”

“They’ll know now,” Fiona said as she came closer to us. “Everyone will know.”

“Aren’t you a smart little bugger,” said Betty, rubbing the top of her head like she was a kid. “Well done, Fi. Well done.”

Fiona beamed.

“Of course,” the uncle said and fisted both hands. In the same instant all those golden butterflies disappeared into thin air.

The people whispered, and some were even calling my name—my actual name, notcuckoo—but I ignored them.

“I’m afraid we must get going now.” He looked at me. “Are you ready, Nilah Dune?”

I wanted to sayyes,but a voice in my head insisted that I wasn’t. Not even close.

Still, I nodded. “Let me grab my bag.”

I’d only taken my school backpack with essentials. It felt weird to not pack my charger or at least my phone. All I took was a change of clothes, a few pairs of underwear, some makeup items, and my toothbrush.

Just eight days.I wouldn’t need more than that.

Together, we all went to the back of the house, and the entrance of the forest marked by this large oak tree that my mom had adored.

Betty hugged me—of her own free will—reminded me to find the insurance company as soon as I got there and reassured me that Fiona would be okay.

Fiona hugged me, too, and she smiled brightly, as excited as before. “You’re going to do great!”she told me, and she really believed it.

But when Dad whispered in my ear, “I’m sorry, pup,”it became so difficult to breathe and my instincts demanded that I start running already, to get away from this feeling.

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