Page 16 of Loving Amari

I walk over to the remaining doors. The first one is plain, wooden, unremarkable except for the strange warmth radiating from it. I open it and gasp when I see the dorm hallway of the academy. Students walk past, unaware that I’m watching them from another realm. I can hear their laughter, feel the warmth of the heating system. I immediately close it.

Then I go to the third door. This one is sleek, modern, with a silver handle that feels cold even from here. Corporate. Professional. My stomach turns before I even touch it.

I open it, and rage fuels through my body.

I’m staring at the Brookstone and Blackburn tower. It rises fifty stories into the gray Michigan sky, all glass and steel and corporate arrogance. The building is a monolith of modern architecture, with its facade of dark glass that reflects the city like a black mirror. At the top, massive letters spell out BROOKSTONE & BLACKBURN in white that glows even during the day. The logo between the words is a double helix wrapped around a gear, representing their twisted combination of biotech and industrial manufacturing.

From this angle, I can see into some of the floors. Labs with people in white coats. Conference rooms with men in suits. And somewhere in there, my children were cut open. Verde and Petra were dissected like specimens.

What the fuck.

I quickly close the door, my hands shaking with fury. I hurry to the door I came through, the one that should lead me back to Amari. I try to open it, but it’s sealed shut. I try to use magic, pink threads wrapping around the handle, pulling, pushing, burning, freezing. Nothing works.

Maybe my only way out is to go through those doors.

But then I hear Vertro beating on the door from the other side. His massive legs pound against it, trying to break through to get to me. The entire room shakes with each impact. Then Vertro stops.

Silence.

I wonder what the hell is going on.

The doorknob suddenly turns.

I become defensive, preparing myself for battle. My magic pulses in my hands, bright and ready, threads weaving between my fingers like weapons. But when the door opens, I see the last person I’d expect to see.

Aya Bailey.

And Vertro doesn’t see her as a threat.

She’s not solid. Not really. She’s translucent, like looking at someone through frosted glass. Her form flickers at the edges, fading in and out of existence. She has rich brown skin, but it’s muted now, ghostly. Her hair is a mass of wild black curls that seem to move with a wind that doesn’t exist here, falling past her shoulders in waves. But it’s her eyes that capture me. They’re piercing blue, bright even through her ghostly form, and they burn with an intelligence that makes me want to step back.

She’s wearing a cloak that flows around her like liquid smoke, shifting between solid black and transparent gray. The fabric moves independently of her body, swirling and eddying as if it has its own life. Beneath it, I can see robes covered in symbols similar to Tabatha’s, but these are fading, losing their power.

She stands in the doorway between the room and the void of limbo. She’s just watching me with those knowing eyes.

Aya smiles, and it’s not a kind expression. It’s knowing. Amused. Like she’s been waiting for me to figure something out and I’m finally catching up.

“Ah, you’ve finally found Nathaniel. So when are you going to get out of that fucking honeymoon phase you’re having with Amari and deal with this?”

What in the actual fuck?

6

AMARI

Three Days Later

Three days later, I stand at the new technology center, looking over the equipment one final time before the doors open. The virtual reality stations are pristine and ready, each one a portal to worlds these children have never imagined.

The coding terminals sit in perfect rows, their screens dark and waiting. Every cable, every screen, every piece of hardware has been tested twice. The 3D printers stand ready at the windows, capable of bringing digital dreams into physical reality.

Headmistress Ebony enters and looks around, marveling at the space. “It looks amazing in here, Amari.”

I feign a smile while looking over it. Carla’s been gone three days. Three days without a word, without feeling her through our bond. It’s driving me insane, not knowing when she’s going to come back. I can’t even feel her. It feels like a physical loss, and I should have told her that. Like the mate bond has been severed from me. The emptiness weighs on me, constant and suffocating. I know she’ll come back for him. That’s the onlything keeping me anchored. But even Tofi has left me, along with Moria and Kemnebi. When I went into the forest to check on the other children, they were gone as well.

They’ve never all left at once. Something is wrong.

Nothing has terrified me quite like this silence. The not knowing. The waiting.