He stood up to meet her, concern sweeping across his face. “What are you saying?”
She took in a deep breath. “I’m saying it’s time to face the truth we’ve both always known. We’ve stayed together all these years to give Skylar that stability, but she doesn’t need it anymore.”
He searched her face.
“You loved Cassie, not me. And if we’re totally honest, we made it work for so long, but now …”
Joel sank into the wicker chair behind him. “You’re choosing now to tell me you want out of our marriage?”
“It has to be now,” Rachel said. “The energies of the planet—”
“Enough with the fucking energies!” he snapped. “Take ownership of this moment and stop blaming the energies. If you’re out, that’s it.”
Her tone turned curt. “Joel, does this really surprise you? Are you really happy? I think if you admit the truth to yourself, you’ll agree with me. A break was inevitable, and to do it now gives us the freedom we both secretly seek.” She walked inside.
Ocean, leaning on the porch railing a few feet away, didn’t move throughout this conversation. She looked at her wristwatch. “It’s not even ten a.m. and already divorce hangs in the air. Crystal cylinders, life changes … I wonder what other surprises the day will bring.” She was almost jovial.
Joel looked up at her with a pained face and she softened momentarily.
“I’m sorry, Joel. Our biggest lessons are forged in the fires of pain. At least you have a new project to sink into. It’ll keep your mind busy.” She followed Rachel inside.
Joel stared at the black tree. Can this really be happening? His mind was spinning in five directions. Should he cry? Scream in anger? He did neither. He scooped up the velvet bag containing the crystal cylinder and left.
Suki paced in Skylar’s house, which was now her house, since her grandmother’s had been sold a month earlier. Much of the contents had been donated. Suki hadn’t wanted any of it, just the stuff from her room and a few boxes of mementos. She had moved into Skylar’s room and Skylar had taken the loft, Cassie’s old bedroom.
She wanted to do something to help Skylar, but Ocean’s plan involved a lot of waiting. She hated waiting more than any fight she could take part in. She knew what the red book said. She hadn’t told anyone. Milicent probably suspected that she had read it. It was most likely the reason she was so unconcerned about Suki studying in the library. She knew nothing she uncovered would be as detrimental as Devlin’s book.
She wondered what would happen now that a woman sat in the Oval. She had dreamed of this for years. Each election, the country came closer, and now, by “accident,” here they were. Questions ran through her mind … Will we continue with greater globalization, or return to a simpler way of living? How will Mica tackle the natural disasters happening in the country? Can she?
She stood in the kitchen in silence. Since Skylar had been taken, much of Suki’s life had shriveled to miserable silence. She’d enjoyed the silence she’d discovered at Silverwood. Meditation had helped her connect to the divine spark within her, just like Skylar had said it would. But this silence was different. This one was charged with fear. Chess pieces continued to move, and everyone had their role to play in Ocean’s plan, but the waiting would age her for sure. She twirled her one gray lock of hair around her finger. She’d hated it at first and tried to dye it, but it had refused to be covered. She’d finally realized that it was her wisdom showing through, and now she wore it like a badge of honor.
She thought of her life before and after meeting Skylar. Such a brief amount of linear time had passed, just two years, but everything in her life had changed. Her guarded, insulated life had been turned inside out. The way her well-intentioned grandmother had sheltered her from everything had made her rigid and closed off. Skylar’s mystical world had opened her eyes and her heart to a world she would now die for. Research had always been her magic. The faith Skylar had in the unseen, Suki had in data. Her stories were formulated by numbers.
She thought about calling her ex-boyfriend Kyle but stopped herself. She didn’t need him back simply to fill the silence. Calling him would only complicate things. And dating anyone else would have to wait until her part of the plan was done.
Michael, Skylar’s cat, yowled from the loft.
“Meow,” Suki answered flatly. His company would have to suffice, even though she wasn’t a fan of cats. He answered her again and she continued to meow in conversation as she climbed the stairs.
He sat at attention on Skylar’s bed, as if he’d been waiting there since she left.
“I’m sorry, bud,” Suki said, patting his head. “I miss her too. But we’ll get her back.” He pushed his face into her hand and purred briefly before he jumped down. He skidded across a piece of large, shiny paper before scampering down the stairs.
Suki picked up the paper and flipped it over. It was the Porta Alchemica Game they had taken from the Salem Witch Museum gift shop. She’d forgotten Skylar had taken a stack of those. The background of the paper featured various geographical locations: upstate New York, Italy, Greece, and one muted, nondescript island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Suki took one of the small paper doors out of the Ziploc bag stapled to the corner of the map and started moving it around like a Ouija board triangle. It “locked” on the island in the Atlantic. Underneath emerged a much larger island. “Of course, Atlantis,” Suki said dryly. “Why not.” She continued to move the paper door around. Another sticking place—Japan, her ancestry. Her heart leapt. She didn’t want to give in to the flutter in her heart. This must be what Skylar feels like, she thought. Connecting to the unseen outside of meditation. More than synchronicity, this was an actual dialogue with spirit.
Suki often thought of exploring her ancestral roots. Research was in her blood, but she had resistance to it. Her father was from Japan, and his mother had raised her after her parents died. But the tragedies of her early life had left her closed off from reaching out to other family members. Learning about them would only remind her of her parents and that was too painful, so she’d locked that part of herself away. But the experiences of the last two years had cracked open that door just a bit. She’d have to give it some thought.
One last go-round of the paper door landed on the continent of Antarctica. At first she started to dismiss it. No one cares about Antarctica, she thought. It was just ice. Then she gasped. Of course it’s ice, and it’s been melting at an alarming rate.
What did this frozen part of the world have to do with the great story they were all involved in right now? One person might know. She tucked the map under her arm and headed out the door.
Kyle was standing in the driveway when Suki got outside.
“Hi,” he said.
She took a misstep. “Hi,” she said back. It was creepy—she had thought of him and he’d appeared. She briefly wondered if she’d manifested him.
“How are you?” he asked.
“I’m good,” she said. “And heading out. Why did you come here?” She resumed walking to her car.
“I miss you, Suki,” he said.