I reached the bottom of the tunnel just in time to see the cloaked figure disappear up the stairs.

  "Hold on!"

  The only response was the sound of footsteps.

  My boots slipped on wet stone as I took the steps four at a time, using the rusted iron railings to propel myself upward. The muscles in my legs and arms burned, but I didn't slow down. A few moments later, I burst out of the stone building at the top and onto the side of the street. Across the street, a cloak whipped in the wind before vanishing down an alley.

  "Wait!"

  Several townspeople jumped when I shouted, but I didn't care. I sprinted after the cloaked person, my heart pounding in my ears to the sound of my footsteps. When I reached the other side of the street, the alley was empty except for the fading scent of lavender and the echo of footsteps on wet cobblestones. I followed both.

  No matter how fast I ran, though, I never caught up. They were always at the edge of sight, disappearing around a wall or through an archway. I ran until my lungs burned, chasing glimpses of movement that always disappeared around the next corner.

  The storm picked up as I ran, soaking me to the bone. My boots sloshed with every step. Rain pounded down on me. The shock of lightning and roar of thunder shook my soul. On and on, I chased the echoes deeper into the city until my lungs burned and vision swam.

  Right when I thought I was catching up, I rounded yet another corner into another narrow alley. Empty, except for a broken wagon propped up against a wall. Turning, I kicked a nearby bucket, which splintered into a thousand shards. I cursed at the sudden sharp pain in my toe.

  Finally, gasping for air, I stumbled under the overhang of an old stone well. Sitting on the mossy rim of the well, I looked over the edge into the black water below. A single drop fell from the cracked roof above, sending ripples across the surface. The smell of lavender clung to the damp air, familiar in a way that made my chest ache.

  Why did this matter? Why was it so familiar? I didn't even know. It felt so familiar.

  I wracked my brain...

  Earth.

  The realization hit me like a punch to the gut. That was a smell I knew from Earth. Someone I knew wore it, but who? Could someone else from Earth be here? Or was I a crazy person chasing after a random stranger?

  I hadn't thought about home—really thought about it—since coming to Reial. Not since I was freshly injured, laying in bed day after day at the temple. Not the way I used to, lying awake at night picking at the wounds and struggles of my old life. All those old worries and anxieties faded away over the year and a half that I'd been here. I'd made new friends, found love, and trained my ass off, and all of that replaced the nothing that was my life before.

  But it wasn't nothing.

  I had a life there. A few people who cared about me. I existed there once. I mattered there once. But It was all gone. Barely a memory now. Did anyone there even remember me? Did they care?

  For the first time since arriving in this world, I felt completely alone.

  A crack of lightning split the sky overhead, followed by a second, close enough that the hairs on my arms stood up. The faded scars running up my left arm throbbed with each bolt. Numbness radiated down my fingers. The smell of burning flesh filled my nose. It was so real I had to look down to make sure I wasn't on fire.

  My vision doubled. Memories filtered into my head. I remembered stumbling through the rain, my arm bleeding and broken. I remembered the pain in my knee, broken when I rolled out of my car at the last second before it fell into the earth. I remembered the tree I'd hidden under smoldering in the heavy rain.

  My throat hitched.

  I was breathing too fast. Panic rose in me in waves. Was this all a dream? For an instant, the thought that all of this was a dream, that I was still in the street, bleeding out, alone, overcame me.

  I clenched my fists, focusing on the bite of nails into my palms. Pain. I could feel it. I focused on the pain in my palms and willed myself to focus. To breathe.

  In.

  Out.

  In.

  Out.

  With focus and effort, my breathing slowed. I was okay. The storm raged around me, but the well's overhang kept me dry. Safe. My vision slowly cleared. When it did, I looked around. Nothing but cobblestones and shuddered houses. A horse brayed nearby.

  I kept breathing and focusing, quelling the panic that rose with every strike of lightning. In time, the storm above calmed. The rain became more steady, and the lightning moved into the distance.

  I wiped my face. "Goddess damn it."

  I stone rattled to the ground beside me. Then, a feminine voice as soft as the patter of the rain followed. "It's hard facing everything we've lost, huh?"

  The smell of lavender filled the air. My throat tightened. I looked to my side. Sitting on the other side of the well was the cloaked figure. A braid of brown hair had escaped the hood, dripping with rainwater. I leaned forward, tried to look into the hood, but it was drawn too far forward. All I could see was the brown braid. "Honestly? I haven't given it much thought. Not until right now."

  "No?" She was surprised. "Why is that?"

  I looked away. "I don't know."

  "I'm envious. I never forgot."

  I sighed. "I've found a life."

  "It's not real. You don't belong here."

  "I thought that way once. But, when I learned there was no going back, I set all that to rest." Talking to her felt comfortable. Like we'd always been friends.

  "No going back?" I saw her shake her head in the corner of my eye. "I don't believe that." She leaned against me. "There's always a path back to where we started. Even if it's difficult."

  Thunder growled in the distance. "Maybe. But I won't be the one to find it."

  She shifted closer. Her arm brushed against mine. "You wouldn't want to go back? To try again?"

  Images flashed in my mind. Me flipping burgers, going to night classes, trying to get by. To get ahead. Sitting in a cubicle, staring at a computer all day. No one else in sight. Living with my parents on the farm because I had nowhere else to go, watching the abuse and addiction tear us all apart. "No. I don't want to go back. Ever. I have a life here."

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  "Are you so sure? Is there nothing there for you?" Her fingers brushed mine. Her skin was ice-cold against my own. Goosebumps crawled up my arm. A feeling of... pressure washed over me. Like I was being pushed to her and pulled away from her at the same time.

  "Not really, no."

  "Are you sure?"

  I hesitated. A face appeared in my mind. "There was one person I wish I could have had more time with. She was... great. Even if we weren't a great fit, I liked her. We were supposed to talk the day after..."

  "You died?"

  "Yeah. But I woke up here, and that was that. It's my only regret."

  "That's a shame." She leaned away. "She liked you too." Her voice was so light that I could barely hear it.

  I laughed, the sound dry and bitter. "And how could you know that?"

  She reached up and pushed back the hood.

  "What... how...?"

  It was her. Devon. But not the Devon I remembered. She had the same sparkling eyes, the same long nose, the same little scrunch of her lips. But, the girl I knew was replaced by a woman with crow's feet at the corners of her eyes and a dark shadow behind the sparkle. She looked older—late thirties or early forties at least—even though she'd been five years younger than me back home.

  "Devon?"

  "It's been a while, Alex."

  I tried to form the words, but they wouldn't come.

  "I died," she said, as if reading my thoughts.

  The words lodged in my chest like a bullet. "How? When?" I choked out.

  She pointed to a thin line running across her throat. "It was a few months after you disappeared. Dave left early, I worked late, and someone saw an opportunity. I didn't even see their face."

  For a long moment, silence between us stretched, filled only by the drumming rain. I had no words. Instead, I studied her. She seemed relaxed and comfortable, but I could see what lay beneath it. She was ready, like a blade half-drawn. Every movement, every gesture, everything about her was measured, practiced. As her eyes met mine, I shivered. They were cold, and she was strong.

  Power hummed around her. There was a pressure in the air that made my bones ache and my left arm tingle. I knew without a single doubt that she could kill me if she wanted. There would be nothing I could do.

  I tried to imagine escaping.

  I'd die.

  I tried to imagine fighting.

  I'd die.

  I small smile spread across her lips. I could tell she knew my thoughts. Her hand moved to her side. A rapier hung on her hip. From what I could see of it through her cloak, it was exquisite, nearly as fine as my new Embermist blade, its hilt inlaid with silver filigree that glinted in the dim light.

  She followed my gaze. "I won it a while back. Nice, isn't it?"

  "Yeah. Very."

  Her eyes trailed to mine. "Yours is exquisite."

  "It's got a mind of its own, but I like it."

  She tilted her head, rainwater dripping from her chin. "You've been busy. Word of a new adventuring party is spreading around Istaera. Of a Guardian and his hangers-on. That wouldn't happen to be you, now would it?"

  I shook my head. "Can't say."

  "I think you can."

  "I'm just having fun and trying not to die. Again." We both laughed, but the pressure around her grew.

  A ghost of a smile touched her lips. "So you're still floating around, then? That sounds like you. No plan. Just raw instinct."

  "It's what I do best."

  "I suppose." She looked at the ground, silent as the grave.

  I exhaled hard, my breath fogging in the damp air. It was cold. "Why are you here, Dev?"

  Her lips quirked. "No one's called me that in a long time." She shook her head. "I have things I need to take care of in Fairview." She leaned closer, but I couldn't stop myself from shifting away. The pressure around her changed. It made my arm burn. And she was cold. So cold. She noticed my reaction and leaned away.

  She always was always able to play me before. To tie me in knots. She was so good at it. "Talk plainly. What are you doing here?"

  "This and that."

  "Got it." I took a step back. "And why me? What do you want with me?"

  "Nothing. I almost didn't bother, but you looked so pitiful out here that I couldn't help but say hi."

  Her words strung. "Ah, so pity?"

  "Charity. You have no idea how much my time is worth."

  "Sorry to cost you."

  "You have no idea."

  "I would if you told me."

  "You don't want to know."

  "Why then? Why waste the time on me?"

  Her lips scrunched together. "Nostalgia, mostly."

  "So, what? You decided to slum it with me?"

  "Yes and no." She sighed. "You need to be careful, Alex. Powerful people are moving around you. You're going to die again if you keep doing what you're doing, and next time, you won't come back. You're just some guy. You don't matter."

  Her words stung. "And you do?"

  "Yes." Her words were so firm. "I do."

  "I'm not the same as I was. I can help people."

  "Aren't you?" She held my gaze, her eyes harder than I remembered. "You've got more muscles now, sure, but you're still you. You're still charging headfirst into storms. Still trying to save everyone. No thought. No plan. You just charge forward and do whatever comes to you. That's what messed your life up back home, and that's going to get you dead here."

  "It's who I am. I don't know any other way to live." Tristan and Vral came into my mind. Even Sophia. "And that's what the people in my life value about me. I like being useful. I like helping people."

  "Don't you want more than that?"

  My sword's voice echoed in my mind.

  Lightning flashed, illuminating the scars on her knuckles, the hollows under her eyes. This wasn't the Devon I remembered. This was someone who'd fought—really fought—to survive.

  "No. I'm okay with who I am."

  "A pity."

  I flexed my hands, feeling the calluses there. "What am I supposed to do, then?"

  "Find somewhere safe and stay put." Her eyes looked up at the sky. "I don't want you to get hurt. You're too good. You don't deserve that."

  I stared at her, trying to parse her words. Figure out the truth from lie. But she'd always been hard for me to read. That was her superpower. "Who would hurt me?"

  "Anyone. Maybe me. You're not strong enough to stop it, either."

  "Like you would hurt me."

  "I can, and I would." The smile left her lips, and her tone was so completely certain that I didn't doubt her. That was her truth. "I wouldn't like it, but I'd do what needed doing."

  I stared at her for a long time. My stomach churned. A headache pounded in my skull. The pressure around her was intense. Too intense.

  With a hiss of breath, I pulled myself to my feet, nearly tripping as my boots slid across wet stones. "What are you waiting for then? Why not now?"

  She looked at me for a long moment, then stood, her movements practiced and graceful. She smiled, but the expression didn't reach her eyes. "Because you don't matter, and I'm not here talking to you for that reason. I'm just a girl talking to an old friend."

  I took a deep breath, steeling myself against the urge to listen to my sword's voice, to run, and took a step toward Devon. "Are we really friends, Dev?"

  "We are." Her voice softened a little. "In spite of everything, I still consider you my friend."

  "What does that mean?"

  She reached up and took my face in her hands. Her skin was so cold that it burned against my jaw. I tried to pull away but couldn't. "It means, be careful. Life isn't a game, and you aren't some big hero destined to save the world." She frowned as I tried again to pull away. Her hands dropped. "This is reality, Alex, and it can be harsh. So, do this for me. Go back to your little temple and stay there. A lot is coming in the days ahead, and I can't guarantee you'll make it through. You or the little girls hanging onto you."

  My sword trembled on my hip, its voice screaming wordlessly in my skull.

  "Is that a threat?" I felt fire rise in me. My fingers brushed my sword's hilt.

  "It's a promise."

  "Alex!" Vral's voice. She was close.

  Devon leaned in and planted a soft kiss on my cheek. Her lips burned my skin. My body shook, and I nearly collapsed as a wave of nausea slammed through me.

  "But, knowing you, you won't listen." Leaning back, she patted my cheek. "I have a feeling we'll be seeing one another again soon." Then, almost faster than my eyes could follow, she stepped out from under the overhang, into the falling rain, and disappeared.

  The instant Devon disappeared, Vral charged around the corner. "I found him!"

  A second later, Tristan and Sophia rounded the corner behind the goblin. The three women drew to a stop in front of me. Their chests heaved from exertion, and all of their faces were filled with worry.

  I tried to greet them, tried to say anything, but I couldn't. My teeth were chattering, and I realized my entire body was shaking. I fell to the ground and braced my back against the well as the world started to spin.

  Tristan hurried up to me and pressed her hands against my temples. She frowned. Taking me into her arms, she held me tightly. "It's okay. Breathe, Alex. Just breathe." She held me as she spoke to the others. "I can't feel the presence anymore. Whoever it was, they were strong, and they weren't trying to hide it." She sighed and pulled my head against her shoulder.

  "Is he okay?" asked Sophia.

  "He will be. He needs to rest for a while."

  Her chest pressed to mine. I could feel her breathing, her warmth. I forced myself to focus, to ground myself, to match my breathing to hers. Slowly, so painfully slowly, the panic faded away.

  I heard Vral kick something nearby. "What the hell happened to you?" She was furious, but the worry was evident in her voice. "Chasing a strong opponent off alone like that, and without me! You're not allowed to do that!"

  My teeth stopped chattering. When they did, Tristan let me go. I looked over at Vral and shook my head. "I didn't know they were strong. I just... they reminded me of someone, so I followed them. Turns out I was right."

  Tristan shook her head. "It was like an inferno was surrounding you. Who were they?"

  Sophia was pacing. "Even I could feel it. It was intense."

  "I don't know if I could have taken them." Vral was shaking.

  I nodded. "I'm okay now. Let's go back to the inn, and I'll explain what I can."