But I’m exhausted. Hollowed out. My throat is raw and my heart is in pieces and someone is offering me something warm.
I take the cup.
I drink.
It tastes like—
Oh.I think.Oh no.
That familiar warmth spreads through me. Starting in my chest. Radiating outward.
I need air.
I set down the cup and walk toward the door. My legs feel strange. Heavy and light at the same time. The studio blurs at the edges.
I push through the door.
Step outside.
And the world is wrong.
THE LIGHT IS DIFFERENT.
That’s the first thing I notice. The cool, clean daylight of the studio is gone. Out here, everything is bathed in amber. Golden-warm, like late afternoon sun filtered through honey. The color temperature has shifted by at least a thousand Kelvin, and my photographer brain latches onto that detail because if I think about what it means, I might scream.
Same streets. Same storefronts. Same Providence architecture.
But there are flags.
Banners hanging from lampposts, snapping in the breeze. Four colors. Four territories. The crest of the Southern Territory—Devyn’s territory—repeated on every corner.
A man in a black suit nods at me as I pass. Respectful. Almost deferential. He has an earpiece. A military posture.
Royal enforcer. Not hiding. Not lurking in shadows. Standing in plain sight like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
Another one, across the street, touches his earpiece and speaks quietly into his sleeve.
A sleek black car glides past, tinted windows, the kind of car that costs more than my apartment. A small flag on the antenna. The Southern crest.
I know these signs.
I’ve seen them before.
This New England is under the territory of kings.
I’m not in my old world at all.
I’m back in Devyn’s world.
But when? How far back did Hewhay send me?
And then I see her.
Mrs. Lyme.
She’s walking toward me on the sidewalk, market basket over her arm, silver hair pinned in that familiar elegant twist. Same face. Same posture. Same everything. The amber light gilds her, makes her look like a figure from an old painting.
“Mrs. Lyme!”
