“You do what Bryn would want you to do.” He smiled at me. “You live.”

New tenants would be moving into the apartment over the weekend, so we worked our butts off and managed to have the place ready by Thursday afternoon. “It’s so weird,” I said as I surveyed the empty apartment above the carriage house. “It looks so much bigger without the furniture.”

“So does my place,” Pan reminded me.

We’d mostly emptied his apartment—either giving away or selling most of the furniture, and we’d put some stuff in a storage space above his friend Hugo’s garage. All that we had left was an air mattress and the things we were taking on the road with us. There were a few more things we needed to get in order, but if all went well, we’d be leaving Monday morning and heading out across the world to see where we wanted to live. We’d start with North America, since it was easier traveling with an active dog like Brueger by car than by plane.

But we didn’t know where we’d end up, and that filled me with such wonderful excitement. I had spent so much of my childhood reading Mr. Tulin’s nature magazines, imagining all the places I could visit and all the lives I could lead.

And now Pan and I were about to actually go off and lead the lives we’d only hoped for.

“Are you ready for all of this?” I asked him.

“Yeah.” He came over and looped an arm around my shoulders. “Aren’t you?”

“Yeah.” I surveyed the apartment one last time, the high open ceilings and the beams I had seen Eliana do acrobatics on, the loft where I had talked to Jem about my mother, the living room where Dagny had become my best friend, where I spent my last happy memories with Bryn.

And then from the ceiling beam, I spotted a big fat spider hanging from a long thread.

“There’s a giant spider up there.” I pointed to it.

“Oh yeah,” Pan said. “Looks like the new tenants are moving in early. That probably means we should head out.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “It’s time to move on.”

He kissed me. “On to our new chapter.”

“On to our happily ever after.”

GLOSSARY

Adlrivellir—the name of a legendary land.

Áibmoráigi—the oldest troll establishment on earth. It is located somewhere in Scandinavia, but its exact location has been lost since before 1000 CE. Frequently referred to as the “First City.”

akutaq—a traditional Inuit food often referred to as “Eskimo ice cream.” It is not creamy ice cream as we know it, but a concoction made from reindeer fat or tallow, seal oil, freshly fallen snow or water, fresh berries, and sometimes ground fish. It is whipped together by hand so that it slowly cools into foam.