I nodded. “It tickles.”
The answer seemed to both please and alarm her, a strange mix of emotions.
“Are we going through?” I asked.
“No. I just wanted to test something. Let’s go to the clearing.”
The last time I was in that clearing, I’d almost killed Matt. But I didn’t want to tell her that.
She fell silent as we walked. It made me aware of the forest in a way I hadn’t been before. Of the life that moved within it—and how much of it followed us.
Followedme.
Walking ahead, Cara broke the silence. “Do you feel them now?”
“Yes.”
She continued until we reached the clearing, and then sat cross-legged on the grass. I sat across from her and handed her the photos from my pocket.
The Watcher’s eyes widened. “This is your family?”
I nodded.
She looked at each photo with care. “You do not resemble either of your parents. Or your brother, for that matter.”
“No,” I agreed. I stared at her. “Are you suggesting they weren’t my parents?”
Cara sighed. “They were the people that raised you. But there are no guarantees that they were your biological parents.”
I swallowed. I hadn’t considered that. “Some of those pictures were taken in other realms.”
Her brows rose. “You noticed that?”
“Just last night. I hadn’t really looked before.”
Her bright-blue gaze regarded me. “You didn’t know, then, that other realms existed. Your mind only saw what it expected to see.”
“Yes.”
“Have you considered that you haven’t regained your memories of Winnipeg because you don’t have any?”
I swallowed. “Nothing there triggered my past, no matter how hard I tried.” I shrugged. “By the time I recovered from my coma, the house my family had supposedly rented had new tenants. They were kind enough to let me walk through, but—nothing. The few things in storage—it was like I’d never seen any of it before. And I had no friends. No one came to see me while I was recovering.”
Cara’s fingers tapped against her leg. “Your brain damage must have been extensive. But still, you think you would regain some memories.”
I steeled myself. Because I had to know. And there was only one way to find out.
“I might have remembered something,” I said.
Her brows twitched. “Go ahead.”
“It’s a dream, or a nightmare, really. I’ve had it ever since I came out of the coma, and it used to be totally scrambled. Just bits and pieces. But last night, it all came together.”
Cara waited, with that beautiful, calm face surrounded by long, white braids. Just like what I’d seen in the dream.
It hadn’t been her. But it had been someone just like her. Yet I trusted her. So I took a deep breath and told her.
Her expression didn’t alter, but something shifted in her eyes as I mentioned the Watcher and the Gryphon.
