Page 31 of Veil of Night & Flames

The other five follow, their blood joining the pool on the stone. Then, as I watch, the blood disappears, as if the stone is alive, and the blood has fed it.

My stomach twists, and I lean back into Chase’s embrace, trying to look anywhere except at Adric.

Silence lingers for a moment, then Adric sweeps his gaze over the crowd. “The rebels’ bodies will be returned to their families, each member of which will swear new oaths before the next moonset. Any who do not will be exiled into the realm’s wild stretches.” He turns to Vorian. “That is my decree. See that it is carried out.”

Vorian inclines his head. “My king.”

Adric steps down from the platform, pausing at the foot of the steps.

“Cora.”

I turn to him but can’t bring myself to meet his eyes. He just killed six men and didn’t even have the balls to do it himself.

“I will not ask you to come back inside,” he says quietly. “I will not ask you for anything tonight.”

Then he turns and walks back into the hall, leaving me feeling lost and confused and with a desire to comfort him that I don’t quite know what to do with.

I don’t think about it, though. Instead, I turn to face Chase, taking both his hands in mine.

“Please,” I say. “Please take me home.”

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.