Chapter 57

Walking out of the house was a blur. The faint sound of people talking came and went quickly as Elly ran. Her feet moved one after the other on auto pilot. It wasn’t clear that she was leaving the safety of the boundary until she felt the magic pull away from leaving her exposed. The longer she walked the more numb she became.

What exactly was she expecting to happen? For once in her life, she thought she would be able to choose. To have the tiniest choice of what happened in her life. It was ridiculous and she knew it. Her life wasn’t hers. All this trouble and drama happened because she hadn’t accepted that sooner.

The sun was high in the sky by the time Elly reached a familiar patch of trees. A crumpled-up blanket was surrounded by the hardened remains of dozens of melted candles. Bile rose in Elly’s throat. Any last threads of hope she had that it wasn’t real were torn to shreds. She stepped over the blanket and kept walking.

Any other time she would have loved walking through t