The Forest of Sleepers (Nowhere Book 2)

e p i l o g u e

 On the night Wyatt Best returned to Nowhere, the stars that shivered up above released the breath it had been holding.

They watched as the storm blew in over the clearing, blue and green like a bruise against the horizon, bringing the smell of summertime although it was winter.

As Gwydyr breathed its last, it delivered two lives and took two home; a life for a life, as it had always been.

Ophelia and Marshall were sitting on the grass having a picnic when he began to fade. He knew it was for good this time--he could feel its permanence.

But he wasn't afraid anymore.

He told Ophelia not to grieve. She'd done enough of that, after all.

She bore it dutifully, though she wasn't able to keep the tears from her eyes. She was glad to have known him, to have loved him. And she kissed him until he was gone.

It was Rose and Oscar who saw Marigold walking up the driveway, wearing the same green dress she'd been wearing on the day they'd lost her.

At that moment, they didn't care if she was a ghost or a figment of their imagination. They ran toward her and she toward them.

They collapsed together on the grass, laughing, weeping, hugging.

Marigold tried to apologize for everything, saying that she never knew how much she really had, but her words were drowned out by her parents murmuring that they loved and missed her.

She felt a familiar warmth in her chest. Home. Belonging. Her reach had finally grasped what had always been hers and now she clutched it tightly to her chest.

Silas watched this exchange from his perch in the barn, wonder in his eyes. As he faded, he didn't think of everything that had happened to him, for once. All he felt was this moment, this display of the family he'd never gotten.

And he smiled.

A few miles away, Birdie sat at her desk at the Post.

She'd quit her job as head writer and had decided to go back to obituaries.

Obituaries, however, were not what she was working on. Instead, she was posting a weekly serial in the paper, entitled "The Sisters of Nowhere"--about three girls who'd summoned an impossible forest and accomplished impossible things. It was her heart on a page, just like she'd always dreamed.

Then, there was a knock on the door.

Nobody ever knocked at the newspaper's.

Birdie opened it, and there he was.

His hair was a mop on his head, his hazel eyes like crystal, and he wore an absolutely horrendous sweater vest that somehow made him look absolutely dashing.

He said, "I've made a lot of promises to you recently, Bernadette Penny. This is me keeping them."

Birdie smiled, a radiant thing that made the very stars blush as they watched.

She said, "I took care of your roses while you were away."

THE END

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I have so many things I could say about these two little books, but I'll try to keep it short. In 2020 I was having a really difficult time wanting to hold my siblings too tightly. A time when I, like Birdie, was afraid of losing those I loved and blind to welcoming new relationships into my life. It was then that I wrote Book 1. It's funny how "The Forest of Sleepers" runs parallel even still. The difficulty of letting go, but the freedom found in doing so. I try not to self-insert into too many parts of a novel, but these books just happened to form when I needed them most and for that, I'm so grateful.

I enjoyed every moment of these books, these characters, this setting, and I can only hope you've enjoyed them as well! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for coming along on this journey with me and the Penny-Best Gang!

~What was your favorite part of the book?

~Who was your favorite character?

~Any favorite lines?

~Favorite scene?

~Any general comments on the book?

Again, THANK YOU for reading! You guys make writing that much more joyful! I'll keep this page updated for future projects, so stay tuned!