Chapter 29

"It'stime for us to go," Liam says.

I've turned away from him so he can't see my tears. I don't want to leave. I don't want to face what my life is out there—with him, but forever without him.

The emerald grass is soft and the air so peaceful. And Tyler's spirit lives here.

"I want to stay," I say emphatically.

"You can't," Liam says, his eyes sad. "We need to get back."

I know he's right, yet the energy matrix of the garden overlays the sprawl of lush trees and flowers. A choir of whispers calls to me, as if every bloom and bud is singing at once. I close my eyes and strain to stay present. To remember I am Rosalie Gatell, not a spirit of the Garden.

"Did you hear me, Rosalie?"

I nod, but then a clear note singles itself out, sweet and intense, a cross between an operatic soprano and the whir of a hummingbird's wings. The note amplifies until it reverberates in my ears, blotting out all else.

A few yards away, five blurred, transparent figures materialize. Instead of a face, each figure bears a glowing glyph identical to the ones carved into the polished stone outside the Garden walls. The voice clarifies. I can make out the words.

I struggle to my feet, but someone is pulling on me, dragging me backward as I move toward the ghosts.

"Don't!" a distant voice calls, like a shout in a storm. A whirlwind of light and noise spins around me, cutting me off from the world outside.

I shrug off Liam's grip and head for the Oak Heart Tree. In my mind, I see Tyler as he was that last night on the boat—golden hair limned by the sun, lips pressed to mine. I lost him. And now I can't have Liam either.

I want to remain here and be one with the spirits. There's nothing for me outside the walls of this Garden.

You need to let me go, Rose.

"No!" I shout. "I want to stay here with you, Tyler."

I fall to my knees, make a burrow in the soil between the massive tree's roots, remove Tyler's chain and charm from around my neck, and bury them where they belong.

The hollow place inside me fills with light as the figures, lithe and delicate, glide toward me. The ghosts converge, so close they form a capsule of light. When the light enters me, all sounds die. The concussive blast explodes from us, turning my surroundings white-on-white, my blood crackling with current.

When I blink, the Garden is unveiled, untouched and uninhabited, its seamless walls unbroken.

My friends are no longer here with me. Maybe, the Garden spirits have invited me to stay.

Vaguely I wonder if Liam and the others are okay, but my mind moves like syrup. The matrix returns, filtering out external light and sound.

I'm surrounded by the ghostly figures, glyphs flaring and dimming on their faceless visages. The distant rumble of thunder echoes beyond the Garden walls against a clear azure sky. A hypnotic chant of merged voices repeats in my mind like a mantra, though I still don't understand the meaning.

Nizedha, Yunakti, Invati, Vimukti, Dyati, Hanti

Images flicker in rapid succession, snippets of mundane lives flashing before me like a movie reel, accelerating until they become an incomprehensible blur. The playback loop ends in a burst of energy so violent, it shakes me to my core.

Thousands of people cram the deck of a great wooden ship. Behind them, a thick column of black smoke rises from the water and darkens the sky to an ominous deep red. Plumes of water blast from the ocean's surface, devouring nearby vessels.

The phantoms are presenting me with a history lesson.

The aftermath of the destruction of Atlantis—the moment the surviving population was forced to flee our ancestral home with nothing more than the rags on their backs.

The figures withdraw and circle me, then slip into the fountain and dissolve. Acting on instinct, I climb in after them. The fountain pool is bathtub-warm and far deeper than it appears, its depths vanishing into darkest blue, then unfathomable black.

I'm suctioned down into the water, deeper and deeper, the meaningless words repeating in my ears, filling my chest cavity, expanding and inflating me until I'm sure I'll burst.

Finally, my body can no longer contain the sound. The light.

My mind shatters into a thousand fragments.