I pushed myself off the ground and let the blanket fall to my feet, eyes fixed on his.

“Hello, Grace,” the boy said.

A hand grabbed my shoulder as if warning me not to accept what I was seeing. I knew it was Bobbie without having to look; I could feel the tremble in her fingers.

“This isn’t right,” she whispered. “Think about what you are seeing.”

“You can’t be here,” I whispered to Eli, at a loss.

“Because I’m dead?” Eli asked.

“Yes. You’re dead.”

“But there is no death, remember?”

“Yes, but . . . your body . . .”

“Don’t worry about this body.” He smiled. “I only borrowed it. Your problem is that you worship the death of the body. You think it’s the final watershed that determines everything. It’s not. It’s no more than the shedding of a costume.”

“I worship death?” I was still trying to comprehend his appearance. Had I lost my mind?

“Yes,” Bobbie cut in. “You’ve lost your mind.”

“Better to lose your mind than to lose your identity,” the boy said as if he’d heard her, which I was certain he had.

“My identity as the light,” I said, already knowing where he was going.

“The light you’ve always been. Better to lose your whole life in body than to remain lost to the light that you are. But you cling to your experience of this life and fear loss. See? You’ve made an agreement with fear to keep you safe. It’s your master.”

I blinked as his words washed over me. Having faced my mother’s death, I drank them in like water.

“And you can only serve one master,” I whispered, the words bubbling up from deep inside my gut.

Eli gave me a nod. “Exactly. But don’t feel so alone—most people place their faith in fear instead of love.”

“In darkness instead of light,” I said as understanding filled my mind.

“This will only bring you suffering!” Bobbie said, her tone fearful and panicked. “Remember what happened last time you listened to him.”

“Surrender your attachment to safety, Grace,” Eli said. “When you attach yourself to this life, you blind yourself to who you are, and in that blindness you believe you’re separate from the light and can be threatened. You’ve unwittingly made an agreement with fear to keep you safe. It’s time to awaken to the light in which you’ve always been safe.”

“Follow wisdom,” Bobbie said. “This boy’s heresy will deceive you. Protecting yourself is the only way to ensure holiness.”

“To say you need to be protected from darkness only empowers the darkness as a threat,” Eli said. “Through your belief in it, you live in darkness.”

“Fear,” I said as it all came back to me. “But didn’t I become evil at the fall?”