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Back The Ever After Save as PDF
Chapters (92)
  1. Cover
  2. TheEVERAFTER
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
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  10. 8
  11. 9
  12. 10
  13. 11
  14. 12
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  88. 86
  89. Epilogue
  90. GLOSSARY
  91. TheEVERAFTER
  92. By Amanda Hocking

—then I opened my eyes and took a deep breath. Freaking out in a cramped airplane bathroom wouldn’t help me or anyone else, no matter how badly I wanted to.

I splashed cold water on my face, and when I left the bathroom, I went straight to find a flight attendant.

She was a middle-aged woman with dyed bright red hair and kind eyes, and her name tag said Kirsten. She listened politely and answered my questions, even when they bordered on the ridiculous. Like “What day is it?” and “Are you sure that’s the correct date?”

When I asked, “Did you see me get on the plane with anyone else?” that’s when her expression changed to concern.

“Are you in trouble?” she asked me quietly, her kind eyes studying me. “Did you board the plane against your will?”

Maybe. Probably. I have no idea.

“Um, no.” I shook my head and forced a smile. The last thing I needed was a human police force getting involved, especially with their highly sensitive airport security. “Just really jet-lagged.” I laughed, a brittle sound that didn’t help at all. “Can I get a ginger ale?”

She sent me back to my seat with a plastic cup of soda, and she kept an eye on me the rest of the flight. I sipped the soda, ignoring the queasy feeling it gave me in my stomach. When Kirsten the flight attendant was busy elsewhere, I slid out of the seat and checked my overhead bin for my duffel bag, but it was empty of any recognizable luggage.

I hadn’t been able to find anything around the seat, besides the crumpled ticket, and I had my fake “Emily Miller” passport in my pocket. That was all I had on me. I was traveling across the ocean with no cell phone, no money, no one I knew, nothing. And I had no idea what was waiting for me on the other side.

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Hostage

The hyper-surveillance in airports made me uneasy, so I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. But I couldn’t give up on the hope that there was something waiting for me in baggage claim.

As I waited, I chewed my lip and tried to come up with a plan if I was stranded alone in a large human metropolis. Then, as I tried to remember if pay phones were still a thing in the human world, I heard a familiar voice saying my name.

I turned around to see Finn Holmes standing there, and I was so relieved I burst into tears. I ran over to him and threw my arms around his neck, and he hugged me back.

“You’re home now, Ulla,” he reassured me in his warm, rumbling voice.

“What are you doing here?” I asked when I finally released him, and I wiped at my eyes with the long sleeves of my sweatshirt.