“What are you talking about?”
“Their whole cabin is glowing.”
Even before Verity’s hand came to rest on Addison’s fore-
head, she could feel the heat radiating from it.
“Come on, let’s go back,” Verity said. “You’re burning up.”
Addison jerked away from her. “I’ve never felt better.”
Verity squinted but still couldn’t see the cabin. Yet Addi-
son staggered to her feet and limped into the clearing.
“Addison, wait!” she called after her, but Addison acted
like she hadn’t heard. Without thinking, Verity got up and
ran after her. Even with her injured leg, Addison navigated the
rough and uneven terrain easily, while Verity lost her balance
more than once.
“There you are,” Addison said, when Verity finally caught
up. “Now do you see it?”
Verity looked where Addison pointed and gasped. The
cabin wasn’t there, and then, it was—just as Addison had said.
A soft, golden light emanated from its walls, and when Ver-
ity saw it, it was like walking up the driveway to her house
after the last day of school before Christmas break, or like the
smell of coffee and the tinkle of bells that greeted her when she
walked through the door of her favorite bookshop back home.
Verity gulped down deep breaths until the lump in her
throat disappeared and the tight feeling in her chest subsided.
Then the boy appeared in the door.
It was the same boy they’d seen the day before, the one
who had gathered the firewood. He had sun-bleached hair that
was probably brown in the wintertime and eyes that were two
different colors—one blue, one hazel. Or at least that’s what he
looked like to Verity. Whatever it was that Addison saw must
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