Dolph gave him a brief nod and offered his hand.
Zohar took it.
They silently studied each other, realizing they had a lot more in common than not.
Two future kings.
Neither one ready. Neither one perfect.
But maybe… not so alone anymore.
“Does this mean we aren’t telling Dad about him now?” Juno asked with a grin.
Dolph crossed his arms and leaned against the stone archway near the reflection pool, watching Zohar with a thoughtful expression.
The other boy was hunched low on the edge of a weathered bench, elbows on his knees, head bowed as drops of water from the sphere Dolph had created clung to his dark hair. The bravado he’d shown earlier—the cocky edge, the wry humor—had melted away, leaving behind someone who was so familiar, he could almost have been a mirror image of Dolph, despite them looking nothing alike.
“You said… ‘we’,” Dolph began carefully. “When you were talking about the portal. How many of you came through?”
Zohar hesitated. His shoulders twitched, rising in a slow breath before falling again.
“Ten,” he said quietly. “There are ten of us, including me.”
Dolph’s eyebrows lifted, and he released a low, impressed whistle. “Ten? You opened a portal for ten people?”
Zohar winced and rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t. My cousin, Phoenix, opened it. She’s really powerful in a cool way. She’s created portals before. This one… They are usually really good… stable.” He swallowed. “But… there was this bug from the garden. I guess the colors attracted it. Anyway, the bug scared the girls, and they knocked into us. Phoenix wasn’t finished making the portal, and—well…”
Zohar grimaced, guilt etching across his face like cracks in stone.
“It all happened so fast. One second we were in the garden back home, the next we were on these colorful threads zooming through space. It was incredible—until the threads started breaking apart and-and disappearing. The one I was on disappeared.”
“That must have been scary. What happened to the others?” he asked.
“It was. I saw a few others disappearing through holes before me. I think it dropped everyone across the different kingdoms. At least, that’s what I’m hoping. I-I’ll never forgive myself if something happened to the others. I should have thought this through better. I should have… I should have been the leader that I’m supposed to be, instead of a bored, spoiled teenager looking for thrills,” Zohar finished, looking away.
A wave of compassion flashed through Dolph. He could see the worry on the other boy’s face. Zohar clasped his hands together, rubbing his palms against each other, before he stared at them as his voice dropped to a hoarse whisper.
“I really thought I was going to die.”
The words hung in the air, sharp, soft, and raw. Zohar wiped a hand under his nose and turned his head, blinking hard at the floor.
“My mom… my dad… my little sister, they’d never even know what happened. I would have just been… gone. Now, I can’t stop thinking about what if it—what if it has happened… to one of my friends,” he mumbled.
Dolph remained silent, a lump forming in his throat. There was nothing he could say. Zohar would already know that it was possible, even probable, that the forces that had brought Zohar to the Isle of the Sea Serpent had also protected the others wherever they had emerged. But it wasn’t guaranteed. The worry would stay with Zohar until he knew for sure.
“I was one of the big instigators,” Zohar confided with a deep sigh. “It’s not the first time, either. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. We’ve been on lots of adventures on Valdier, and even on Earth—that’s where my mom’s from.”
That information made Dolph widen his eyes, noticing the extraordinary coincidences of both of them having mothers from Earth, both of them having visited Earth before, and Zohar having appeared now of all times.
“Somehow, we’ve always pulled it off,” Zohar continued, “but nothing like this. We’ve always been together. Never… never alone.” He shook his head, his eyes dull. “But this time? I didn’t think it through. I didn’t think about how dangerous it could be. Not just for me, but for the others.”
He pressed his palms together tightly, as if trying to hold the confession in. “I put everyone in danger… all because I was bored.”
“My dad could find out… about your friends. He would know,” Dolph offered.
Zohar looked up at him. “Do you think he would help me?”
“He’ll help you, Zohar!” Juno chimed in. “If your friends are anywhere in the Seven Kingdoms, our dad can find them, can’t he, Dolph?”
