Laurel’s eyes filled with tears.

“I lied—about the ring I mean,” Tamani said, his voice soft and serious. “I didn’t just give you a random ring. It was yours. You gave it to me to keep until the time came to return it to you. You thought—you hoped—it might help you remember your life before you came here.” He shrugged. “Obviously it didn’t work, but I promised you I’d try.”

Cold rain dripped down Laurel’s arms as she stood silently.

“I never gave up on you, Laurel. I swore I would find a way back into your life. I became a sentry as early as they would allow and called in every favor I could to get assigned to this gate. Jamison helped me. I owe him more than I could ever repay.” He lifted her hands up to his face and brushed a soft kiss across her knuckles. “I’ve watched you for years. Watched you grow from a little girl to a full-grown faerie. We were best friends when we were little, and I’ve been with you almost every day for the last five years. Is it so unreasonable for me to have fallen in love with you?”

He laughed very quietly. “You used to come out here and sit by the stream and play your guitar and sing. I would sit up in a tree and just listen to you. It was my favorite thing to do. You sing so beautifully.”

His bangs were soft, damp tendrils now, hanging down across his forehead.

Laurel let her eyes travel the length of him: his soft black breeches tied at the knees, the fitted green shirt hugging his chest, and the symmetrical face that was more perfect than any human boy could ever wish for. “You waited for me this long?” she asked in a whisper.

Tamani nodded. “And I’ll wait longer. Someday you’ll come to Avalon, and when that time comes, I’ll show you what I have to offer you in my world, our world.

You’ll choose me. You’ll come home with me.” He held her face in his hands.

Tears stung Laurel’s eyes. “You don’t know that, Tamani.”

He licked his lips nervously for just a second before a forced smile cut across his face. “No,” he said hoarsely. “I don’t.” His hands on her face, stone-cold a second ago, now seemed to warm with the heat in his eyes as his thumbs traced her cheekbones. “But I have to believe; I have to hope.”

Laurel wanted to tell him to be realistic—not to hope for what might never happen. But she couldn’t force the words out of her throat. Even in her mind they sounded false.

“And I’ll wait, Laurel. I’ll wait as long as I have to. I have never given up on you.”

He pressed his lips to her forehead. “And I never will.”

He pulled her close and held her, and neither spoke. For a perfect moment, no one else in the world existed outside of this tiny space on a wooded path.

“Come on,” Tamani said, squeezing her one more time. “Your mother will be worried.”

They walked hand in hand, farther down the curvy path until Laurel began to recognize where she was. “I’ll leave you here,” he said, about a hundred feet from the tree line.

Laurel nodded. “It’s not forever,” she promised.

“I know.”

She lifted the thin silver chain holding the seedling ring and studied it—its significance far more compelling now. “I’ll think of you, just like I promised.”

“And I’ll think of you, just like I have every day,” Tamani said. “Good-bye, Laurel.”

He turned and walked back down the curving path and Laurel’s eyes followed his back. Each step he took seemed to take a piece of her heart with it. His green shirt was about to disappear behind a tree, and Laurel squeezed her eyes shut.

When she opened them, he was gone.

And it was as if the magic of the forest had left with him. The life that she could feel all around her—the magic that seeped through the gateway. The trees around her felt lifeless and empty without it.

“Wait,” she whispered. She took a step after him and her feet began to run.

“No!” The cry ripped itself from her throat as she pushed branches out of her way. “Tamani, wait!” She rounded another corner and her eyes searched for him. “Tamani, please!” Her feet pressed onward, desperate for a glimpse of that deep-green shirt.

Then he was there, turned half toward her with a guarded expression etched across his face. She didn’t stop or even slow her step. When she reached him, she grabbed the front of his shirt in both fists, pulling him to her, pushing her mouth up into his. Heat swirled through her as she pulled his face closer, tighter. His arms wound around her and their bodies melded with a rightness she didn’t bother to question. Her lips filled with the sweetness of his mouth, and Tamani held her against him as if he could somehow pull her inside of him, make her part of him.

And for a moment, she did feel like part of him. As if their kiss bridged the gap between two worlds, even if only for that one brief, sparkling moment.

A sigh that held the weight of years shuddered out of Tamani as their faces drew apart. “Thank you,” Tamani whispered, almost too quiet to be heard.

“I…” Laurel thought of David, waiting back home for her return. Why, when she was with one, could she think only of the other? It wasn’t fair, to feel so torn all the time. Not to her or David or Tamani. She looked up, forcing herself to meet his eyes. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. But my parents are in danger.

They need me, Tam.” Laurel felt a tear slide down her cheek. “I have to protect them.”