I had always believed that my mother had brought me to this cliff to show me the beauty of our family's land when I was little. But now, as I gazed out over the tree line, the picture was tainted by the harsh reality of my mother’s deceit.

Damn Caleb for bringing me back to this place, the one place I had grown to despise with every fiber of my being since I returned home. This place reminded me of everything I hated about my mother and myself.

My mother had lied about everything, from her true nature and the world she was from. And she died before she had the chance to explain the truth that might have saved me from years of isolation and heartache. She left me alone and unarmed in a world that wanted to destroy me. if anyone knew the truth of my birth and how I came to live with The People of Ella I would more than likely be put to death at least that is what I have been led to believe. This is why I didn’t understand Caleb and his need to return me to a place that could very well mean the end of my life if I was caught.

A full year of my life was dedicated to trying to escape Ella. I had been naive enough to believe that I could come and go as I pleased the way Caleb had all those years he visited me when we were little. Only to be met with a locked portal door. Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful to the people who took me in and kept me safe but my real home was all I thought about. I was beyond homesick, I was heartsick, unable to eat or sleep most of the time, and just going through the motions of life, devastated at the loss of my mother and sister as well as the only home I had ever known.

I snuck off several times a month when Caleb was not in the village and sat atop this rock on the other side of the divide hoping that it would open for me. I prayed and even chanted once in a while making up my own incantations feeling like an idiot that I had no connection to that side of my heritage.

Eventually, The Veil changed its meaning for me once it was a magical gift that brought my best friend to me had now become my warden, as I lived out my sentence in this inter-dimensional hell for some crime I didn’t know I had committed with my birth.

The next year during the warmer months, I found solace in returning to that very spot, where I had lost everything and I would sit in quiet contemplation and let go of the angst of the new life I was forced to embrace with my every failed attempt at leaving. Later still, the rock and river became my sanctuary, a place where I could go and feel a connection to my sister while ignoring thoughts of my mother. I was still too angry and hurt by her lies to find forgiveness, but maybe someday I'd be able to think of her too. Perhaps, I was trying to find a way to fix my broken relationship with the dead in my hours dedicated to sitting next to The Veil knowing it was mocking me. So even though this place gave me great heartache, its very existence gave me refuge, to release my guilt when it got too full for me to carry. Blessed, that I could leave it all on the cold of this rock and return to my new life in The Woods and try to live the life that was given to me.

But now that I have found my way home. I would have lived a happy lifetime without ever having graced this shitty cliff again.

The sound of the raging river below filled my ears, its powerful current crashing against the rocks, creating a symphony of water and foam. The recent rains had caused the water level to rise, adding an element of urgency in the air. Looking downriver I could see white suds as it swirled and danced as the water rushed by, captivating my attention and stirring up memories deep within me. My mother drown, my sister drown. Why would he bring me here knowing how I felt about it?

Memories flooded my senses as my heart quickened, back to the night that my mother had brought me and my sister when the man arrived in the middle of the night. For some reason, she had never deemed it necessary to share the truth of her birth world with me.

But I shared the same amount of blame as she did if I really wanted to face the truth of myself and not lay it all at her feet since she was no longer here to defend herself. I often found myself grappling with the heavy burden of it all, just as I assumed she did all the years we lived like a normal family in my world. The weight of my secret that I had kept hidden from her for so long from her. The knowledge of The Veil, a boy from that world who visited me often. Had I told her it might have saved her and my sister's life if she knew the gate was still open from the other side.

As I stood on the cliff now, overlooking the length of the river, I couldn’t help but feel a wave of shame for the hate I had been carrying around in my heart for her. If only I had been brave enough to reveal the truth, maybe she could have been prepared for the man that followed. The man who had taken her from me, who had torn us away from the safety of our home and thrust us into the harsh reality of such a hostile world. I was the reason I lost them both, and the guilt of my silence has haunted me ever since.

Damn, Caleb for adding to my shame.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” Caleb’s voice echoed in the air, his eyes fixated on the cliff that jutted out from the edge of our family’s land, its jagged face reaching toward the frigid, rapid river below.

The height of the cliff was enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine, and the swift current of the river could easily claim the life of even the strongest swimmer. One wrong move, one misstep, and a person could meet their untimely demise, crashing against the unforgiving rocks instead of the water below. I knew this all too well, having experienced a fall from the top myself, surviving only by landing into a cluster of bushes that had managed to find their footing within the hidden crevices of the rock.

I furrowed my brow, uncertainty clouding my thoughts as I tried to decipher Caleb’s intentions. Was he planning to force me into returning with him against my will? After such a shit move to get me here, nothing he did would surprise me right now.

Caleb stood at the cliff’s edge, his eyes fixed on the water below. I could feel the tension in the air as we both stood waiting for the other to say something.

Finally, he broke the silence. “You want me to go? Just say the words and I will go,” he said, his voice laced with bitterness, muddled with a hint of sorrow. My heart ached with a pain I had only felt once before, the night I lost my mother and sister. And standing here was bringing it all back again.

Caleb had to go back, back to Nistra, where he belonged. In just four months, he would have to board a ship that would take him to the other side of the world, where he would join The Trials, Ella’s version of boot camp for the King’s army.

And as much as it pained me, I knew he couldn’t stay and I knew I did not want to go. I took a deep breath, trying to steady my trembling voice. I looked into Caleb’s eyes as he turned to me, searching for the strength to say the words that would sever our bond. “I want you to go,” I whispered, my voice barely audible.

With a weary exhale, “If that is what you truly want, then I shall leave you to your happiness.” He gracefully bowed his head, concealing a hand discreetly behind his back, as I had often envisioned most people greeted and parted in his presence when he was home in Nistra. Even as the second-born son of the king, despite his mixed heritage, I surmised he still commanded an equal measure of fealty as any other member of the royal family would. Yet, I don’t think anyone would have ever guessed he or his brother were in line for any throne, by the way they acted when they visited The Woods.

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Theatrically, he turned around and gracefully stepped onto the ledge of the cliff. His arms stretched out on either side as if summoning some divine forces to come and usher him through the divide. The scene unfolding before my eyes felt like a scene straight out of a bad B movie, filled with exaggerated gestures and an overwhelming sense of cheesiness.

After his brief display of theatrics, he reversed his direction and pulled his lips in while tilting his head, and raising a brow. “And tell me again, how do I activate this portal?” Caleb inquired, employing a tone of saltiness.

For all the years that he used it to travel to visit me, he should be the one who knows how to use it. I had no idea how any of it worked.

I stared at him dumbfounded, unable to comprehend the situation. The force that had pulled us in during our last encounter had been beyond my control. I gestured with my hands, indicating my lack of involvement in the matter. Caleb’s remark stung me and reignited my anger. “You’re the witch, what do you suggest I do?”

I furrowed my brow at him. He knew how much I disliked that label. I had no idea if my mother was a witch, evidence supports that she was from Ella, but really I have no idea what that means. I have no powers, no animal and I am certainly not a vampire. However I do know I am human, my father was born at Boston Children's Hospital for god’s sake.

“How am I supposed to know, I figured it would just open and you could go through like you used to. You were the one who figured out how to use it when you were like five years old, remember? I have no idea how to make it work. Maybe you’re the witch, smart ass.”

As I stood there, staring at Caleb, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of betrayal. All this time, I believed that he wanted me to return to Ella because the thought of never seeing me again was too much to bear because he loved me.

But now, as he stood before me, arms crossed with that smug look on his face I realized that I was a fool. He planned it all so perfectly that all I could do was laugh, causing him to shake his head with disgust.

“I can’t leave Elizabeth, not without you,” Caleb stated, his voice firm and unwavering.

“Because you can’t physically leave without me, not because you’d miss or anything like that. I get it now.” I laughed again, but it was less heartfelt and more hurtful.

I stared at Caleb, my heart pounding in my chest. The weight of his words hung heavy in the air, filling the space between us. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was just fooling myself, trying to find an excuse to stay in my world instead of facing the real issue of not really belonging to either world. I was truly wordless. I saw his challenge clearly now. It hurt to know he worked so hard to fool me to teach me a lesson.

“I can’t take that risk,” I said, my voice trembling with uncertainty. “What if I get stuck on the other side? What if I can’t find my way back? It doesn’t matter if I belong here or not because I don’t belong in Ella either.”

Caleb’s eyes met mine, his gaze unwavering. “If you truly believe that you belong here, in this world, then you should be able to come back with no problems,” he countered, his voice filled with conviction. Even though he knew The Veil had been close for the past six years he, himself couldn’t seem to access it now when he once was able to freely move back and forth between the worlds whenever he wanted to.

Dismissing his claim as absurd. “That’s ridiculous,” I countered, my voice filled with annoyance. “You’re just trying to goat me into doing what you want.”

Caleb leaned closer, his voice barely above a whisper as if the energy of this place was listening to our words. “Is it? Think about it. You, yourself have visited The Veil multiple times over the past six years. Did it ever open up to you during those other trips?”

I paused, memories flooding my mind. The countless attempts, the desperate longing to cross over, only to be met with rejection. “No,” I said, my voice flat and defeated. A heavy silence settled between us again as I thought about it. The Veil, was once just a front door in a sense, when we were kids, a gateway to our friendship that we never truly understood. But it now loomed before us as a formidable adversary. And as I looked at Caleb suddenly felt like we were being watched.

“

Why, that night?” he questioned, his voice laced with a hint of curiosity but still hushed like we were gossiping about a person instead of a thing.

The look in his eyes suggested he was looking for more than just the hows of that night but also the whys. Was he expecting a confession or some sort?

“If you’re fishing for why I left the reception, I don’t think it would change a thing in your eyes, that’s a fish for another day,” I said, bluntly.

“I know all I need to know about that,” Caleb said, his eyes darkening for a moment, I crossed my arm across my chest in a nonverbal defense.

“What you’re missing in your theory that you belong here and not in Ella is the fact that this world, which you love so much, and that you are so willing to choose over those of us who have loved and cared for you, all these years, has not been kind to your breed in the past. Countless lives were taken throughout the centuries of ‘your world’, all accused of witchcraft. You have watched TV. And have picked up a book or two while you lived here I’m sure. If the barrier was made to maintain the separation between our realms, why did it choose to open for your mother, for me? Is that not peculiar to you?”

His words hung in the air, heavy with a sense of caution. “I can only thank the gods that no other breed from Ella has stumbled upon the gateway,” he continued, his voice clear with honesty. “Just imagine the possibilities, Elizabeth, if any one of us or any one of ‘your humans’ were to exploit its power. Because humans for all that they lack in mystical power and physical strength, have the numbers and a very murderous past that rivals anyone or anything in Ella. The potential consequences for both worlds are unimaginable. You need to look beyond the scope of your own life Elizabeth. Catastrophic times await all of us if we continue to keep playing with this gate.”

I despised the fact that he was always right, his unwavering selflessness was a constant reminder of my own shortcomings. It was as if he possessed an innate ability to effortlessly make me feel like shit, while rarely tarnishing his own image in the process.

What a talent.

I approached him with a mixture of fear and trepidation, my heart pounding in my chest. As I extended my hand towards him, a wave of unease washed over me, causing my stomach to moan with discontent. The thought of going back filled me with a sense of dread. Yet, despite my doubts and the potential sacrifices that awaited me, I knew deep down that he had to go, he needed to go home and he believed I would stay on the other side. It was a decision that I couldn’t spend time chewing on, or I would never find the strength to leave.

As I said a silent prayer deep within. And I hoped that once he reached the safety of his home and he was on his way back to Nistra, and he forgot about me as he started his new life, I would somehow find a way to return home once again. How much damage could one non-magical half-breed really do in the grand scheme of things? My head told me it would be fine, my heart, however, had some lingering doubts now.

I knew what I was about to do would be deceitful, but it would serve a dual purpose, achieving two objectives at once. And he did challenge me after all, that if I believed I belonged here I’d be able to get back again, so maybe that might be enough to ease my guilt later if I can return.

My grip was firm as I was determined, I pulled him towards the edge. With a deep breath, I shut my eyes awaiting the vibration to engulf me. Nothing.

Mentally I searched for some elusive mechanism - a door, a rope, a switch - anything that would unlock The Veil and transport us back to Ella. But there was no sensation, no faint hum or crackle of energy, only the racket of the river below, mocking my attempt. What had I done differently that night?

The seconds ticked away, their sound echoing in my head, as I stood there, speechless. That was rare for me, I always had something to say. Caleb released my hand, and I slowly opened my eyes, desperate in the hopes that we had successfully crossed over the divide and that somehow the experience just wasn’t as harrowing as it had been the last two times. However, my hopes were squashed as I gazed upon the familiar sight of my family’s pastures stretching out on the horizon.

“Shit.”