Chapter 122: Through The Portal (II)

Elara:

The moment I stumbled out of the portal, I nearly lost my balance. The sensation of traveling through it was nothing like anything I had experienced before. It felt as though every part of my body had been stretched between two points before being abruptly thrown back together, leaving my head spinning and my stomach unsettled.

Jasper’s hand remained wrapped firmly around mine until he was certain I was steady, and Crazy was still tucked against my chest, looking considerably less impressed by the entire experience than I was.

I blinked several times, trying to make sense of my surroundings. There was no snow. No freezing wind. No familiar towers of Moonveil Academy. Instead, warm, damp air brushed against my face, carrying the faint scent of grass and earth. I could hear insects somewhere in the darkness, their quiet chorus filling the night, and the trees around us were still green despite the fact that it was January.

I frowned as I looked around. "Where are we?" I whispered.

Jasper didn’t answer immediately. He simply looked around, apparently making sure we were the only ones there. The woman had followed us and already closed the portal.

"Jasper, where are we?" I asked again.

This time, he looked at me. There was something different in his expression, something almost solemn. "We are in Florida."

My heart stopped. Florida. The word alone struck something inside me that I couldn’t immediately explain. I looked around again, more carefully this time. The warm night air. The vegetation. The familiar sounds that I hadn’t heard in months. This wasn’t Starfall. This was home. Or at least, the place I had once believed was home.

We started walking, and with every step, my confusion only deepened. The path beneath my shoes was uneven, surrounded by trees and patches of overgrown grass. There were no houses nearby, no streetlights, no cars. Just darkness and the occasional glow of moonlight slipping between branches. I kept looking at Jasper, waiting for an explanation, but he remained silent.

Finally, I noticed something ahead. Pale shapes appeared between the trees, rows of them, scattered across the darkness. At first, I thought they were stones. Then I saw another. And another. My steps slowed as I noticed there was something strangely familiar about the place, though my brain refused to put the pieces together. We passed between two old stone markers, and I noticed names carved into them.

My breath caught and I stopped walking. My eyes moved from one headstone to another, my mind slowly piecing together what my heart had already recognized. A cemetery. I turned toward Jasper, completely stunned. "Why did you bring me here?"

He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he looked at me with an expression so gentle that I almost wished he hadn’t. "Because you never got to say goodbye."

My chest tightened. I looked ahead again, suddenly afraid of what I might find.

Jasper stepped beside me and spoke quietly, "Your human family is buried here, Elara."

The world seemed to tilt beneath my feet. My fingers tightened around Crazy, and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe. My family... my parents... Felix... they were here. Somewhere in this cemetery, beneath the earth, were the people I had spent months trying not to think about because thinking about them hurt too much. I had mourned them in my dorm bed during nights. I had cried for them in my nightmares. I had carried their memories like fragile pieces of glass. But I had never stood beside their graves. I had never seen their names carved into stone. I had never been given the chance to tell them goodbye.

Jasper led me farther down the path, and then I saw them. Three gravestones stood together beneath a large tree. The moment my eyes landed on the names, everything inside me went still.

David Crest. Nia Crest. Felix Crest.

My knees weakened. I reached for the nearest tree instinctively, my fingers digging into the rough bark as I stared at the stones. Those names weren’t just names. They were my father. My mother. My brother. They were the people who had raised me, loved me, fought with me, annoyed me, protected me, laughed with me, and filled every ordinary day of my life with memories I hadn’t realized were precious until they were gone.

I slowly approached the graves, every step feeling impossibly heavy.

"Dad..." The word barely left my mouth. My voice cracked immediately. I crouched in front of his grave, staring at his name through blurred eyes. "I’m sorry." My hand trembled as I reached out and touched the cold stone. "I’m sorry I couldn’t save you." Tears slipped down my cheeks. "I didn’t know. I didn’t know any of this."

I moved toward my mother’s grave, pressing my palm against her name. "Mom..." My throat closed around the word. I had so many things I wanted to tell her, yet when I finally had the chance, nothing came.

Then I saw Felix’s name. My big brother. The person who had spent years challenging me, teaching me, annoying me, protecting me, and eventually learning that his little sister could beat him in a fight. A broken laugh escaped me through my tears. "You would have been so annoyed if you knew I could beat your ass with magic."

My smile lasted barely a second before it shattered. I sank onto the grass between the graves, covering my face with both hands as the grief I had been carrying for months finally became real.

Jasper didn’t interrupt. He stood a short distance away, giving me the space I needed while still remaining close enough that I knew he wouldn’t leave. After several minutes, I finally looked up at him through tear-filled eyes. "How did you find this place?" I asked.

He was quiet for a moment before answering, "Someone gave me the location."

My brow furrowed. "Who?"

"We’ll talk about it later."

His answer made me stare at him. He continued before I could ask again, explaining that the person had given him the information and arranged a brief opportunity for us to enter the human realm unnoticed.

"We won’t have much time," he added. "The Reapers can’t know we are here."

My stomach tightened at the word. "Then why bring me?" I whispered.

Jasper’s expression softened. "Because you need to grieve properly this time." He looked toward the graves before returning his gaze to me. "You have spent months surviving, Elara. You have been fighting every day since you arrived in Starfall. But surviving isn’t the same as living. You deserve to say goodbye to them. You deserve to let yourself hurt without pretending you are fine. And after that..." His voice became gentler. "You need to start living again."

I lowered my eyes, letting his words settle inside me. Maybe that was why I couldn’t stop crying. Because somewhere inside me, I knew he was right. I had been running from my grief because I was afraid that if I stopped moving, it would consume me. But perhaps grief wasn’t something I could outrun forever.

I wiped my face with trembling fingers and looked once more at the three graves. "I don’t want to leave them again."

Jasper took a quiet step toward me. "You aren’t leaving them."

Before I could answer, something moved between the trees. I froze. Jasper’s entire posture changed instantly. His hand moved toward the weapon at his side, and his eyes narrowed toward the darkness behind us. Crazy’s ears flattened against his head. Then another figure emerged from between the trees. And another.

Within seconds, a group of hooded people stepped into the cemetery, their faces hidden beneath dark robes as they silently surrounded the path leading toward us.