Gemma Doyle returns to London during her holidays at university. While in London, she visits her old boarding school, Spence Academy for Young Ladies, and waiting for her there, is a remarkable surprise indeed.
Prologue
I flip the pages of my diary over, as if doing so will erase the words I have written here, but it doesn't. my eye catches his name, written over and over again, not erasable, cemented here in ink. My hand traces over the bumpy page,
I've done it, I've taken him into the Realms with me. and the strange thing is, I'm not sorry I did. I did take him into the Cave of Sighs, and when our fingers touched, the strangest exhilaration overcame my mind. I was wearing a sari, and my hands were adorned in the fashion of a brides. Though, when I approached the temple, the world fell away, and I was back in my Spence uniform, and I was in the middle of a desert. I was alone for a moment, and then he was there before me, Kartik. He pulled out his knife and drew a perfect circle around me in the soft sand. He stepped back and walked around me. he told me that the circle signifies the joining of our souls. . .
I shut the book, trying to rid my mind of the few happy memories I had. My trunk sits beside me, waiting to travel, as I am now. I tuck my diary into my last bag as I hear a knock on my door.
"Miss Doyle, the carriage is here." A maid tells me.
"Thank you, I'll be right down." I respond.
She curtsies and leaves me alone in my room. It isn't much of a room, it's more of an apartment here in new York. It reminds me of where Miss Moore used to live, down on Bakers Street. I shake my head, emptying my head of such thoughts. Tomorrow, I will be back in London for two months, enjoying the life I should have kept, instead of coming to America.
"Rubbish," I mutter to myself.
I take my bags with bold hands and march down the stairs a little too loudly. Sure enough, the carriage is waiting for me, the driver leaning casually against the side.
For a moment, I see Kartik in his place, his dark curls framing his brown skin. He looks up at me and his smile lights up his entire face. I can scarcely breathe. It takes me a moment, but I blink my eyes furiously, and hand my bags to him.
"Thank you Miss." He murmurs, securing my trunk and bag in the back of the carriage.
He helps me into the carriage, where I wait out the half hours ride to the harbor.