Chapter 128. Identity

His voice came from just ahead.

“I’m glad you like it. But please—come. What I want to show you is still farther in.”

He offered his hand with the same expression he’d worn all day—not quite happy, not quite sad, but suspended somewhere in between.

I stepped through the gate slowly, my senses drowning in a symphony of colors and scents. The gate whispered shut behind us, so silently I nearly missed it.

I took his hand, and we began walking through the paradise garden.

“What is this place?” I asked, tilting my head in mock innocence. “And why was it locked?”

He didn’t answer.

Instead, he stopped and held out the keycard toward me.

I stared at it, then at him. “Huh?”

“Take the