Chapter 39

Time moved in slow motion, but when Julie and Ryan heard a loud crackling sound, they abruptly pulled away. Ryan had a sheepish smile on his face; Julie looked uncomfortable.

“We’ll have to talk about that later if there is a later,” Julie said very matter-of-factly and then started walking towards the castle. Ryan watched her walk away and smirked. He couldn’t help but smile; that was amazing. That was enough to give him the strength to move forward. He couldn’t wait until later when they could talk about that. He couldn’t wait until he and Julie could finally be together for real.

But then Ryan thought about what would happen if things went badly in Olozar’s lair. What if they didn’t make it out? Or worse, what if one of them made it out and the other didn’t? What if Julie, the one who would be dueling with Olozar, was hurt? What would Ryan do? How would he be able to move on from that? But he couldn’t let his mind go