Avery kept her gaze glued to the dim lines of the road. Though she wanted to go even faster, she couldn’t take the risk of crashing and getting stranded only God knew where. Please, please, let this be Green Meadow. She’d have all she needed in life if she could hold Aiden tight.

Suddenly, the fog disappeared as if it’d never been there. Before them in the distance lay the intersection that had all started this horrible nightmare. The cloud-covered sun was setting, but light still remained. A sob of raw relief broke loose from her lips. She sped up. They needed to get the hell away from whatever lurked behind them.

“We’re back home!” Conner all but yelled in her ear.

For once, she didn’t mind his loud mouth. “We are. This…this…oh God, we’re so lucky. I don’t know what that was, but I know it could’ve turned out so differently.”

“I know,” he agreed, his voice quiet.

Avery frowned. This time around, there was no traffic on this new stretch of road, which struck her as odd. And spooked her even more. At this point she didn’t care if she got a speeding ticket as long as they got away safely, so she gunned it toward the traffic signal.

Right as she neared the intersection, the green turned red. She slammed on the brakes, and the car skidded to a halt. Shit, so close. She released the pent-up breath she’d been holding.

“Uh, Av, look behind us in the rearview mirror.”

Though his words sparked dread anew in her gut, her gaze flew toward the mirror. If shock could’ve stopped her heart from beating, she wouldn’t have felt much different than she did right now. Behind them, the new road was closed off, the asphalt ending in overgrown lots and fields that still had to be tamed.

She licked her Sahara-dry lips. “Unbelievable. Makes no sense.”

“Ever since we landed on this stretch of God-forsaken road, has anything made sense?”

When the light turned green, she lurched into the intersection and drove straight onto the existing road that’d been there for years. She wasn’t waiting to turn left and taking any chances. “Too true. I have to get Aiden. What time is it?” she asked, half-afraid to check the clock herself.

“6:15.”

A bit of the stiffness fled her posture. They hadn’t been gone long—only minutes. “I need to pick him up first.”

“My car can wait. After this day, we both could do with some Aiden snuggles.”

“Just what I was thinking.”

Conner sighed. “At some point, we’ll have to talk about what happened, but for now, I’d like to forget about it for a bit.”

“Agreed.” Her mind couldn’t wrap around all she’d seen and felt. She didn’t know if it ever could. But a little headspace would be most welcome. First Aiden’s weird powers and now this. What was the coincidence? Her thoughts froze as alarm blared to life.

No.

No, her son had nothing to do with that tunnel.

She wouldn’t even entertain such nonsense. But then, why did it steal through her mind like a thief? Forcing herself away from that mad path of thought, she locked away her concerns and shoved them into a dark recess.

“We’re never taking that road again,” Conner said grimly, apparently forgetting his suggestion of forgetting the whole ordeal for a while.

She couldn’t agree more. “No argument there.”