Page 79 of Knotted By the Triad

“I don't need to,” he told her. “You’re my mate. Mine. I want you no matter what.”

A shaky laugh escaped her. She leaned back against my chest, and I rubbed my hand slowly over her arm.

“Whatever it is,” I whispered. “Only tell us when you're ready. We will not rush you. And we’ll always protect you.”

Zuri took a deep breath. “I know the other three children from the experiment. I know Ciori. I call her CiCi. Kenadi is Kena, and Brielle is Bri. They're my best friends. We grew up together.”

Nobody interrupted her. Even my dragon had gone silent inside me.

“We grew up somewhere called Earth,” she continued. “It's another world, another realm, whatever you want to call it. We grew up together in an orphanage run by a woman named Ms. Ellora. She raised us. She named me. Or, at least she said she did.” Her voice grew softer. “And a few weeks ago, I think I died in that realm.”

Daemin surged halfway out of his chair, but Zuri tightened her hand around his before he could rise completely.

“I'm here,” she assured him. “I’m fine now. But that night, there was a car accident. I was with the women I grew up with, CiCi, Bri, and Kena. Our car flipped over on the night of a Blood Moon. And the next thing I knew, I woke up here in the bridal chamber.”

Our wedding night. Suddenly, I remembered everything differently. The confusion on her face when we'd entered the room. The way she'd stared at us as if she recognized us while simultaneously having no idea what was happening around her.

Zuri swallowed. “My best friend CiCi is an author. She wrote about this world. She wrote about all of you. She dreamed of this world, of our lives here.”

A cold sensation moved down my spine.

“I knew your names before I met you,” she continued. “Zhen Kai. Wu Daemin. Hao Zian. Mei Lin. I even read about Zuri Bane. I thought you were characters in a book. I thought she’d named this character after me.” She gave us a watery smile. “Turns out, she’d been dreaming of the real me, of a real world. See? Crazy, huh?”

“No,” Kai said immediately. “You're not crazy. Keep going.”

Zuri's smile disappeared. “I thought I'd died on Earth and somehow woken up inside the body of a woman from CiCi's story. That's why I knew things I shouldn't know, like where the smugglers would be,” she said, glancing at Daemin. “I thought this body belonged to somebody else. A character from a book.”

My dragon pushed forward so violently that a growl nearly escaped me.

That body belongs to her. She’s real. She’s our mate.

I agreed with him. I didn't understand what had happened to Zuri yet, but everything inside me rejected the idea that she was living inside something that didn't belong to her.

“Last night, I had a dream,” she continued. “I saw Ms. Ellora from the orphanage. She told me this world was real. CiCi didn't create it. She said CiCi was from Runeborne and that her dreams were visions she unknowingly turned into books. She told me I was from Ashborne.” Zuri looked at the documents. “She said our deaths returned us to our rightful places and that the Blood Moon helped us return home safely.”

My dragon stirred. Home. This is her home. We are her home.

Kai suddenly opened the folder again. He flipped through several pages, scanning each one before moving to the next.

“There was something I read earlier.” He turned another page. “Something about what happened if one of the golems died. I want to read exactly what it says.”

Kai found the page he wanted. His eyes moved over the writing before he looked at her. Daemin's fingers tightened around Zuri's hand.

Kai looked back at the document. “The file says that if the golem’s body died, the divided spirit would return to the original body, and the individual would become whole again with its abilities restored.”

“I died there,” she whispered. “And then I woke up here.”

Her fingers trembled inside Daemin's hand as understanding slowly settled over her face.

“I was the golem,” she whispered.

“On Earth,” Kai said softly. “But the golem died. You’ve returned to your original body. You’re no longer in the realm where Ellora took you to. And her abilities are no longer dampening yours.”

Tears spilled down Zuri's cheeks. “Then what happened to the real Zuri?”

Kai frowned. “Who?”

“The other me. The Zuri who lived here.” Her voice broke. “What happened to her when I came back?”