1519, ITALY

Dear Diary,

I’m not going to lie, today is a sad day. Forbidding the trolls and goblins to leave their territory in the fairy-tale world has been keeping the fairies and me from traveling to the Otherworld as regularly. By the time I returned, Leo had passed away.

I don’t know how I let it happen. I’ve always been aware of the time difference between worlds—I guess I just forgot. But that’s love for you. It makes you careless and forgetful. It fools you into thinking the people you hold dear will be around forever, so you take them for granted.

I’m used to losing friends—that’s what happens when you live as long as I have—but losing Leo stings worse than anything I’ve felt before. I don’t think I’ll ever find someone like my Renaissance man again.…