Alyson Noël - Shimmer

She gazed down at herself, clearly embarrassed to wear such attire while the prince was in rags.

And so he immediately manifested a new tunic for himself, while she took the opportunity to change into something a little less gaudy, a little more drab.

Then after shaking hands and hugging, and saying what turned out to be a pretty tearful good-bye, I started to turn away, sure it was really, truly over, when they reached the foot of the bridge and the prince turned to say, “Miss Riley!”

I glanced over my shoulder, meeting his gaze, and, well, let’s just say that’s when I finally reached the second goal I had made.

Not only had I broken down that bubble and ushered all those lost souls toward their true intended destinies, but because of it, the prince had rewarded me with the most warm and wonderful full-on, white-toothed, dimple-inducing smile.

“What’s that about?” Bodhi asked, glancing between us.

But I just shrugged, smiling and waving good-bye to the prince as I said, “Trust me, you wouldn’t understand.”

The second they were gone, Bodhi looked at me and said, “So what now? You still want to finish your vacation? We never did check out the town.”

But I just shook my head. As far as I was concerned, my little vacay was o-v-e-r. No matter how cool that town was reputed to be, no way could it hold a candle to the places I’d been.

I’d just experienced the kind of amazing St. John adventure that could never be found in any brochure, which pretty much guaranteed that anything that followed would only pale in comparison.

“So what, then?” He crouched down to pet Buttercup, while still gazing at me. “You wanna go somewhere else? The Council’s not expecting us back any time soon, which means we can pretty much do whatever we want.”

I narrowed my gaze, drummed my fingers hard against my hips, and took a little time to analyze what he’d just said.

Why was he trying so hard to keep me at a party that was so clearly over?

Was he baiting me?

Trying to trick me by seeing if I’d choose lingering in St. John over heading back to the Here & Now and face the repercussions for taking on a job that hadn’t been assigned to me?

Or was he serious about continuing the vacation?

And if so, for what reason?

Was it so we could continue to get to know each other better?

Because, quite frankly, after experiencing what it was like to be him during that whole scene with Nicole, I was pretty much feeling like I knew him better than I ever wanted to, thankyouverymuch.

And, I have to say, the longer I pondered, the more of a conundrum I found myself in—one in which I was, yet again, torn between both the more rational and paranoid sides of me.

“Let’s go,” I said, nodding firmly so he’d know I was serious. “Let’s just make our way back.”

He looked at me, his eyes gone all squinty as he made some totally disgusting slurping sound with his straw.

“Seriously. I mean, we’re almost there anyway, so why delay any further?”

And the way he looked at me, well, let’s just say it was so revealing, I couldn’t help but realize that Bodhi wasn’t actually baiting me per se—it was more like he was baiting himself through me.

He was the one who didn’t want to return.

He was the one who was afraid to go before the Council.

After everything we’d just accomplished, which was pretty dang major if I do say so myself, he was feeling pretty insecure about how it might go over—doubting the Council would view it in his favor.

After all, his job was to guide me, and if you think about it in its most basic terms, it was pretty clear he’d totally failed on that one.

He’d tried to guide me toward not going after the Hell Beast. But did I listen? Of course not! I just willfully went off on my own, leaving him with no choice but to chase me down, and even so, once he caught up with me, he still couldn’t stop me—he’d had no choice but to follow my lead.

The thought alone made me feel bad.

Maybe even a tiny bit ashamed of myself.

Clearly, I was just as difficult to guide in my death as I had been in life.

I was still stubborn, still impulsive, still impatient—I was all the awful things he’d accused me of being and more.

It was as though nothing had changed—or at least nothing having to do with my personality anyway.

And yet, as he himself said earlier, I’d had every right to exercise my free will.

And no one, not even my guide, could rob me of that.

“Let’s go,” I repeated, glancing over my shoulder to see Buttercup running, trying to catch up with me. “We can fly, we can walk, we can ignore the bridge and take the long, scenic route if you want. I’ll leave that up to you. In the end, it all leads back to the same place. It all leads back home.”

By the time we got back to the Here & Now, Bodhi seemed pretty eager to be rid of me.

I didn’t even get so much as a good-bye, see ya later, adios, nothing, before he was well on his way.

“Um, hel- lo !” I called, narrowing my eyes at his retreating back and shaking my head. “Aren’t you forgetting a little something called the Council ?” Sure, he was trying to avoid what I knew to be inevitable.

He stopped, spun on his heel, and looked right at me. “ We don’t approach the Council, Riley, the Council approaches us .”

Oh.

I gazed down at the ground, feeling painfully aware that for all my bravado on the earth plane, I was still pretty incompetent Here.

“So, how will I know when it’s time?” I asked, feeling kind of stupid for asking, but how else was I supposed to learn?

But Bodhi just looked at me. “They’ll summon me, and then I’ll summon you.” He gazed all around, as though he had somewhere urgent to be. “So—are we through here?” he asked, never more eager to get away from me.

I nodded, watching him retreat again, and having to physically restrain Buttercup from going after him.

Traitor! I’d started to say as I glared down at my dog, the word melting fast on my tongue the second he gazed up at me with those big brown eyes.

Still, it’s not like I could blame him for preferring Bodhi over me. From what I’d seen, Bodhi was like the rock star of this place. In fact, he probably had a whole slew of groupies and friends, an entire entourage of fans just waiting to catch up with him, while I just had me.

Okay, maybe that’s not exactly true.

Maybe I had my parents and my grandparents too.

But still, as nice as it was to know they were out there, somewhere, it still couldn’t compare to the kind of friendships I longed for.

The kind I’d had back on the earth plane.

The kind that came with laughs and good times and a shared interest in a lot, if not all, the same things.

And to be honest, not only was I totally confused by the way things worked Here, but I was so bad at controlling what could only be described as my overly judgmental, superficial thoughts and opinions that apparently everyone could hear, that I didn’t even know how to go about making any friends.

So I wandered. Telling myself it would help me get the lay of the land, though the truth is, deep down inside, I knew it was a lie.

I knew exactly where I was headed, which meant it came as no surprise when I ended up just outside the Viewing Room.

Even though I knew it was discouraged, if not downright frowned upon—even though I knew it would disappoint my parents, the Council, and probably Bodhi as well, even though my dog stopped just shy of it, refusing to be an accomplice and go any farther, gazing up at me with an Oh, no she didn’t kind of gaze—I ducked in anyway.