Six weeks of bliss—of sleeping in past midday, of waking up smiling, of wandering around Meridian plains, of stealing kisses from the Queen's advisor and never missing home for a second—gives way to the worst fight they will ever have.
You've met my family, he argues. Are you just going to lie to them forever? Tell them you're volunteering abroad for the summer? Fine, he says. Let's just wait another four years to have this conversation.
Cornelia argues back, of course she does, but something tells her that Caleb is not wrong.
When their throats are dry from shouting, she leans her head against his shoulder. "I guess doing the long distance thing was easier, in a way. All of this stuff was way, way, way into the future."
The future? he asks.
The one where she finishes her degree and stays on Earth until her parents have passed. The one with the big white wedding, the cat with a bell on its collar, and the three children she has already named. The one she cannot imagine without him.
There is only one way to make her future happen.
Caleb pretends this is his first visit to the Hale household. Harold cracks a joke at dinner, Elizabeth laughs, and Cornelia reaches for his hand across the table. It is time they know the truth.
Unfortunately, they are not the only ones who think so.
"I'm the Heart of Earth!" cries Lilian.