✧The Earthe of the Elves✧

Extra chapter:)

Mia's POV

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The end of Mia's summer on Earth, after chapter 59...

Suitcases sit against the kitchen island, mostly all packed up.

Lazy late summer wind blows through the open windows, filling the house with the smell of cut grass and sweet flowers.

Light shines in patches on the floor from the afternoon sun, the temperature already starting to drop to a more likable one as the day wanes.

My head is tilted down slightly as I leave the living room and pad silently to the stairs, arms up and fingers expertly weaving a few braids in my hair.

My eyes scan over our life, packed up and ready to go. A warmth settles over me as I head up the stairs.

It's been almost half a year since the Heartstone War- that's the official name for it now I guess. I graduated, thank god, and the whole summer I've been here, on Earth, with my mom. And Lizzie.

For the first month or so after leaving Earthe I would go back and visit Bhailewood every single weekend, I missed it so much. But then school demanded more of my attention, more work as I spent hours catching up on everything I missed, working as hard as I could to graduate on time. I worked my ass off, which meant my Earthe trips slowly became fewer and fewer, until I really couldn't visit at all.

It was really hard at first being away- being away from Elanil, Knox, and my other friends. But as school turned into summer I hung out with Lizzie and spent time with my mom almost every day. There were some days that I barely thought of Earthe. Of course I missed Knox like crazy, and my other elf friends, but over the summer I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my best friends on Earth, especially Liz, knowing she was going to college in August. We saw each other nearly every day, and the days we didn't hang out I spent with my mom, catching up and spending some much needed quality time together. By then it felt wrong to leave either of them, for even a day, to visit Earthe. I felt grounded in my old home, I felt needed here.

I haven't been to Earthe in three months straight.

But now it's August, and Lizzie is leaving for college tomorrow. Tomorrow is also the day my mom and I are moving to Earthe for good.

I still can't believe she wants to, that she agreed to so willingly. But most of her family, of my family, lives all the way on the other side of the States, so we never see them. And my dad's family, of whom I still have to find and get to know, are on Earthe. There's nothing holding my mom back, so she decided to come with me. Rose gave us enough money to pay off our house, my childhood home, so we can keep it and come back any time we want. But most of our belongings are coming with us to Earthe.

Looking at everything packed up now, I did feel waves of sadness every now and then. But it's not like we're moving and never coming back. We can visit whenever we want. And, by now, Earthe feels more like home to me than here. It'll feel even more like home once my mom is there.

My hair swishes softly at my back as I reach the top of the stairs, heading down the hallway and turning into my room, where Lizzie is scrolling on her phone on my bed. When I enter her eyes lift to me and she smiles, holding a hand out. I snort a laugh and toss her the packet of fruit snacks I shoved in my shorts pocket for her.

"Thanks," she chirps, ripping the packaging open and tossing one in her mouth.

I sit down next to her with a sigh, one leg tucked under me, one dangling over my bed. My hand rests on my leg, smooth except for front and center on my thigh, where there are still the slightly raised spots of scar tissue in the shape of those injuries- of the knife slice and the burn. I rub my fingers absently over them. They've become a part of me now, one I barely differentiate from the rest of my leg. Same with the scars that still show on my hands and arm. Those are more like white lines, barely raised anymore. I don't think my leg will ever heal fully, and honestly that's okay. It reminds me of everything we worked for to get where we are today.