Otherworld: A Son of Two Realms

Chapter 52: "16 Months Later..."

Night in the Alaskan wilderness was the closest Jack could get to Guildron without leaving Earth. Wide swaths of green and blue stretched across the sky like rivers of light against the background of endless stars. The view was doubly impressive in the frigid lake's hazy reflection, where the stars danced across the gentle waves. Sitting on the shore of the Kenai Peninsula, for a single moment Jack felt nostalgic for his time in the other world.

Further up the beach, Rufus stirred in his tent. After over a year of near-constant training, Rufus was satisfied that Jack could survive in any world and so had allowed them a little more comfort on their trips: tents, sleeping bags, radios, even some pre-packed meals. To Jack, the outdoors had become second-nature. Lighting a fire came as easily as switching on a light. The game trails that had eluded him at first now stuck out plainly everywhere he looked. And handling a sword was as natural as handling a fork and knife.

And yet, Cera had not come for him. Since the fire had burnt the library, nothing otherworldly had happened. Rufus guessed that Cera had simply given up, or better yet, that the King's Army had prevailed and killed the warlock. Jack still felt an odd tingling in the back of his mind every time he was near his father's book, even if he didn't see it, but even that seemed unextraordinary now.

The fear that had driven him to start the survival training faded, replaced instead by a simple desire to continue it. For his whole life, Jack had lived indoors, spending his time in front of televisions and computers, but now, the time he spent away from the wilderness was almost unbearable. During the weeks that he had to be at the Manor, either for meetings with the publishers or time writing, he always kept one eye on the window, thinking about the next adventure he and Rufus would undertake. Having explored every inch of Rocky Mountain National Park, they had branched out, visiting the wildernesses of all seven continents and learning to survive in deserts, rain forests, ice tundras, and everywhere in between.

Alaska was still Jack's favorite camping spot. Daylight in December only lasted six hours, which left plenty of time to sit and take in the sky. And right now, Jack was soaking up all of the serenity that he could get.

A sudden buzz cut the silence and Jack reached into his parka for the satellite phone. He also checked his watch. It was morning in Denver.

"Where the hell are you?" Harriet demanded, her voice crackling as the phone struggled to hold the connection. "You promised me no more disappearing into the wild!"

"It's not really the wild," Jack said, feeling a pang of guilt. "We're just down the coast from Anchorage."

"What if you had frozen to death? What if a bear had eaten you? You're about to be the centerpiece of a multi-million dollar launch. You can't disappear on a moment's notice!"

"I left a note."

"'Gone to Alaska, be back tomorrow' is not an acceptable note, young man. Do you have any actual understanding of what this premiere means for you? What about me? Did you stop for a second to think what you're putting me through?"

Jack sat quietly in the sand, knowing he deserved this. Harriet had been running around like a maniac in the last few weeks, making sure that everything was perfect for tomorrow night. He suddenly regretted planning this trip the same week as the premiere. Harriet certainly didn't need the extra stress.

She ranted on for another few minutes before Jack found an opening. "Harriet, I'm sorry. I swear this is it. No more crazy trips. I just needed to get out of the house one more time before the book tour starts. After this, I will be the perfect professional."

There was a pause before she returned. "You could have just gone to the movies like a regular person." When she spoke again, Jack could hear a hesitant smile in her voice. "Thanks for the flashback, at least. For a moment, I could swear I was talking to Marcus again. No one else was ever more frustrating."

"It must run in the family." Jack paused. "And about tomorrow tonight, did you check the guest list?"

"She's accepted the invitation," Harriet said. "I've got a car picking her up at the airport in the afternoon."

"Good. Thank you."

"Of course. Fly safe and I'll try not to kill you when you land."

Jack ended the call. "We need to break camp."

Rufus walked up from behind, stretching and yawning. "Was she pissed?"

"She just needed to vent," Jack said, looking up one last time.

"And Kate?"

Of course Rufus had heard that. "She accepted the invite." Jack and Kate hadn't spoken to each other since that night in the hospital chapel. Jack occasionally checked up on her through social media and he was sure she saw him in the tabloids and blogs. With the release of the seventh War of the Roads novel imminent, fans were hungry for any small detail about the book and its author. After just two hours, views of the world-premiere book trailer had crashed the publisher's website. Online preorders had broken every sales record ever kept. Even the release of the book's title had been front-page news.

To Harriet's credit, Jack had been kept mostly out of the spotlight, avoiding paparazzi, turning down interviews with Oprah and Ellen, and appearing at just enough at WOTR conventions to keep the fans from rioting.

That was all going to change soon, unfortunately. Jack was booked on a 22-city international tour that was to kick off tomorrow night with a release party at Ward Manor. It seemed as if everyone in the world was holding their collective breaths, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new five-hundred page epic.

To Jack, that made it the perfect time to escape into the wilderness, where he and Rufus could be the only people for miles. But in a few hours, he would be safely aboard the Ward family's jet and on his way to Colorado and the end of his private life.

"What are you going to say to Kate?" Rufus said.

"What can I say?" Jack said, feeling his stomach turn knots at the thought of meeting Kate again. The weeks after their breakup had been the worst of his life. At least when he had lost his father, Kate had been there to help him through it. As Harriet had begun planning the release party, Jack asked to invite Kate on a whim and had gradually regretted it ever since. "What should I say? What is she expecting me to say?"

"I'm glad you're not over-thinking this," Rufus muttered. Jack shot him a dirty look. "Tell me what you're expecting to get out of this? Do you think she's going to throw her arms around you and forgive everything?"

Jack shook his head.

"Do you expect her to forget about the whole other world business and act like nothing happened?"

Jack shook his head again.

"Okay, then you're just two friends who had a falling out and are meeting up again. Don't go into it expecting anything more than a friendly chat. I'm sure that's all she's expecting. If it's meant to be more than that, it'll happen."

Jack looked out at the lake, mulling over the advice.

"And at the very least," Rufus said lightly, trying to ease mind. "This'll distract you from the book."

Despite his best effort to remain sullen, a smile crept onto Jack's face. Rufus was right again: no matter how much he was dreading meeting Kate again, at least it gave him a chance to forget all about the god-awful travesty of a novel he was about to introduce to the world.