Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
The Realm of the Real hit him like a wave.
Color. Sound. The weight of a sun—an actual sun—warm on his skin for the first time in millennia.
He stood on a sidewalk lined with oak trees, moss hanging like gray curtains, and the sheer physical density of this realm pressed against him from every direction.
The light. The sound. The air that smelled of warm bodies and green, growing things—the particular alive-smell of the Real.
He looked down. His coat of shadows had shifted into a human man’s jacket along with dark jeans and boots. Cora, too—her gown had transformed into simple jeans and a fitted top, and her copper hair hung loose around her shoulders. She looked like what she was. A college student who belonged here.
“Wow,” she said, tilting her head as she looked at him. “You look—”
“Human?”
“Normal.”
He fought a smile. “Pity. I much prefer standing out.”
She laughed, then tilted her face up to the sun, her eyes closed, the corners of her mouth lifting into a smile of pure joy.
He liked seeing her happy. He just wished it was him and not the warmth of some distant star that made her glow like that.
She cleared her throat, then gave him a sheepish grin. “It’s nice being back.” She tilted her head. “Have you been here before?”
“Like this, no. Not since before humans left their caves. But I have watched,” he said, his eyes meeting hers. “I’ve seen many things in my scrying pool. Many beautiful things.”
“Oh.”
He noticed the way her cheeks went pink and fought the urge to smile.
“Tell me?” she asked, and he smiled, catching the subtle flavor of salt from the nearby ocean.
“I’ve watched this realm through stolen glimpses for longer than you can imagine.
First, as the Guardian, then from the prison of my castle.
But I’ve never stood here. Never breathed in this air.
Never looked up at your stars. I want to understand what I’m seeing, my love.
I want to see this world through your eyes. To understand what it means to you.”
“It means everything to me,” she said, blinking back tears. “This place, and that you brought me here. Thank you.”
The words cut through him, as beautiful and sharp as if she’d said I love you.
He inclined his head, hoping she didn’t notice the depth of his feeling. The power she held over him. Hell, the danger she was to him.
Beside him, she glanced around, clearly trying to decide where to start. “This is an oak tree,” she said, peering up at the tree that sheltered them. “They’re everywhere here. They live for centuries.”
“I’m familiar,” he said. “But I do love how your face lights up when you speak of this simple tree.”
“Not simple. Fabulous. And they can grow very, very old. And that moss isn’t actually a parasite, even though it looks like one—it just hangs out and minds its own business. At least, that’s what Uncle Finn told me.”
“Spanish moss,” he said, more to cut off any question she might raise about her uncle than because of an interest in moss.
Cora wanted Finn freed. Kali wanted him for leverage.
And while Adric wanted nothing more than to keep his betrothed happy, on the matter of Finn, he agreed with the woman who was his good right hand.
Cora tilted her head, as if studying him. “How do you know about Spanish moss?”
“You’d be surprised at the things you pick up across the span of an eternity.”
“I’m thinking that if I were immortal, Spanish moss wouldn’t be high on my Love to Learn list.”
“And yet that I know of it has given us the basis of an actual conversation. At the moment, Spanish moss is my most beloved parasite.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not a parasite, remember?”
He chuckled. “The truth is that while I am aware of many things in your realm, I have experienced very few. Certainly, I have never touched your non-parasite.”
“I think we can remedy that.” She reached up and pulled a low-hanging strand free, then handed it to him.
He turned it between his fingers, surprised by the dryness of it, the way it crumbled slightly.
He’d expected something wetter. Something more like the gray-green vines that grew along his castle walls, pliable despite needing so little water.
“And them?” He nodded toward a cluster of students passing them.
“Sophomores. Probably. The backpacks are too beat up for freshmen and not beat up enough for juniors.”
“You can tell from the backpacks?”
She shook her head and grinned. “Honestly, I haven’t got a clue. But I figure I had a one-in-four chance, and it’s not like you’d know if I was wrong, anyway.”
He laughed, loving her a tiny bit more for no reason other than that she was who she was.
He let her lead him through campus paths, naming each building as they passed.
As they crossed what she called a quad—a place where students sprawled on grass with books and laptops—he noticed the way she kept reaching for things.
Touching a tree trunk, running her hand along a wrought-iron fence, twisting a leaf between her fingers.
And when he glanced sideways, even her profile showed that she missed this place.
“That’s the Science Center,” she said, nodding at a Spanish-style building with arched doorways and walls that had clearly seen a few centuries.
“Professor Valdez teaches Abnormal Psych in there. She does sleep disorder research.” She shot him a sideways glance.
“Silly me to think I had a disorder when all along it was destiny.”
Destiny.
He wondered which version of it she meant. Him? The Bride-mantle? Or the whole impossible weight of being chosen by a prophecy she hadn’t asked for.
He didn’t ask. He suspected the answer was all three.
“Where does that go?” he asked, gesturing to a path that cut off from the route they were walking.
“The town. Touristy stuff, mostly. But I work at The Griffin’s Nest. It’s this adorable bookstore that carries pretty much everything. And serves great coffee.”
“You like working there.” Not a question. He’d already heard the answer in her voice.
“Oh, yeah. Mr. Griffin’s great. He and Chase have been good friends for ages.”
Friends.
The word hung heavy in his thoughts. His brother had friends. This shopkeeper. The warrior from the Realm of the Others who’d died outside the walls of the castle. Probably even the girl Tia, whom Cora so missed.
Griffin. Something about the name rang familiar, and if the man was Chase’s friend, he was likely a Hunter, too—but no clear memory surfaced.
“Earth to Adric?”
He smiled. “Just imagining you as a shop girl.”
“We can go there if you want to see it.”
He shook his head. “Some other time.” He had no wish to share her with Chase’s allies. Not today. “We aren’t staying, remember? Best to remain out of sight.”
“Oh.” Her face lost some of its glow, and he hated himself for that. But not enough to change his mind. He’d see the place someday, but only when he was certain that she was truly his, and that she would remain so even if they were parted.
“I want to see Tia,” she said. “I know you think it will make it harder, but it won’t. Please?”
For a moment, he stood still, fighting the urge to simply say no, his fear that she would miss this world too much looming up around him. And if she decided to stay—well, that was a price he was not yet ready to pay.
And yet he could see the longing—it seemed to cling to her. And he was a man who understood longing.
“Very well,” he said, and his heart mlted a bit as her entire body seemed to light up.
“Thank you. Thank you so much. She’ll be awestruck meeting you. And as for this…” She pressed her fingers to the vial. “She’s going to totally lose her shit.”
“Cora.”
He let her name hang in the wind. “Out of sight, remember?”
“Even Tia?” The heartbreak in her voice felt like a stab to his gut. “She can keep a secret.”
“Do you really wish to go into explanations with her now, when all you would be doing after is returning to my realm?”
She tilted her head as she studied him. “I suppose I should at least be grateful that you’re not going to snatch her up and take her to your realm for me. Guess you got your fill of that with my uncle.”
He thought he heard a tease in her voice, but it was buried under genuine anger that felt like a punch to the gut.
“I would not do that,” he said. “And Kali abducted your uncle without my blessing.”
“And yet he’s still there.”
“I have personally asked your uncle if he wished to be returned home. He assured me he didn’t. He is quite taken with the library, as you well know.” All true. And Cora need not know that he was remaining silent on a few other truths she might not abide as well.
For a moment, he thought she would call him out on the white lie, but apparently she’d decided to hold her tongue. Probably because she feared that he might decide any friction between them was a reason to immediately end this journey to her realm.
“Onward to Tia,” she finally said. “And I do wish you could meet her today. I think you’d like her. She’s got absolutely no barriers and speaks her mind and goes after what she wants.”
He met her eyes. “Sounds like someone I know.”
Her cheeks turned adorably pink. “Yeah, a bit. But she’s like me on crack. It took only about fourteen seconds for us to bond. Possibly less.” She drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “I miss her. She should have been at our ceremony.”
The words sent a shot of warmth through him. He knew she only meant that she’d wanted her friend there for support. But he let himself believe it was because she’d been moved by the meaning of the ceremony and was truly becoming his.
“What?” She leaned toward him.
“I was just thinking that it must be wonderful to have a friend like that.”
“You have Kali,” she said, and he heard the knife-edge in her voice.