Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
Crossing back was even easier than it had been with Adric.
I guess I’m warming up to this new style of travel, which definitely beats hanging out in a crowded airport and hoping your flight doesn’t get canceled.
We just walked through a wall to end up standing in the heavy, humid morning air on the sidewalk outside the Griffin’s Nest, Chase’s hand still tight in mine.
It’s early, and the campus area has only barely started to stir with hints of life. A passing jogger. A car’s taillights growing dim in the distance. The sweet chirps of waking birds.
Everywhere I look, all I see is normal.
But I’m not. I’m different now.
I look up at Chase. “How long have I been gone? I mean, from this realm’s perspective?”
“Ten days since we crashed in Adric’s realm,” he says, and I nod, remembering that a week of time had passed when I’d come here with Adric.
“It’s Tuesday,” he adds.
I shake my head in wonder. “It hasn’t even been three days for us.”
Chase shrugs. “If we’d crossed on a different day, it might have been shorter. The relative time depends on how the realms are moving in relation to each other.”
I just gape at him and mime a whooshing motion over my head. “Is this physics? Because I specifically did not sign up for physics since I like to pass my classes.”
He laughs. “Think of it this way. The realms are always shifting—sometimes closer, sometimes farther. The crossings behave differently depending on where things are. A day in one realm could be a few hours here. A different shift, and an hour there might be a month. There’s no fixed exchange.
So, yes. It’s a bit like relativity, but stranger. ”
I stare at him. “So time literally moves at different speeds in different places.”
He shrugs. “The realms don’t run on the same clock. They never have.”
“Okey-dokey.” I let out a breath. “I’ll just file that with all the other things that are my new normal.”
I take another glance around, letting the weight of time settle over me.
Ten days. In the three I experienced, I fought wolves, lost Whistler, found a cure to save Chase’s life, got dragged to the castle by Kali, slept with both Chase and a king, learned that I have more than a little power, visited this realm, got betrothed in a blood ceremony, freed a king from his castle prison, danced with my semi-delusional uncle, hallucinated seeing my mom, and watched Adric order six men to die in a courtyard.
Here, the world spent ten days doing laundry and watching Netflix.
I grimace. The truth is that most of the world didn’t notice my absence at all. But Tia must be losing her mind.
“The store’s not open yet,” I say. “Let’s come back after we go see Tia.”
Chase runs his fingers through the tousled strands of my hair. “Do you really want to wake her?”
I do, of course. But I get Chase’s point. Tia defaults to afternoon classes for a reason. Basically, because the girl is a night owl.
I look up at Chase and shrug. “Should we go get a coffee while we wait for Mr. Griffin to show up?”
A hint of a smile touches his lips as he shakes his head. “Trust me.”
Since I do, I follow him to the door, then watch as he slides a wooden panel to the left to reveal a keypad. He punches in a code, the lock clicks, and I follow him inside, then through the stacks to the familiar stairs that lead down to the training area.
I groan as we head down. “Come on, Chase. No training today.”
He shoots me a wry glance. “You’re essentially beyond lessons, Cora. We both know that. And you don’t need the help from Griff’s gizmos and gadgets anymore.”
“Then why are we here?”
He doesn’t answer. Just crosses the room and taps on one of the mirrors mounted on the wall. A moment passes, then the mirror shudders as it slides open to reveal a dimly lit room and—
“Mr. Griffin!” I launch myself into his arms and hug him at least as tightly as he’s hugging me.
“Oh, thank goodness,” he says, when we finally break apart. Relief seems to pour off him like rain. “The equipment registered the crash. We feared the worst.”
“It was the worst,” I say. “We lost Whistler. Wolves.” My voice sounds choked. “Horrible wolves.”
I see the depth of the loss in his eyes as he shifts his gaze to Chase in silent question.
Chase shakes his head. “There wasn’t a body to bring back,” he says softly. And that’s when I lose it.
I don’t mean to. I made it through day after day without crying for the friend who literally saved me and Tia. But when I try to say something—I don’t even know what—all I can manage is a squeak before I burst into tears.
Chase pulls me against his chest, and I press my face into his shirt and cry the way I couldn’t cry in front of Adric or Kali or any of the courtiers who’d watched me that first night, wondering if I was just a girl or their soon-to-be queen.
It feels like a million years until I can breathe again, but as soon as the sobs stop, Mr. Griffin passes me a handkerchief—and that simple act almost starts the waterworks all over again.
“He was a stubborn old bastard,” Mr. Griffin says quietly. “And a good friend.”
“We’ll have a memorial,” I say. “With Tia.”
“We will,” Mr. Griffin agrees, before stepping back into what I guess is his apartment and returning with coffee.
“You live down here?”
“Since Helen died,” he says with a nod. “I thought you knew.”
“I guess I never thought about it,” I admit.
“We had a home near the beach,” he says, but after she died…well, without her, it was only a house.” He shrugs, as if that explains everything. I suppose it does.
“I’ve missed you,” I say, and it’s the truth, even though it’s only been a couple of days for me.
“And I you,” he says, but as he speaks, he leans forward, studying me.
Then I realize. Not me—the vial hanging around my neck.
“Intriguing,” he says. “A souvenir from the Nightmare Realm?” His brows rise as I picture a little shop at the entrance to the castle that sells trinkets to visitors from other realms.
Then I think about what the vial really means—and how Mr. Griffin will react if I tell him the truth.
But, of course, I have to tell him the truth.
“There was a price,” I say, looking at my hands in my lap rather than him. “The wolves—the same ones that killed Whistler—they almost killed Chase.”
Mr. Griffin’s body goes rigid, as if he already knows the arc of this story.
“There was a cure. Adric’s blood.”
“And a price,” Chase says, his voice hard.
I nod.
“What does this vial mean?”
I reach up without thinking and cup the vial in my hand. “I guess, well, I mean, it’s just…” I take another breath and force the words out. “I’m his fiancée.”
He turns to Chase.
“Yes.” That’s all Chase says, but it carries both pain and, I think, fear.
I see the debate play out over Mr. Griffin’s features, but I can’t parse out what he’s thinking. I’m starting to worry that he’s going to kick me out of the training room when he surprises me by pulling me close.
“You are a brave woman, Cora Lyte.” He shudders. “But knowing you, I would expect nothing less.”
I just shrug and wiggle away from him.
Mr. Griffin puts his hand on my shoulder. “We won’t speak of it now.”
“Thank you,” I whisper.
I glance at Chase, but his expression is as flat as a mask and entirely unreadable. I know that look. He still can’t stand that I made the deal with Adric—even though that deal saved his life.
I look away as Mr. Griffin pats my shoulder as if giving me strength. Clearly, he thinks the betrothal is a horrible, horrible thing. But I don’t. It saved Chase’s life, and for that, I would have paid any price.
All true. But at the same time, I was agreeing to the demands of an Adric I thought I knew. Last night, though…
That execution—well, that was a different Adric altogether. A colder, brutal man who sentenced men to die, but didn’t have the balls to do the deed himself.
And now, I’m that man’s fiancée.
I look down, forcing the thoughts out of my head. I’d had no choice, and I know it. I would have paid any price to save Chase. And last night gave me more insight into the king who essentially owns me. Information is power, right? So I guess right now, I’m pretty damn powerful.
I force myself to shake off the thoughts. “What about here? What’s happened since we left?”
“Have you spoken with Tia?”
“Why?” I hear the edge in my voice. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” He smiles a little, clearly understanding my fear. “But she and Riley found something.” He looks between Chase and me. “Something disturbing near the Widow Maker. But I will let her tell you.”
I start to say that I overheard some of that when I was here with Adric, then shift gears. I never told Chase about that little trip, and now isn’t the time to fess up. Instead, I say, “I’m glad she told Riley what’s going on. Was Riley’s mind completely blown?”
Mr. Griffin chuckles. “Hardly. Turns out Riley knew some of it even before Tia brought her into the fold. They’ve spent so much time down here poring over material that I may have to start charging them rent.”
I glance at Chase, the need to see Tia almost like a physical ache.
“I know,” he says, then looks at Mr. Griffin. “Hamilton Hall is our next stop.”
“She’ll hate you for waking her up this early,” Mr. Griffin says. “But I imagine she’ll forgive you soon enough. Go,” he adds. “You can take me through every step of your time in the Nightmare Realm later. Moment by moment. Who knows what we might find in your words that will be useful?”
I nod, then glance at Chase.
“We’ll be back,” he says as we both rise, then head up the stairs as Mr. Griffin goes back into his lonely room behind the mirror.