Page 37 of Lifebound

“Magical energy is something every creature in the realm is born with because we are bornfromVerenthia, and Verenthia itself is magic. We give and take—sometimes simultaneously—from nature, and nature gives and takes from us. It’s just like these trees give you oxygen to breathe, and in return use the dioxide carbon you give with every breath. It’s a cycle,” he explained. And that I actually understood.

“Does everyone have the same magic in Verenthia then?”

“Not in the least, no. Each species has their own brand of magic that they use in different ways. Each kind of fae has access to different magic as well.”

“How many kinds of fae are there?”

“Four,” Helid said, and then… “Here it is.”

My legs stopped working instantly and I looked ahead at the darkness, at the trees that seemed to go on endlessly.

“What? What’s here?” Because I couldn’t see shit.

“The Aetherway,” Helid said, offering me a smile—and his hand. “If I may, Nilah Dune, formally invite you to Verenthia on behalf of the Seelie Court.”

Every hair on my body stood at attention.

“Take my hand and walk with me, and the Aetherway will welcome you wholly.”

My hand shook when I put it in his. His skin was warm—the same kind of warm that that boy’s hands had been when he touched me. When he healed me.

His raw energy buzzed in the center of my palm like it was my own. Helid smiled, pulled me forward between two trees, and I couldn’t see anything beyond them at all—until I was just a single foot away.

Until Ifeltthe energy—it wasn’t coming from Helid but from the shimmery veil of light that was between those trees. The warmth was coming from it, pulling and pushing me back at the same time, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe. No air went to my lungs and I had no control over my body at all, so when Helid pulled again, harder, I moved forward.

I went straight into the shimmer with my eyes wide open, unable to even scream.

twelve

I couldn’t closemy eyes. Call it instinct, call it whatever it was that gave me the need tosee exactlywhere I was going, but my lids were stuck open, and so I sawthe shimmer as I went through. It was like walking through water—ifwater shimmered and wasn’t…you know, liquid. Not entirely.

The feel of it was warm against my skin. It had no weight, but it went on for a couple of feet, if my judgment in that state could even be trusted. My hair floated to the sides as it would underwater, and my ears echoed in the same way, yet my clothes remained dry and my lungs filled with air and my heart beat steadily.

Then the shimmer released me.

That was the only thing that made a bit of sense—the shimmerreleasedme, and my hair fell over my shoulders again, and my ears picked up the sound of the forest around us once more.

The birds chirped, the owls hooted, and the the breeze was soft against the side of my face—only here the leaves on the trees were colorful. Yellow, green, blue and purple in all kinds of shades. The leaves were shaped like leaves, yet they looked thicker than those in the forest we left behind. They looked like they were plastic, which would explain the colors on them.

Because trees did not sprout blue leaves.

“What…what…what happened?” I finally said. My heart had picked up its beating already, and my eyes searched the trees—so many of them on all sides.

“We passed through the Aetherway, Nilah. You are now in Verenthia.”

Helid’s voice reached me, but I didn’t even see his face because I was still trying to find therealtrees. The ones with green leaves—normaltrees.

Except even when I looked at where we’d come from, I didn’t see it. I didn’t see the forest I’d been in just a minute ago. I didn’t see the oaks and pines and the thin green leaves, onlythesetrees I had no name for other thancolorful—imaginary—unrealtrees.

“Where’s the forest?”

“It’s there. It’shere.” Helid was right beside me, and he was looking back to where we came from, too. “We are in that same forest, but in Verenthia’s side of it. Think of it this way—this is your forest”—he held his hand straight, fingers together —“and this isourforest. They are merged together on either side of the Aetherway.” And he put his other hand over the first.

I shook my head with my lips parted, reached out my hand to touch the thin air. “There’s no shimmer here.”

“That’s because the Aetherway in this forest is a bit farther below. Possibly about a mile.” And he waved his hand ahead.

I couldn’t even begin to understand what he was saying because my focus was still on what I’dfelt,the warmth and the weightless texture—and my hair, too. It had floated around my head, but now when I touched it, it felt just the same as ever, and my waves were perfectly dry.

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