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Chapters (53)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Letter from the Author
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. • One •
  7. • Two •
  8. • Three •
  9. • Four •
  10. • Five •
  11. • Six •
  12. • Seven •
  13. • Eight •
  14. • Nine •
  15. • Ten •
  16. • Eleven •
  17. • Twelve •
  18. • Thirteen •
  19. • Fourteen •
  20. • Fifteen •
  21. • Sixteen •
  22. • Seventeen •
  23. • Eighteen •
  24. • Nineteen •
  25. • Twenty •
  26. • Twenty-One •
  27. • Twenty-Two •
  28. • Twenty-Three •
  29. • Twenty-Four •
  30. • Twenty-Five •
  31. • Twenty-Six •
  32. • Twenty-Seven •
  33. • Twenty-Eight •
  34. • Twenty-Nine •
  35. • Thirty •
  36. • Thirty-One •
  37. • Thirty-Two •
  38. • Thirty-Three •
  39. • Thirty-Four •
  40. • Thirty-Five •
  41. • Thirty-Six •
  42. • Thirty-Seven •
  43. • Thirty-Eight •
  44. • ∞ •
  45. • Thirty-Nine •
  46. • Forty •
  47. Epilogue
  48. Acknowledgments
  49. Excerpt from Be Dazzled
  50. One
  51. Two
  52. About the Author
  53. Back Cover

“Kane!” Sophia called from the shore. “Come on! Everyone is waiting.”

Kane glanced over his shoulder. She was right. Everyone he knew was waiting in the dim forests of the Cobalt Complex. A cascade of pale, white eyes asking him to step from the water and come on, come along, get going. Kane felt that once he stepped out of the river, he wouldn’t come back for a long time. Maybe never.

Kane turned back to Maxine.

“I feel a little lost,” he said.

“That’s okay. You are. I told you, you don’t belong here.”

“I’m not sure where I belong, though.”

“That’s okay, too.” Maxine swirled her brush on her palette. “That’s the thing about a big imagination. It’s hard to belong anywhere when you can always imagine something better. I wouldn’t worry about settling just yet, though. You’re very young. Lots of time to figure out what you want, and then make it happen. But not if you stay here.”

Again the dread flashed in Kane, and for a split second everything about the scene looked wrong. Fake.

A pine cone struck Kane’s shoulder. He turned in time to catch the next one.

“My sister—”

“That’s not your sister,” Maxine said.

“She—”

“She is not your sister,” Maxine said firmly.

Subtly, the river began to simmer. Steam bled up into the golden air in shredded arcs.

“See?” said Maxine. “Look, now the scene’s all upset. My colors are going to smudge.”

Kane dropped the pine cone into the bubbling river. It floated against the current and off into the gathering mist, leaving fragrant sap on his palm. He smelled the deep forest, and it reminded him of Dean.

But who was Dean?

“I think…” Kane reached after the unfathomable depth he had just glimpsed, where the forgotten behemoth of an entire life loomed behind this world’s candied veil. “I think I need to go,” he said, hardly breathing.

“Yes, I know. I’ve already told you that.” Maxine brushed smudges of steam into her depiction of the mill. This all seemed to be a big inconvenience for her.

“What about you?” Kane asked. “Are you going to go or stay?”

“Oh, I’ll be here.” Her pursed lips gave way to a hopeful smile. “I’m waiting for someone. I’m sure she’ll find her way here, eventually.”

Kane turned from Maxine and gave his back to the shore, and his sister upon it, and all the other figments that had gathered at the reverie’s edge to entrap him. He waded out into the gathering mist, off to the waking world beyond.

• Thirty-Nine •

Up and About

Kane awoke in a kiss. He gasped, breathing the air right out of the other mouth as though inhaling back his life.