Chapter 1
Gemma Doyle did not stay in New York for long. Where she sought autonomy and escapade she found only bone chilling cold and empty dreams. New York held no marvels for her, not after her exhilarating moments in the realms. Where she once had held enormous power she now felt dolefully frail and slight. It only took her a few weeks to realize she could never belong in this huge bustling city. The city only made her feel worse about her tall, gangly body and her shamefully freckled visage. She had fantasized that maybe in a city as heavily inhabited as New York no one would notice the bizarre girl who didn't seem to fit in anywhere. The girl with the arresting green eyes concealing all of the pain she wished to forget. The girl without a place to go or a person to confide in, wandering the streets alone. However, everywhere she went she felt as though she was under a microscope. She felt like everyone around her knew her terrible secrets and each day the huge city began to close around her. She began to feel as though she might be suffocated by the mysteries that were eating away at her. No, she couldn't belong in this society that seemed so monotonously normal to her. And Gemma also had other reasons to leave New York. She had been having nightmares again, nightmares about a certain Indian boy and a tree swaying in the wind. The tree's rustling branches would whisper, why Gemma…why did you leave me here to die?...Gemma seemed to have unsettled buisness in London, and that was exactly where she was headed. She needed closure on a few things that she couldn't forget. She needed answers to the questions that had been tormenting her since she last left the realms. She needed to know if she could bring Kartik back.
