Page 71 of One Merciful Moment

His knees buckled, and he sank to the ground, palms still pressed against the barrier, blood dripping onto the street. "Ashley..."

But the veil didn't answer. It had taken her, and it wasn't giving her back.

Boone stayed there, willing to sacrifice himself until the sun climbed higher and the world around him pretended to be normal again.

Everstill had reset.

Boone had shattered.

Chapter 42

Ashley

––––––––

Moe, Jillian, Finn, and Kallie sat together on the old picnic table near the garden beds, all of them watching her with a strange mix of excitement and caution. She pressed down on her thighs to keep her legs from jumping. It was surreal to see them here, in her world, in her grandmother's yard, surrounded by tomato vines and sunflowers instead of Everstill's quiet street.

Finn leaned forward first, hands clasped. "We think we figured out what Copper meant about the veil being a bridge."

She blinked, still overwhelmed that they were all here. "A bridge?"

"We think we can travel back and forth." Kallie bit her bottom lip.

She gawked. "What? How? That's not possible."

Moe exchanged a look with Finn, then turned back to her. "Have you ever seen the darkness?"

Shivers went up her spine. She rubbed the back of her neck and nodded. In Boone's house when the storm came. She remembered how it moved, how it breathed, how it felt alive.

"That's why we got pulled back into Everstill," Finn said. "We thought it was stalking us. But it wasn't. It was guiding us to the bridge. It's still here."

She shook her head immediately. "No, that doesn't make sense. I don't see any shadow here."

Moe pointed toward the edge of the backyard. "Look. Really look."

She followed his gaze, squinting at the fence line, the patch of shade beneath the maple tree. Nothing moved.

"I don't see anything." She slumped on the bench.

"Try again," Moe urged. "It's not like the storm when it's loud and in your face. It's quiet and blends in with everything."

She stared harder, scanning every inch of the yard. The sun was directly overhead. It was too early for shadows. Everything appeared normal.

A quiver rolled through her stomach. She wasn't even sure she wanted to see the shadow. It freaked her out that it followed her here. But it scared her to death that she might be blind to the one thing that could take her back to Boone.

She swallowed, staring again at the corner of the yard, wanting something to shift. But nothing moved.

Jillian reached across the table and wiggled her fingers. Ashley put her hand in hers.

"We're telling you all this..." Jillian's mouth softened. "Because we're going back to Everstill."

Her heart dropped. She pulled her arm back, but Jillian wouldn't let go.

"You have to understand. I saw my mom this morning. She was exactly the same. No worse. No better. Like time hadn't touched her at all. She even had a moment where she recognized me. I asked if she missed me, and she said, 'You were just here. There's no time to miss you.'"

Jillian let go of her. Ashley clasped her hands under the table.

"By the end of the visit, Mom shut down again," Jillian continued, voice cracking. "And I realized Everstill is the only thing keeping her alive. When I'm there, time stops for her. She doesn't get worse. She doesn't slip further away. If I go back, I keep my mom alive."