Page 36 of Veil of Night & Flames

“Hell, yes,” I say, relaxing as another bit of fear slides out of me. The hidden, unspoken fear that while I’d been gone, she’d decided she’d had enough of this Realm stuff. Or that she didn’t need me now that she had Riley.

“Hang on,” she says, then grabs her phone, taps out a text, and tosses it back on her mattress. “Riley,” she says. “I was supposed to meet her for breakfast, but we’ll catch her later.”

I look down to hide my smile. “Yeah,” I say, “we’ll fill her in on everything then.”

“But me now,” Tia says firmly. “I mean ten days. Ten long days. Do you have any idea how freaked out I was?”

“I know. I’m sorry. If it makes a difference, it hasn’t been that long for me. Only a few days.” I hunch my shoulders. “But those days were seriously packed. I mean, like huge. I have a lot to tell you.” I make a puppy dog face. “Forgive me, and I’ll give you the full scoop.”

She crosses her arms. “You, my friend, will tell me every dirty detail, or I will scour the earth to get my magic back and turn you into a toad. Worse, I’ll name you Fluffy and all the other toads will mock you.”

I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”

“Of course. But don’t tell Riley. She’s the jealous type.”

“Deal,” I say, as she catches me in another hug.

“Seriously,” she says. “I’m so glad you’re back. And safe. I burned so much sage that the RA threatened to call the fire department. And every day I went to Griff’s to see if we could find any hint of you guys with the equipment.”

I fight a smile. “I’m surprised Mr. Griffin didn’t tell me.”

She pulls back. Her eyes are red, and yesterday’s mascara is clearly not the waterproof kind. “You went to Griff first?”

“He was up. You weren’t.” I hesitate, then look at my fingernails. “Also, I had to tell him about Whistler.”

“Yeah,” she says softly. “I get that.” She sucks in a breath. “But you’re here, and you’re safe, and I feel horrible about Whistler, but so, so relieved about you.”

“I missed you.”

She nods, sniffs, then wipes her face on the sleeve of her sleep shirt.

“Coffee?”

“Yeah,” she says. “I think we definitely need coffee.”

She heaves herself up, grabs her electric kettle off my desk, and fills it from our in-room sink. While her back is to me, I take a moment to soak up the strangeness. This is where I wanted to come. It’s where and who I want to be. A normal girl with a normal life.

And yet being here makes reality hit all the harder. I’m not normal. And while this may be home for now, I don’t have a clue what realm I’ll eventually call my own.

When she comes back, I force away my confusion and melancholy. It’s not a hard task—after all, this is Tia. My bestie. The girl who can always, always make me laugh.

Now, she climbs onto the foot of my bed and folds her legs under her like she’s settling in for a long story.

“Talk,” she says.

“Where do I start?”

“Try the beginning. That’s a time-honored tradition.”

“That’s a lot.”

“I’m blowing off everything until I’ve heard it all. So just blurt it out however you want. But catch me up, okay?”

I nod. Then I take a breath and do the thing I came here to do.

Chapter

Twelve