The walk to the gravel parking lot was silent. I checked the parking lot for my mother’s Honda, but it was nowhere to be found. Victor led me to his white BMW. He held the passenger door open for me. In the brightness of the full moon, I spied another vehicle parked on the other side of the lot. It was a light-colored pickup truck.

“Penny said she’d drive Desmond out for it tomorrow,” Victor said, nodding to the truck. “By the way, she’s furious, you know. What possessed you to take his truck?”

Desmond?

“That’s not exactly the best way to welcome him to the family,” Victor said.

Welcome him to the family? 

“Grand theft auto and all,” he continued. “You know Desmond loves that truck. You’re lucky he’s such a nice guy.” Victor motioned for me to climb inside his car. “And that he loves you more than he loves his truck.”

I was thankful reality had shifted to make room for my return. But would it have been too much to ask that I come back home the same way I’d left? Secretly? Alone and in the dead of night?

No.

I had to come back to a world where I’d apparently just stolen my new stepfather’s truck.

I was lost in thought as Victor drove down the curvy mountain roads to Woodvine, wondering how quickly I could make my way back to Judaculla. Undoubtedly, I’d be grounded. My mother and Desmond—whom I’d never met—would be keeping a close eye on me over the next few, what? Days? Weeks? If I gave even the slightest hint I was going to bolt, I knew I’d be on immediate lockdown.

None of it mattered, though. I didn’t care about what happened to me, didn’t care if I were grounded for weeks, because the portal wouldn’t open again until the next full moon. If I had to be away from James for a month, I didn’t care what I did. My heart ached over the amount of time that stretched between us. I consoled myself with the knowledge he had been rescued from the cabin. Undoubtedly, his next steps would be to get Tobias as far away as the co-op as possible. I felt thankful for Knox, Sadie, and yes, even for Ever, because I knew they could be trusted to help James.

“Leath?” Victor asked.

I glanced at him, just remembering he was with me. “Hmm?” I asked, trying to gather the loose threads in my mind to tuck them away until I was alone and could sort through them properly.

“You had another episode, didn’t you? Back there?” he asked.

There was something familiar about the concern in his tone. He was checking me out, diagnosing me much the way Will, his doctor father, would have done. But why? 

The accident.