Doon

“Yes.”

“Try to believe.” When I nodded, she let go of my hand. “Put your palm against mine.”

As soon as our rings touched, they glowed impossibly bright, like stage spots. Soon the red and green fused into a brilliant white beam that refracted through the mist like a prism. Fear kicked my heart into overdrive as I closed my eyes against the onslaught of blinding light.

Vee’s voice, perfectly calm and clear as a bell, spoke reassuringly in my ear. “It’s going to be okay.”

Then the light vanished. In its absence, spots floated across my vision. Breaking my connection with Vee, I stepped back to examine my ring. To my great relief, it wasn’t glowing green. It looked deceptively normal—like an antique handed down by a relative. Nothing more.

After a moment of contemplation, Vee said quietly, “I suppose you’re going to tell me you didn’t see that.”

“No.” Something had definitely happened. But even if our rings lit up like Christmas, it hadn’t changed anything.

“You see?” Her reverent tone held no accusation as she spoke. “The rings are special.”

“But it doesn’t mean Doon is real. We’re still lost in the fog on an old bridge in the middle of the night. In Alloway.”

“Maybe we didn’t do it right.” Although I couldn’t see her face clearly, I could picture her concentrated frown in perfect detail. “I’ll bet the answers are somewhere in Gracie’s journal.”

She reached into her pocket to retrieve the book, but I held up my palm to stop her. “Tomorrow, okay? I’ve had enough drama for one evening.” Had I really just said that? I turned to go back. Everything would make more sense—logical sense—after a good night’s sleep and a triple latte. “Right now I just want to go home.”

“Wait!”

It was the way she said it that stopped me. The expectancy in her tone—awed and hopeful, and totally out of place given the circumstances—made my heart drop. Then she said, “Look.”

The mist began to form lazy swirls that evaporated before my eyes. I blinked, grasping for context as my lack of comprehension changed to shock. Sacred Stephen Schwartz! The bridge no longer spanned the river but ended in ruins at the halfway point. If I had taken two more steps, I would’ve been smashed into kibble against the rocks below.

“What the—?” As if my brain finally caught up with my feet, I jumped back. My heart thumped painfully in my chest as I knocked against Vee.

One of her hands reached out absently to steady me. “Mountains.”

Puzzled, I spun toward her. She wasn’t warning me about the drop-off as I’d assumed, but rather gawking in the opposite direction. In the distance where the sea should have been, huge purplish mountains stood silhouetted against a rose-colored horizon. Between us and the far-off peaks loomed gleaming white turrets.

Vee’s soft whisper tickled against my ear. “Are we where I think we are?”

What moments ago seemed like a fairy tale now appeared to be impossibly and unsettlingly real. Yet it couldn’t be true. My entire body began to tremble. Keeping my eyes fixed on the terrible castle in the distance, I whispered back, “I seriously hope not.”

CHAPTER 7 Veronica

All the hope in the world hadn’t prepared me for standing on the soil of a mythical land, the sun rising where moments before the moon had dominated an inky-black sky. The realization that it should’ve been closer to midnight than morning must’ve hit Kenna and I at the same time. Instinctively, we clung to one another as we moved onto the riverbank. Somewhere in the distance a trumpet sounded, followed by the cheering of men—lots of them—their voices like shards of ice scraping across my skin.

My friend yelped and grasped me even tighter.

Struggling to gain my bearings, my gaze locked on mountain peaks that sprouted out of the ground like some monstrous version of Jack’s magic beanstalk. The tiny hairs rose on my arms. How was any of this possible?

“I’m going back,” Kenna declared, letting go of my shoulders.

I teetered precariously for a moment before gaining my balance. When I whirled around, Kenna was marching back toward the bridge, where tendrils of mist still swirled and coalesced, leaving only the first few feet of stone visible. Before my eyes, the undulating mass solidified into a giant barrier over seven feet high.

“Kenna, wait!” I began to run, but my legs felt mired in knee-high mud. “The fog’s too thick!” If she tried to cross, would the ring light up and complete the ruined bridge, or would she topple blindly over the edge?

Just as her feet hit the ancient stones, she stopped. The wall of fog loomed before her, pulsing like a living beast ready to suck her in and never let go. I reached out and grabbed her arm, hauling her backward so that she stumbled away from the bridge and collapsed onto the grassy bank.

“This can’t be happening! The stupid bridge was supposed to—” Her voice broke as she buried her face in her hands. “What do we do now?”

Kneeling beside her, I wrapped my arms around her shaking form. “Shh. It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”

I glanced back at what was left of the bridge. “But I don’t think we can go back the way we came.” Even if the Brig o’ Doon had been crossable, I couldn’t have forced myself to turn back.

Kenna lifted her head, and her wide gray eyes searched my face. “I can’t be stuck here. My internship … I have to be in Chicago in August.”

“I know. Give me a minute to think.” And by think, I meant process.

I pulled my knees to my chest and watched the morning sky awaken in brilliant Technicolor. As red, gold, and orange stretched over the landscape, it was like I’d just stepped from the broken farmhouse and onto the yellow brick road, the world shifting from black and white to dazzling color.

Occasionally, a roaring cheer or collective groan carried through the valley, reminding me we weren’t in Kansas anymore. Lush green hills rolled into the distance, and just visible beyond the trees, sun-bleached castle turrets stretched toward a cloudless sky, confirming the impossible truth. I’d seen this magnificent place before, felt it in my soul—in the attic, when I’d slipped the ring on my finger. My vision blurred as tears gathered in my eyes. We’d found it—Aunt Gracie’s legendary kingdom. We were in Doon!

And since Doon was real … Jamie! My heart stuttered and then skipped forward several beats. Was he really here, living and breathing, flesh and blood? I had to find out.

“Vee?”

I turned to meet Kenna’s unblinking stare, her eyes brimming with tears. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you and treated you like you were a lunatic. You’d be totally in the right if you wanted to do an I-told-you-so dance.” The words rushed out of her so quickly, it took me a second to decipher what she’d said.

I shrugged. “It’s okay, I get it.” I couldn’t blame her for doubting my sanity just a bit; I had. “Being here is I told you so enough.”

A grateful grin spread across her face and she pulled me into a hug. “Thanks.” She let go and pulled back. “Now what’s the plan?”

I’d stuffed Gracie’s journal into the pocket of my hoodie for safekeeping. Pulling it out, I thumbed through the worn pages until I found the hand-drawn map labeled The Kingdom and then repositioned the book so Kenna and I could study the drawing at the same time. “Check this out.”

Although I had the layout of the kingdom memorized, I traced my finger from the bridge past a forest and through the village, trying to calculate how far we were from the castle. There was no scale on the map, but if we could hear the voices it couldn’t be far.

I stood and stuffed the journal back in my pocket. Brushing the grass off my jeans, I turned in a slow circle to get my bearings. Based on the map, we needed to head toward the mountains, keeping the castle turrets slightly to our right until we found the lake. Then we could follow the shoreline around to the left until we got to