Chapter 14
Kallie
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Kallie locked her apartment door with one hand while trying to hitch her oversized bag onto her shoulder. She was already running late after accidentally hitting the snooze button on her phone.
She jogged down the half-dozen steps in front of the old brick apartment building, the metal railing cold beneath her palm. The morning air was crisp and moist, the kind that hinted at rain later. She stepped onto the sidewalk.
"Kallie!"
She turned and found Amy standing by her car, coffee in one hand, purse in the other. Her blonde hair was curled perfectly. Her makeup was flawless, even at seven in the morning. She was everything Kallie wasn't. Amy was an extrovert with a friendly personality and an active dating life.
"Are you heading out already?" Amy asked.
"Yeah." Kallie forced a smile. "Trying to beat the rush."
Amy laughed. "You always say that. You know, you should come get coffee with me sometime."
"Sure, another time, though. I'm running late."
"You always say that, too." Amy shook her head. "You're such a loner. Always working or running off to have your own fun. It wouldn't kill you to hang out with me. I'm fun. I swear."
Kallie's stomach tightened. She liked Amy. She really did. But she couldn't sit in a café pretending she wasn't waiting for something else. Someone else.
"I can't today, but I promise that we'll get together soon." She waved over her shoulder. "I'm really late."
Amy raised a brow. "You always say that."
"Yeah, well...today I'm extra late."
Amy rolled her eyes but smiled. "Fine. Rain check. Maybe?"
"Maybe," Kallie echoed.
She hurried down the street, her pace only slowing once she turned the corner and Amy was out of sight. She exhaled, shoulders sagging with relief.
Her isolation wasn't intentional. It was the result of never being taught how to be anything else.
She pulled out her phone and opened the rideshare app. The driver arrived within minutes. A middle-aged man with kind eyes who'd picked her up before. She appreciated that he never tried to make small talk.
"Where to?" he asked.
She gave him the address. Today, she chose a rural road thirty minutes outside town. He never pressed her for a conversation while they traveled. All he cared about was the money she'd paid him through the app. She always tipped well.
The city faded behind them. Houses thinned out. Trees grew taller and more plentiful. The road narrowed until it was little more than a narrow strip of asphalt winding through the country.
"Here's fine," she said softly.
The driver slowed to a stop. "You sure? There's nothing out here."
"I'm meeting someone," she lied.
Though in her heart she was telling the truth, even if nobody would believe her, she was looking for a tear in reality, solely to return to Finn.
She refused to believe he wanted her gone. He'd pushed her through the rift, but she was young then, only sixteen. Her age probably freaked him out, or he thought she needed more supervision than she did. But now she was no longer a child.
She needed to see him again. She'd had her whole life to think about what happened. The universe had shown her another dimension, put a man who was the opposite of everything she was in front of her, and made her feel she belonged with him. Nothing and nobody could change her mind.
The driver nodded, unconvinced but polite. "Be safe."
She stepped out, the door clicking shut behind her. The driver drove off, leaving her alone in the quiet. Finally, she could breathe.
Keeping to the side of the road, she walked with her bag thrown over her shoulder. This time, she came prepared. She'd had time to figure out what happened the other times she left this dimension for another.
Looking back, she could recognize the differences.
The other times she'd visited, she was too caught up in being with Finn to realize he lived differently from her.
And while Everstill was odd, scary, and mysterious, she belonged there.
That was a feeling she never had in any of the foster homes or when living on her own.
The wind blew the tall grass, and the long stretch of road disappeared into the distance.
She adjusted the strap of her bag, making sure it was zipped. Inside were the things that mattered. If she got lucky and found her way to Finn, she'd be prepared.
She lifted her head, focusing on the distance, and continued to walk at a steady pace. Thanks to all the years of searching, she could walk for miles without getting tired.
Inhaling deeply, she tried to block out all the external problems—next week's work schedule, her rent due Monday, and the dread of failing to get to Finn. Tonight would suck if she had to return to her apartment and her miserable existence.
The air smelled like rain and earth. The sky was a muted gray, heavy with clouds. Excitement filled her, and she inhaled deeply. The weather was perfect for traveling through the veil.
She scanned the road ahead, looking for anything that would tell her she was on the right path.
At ten years old, she was too young to focus on the bigger picture, but she remembered the feeling of stepping through the rift.
It was like having all her worries and sadness washed away from her soul.
At sixteen, she recalled every detail. It was as if her tormented soul settled the moment she walked down the street to Finn.
Each day, writing down things she was afraid of forgetting, like how the trees leaned with the wind and the sky darkened.
There was a moment when all her breath left her body, and it was like a big hand came down and lifted her off her feet, twirled her until she was dizzy, and then set her down in a new town.
She'd searched for Everstill online, pored over old maps for days, and bought atlases from three different gas stations. There was no town by that name, incorporated or unincorporated, in existence.
But she never asked other people whether they had heard of the town or had experienced traveling through the rift the way she had.
Once, in high school, she'd mentioned the possibility of a different plane to her science teacher after class, and Mr. Dorchett gave her a hundred reasons why that wasn't possible.
When she argued that he was wrong, he gave her a D on her final.
She always understood that no one would believe her and that if she spoke of her experience, she'd get labeled in the foster care system as having mental health problems or, worse, that she was a liar.
Determined to keep going, she picked up her pace.
All she needed was a shimmer, a shift, or a wrongness in the air to show her the way.
She'd learned to recognize the signs. She'd walked hundreds of roads.
Some days, she traveled until her legs ached.
She'd worn through more sneakers than she could count.
Some days, she took Ubers to places she'd never been, hoping the veil would feel her coming.
Both times she'd slipped through, it had been different places.
Which meant it could be anywhere.
She just had to find it.
She walked faster, her heart pounding with a familiar mix of hope and fear. She'd been disappointed so many times, yet even that hadn't killed her desire to get back to Finn. She couldn't stop. Not now. Not ever.
After all the foster parents who gave up on her and sent her to a different home, she should be used to people pushing her away. But she refused to believe Finn pushed her through the veil because he didn't want her.
She wanted to talk to him and find out for herself. Maybe she was wrong, but she'd take the chance that she was right.
Finn. She inhaled deeply. He'd held her in the wind and pushed her to safety even when it broke him. She'd seen the look in his eyes. He was tormented. Whether that was because he pushed her away or because of the life he led, she wanted to know more about him.
Would he even remember her? She'd changed a lot. He might not even recognize her.
But she remembered him.
Every day.
Every night.
Every time she closed her eyes.
She walked around the curve in the road. The wind shifted. She stopped and caught her breath. Could she summon the road with wishful thinking?
"Please," she whispered. "Just let me find it."
The air calmed. She exhaled and trudged on.
She wasn't giving up. She kept walking and tried not to dwell on how much time was wasted searching that could be spent with Finn.
He was older than her. But the last time she saw him, he hadn't changed at all from the first time she met him. Of course, at ten years old, everyone was older than her.
Her obsession with him was as mysterious as the rift. It made no sense that she had fallen in love with Finn when she was ten years old, believing he'd be a nice person to foster her.
The next time she saw him, she knew the love she felt for him went beyond wanting him to take care of her. He was the most gorgeous person she'd ever met. He'd awakened something in her that could never be turned off. Every fantasy she had as she matured revolved around him.
Boys her age were immature and selfish. She concentrated on growing up, maturing, so that the next time she found Finn, he'd see her as a woman.
But, he hadn't. He'd taken her under his wing, protected her, and then pushed her back through the veil.
Afterward, he remained in her fantasies. Alone, she'd built a world around him. In her mind, she'd kissed, had sex, and planned their life together, never knowing if she'd see him again.
What could've made her insane had saved her life more than once. The hope of seeing Finn again got her through the foster system and into adulthood.
The wind shifted. Her imagination was as real as if she'd spent time with him.
Kallie sensed the subtle change in the air. She stopped walking.
The country road stretched ahead of her, cracked and narrow, flanked by tall grass and scattered pines. No houses. No cars. No signs of life. Just the hum of insects and the distant call of a crow circling overhead.
Her heart thudded once, hard.
This felt different.
She tightened her grip on her bag's strap, fingers brushing the worn canvas. Inside were the only things that mattered. Her whole life, condensed into a bag she could carry in case she never came back.
She took a slow breath and stepped forward.
The air thickened.
Not visibly. Not dramatically. But stifling, like walking into a room where someone had just been crying. Heavy. Charged. Emotional.
Her pulse quickened.
"Please," she whispered. "Finn?"
She walked another ten feet.
The wind picked up, swirling around her ankles and tugging at her hair. Her heart raced. The sky dimmed for a moment, then brightened again. Afraid to blink, she watched the road ahead. The road trembled beneath her feet.
This was it.
She knew it the way she knew her own name. The way she knew Finn's voice even after four years. The way she knew she belonged with him.
She stepped forward again. Unafraid and eager, she sought the shadow.
The air rippled.
A soft, low hum vibrated through the ground beneath her feet. The wind whipped harder, pulling at her clothes, her hair, her breath. The world blurred at the edges, colors fading into muted shades of gray and gold.
Her heart pounded so hard it hurt.
"Finn," she whispered, voice trembling. "I'm coming."
The ripple deepened. She shielded her eyes from the wind, squinting at the fate distortion in the center of the road like heat rising off asphalt. It widened as she approached, stretching, bending, darkening into something deeper.
A shadow.
A doorway.
A tear in the world.
This was the moment she'd imagined a thousand times. Her throat tightened. The moment she'd walked miles for. The moment she'd prayed for. The moment she feared never finding again.
She stepped closer.
The wind roared, swirling around her in a tight circle, lifting her hair and tugging at her clothes. The air tasted metallic, electric, and alive.
Her pulse hammered. She reached out a hand.
The shadow pulsed in return.
The world flickered.
And then—
The ground dropped out from under her.
She gasped, stumbling forward as the wind yanked her into the shimmer. Her vision blurred, the world twisting into streaks of light and darkness. Her ears rang. Her stomach flipped. She squeezed her eyes shut. Her scream was carried away in the wind.
The shadow swallowed her whole.
And Kallie fell.
Not down. Not up. Not sideways.
Just... through.
Through the veil. Through the world. Through the place she'd been searching for every day.
She was going to Finn.