Chapter 71

CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

TAM

I’m putting my hands on my girlfriend’s chest, breathing into her parted lips. The paramedics try with some of Lake’s other family members, but they’re all still and quiet and …

“Wake up, Lake,” I breathe out, tears streaming down my face. What the fuck is happening? This can’t be happening. I’m still here, so she can’t go. She can’t.

Lakelynn’s dad is screaming for his wife and children, and Luna is weeping over Lynn. Lisa’s husband, Greg, picks her up in his arms and runs her through the gate into the front yard. Maybe he’s thinking of getting in his car and going to the hospital, but I don’t dare stop my CPR efforts to try.

I need to get oxygen into Lake. I have to. She’ll wake up. She’s going to wake up.

The tree is blooming; the sky is filled with stars during the day; the Heart Nebula is so close to us that it takes up most of the sky. This is magic. I am seeing magic.

I’ve trusted Lake for a while, believed in the impossible simply because she asked me to. Here I am, getting all the proof I never needed. Jacob is yelling something that I can’t hear while Daniel assists the paramedics, offering CPR to Maria.

“What the hell is going on?” Kaycee whispers, staring up at the tree branches and the sky beyond. “What the fuck?”

Brown petals begin to fall, blanketing Lake’s body. I lift my gaze up to see that this tree, the one that’s planted in Joe’s soil, the one that just spontaneously bloomed for no reason at all, is now dying. It’s dying right before my eyes in real time.

I refocus on Lake, breathing for her, crying for her, begging her.

She doesn’t move.

For eleven minutes, Lakelynn Frost is legally dead.

The love of my life is dead.

The love of my life.

My heart.