To Make A Choice

[Anika’s POV]

I continue to stare down at the lava where Mateo disappeared while Fineon and Hindrick remain silent, allowing me the space to process my emotions.

Mateo was gone, for real this time. He would never come back to this world in this lifetime, and I wasn’t even sure if we would be able to find each other when we reincarnated like we promised. So that meant this was it, right?

That thought alone left an immense loneliness in me that I thought I would never have to feel again. However, I had to admit, the second time around was so much more painful.

"Sorry to disturb," Fineon murmurs after a bit more time passes. "But how will we be sure that doing what Mateo said really did the trick?"

"I don’t know," I admitted, frowning.

"You don’t think that this was another trick of his, do you?" Hindrick growls. "What if..."

"He wasn’t lying," I say, cutting him off. "The one that was there in the end was Mateo, not Parker."

"I understand that, but nothing seems to have happened," Hindr