Page 86 of Sorrow & Strangers

“Just open the portal,” she demands, rolling her eyes.

I don’t.

She crosses her arms over her chest.

So stubborn, and I hate how endearing I find it. I wave my hand, and she yelps when my power yanks her off her feet and slams her against my body. Another wave of my hand opens the hellfire portal back to Avalon. I carry her through it, and as the portal closes behind us, my avatar returns, and her glamour fades. I mourn the loss immediately.

She shoves at my chest until I release her. “Thank you for . . . coming with me,” she says, dusting herself off as if trying to remove my touch.

“Now you know how to source it, just in case.”

She freezes, her eyes snapping up. “In case?” she says, and I can hear the trepidation in her voice.

I nod, tucking her hair behind her pointed ear. “In case.”

In case something happens to me.

Her eyes flash with fear at the possibility of losing me, or maybe just the thought of losing someone else in her life. But just as quickly as that flash appeared, it vanishes.

She steps away. “Nothing’s changed, Stranger. And you . . . You’re going to leave me alone now.”

Her voice is hesitant, unsure, as if she doesn’t believe the words she’s saying either.

“Right. Back to normal.”

She pauses, looking at me for a long, unending moment before she walks away.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, my voice almost lost to the soft breeze. “For that day.”

She stops, her back to me.

“I would never have let such a fate befall you. If I’d had a choice.” I pause. “Either of you.”

I vanish rather than see her continue to walk away from me.

Chapter Forty-Three

Summer

“I’m sorry for that day.”

The words swirl around me. I have been desperate to hear them, and now they seem to be trying to embed themselves beneath my skin, but he can’t mean them. He wanted this. He told me I would never be Summer Morningstar. It has to be another trick of his, yet . . . why does a tiny part of me believe him when he says he would never have wished this on me? Is it just that I want to believe him? Do I want to forgive him?

I shake my head. I need to get home. It’s been almost twelve hours since I left, and Alice will be freaking out.

Thoughts of the stranger and all that happened from the moment we stepped through that portal yesterday fill my mind the whole walk home. I try to make sense of all I felt, all we did, and all he said, but I am struggling to fit it into my reality. I am no closer to having any of it figured out when I reach the house, and a part of me is relieved when a small body collides with mine the second I step onto the porch. The smell of copper and freesias surround me, displacing all the confusion, fear, and questions. It is the scent of love, of loyalty, of safety. Alice. I wrap my arms around her and relax.

She pulls back and glares at me, her expression furious. “Where the fuck were you?” she snarls, but the panic in her voice softens the anger. I open my mouth to reply, but she is not done yelling at me. “No note or anything. You promised me, Summer. Do you know how worried I’ve been?”

“I—”

“You promised,” she says again, but this time her voice is much softer and filled with hurt.

I nod, the guilt seeping in. “I know. It was out of my control.”

She glares, but I can see the panic melting away the longer she’s in my presence. “Swear?”

“I swear.”