She sat back in her chair and sipped her coffee as Havily checked boxes and filled in spaces. When Havily jotted down Joy’s name, Alison asked, “So how does this work? Kerrick told me I will still be able to see my family. I can still visit them, be with them.”

Havily glanced at her and smiled but there was a hint of sadness in her eyes. “Of course you can. However, we require counseling for ascenders who wish to continue to visit Mortal Earth. In the beginning everything will seem strange, awkward. You might even want to repress memories at some point or create new ones to explain your absences, that sort of thing.”

Alison sucked in a breath. “You mean tamper with the minds of family members.”

Havily nodded, frowning. “I know it seems invasive, even unkind. However, one of the goals must always be to keep Second Earth a secret from Mortal Earth. We even have departments worldwide that monitor eruptions about dimensional worlds, or the world of the vampire. Again, lots of memories are suppressed.”

Alison nodded, but she couldn’t imagine being anything but forthright with her family. “I’m very close to my sister. She’ll wonder where I am. As it is, I’ll be missing a family dinner.”

“Actually,” Havily said, “I’ve often found it helpful, just until this process works itself out, to pretend you decided to take a spontaneous holiday, like to Hawaii, or better yet, Mexico, for oh, say, three weeks.”

“Fake a vacation? A three-week vacation?”

Havily consulted her notes. “Well, you’re in between gigs at the moment, having given up your practice, and your grad program wouldn’t have started for another month.”

“I just don’t know if my family will buy it.” She shifted in her seat.

“I’m not fond of fabricating my way through life, either. In this situation, however, the truth won’t serve. Think of it as giving yourself a period of time to adjust to your new life here, to receive some counseling, to know what you can tell your family, to figure out how to move forward.” Alison didn’t know what to say. Havily pressed on. “Once you complete your rite of ascension, the first few weeks of ascended life will be rigorous. We are an industrious world and everyone plays a part. Pretending a three-week stay in Mexico or Hawaii will give you time to settle in before having to tackle the more delicate job of incorporating visits to Mortal Earth with your new life on Second.”

Alison held out both hands, palms up. “What do I do?”

Havily whipped out her iPhone. “Call your sister and start learning to elaborate on the truth.”

Alison blinked. She didn’t know which shocked her more, that she’d be lying to her family or that Havily held a Mortal Earth iPhone in her hand.

Havily laughed, a musical trill very much like Joy’s. “The import business on Second is enormous. We take advantage of all Mortal Earth technology.”

Alison once more had that strange underwater sensation, the one she had experienced earlier when Kerrick drove her to her home in Carefree. All the information he had blurred in her direction had made her feel like she’d dropped below the surface of a large body of water. She felt that way all over again.

Despite the sense of being overwhelmed, Alison took the phone and made her call—but when she heard her sister’s voice, tears started to her eyes. The reality of what would become in time a huge gulf between herself and her family threatened to overtake her.

“Where have you been?” Joy cried. “I’ve left you three messages and you’re just now calling?”

Joy’s peeved tone allowed air to rush into Alison’s lungs. She smiled. “Where have I been?” Alison suppressed a laugh thinking of her blown-up house in Carefree. She glanced at Kerrick. He shook his head back and forth, not as a negation but as a hell-if-I-know-what-to-say.

“Well, you’re never going to believe this,” she began. Havily gasped and opened her mouth wide. She wagged her head briskly back and forth, clearly afraid Alison meant to spill the beans. But Alison said, “I’m in Mexico … Cancún, actually.”

“What?”

Alison pulled the phone away from her ear then back. “Hey, I have acute hearing, remember?”

Joy laughed then expressed a mountain of I can’t believe it, but the more Alison assured her she’d hopped on a plane, checked into a hotel, and was now by a pool sipping a margarita, the easier the lie became.

Silence. Alison closed her eyes. Would Joy buy it?

“I can’t believe you actually took a vacation.”

“I needed time to think. I’ve really started to question whether grad school is the answer for me. And do you realize that the last time I zoned out on a beach was over four years ago?”

“Lissy, I’m so glad. You’ve earned a break, but why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, I’m not sure. But after you and I talked on the phone, I just got to thinking about what you told me. The next thing I knew … well, the plans came together really fast.” She let the words hang.

Joy gasped. “Tell me you’re taking my advice … about … you know.”

Alison shifted her gaze to Kerrick, to his wonderful height, to the massive plane of his chest, the ripped shoulders and pecs, his sexy jeans and bare feet. “Actually, I think you might have given me the best advice ever and I’m going to do something about it.”

Joy squealed. “Go get ’em,” she cried. “But you’d better call me … a lot. I want updates.”

“Hey,” Alison cried, “if my plans work out I may be a little busy.”

“That would be so awesome, sister mine. Okay. You do whatever you have to do right now. If you need time to, well, relax”—she pretended to growl—“then you relax as long as you want.”

“I love you, Joy.”

“Love you more.”

Alison touched the screen to end the connection. She handed the phone back to Havily, who had already stuffed her papers back into her briefcase, preparing to leave.

For some reason Alison recalled her dream of flying over a lake. On impulse she said, “Before you go, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”

“Yes, of course, anything.”

“Can you tell me about White Lake?”

“White Lake? You mean White Lake near the White Tank Mountains?”

“On the west side of the White Tanks?”

“Yes.”

“So it does exist,” Alison murmured.

“Why do you ask? What is it you want to know?”

“I’ve dreamed about the lake. I just wasn’t sure if it was real. There isn’t a lake here by that name.”

Havily’s lips parted and a frown furrowed her brow.

Kerrick returned to the table. He stared down at her, his emerald eyes flashing. “What kind of dream was it?”

“Earlier, when I woke up, I had been dreaming that I had wings—and it was so awesome to be flying. I was over a lake, and in the dream I knew the lake was called White Lake. I just wondered if it had any particular significance.”

Kerrick whistled.

Havily put a hand to her chest, her expressive fingers plucking at her ivory silk blouse. “What was the nature of the dream?” she asked. “I mean, what were you feeling in the dream?” Her voice had a hushed quality.

“Well, I guess I just felt very protective of the lake, like somehow this was my job, to protect White Lake. Also, I kept hearing the word guardian in my head.”

“Holy shit,” Kerrick murmured.

Havily glanced at Kerrick, but he just shrugged as though unable to give her direction on this one.

“The lake,” Havily said, “forms a Borderland between Second and Third Earth.”

“A dimensional Borderland?” Alison was shocked.

“Precisely. However, the Trough to Third is closed to us.”

“Like Second is closed to Mortals.”

“With the important difference that we know Third Earth exists.”

“Yet you have no contact with Third Earth or any of the Upper Dimensions. So how do you know any of them exist?”

“Because Third Earth wasn’t always closed,” Havily said. “Several millennia ago there was constant movement among all the dimensions. Then it was just shut down. No one here knows why. But that was a long time ago.”

“And you don’t have any idea what the significance of this dream might be? Why I might have experienced such protective feelings about the lake, the Borderland?”

Havily tilted her head. “Dreams are an important element of ascended life, and we never take them lightly. It sounds like you have a very real connection to the White Lake Borderland. The interpretation, however, shouldn’t be forced, and I’m absolutely certain you’ll discover the meaning in time.”

Havily stood up, taking her briefcase in hand. “Be at peace, ascendiate,” she said.

Alison rose as well. Havily extended her hand and with a smile, Alison took it in hers and gave a firm shake. However, the moment she did, Havily froze in place, her brows high in the air. Her lips formed a silent O.

Then Alison felt it as well, a strange vibration flowing up her arm from the hand clasping Havily’s. She experienced a connection with this woman, an inexplicable bond. Alison closed her eyes and a heavy sensation flowed through her mind, a prescience, then a specific image of Havily flying next to her over White Lake, her expression hard, determined, focused.

Alison gasped then released her hand. “Did you see that as well?”

“A vision?” Havily’s brows rose higher.

“I guess that’s what it was.”

Havily shook her head, smiled, chuckled. “You are powerful. As for myself, no vision, though I did feel a tingling in my hand and all up my arm.” Once more she tilted her head. “Ascendiate, I wish you the very best in the coming days and weeks. If you need anything, do not hesitate to summon me. Should you require a place to stay until you get settled, my home is open to you. I’ve left my cell number with you.” She gestured, again with her elegant lively hands, toward the lavender folder on the table.