Page 2

*evermore*

I DUG MY SHOES into the ground and took off running, eyes focused in front of me as I sprinted into the forest, hearing nothing but the sounds of my friends running alongside me as I dodged trees and fallen logs. I knew we were short on time because the buses were leaving as soon as everyone finished their lunches. I wasn’t about to risk this chance by being a lazy slowpoke.

My face felt numb as the enormity of what we were doing pressed down on my chest. We were good kids. My friends and I tried our best not to break rules. We’d never had detention and we always did our homework.

So how was it possible that we were sneaking away from a field trip?

It was terrifying and exhilarating, the reality that we were actually doing it.

I wondered if the school would send out search dogs to find us once they noticed we were gone, but I immediately shut down those thoughts.

I couldn’t think about anything that might cause me to lose this golden opportunity.

“You’re sure you know where it is?” Kennedy yelled from behind me.

“I have a cramp in my side,” Allie panted. “Are we almost there?”

“Yes,” I assured them, even though I was worried. What if I’d read the maps—and the clues—wrong? What if we get lost in the forest and starve to death trying to get out?

“Stop it,” I said to myself, ignoring the cramp in my side as I saw the stream.

Yes—the stream! The stream meant we were close.

I started counting cottonwood trees, slowing to a jog.

The forty-fourth cottonwood beyond the spot where the stream crosses the path.

I heard Allie and Kennedy stop behind me, but they must’ve seen the concentration on my face because they didn’t say a word as I slowed to a walk and counted out loud.

“Thirty-nine, forty, forty-one,” I counted as I passed the trees, “forty-two, forty-three, forty-four!”

I looked up at the massive cottonwood tree. It must’ve been hundreds of years old to be the towering giant over the rest of the forest.

“This is it!” I squealed, then dropped to my knees.

Allie and Kennedy did the same, only Allie went around to the other side of the massive trunk. The secret hole was supposed to be at the base of this very tree, but there were a lot of old leaves and plants covering the ground.

I immediately started digging my hands into everything, shifting rocks and burrowing into the soil that just had to have one very important secret hole that would accept our golden wishes.

“Wait—what if there are spiders or snakes under here?” Allie asked, sounding scared, but I didn’t look up to get a visual because we didn’t have time for anything but hole-finding.

“There aren’t,” I assured her, trying to keep her from worrying even though I had no idea about the lifestyles of the gross and creepy.

A shiver slid down my spine at the thought of encountering either of those things.

“How do you know?” Kennedy said, sounding disgusted. “I bet there are a lot of spiders under here.”

I finally looked up from my digging, only to see my friends not digging and also looking at each other like they thought I was losing it.

“Come on, you guys,” I said a little too loudly, panicking because we didn’t have any time to waste. “Why did you even sneak away with me if you aren’t going to look for the portal?”

“We are ,” Kennedy snapped, “but we don’t want to die on a treasure hunt.”

“It’s not a treasure hunt,” I said.

“You guys,” Allie whined, “let’s not argue.”

“I agree,” I said, nodding, desperate to convince them to get moving before we got busted. “Let’s dig and we can argue later.”

They shared another look but started digging, thank goodness , and I was almost ready to move to another tree when Kennedy screamed, “I think I found it!”

Her eyes were bugging out of her face, and her mouth was hanging open in a huge, gaping O. I looked down and sure enough, in front of her knees, was a hole the size of a medium pizza.

“No way ,” Allie whispered, her mouth also hanging open.

The hole looked big enough to land in and get hurt but narrow enough that you’d get wedged somewhere inside the opening before you’d ever fall all the way down to… whatever awaited below. I crawled over on my hands and knees— who had time to climb to their feet? —and looked down into it. It seemed bottomless, like anything you dropped into that opening would fall for all of eternity and never land.

Holy freaking moly.

We’d found it. The portal.

Thank you, Nana Marie.

It was intimidating, being that close to something so powerful. If the legend was true, this was the actual spot where lightning had once split open the earth, forcing two worlds to temporarily merge.

A shiver of fear slid down my spine.

And then I pictured Nana standing on top of that fence with her hands on her hips.

Get a grip, kid.

“We need to prep our wishes,” I said, taking off my backpack and unzipping the outside pocket. I heard Allie and Kennedy doing the same, but I kept my eyes on my own work. I needed to concentrate, because this moment was pivotal.

For as long as I could remember, and until the day she died, my Nana Marie (when my mom wasn’t around, because she didn’t appreciate Nana “putting silly thoughts in my head”) had been telling my brother and me stories of the lore of four.

According to the legend, on April 4, the day that the first settler (Travis Glink) arrived in Glinko (our town), hundreds of years ago, he witnessed an epic electrical storm like none that had ever been seen before. The grass crackled and stood straight up like static-charged hair, the branches of the trees all lifted toward the sky, and lightning struck the very ground beside him, opening a gaping hole that formed a portal connecting the human world to the faerie lands.

Travis, scared of the unknown, quickly filled in the hole.

But not well enough.

That night, while he slept, four powerful faerie lords came up through the portal and instantly fell love-at-first-sight, head-over-heels, madly in love with Travis’s four daughters.

And the daughters were equally lovestruck by the sight of the red-robed faerie lords.

But when the four lords requested their four hands in marriage, Mr. Glink, wanting to ensure prosperity for future generations of Glinkonians, requested a magical donation.

A trade of sorts.

So it came to pass that each year, on the fourth day of the fourth month, for four hundred forty-four faerie years, the lords granted four wishes to four Glinkonians.

My nana had been obsessed with the legend and knew everything about it.

According to her, there were tales of people way back in the day who made millions, swam in priceless jewels, and married royalty—grantees who hit the jackpot with their wishes. But over time, the granted wishes seemed to be less grand, almost as if the magical wish “selectors” rewarded those who wished from the soul.

For the soul.

Nana personally knew of people who’d seen their dreams fulfilled and people who’d captured the hearts of their beloveds, all as the result of being wish “grantees.”

My brother and I used to walk around town and try to guess who those people were, but that made Nana Marie toss salt over her shoulder and tell us to zip our lips, because the lore was also steeped in secret. Not only were you not supposed to talk about it at all, but if you were lucky enough to become one of the grantees, you could lose everything by speaking your wishes out loud.

You couldn’t tell anyone what you wished for.

After Nana died, we found notebooks full of nearly illegible (but not to me, because we’d been writing each other notes for years) cursive that made my mom and brother laugh at her silliness, but gave me random words and coordinates to work with.

And more questions.

Some of her scrawlings led me to believe she could’ve actually been a grantee—

(A.T. made wish to marry architect but fell in love with X during four-month gap.

Transferred wish to me on the third day of the fourth month, just in the nick of time.)

while others hinted at the opposite—

(They said grantees’ wishes were nontransferable, so it was impossible.)

Regardless, her notebooks let me know she had a firsthand knowledge of the magic.

And that this was the 444th year.

The final year.

I wasn’t sure if anyone else in Glinko knew about or believed in the lore, mostly because Nana had been adamant about not discussing it with anyone outside the family, and I wasn’t about to enlighten them.

Of course, telling Kennedy and Allie was a no-brainer. I knew Nana Marie would approve because she’d always called them my “little partners in crime.”

Kennedy and Allie planned to just drop their wishes into the hole after saying the chant, with zero ceremony whatsoever. They thought the whole thing was really fun, and they were excited about the possibility of having their wishes granted, but they weren’t like me.

I wasn’t sure they actually believed in the lore.

But to me, it was serious business. I was doing what Nana had always wanted me to do.

Which was why they were right beside me, risking detention.

The very best friends.

They also knew I desperately needed my wishes (even though I couldn’t tell them what my wishes were), so they were all in, no questions asked.

“I call first toss,” Allie said, her voice startling me. I turned around and she was smiling, holding her wish package.

Nana’s notes had described in great detail the way the wishes needed to be requested. Only wishes submitted on the fourth day of the fourth month would be considered, and a “wishee” needed to write down their four wishes on a four-by-four-inch piece of paper, wrap it in four rubber bands with four pieces of local pyrite enclosed inside the packet, and say the chant.

“Fine. Go already,” Kennedy said, bouncing with excitement.

Allie lifted the pack to her mouth, tossed back her hair, and whispered:

“Four golden stones, four wishes planted.

I humbly request these four entreaties be granted.

By the power of four on the forest floor,

I seek to receive my wishes evermore.”

The three of us watched as she dropped the package and it went right down the center of the hole, falling toward mystical parts unknown.

“Gahhhh,” Kennedy said, grinning widely. “Your wishes are already on the way!”

“I know!” Allie said, smiling at me. “Can you even imagine if they were to come true?”

Of course I can , I thought. I’ve been imagining it my whole life.

Kennedy squealed.

“Shut up, shut up, you need to go,” I said, gesturing toward the hole, scared it was going to disappear before I had my chance. “You know Snurk’s going to do a head count soon.”

“Okay,” Kennedy said, smiling even bigger. She lifted her wish package and whispered into it:

“Four golden stones, four wishes planted.

I humbly request these four entreaties be granted.

By the power of four on the forest floor,

I seek to receive my wishes evermore.”

We all stared as Kennedy’s wishes fell into the hole and went right down the portal.

“Squeeeeeeee!” Allie said, letting loose with that irritating sound. But it didn’t matter because it was exciting. If there was ever a time to squee, this would probably be it.

“Go, Em,” Kennedy said, glancing over her shoulder in the direction of where we’d left our class. “Go!”

I stood, walked four paces back from the hole, then carefully held the wish package with only four of my fingers. Four fingers, each wearing a ring.

According to Nana, the more four, the better.

I took a deep breath and whispered into my wish package:

“Four golden stones, four wishes planted.

I humbly request these four entreaties be granted.

By the power of four on the forest floor,

I seek to receive my wishes evermore.”

“Four golden stones, four wishes planted.

I humbly request these four entreaties be granted.

By the power of four on the forest floor,

I seek to receive my wishes evermore.”

“Four golden stones, four wishes planted.

I humbly request these four entreaties be granted.

By the power of four on the forest floor,

I seek to receive my wishes evermore.”

“Four golden stones, four wishes planted—”

I heard Allie groan while Kennedy muttered Come on come on come on , but I didn’t care. If chanting it four times upped the odds of my wishes being granted, I was going to chant it four times.

“—I humbly request these four entreaties be granted.

By the power of four on the forest floor,

I seek to receive my wishes evermore.”

I opened my eyes and carefully tossed the package toward the hole, energy thrumming through my body as magic was literally happening in front of us. I watched my golden wishes heading for the yawning opening, and it felt like everything was moving in slow motion. Those hopes were gracefully falling to their fate, arching toward their destiny, but then, out of nowhere, a very big rock crashed into my small package, knocking it away from the hole and into the dirt.