“Well, yes. But now I see a sparkling bag in your hand.”
He laughed and held it up. “Thereisa little something for you, yes.”
He reached inside and pulled out a shimmering blue… phone?
“It’s an Inter-Realm Communicator,” he told me, as he held it out. “You’ll be able to message us here while you’re outside the Realm. I’ve programmed our numbers into it already—mine, Torvek’s, and your grandmother’s. We all have one too, so you can contact us at any time.”
I took it from him and held it to me. “Thank you. This is perfect.”
“If there are any urgent situations, Vorzyr will be your go-to.”
I nodded, then eyed Torvek. “You hear that,flame bite?Vorzyr?”
He gave me a withering look. “Evi.”
My dad looked between us, but didn’t comment on it.
He knew we had our own thing.
“Your grandmother isn’t going to be able to make it for your send-off, Evira. She’s tending to a delicate situation involving House Athyras in the Wind Dragon Quadrant that’s just come to our attention, and she can’t be pulled away. She sends her loveand told me to make it known that she’ll be messaging you like crazy.”
I smiled. “I have no doubt.”
He noted my packed bags, a bunch of my things missing from my room because they were either in my duffel bags or already in my dorm room at Loxley. He sucked in a breath. “So… this is really it, then. You’re leaving home.”
“Just going to college, Dad. And I’ll still be in contact.”
“It won’t be the same.”
“No, it won’t,” Torvek said.
“But it’s something you absolutely need to do,” my dad added quickly.
“Absolutely,” Torvek agreed.
“Thank you for getting that. It means a lot to me.”
In the next moment, we were throwing our arms around each other.
The hug went on and on.
And I was definitely on board with that.
I was really going to miss them.
But I definitely needed to do this.
I just knew it was going to be the beginning of something incredible.
3
~Evira~
There it was.
Loxley Academy.
The place was already amazing to me, and I hadn’t even set foot inside yet.
