The Garden (Into Shadow, #1)

by Tomi Adeyemi

when you visit the Garden, there is a promise you must make. a sacred vow you have to take. a toll your soul must pay.

you must be prepared to shed all that you are for no false face can enter Sacred Space and return to the old world unscathed

none can enter liminal space without being transformed by the original

Angelo looked like he had been born to step into the unknown. Lęina had always been told she was born to stay at home.

She’d had a plan. She’d had her dreams. Now she felt trapped in the real thing . . .

Lęina didn’t remember her knees giving out. She only felt herself shout.

That every time she thought about her mother, she couldn’t speak. She felt like she would choke.

she felt the things the other couldn’t touch.

she was no longer afraid of how this world could burn.

She left her whole damn mind.

“And you don’t feel something alive in books? Haven’t you ever felt the kiss of fabled winds brush across your face?” Lęina whispered. “Haven’t you ever found yourself floating in an infinite space? Haven’t you shed tears for characters you’ve never known? Felt emotions that can’t possibly be your own?”

“You don’t know that feeling?” Lęina pushed. “Deep, deep in your heart?” “I think I do . . . ,” Angelo finally answered. “Then you think books can be alive.”

She felt her inner world had formed its own inner world and now she was too far down her own soul to hear.

Lęina felt she was made of sorrow. More than one human should bear. There were long months when she couldn’t cry. Then certain years where she drowned in tears.

Lęina felt she was made of laughter. Of laughter and riddles and fear. Late at night she could feel something beating in her heart, some...

Lęina felt she should’ve left that day and found the Garden with her mom.

“I think I’m addicted to sadness.”

She could smell sadness like a fragrance sprayed in the air. Something young girls dotted behind their ears. She smelled the way men carried sadness in their chests, always given to them by their fathers, or a girl who broke their heart.

The sadness I feel always draws me near.”

Sons used to replace their fathers. Now both live too long.”

“I think you are drawn to the familiar.” Angelo smiled. “As people, we all are. We go to what feels the same. Even if that feeling is pain.” Lęina stared at the journal on her lap—was that what this tome was? Old pain bound in leather skin? Something familiar she was willing to follow till her end? “Does that mean we can never change?” Angelo shook his head. “I think we can always change.” Angelo shrugged. “You just have to be willing to walk away from the pain.”

did you know you were born with magic? deep inside your chest? did you know you carried power in your wombs the power to break tombs a power they wished did not exist? did you know you could awaken this power take hold of all you are owed? ask yourself, dear, be bold— are you ready to transform?

her heart belonged to her mother’s ghost?

place where the fern first learned to grow. A place where patterns formed from the chaos, and rivers ran with ancient knowledge, and even the smallest girl could summon the fiercest snow.

“My mother told me of a garden . . .” Lęina spoke slowly. “A soil where every flower could grow. The only cost of admission was your old soul.

“My mother told me of a garden . . .” Lęina spoke slowly. “A place where the first rivers met. She spoke of a place where ravens danced with stars, and every woman released her scars...

“A place where the day twisted into night. A place where weary travelers could find refuge and reconnect their hearts to all of their darker lights.

“My mother told me of a garden . . .” Lęina spoke slowly. “A place deep in the forest where you could always hear the crashing ocean waves. My mother told me of a garden . . . she followed it to her grave.”

Yuliana wanted answers with all her heart.

venture into the Garden, my child. reach your fingertips up to your neck. feel for the pulse that tells you you are still here today, you have escaped death