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I try to ignore the ache in my stomach and focus on the task at hand. A briar bridge stretches out in front of me. Wrenley leads and Rosie follows right behind her, spine straight, stride steady. Not even a wobble. Still, my hand finds her waist.

Just instinct.

“Hey, Blossom.” I trace the curve of her hip through the traveling clothes she wears, the ones we took from the ruined palace.

They’re of a strange make, stitched with a shimmering fabric that shifts between dusk blue and silver as she moves. The tunic is fitted at her waist, flaring over her hips, and there’s a high collar that brushes her jaw. The trousers tuck into soft leather boots, etched with star sigils along the seams.

She glances over her shoulder and smiles at me.

“So,” I say, keeping my voice light, “do you feel a mysterious pull to this isle too? A deep connection to your mother’s homeland? A sacred calling from the heavens?”

We’re close now. I can see the base of the isle above us, the rock jagged and dark. Nothing like the others we’ve crossed.

Rosalina frowns, her steps slowing as she squints up at it. “I don’t know. Wrenley feels so tied to this place. Like it’s in her blood. But I…” She trails off.

I catch the flicker in her eyes before she says it.

“Perhaps she feels more connected to our mother’s realm,” she says. “I grew up in the human realm after all.”

She tries to make it sound like it makes sense. Like it should explain everything.

But it doesn’t. Not to me.

Rosie’s always been a part of the Enchanted Vale. Not just living in it but woven into the people, the stories, the rhythm of it all. The flowers bend toward her. The earth listens when she speaks. The sea brings its tide to greet her. She is the Vale, and I hope she remembers it soon.

“Maybe,” I say, not wanting to contradict her, “but I’ve never seen Wrenley like this. Could be something else entirely. We don’t know anything about this place. There’s so much to be explored.”

“I know you love the unknown, Day.”

I lean forward and kiss her neck. “Not as much as I love you.”

But my girl is right. I do love this adventure we’re on, and I’ll love seeing whatever Wrenley’s creepy black rock holds.

I glance down.

The clouds curl below us, thick and glowing at the edges where the sun cuts through. Way, way down, I can make out the isle with the ruined city. The domes and broken towers appear as scattered pebbles.

We’ve climbed so high.

The sky is darker up here, a rich sapphire blue, and a heavy silence has taken hold of the air. The birds and bugs don’t like it up this high, I suppose.

But we’re too close to turn back.

I step off the briar bridge, and we all crowd onto a small isle, patched with grass. Above us floats our destination.

“That was quite the climb.” I look to Kel. “This is the one time I miss your frostiness. Would be nice to cool off right about now.”

Keldarion snorts. Beside him, Ezryn bends over, hands on his knees.

Cas tilts his head at the Spring Prince. “Burning up in there, Ez?”

A grunt is the only response.

Farron nods up. “So this is it, Wrenley?”

“This is it,” she replies.

Rosie and Wrenley glance at each other, then nod.