EverWorld (Book 3 of the Down World Series)

Chapter Thirty-Five

I didn't notice the owl until I was inches from the tree. The brown and white splotches on his thick wings blended so completely with the branch he perched on, that only his glowing eyes piercing through the night gave away his location. He didn't make a sound, as though waiting for me to leave before he could get back to the business at hand.

I was an intruder. And we both knew it.

But, in any event, this wasn't the right tree.

When using a token to portal to a new place, as I had done several times by now, a door would have to be created. Out of what? Well, it depended. When I'd gone through the Yesterday door to Portland in order to follow my mom, the parallel door had appeared for me on the side of George's cabin. When Adam and I had used a chunk of brick from the mural on Graussman's Pharmacy to go to the '40s, we'd landed in the building's alley.

So when I had entered Amalia's door and landed here, in this dome in the future, a receiving door had magically sprung up for me to enter. And the only surface it could have used would have been a tree.

A very wide tree.

And the tree that my owl friend currently inhabited was not big enough around the trunk. I stared at his fluorescent yellow eyes through the dark night air, and he let out a whooping "hoot" as if to confirm my findings.

I spun around. Which tree had it been? And would I be able to make it open again with the flattened penny I held in my hand?

But I didn't have to look for long, because the correct tree now called to me.

Or, rather, the door in the tree, suddenly springing to life like a lantern in the night, appeared before me against the breadth of a giant elm.

And I only had to stand and watch in awe as the door on that tree opened, and a tall figure stepped out, silhouetted briefly against the glow of the portal. And yet, though I couldn't see his face, I knew the shape of his shoulders, the straightness of his tall spine. I knew everything about him and, even in the darkness, I knew my Kieren had come for me.

He stepped forward, his blond hair mussed into a swoop over one squinting blue eye, and the portal closed behind him, leaving us both in the warm night air, facing each other.

"There you are," Kieren said.

And I threw myself into his arms before he could say another word.

His long fingers stroked my hair, and I let myself dissolve into his wide chest. I was crying before I knew it, and then angry at myself for not keeping it together.

"Shh," he whispered. "You're okay now. I've got you."

He squeezed me closer, and I couldn't help but enjoy his embrace for a moment longer. I had been alone for so long now.

"How did you know?" I asked, pulling away from him a bit and wiping my eyes.

"There was a letter in your room," he said with his familiar smile, "from your mom."

I nodded, realizing he must have read Mom's letter warning me about Adam, and cringing a bit at how it must have looked—a letter abandoned in my room saying Adam was an attempted murderer. And me missing. Kieren had already hated Adam so much, this must've sealed it.

And yet somehow, in the future, I knew they would become friends. How?

"Your brother thought maybe you'd gone to Portland after reading it. When you weren't there, he called me and asked if I had seen you. He said you were missing when he and Piper got back from their honeymoon. You gave everybody a heart attack, M."