I crouched down beside them and gave them pets and forehead kisses. “I have to go on an adventure for a little while, so you have to stay here. Stay with Olli, keep Chutney safe. Mei-Ling, Tai, and Malik are around the corner. They’ll keep you safe.”

They each licked my face then curled back into Chutney’s body. I smiled and shook my head, then raced up the stairs. My stomach was churning worse than the ocean in a hurricane. My nerves were fraying with every step I took. Even as I stepped off the back porch and fresh air washed over me beads of sweat still rolled down my spine. My hands were shaking as I reached into my magic bag for the journal from Tegan. She said she included everything I might need so I had to assume that included how to get into the Seelie tunnels. Take the tunnel where Seelie dwell, that was the line in the prophecy.

I flipped through the pages of the notebook, searching for the words Seelie or tunnel when the scent of cinnamon swept over me. I gasped and straightened. Everest. He was behind me, I knew it. I felt it in the way the air pulsed and tingled against the nape of my neck. I knew it by the way every muscle in my body yearned for me to turn around and go towards that sensation. I licked my lips and took a deep breath . . . then slowly spun around.

Everest stood ten feet behind me and the sight of him robbed the air from my lungs. He was so beautiful. The golden rays of sunlight made his white hair look sandy blond like beach sand. His skin held a little more color in it. Those blue and white eyes sparkled like gemstones, I had the sudden urge to make a ring out of diamonds and sapphires to match them. The sight of him wearing Tenn’s hand-me-down black V-neck shirt and black ripped jeans unraveled me in ways I did not have words to express. There was just something in the casualness of it that made me swoon. Then I saw his bare feet in the dirt and a hot lump of emotion got stuck in my throat.

For a moment, or maybe an hour, we just stared at each other.

Then he sighed and shook his head, his voice was soft when he said, “you cannot start this journey without me.”

“You cannot go with me,” I whispered. God, I want you to. I wish you could. I don’t want to leave you. But I did not say those things, my mouth refused to form the words.

“I’ll be there all the same,” he whispered back, his eyes lowering to the notebook in my hand. “But also, you cannot open the Seelie tunnels yourself.”

“I thought Tegan would have instructions⁠—”