Corinne Duyvis: Otherbound

And when she helped anyway, when she couldn’t bear not to because one look at Cilla made her want to press her as close as she could, it would be Cilla’s turn to wonder the same things. Because how could she be sure?

They couldn’t be equals.

They could love, and Nolan hoped they did, because they had no one else now. But the intensity would fade, and the past would creep back in.

Maybe. He didn’t know.

He wrote: They manage despite everything. Amara asks Ruudde to help with Edo’s bar and Olym’s farm. She wonders about that boy sometimes who

No. He wrote: She misses Maart a lot & places stones on his grave.

And, the next week: She works in the palace alongside Lorres, helping servants where she can. Then she fights a revolution and she wins and servants are no more.

A month after: She finds her parents and they move to Eligon, and she never sees Cilla again. She finally relearns Elig.

And: She and Cilla track Cilla’s family on the Alinean Islands, and they travel the world.

And: Every morning on the beach, she practices her writing and watches for diggers.

And: She is, and stays, her own.

And: I’m going to watch TV with my parents and Pat. She was right: I have nightmares about Jorn now, and about Maart. I’m seeing a therapist. I can’t tell the truth but it still helps. I try to help Pat, too.

I’m going to apologize for being a dick to Sarah Schneider and ask her out again. Not just because I can, but because I want to. And I’ll find other things to want. I’ll listen to music. I could learn to draw, or study acting like Pat.

I don’t care about the movies yet, but I care about movie nights, and that’s a start.

Nolan put the journal with the others and locked the Dunelands away.