The world spins in circles before my eyes, and my stomach lurches with the sensation of half-falling and half-floating. Colors run together, sound vanishes, and for a heartbeat, I'm convinced I'm being pulled in all directions at once.
And then, in sudden, frightening proximity, firm earth beneath the feet. I take a deep breath again, wincing at the dizziness. The air feels different in here—thicker, charged with something that raises the hairs on my skin. My lungs fill with the scent of pine and something else. Something old and unfamiliar.
"First times always go hard," he tells me.
I take in my surroundings, looking about at the world we've come to. We've come to a small clearing bordered by the most enormous trees I've ever seen. The trees' bark glows with silver radiance, and leaves glimmer in colors between indigo and violet. The sky above them curves in twilight colors, though I have no idea whether it's dawn and dusk there, or maybe neither of the two as I'm accustomed to.
"And then there's the edge of Velmara," Zach informs me, watching my expression.
"So, what do you think?"
I try to stand still—the residual trembling of my limbs after the battle with the demon, the strange new perception of the energy vibrating under my skin.
"As if I am still myself. But more."
Zach nods, as though it's self-evident. "Your Aether is responding to this world."
"So that's the Aetherworld?" I say, gazing about once more.
Will nods his head.
The last few days have been a daze—exhausting, surreal, like being inserted into the middle of another person's novel. So much has occurred in so little time, and I've had no time to make sense of any of it whatsoever.
That creature. It looked just like my father's face. And if it wasn't my father, then where in the world is my dad? And my brother? He just disappeared. Gone without a trace. How am I supposed to tell them everything that happened if they return? If they ever return?
And then there's Velmara. I suppose that's where I'm supposed to go. Is it really that much of a safe place to go to? Who runs a place like that?
I don't have any answers. Only question after question stacked high, and I am starting to think that I am the last person left who doesn't know the depth of it all.
Well, I need more information first.
A narrow pathway weaves between the trees before us, just visible in the creepy half-dark. When we set off down it, I see little blue spheres of light floating in the branches above, lighting the ground in front of us. If we move towards them, they follow, inquisitive, and flash away when I outstretch my hand to them.
"Light sprites," Zach explains.
"They're not harmful. They're kinda like an aether version of butterflies."
"That's cool," I say, watching as another group of lights circles my fingers before dispersing.
We continue on in silence for a few minutes, the trail slowly opening up as the trees thin out. I see increasing evidence of inhabitation—stones carved with markers along the path, lovely lanterns suspended from branches. It all seems meaningful, and then the trees branch off suddenly, and I halt.
What's before us is a house that seems to grow organically from the earth. Walls of growing wood twist upward in a spiral, the windows glimmering like warm amber. The roof is covered in what at first seems to be growing moss, softly radiating from within it the blue-green of bioluminescence. It's guarded by a garden of strange, unfamiliar plants—bushes of flowering plants that emit soft colors when the wind caresses them, herbs of crystal-leaved greenery that softly ring off each other.
But what takes my breath away is the figure standing at the garden gate.
The man is very tall and lean, and he has dark skin and close-cropped silver hair. His clothes are simple, much different from my imagination, dark pants and a loose white shirt rolled up at the sleeves. What impresses me the most is the aura that he carries. I can sense the vast amount of mana inside his body, and yet, it does not seem harmful or aggressive. Instead, all I can feel is an immense amount of positive energy from him.
His amber eyes then meet mine, and I feel a jolt like electricity pass through me. It's not painful, but more like an instinct, as if parts of me that have been sleeping are suddenly alert.
"Julius," he goes on, his deep voice rumbling. "I've waited a long time to see you."
Will and Zach both tense slightly, a movement that falls somewhere between respect and caution.
"Professor Griemore," Zach says to him.
The professor's eyes don't leave mine. "You've had quite the night."
It's not a question, but I answer anyway. "You could say that."
A smile plays on his lips. "Come in. We have a lot to talk about."
When the cottage door creaks open by itself, I hesitate. Everything is happening way too damn fast—demons, enchanted doors, a hidden school, and now this guy who has been waiting for me. Part of me wants to turn around and go back to my ordinary world of high school soap opera and ordinary problems. But I realize that now my past life is lost. Maybe it was never actually mine to begin with. I step across the threshold into Professor Griemore's house, bringing the last remnants of my old world with me.