He kissed me again, and every brush of his lips was a silent, heartbreaking goodbye. He pulled back, then whispered against my lips, “I barely resist counting the hours until the day I find you again.”

CHAPTER SIXTY

FRANKIE

I let myself cry. As the green glow of the Seelie tunnel faded against my closed eyelids and the cold air swept across my body . . . I let myself cry. Not for me, but for him. I knew I was the lucky one, the one who didn’t have to suffer through eight centuries without my soulmate. For me, I knew by the sound of cars honking around me and the girls talking about the selfie they’d just taken, that I was back in the future. In my lifetime. Not that I expected anything less than Everest sending me home. While I was relieved to be back and to have successfully completed my quest, my heart hurt for my soulmate. I knew I’d find my Everest any minute now and I was excitedly impatient to see him, for him to know his wait was finally over.

But for a moment, I let myself cry for him. Because there was no way he wasn’t in that beautiful secret tower room watching the moonlight glisten over the snow around Avolire, wishing I had not left.

“It was the worst April Fools’ joke ever,” some girl said as she walked by me. “There are some things that just aren’t funny, ya know? So, I haven’t spoken to him since. Twenty-six hours and counting. He’s losing it.”

April Fools’ Day? I frowned and opened my eyes—and gasped. I was not in Eden. Nor was this Tampa, or New York City, or any city that I recognized. I had no idea where I was. The air was cool, but after being in Avolire it was hard to think anything higher than freezing was cold. Especially as I was still barefoot. Where the hell am I?

I stood at the corner of an intersection as cars flew by me. The sky was a vivid navy-blue with stars twinkling above, the moon a teeny sliver of a crescent. There were people walking up and down the streets in every direction, not a ton of people but a decent enough crowd to suggest it wasn’t late at night. To the left it looked like a busy street full of shops and restaurants, or at least from what I could see. Straight ahead was quieter, but there was definitely a busy intersection just up ahead. To my right was a hotel with a sign that read Salem Waterfront Hotel & Marina.