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.

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

“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?” Angelo stared at Lęina as though transfixed. “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.

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.

“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.”

“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.