AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m from a world without magic,” she continued, “a world with far advanced technology. Before waking up in Yafae, I’d spent my entire life in a country called the United States of America.” She did wonder, though she wouldn’t ask, if he remembered anything from his old life. If those words would ring familiar or all be foreign to him. “The absolute weirdest thing about the world I was born into is probably that—”Ancestors helps me…“The story of howyoucame to this world is a moderately popular anime.”
Aric’s eyes flew open wide and he held a hand up to stop her. A moment later, his magic pulsed, filling the room and settling into the walls. “HowIcame to this world?” His tone was cautious, perhaps more cautious than she’d ever heard, but shockingly lacking any accusation.
Rochelle swallowed as much of her nerves as she could and nodded again. She rolled her hands in her lap as she elaborated for him. “According to the story of the anime, you were originally a middle-aged Japanese salaryman who met an unexpected and clichéd death. But at the same time, in another world, a teenage sorcerer also met a tragic death. There was never a solid explanation for how your soul ended up in his body, only insight as to a couple of your early theories and a disgruntled shadowy figure with an implied connection. The show never identified the figure or his role.” As she spoke, a terrible thought occurred to her. One she’d had the night before, while she’d been trapped in that cavern.
Aric’s hands curled into fists and a scowl dipped his lips. “You’ve known the truth of my origin this whole time?”
Rochelle attempted a smile. “You’ve lived in this life long enough to establish yourself, and your origin was closer to mine than anyone else’s—at least probably—so it wasn’t like I felt I was keeping your secret.” She finally looked away, her gaze settling on the polished hardwood beneath her feet. “I was hoping that, when I found the courage to tell you, you might even understand.” But there was more to it now, and she needed to keep going, so she sucked in another breath and forced herself to look up again. “There is more, though.”
“And I’ll hear it,” Aric said. “First, tell me how much of my life you already know.”
She blinked for a moment before obligingly casting her memory back to that show she’d once sought out for a source of fun, mindless comfort. “It was just one season,” she said, thinking out loud. “It ended … about when King Jensen awarded you with the custom title of Sentry, in recognition for your efforts in Awora.”
He exhaled and inclined his head. “So you only really saw my bumbling beginnings, then?”
She choked on an unexpected giggle at his question. “That isn’t how I’d have described it, but yes, basically.” It was on the tip of her tongue to ask about Trisha, the one main heroine who had never so much as been mentioned in all her time with Aric and his friends, but she caught herself. Either Trisha had been made up for the show or something had happened to separate them in the past seventeen-ish years. It wasn’t her business.
Aric made a motion with one hand. “All right. What was the more you mentioned?”
That expunged her light curiosity. Rochelle straightened and her hands stilled. “Prince Denham,” she said. “He was asking me about my world, and what happened before my arrival here.” Both of Aric’s brows disappeared beneath his low-hanging bangs. “HeknewI was from another world, but he never came out and admitted how. What’s more, the way he was talking, it sounds like he’s looking for something. He said a world without magic was his goal.”
Anger again overtook Aric’s face. “But he didn’t reveal anything more specific? His agenda, or how he came to the knowledge of your true point of origin?”
Rochelle shook her head.
Aric stood and paced to his desk. “I need to know two things, Rochelle. Answer me honestly.”
Her heart pinched at the idea of his doubt, but she understood it. She’d expected it. “I promise.”
He kept his back to her as he spoke. “Why didn’t you say anything to anyone about yourself?”
She balked a little at the question. “It … seemed dumb? I didn’t think most people would believe me—it took me a little time to even accept—and I’mstillafraid I’ll get arrested or exiled or … worse. So letting people think I was a refugee was easier.” Plus, in her heart, she was.
Aric said nothing for several seconds. Then, in a tone she couldn’t read, he asked, “Do you want to go back?”
There it was. The question she’d known was coming. She released a breath. “No,” she said. “The only thing left for me in that world is a miserable death. I’ll face whatever’s waiting for me here.”
Silence hung between them for several long seconds. Rochelle didn’t know what to say. For as complicated as her story was, it’d taken startlingly little time to articulate. Her fate was in Aric’s hands.
Chapter Twelve
Aric reeled as he processed Rochelle’s story. Of all the things he’d suspected she needed to tell him, that she was actually from an entirely other world—a world much more like the one he’d once called home—was not on the list. It never would have been. He’d spent countless hours, cumulative years, searching for any information on magic that connected worlds. Or just anything that spoke of parallel worlds, alternate dimensions,anythingthat would help to explain his own soul’s transference from one body to another. In all of that research, even once he’d recruited Tinsley to join his silent task, he’d found exactly nothing.
Yet here she was, saying things she couldn’t know how to say unless her story was true. Leaving him with no choice but to believe her.
He hadn’t felt so out of sorts, so uncertain, since his early days in this world. At least then he’d had good reason.
“I’mstillafraid I’ll get arrested or exiled or … worse.”Rochelle’s words repeated in his head, in one instant taunting him, in the next instant reassuring him.
He remembered how anxious he’d felt in the beginning, and all the reasons that had driven him to keep his mouth shut about what had really happened on the day of the mysterious explosion that had killed the Vardanyan family. He remembered the cold dread that had filled him and the pit of tension that had twisted his stomach when Tinsley had called him out, barely a year after graduation. When Aric had beenAricfor just over three years. Those feelings helped him sympathize with Rochelle’s words. It would have been reckless for her to do anything other than what she’d done.
If there was one thing he definitely knew about Rochelle Bailey, she was not reckless.
Then there was Denham. That was a surprising, and dangerous, twist. He didn’t know how that factored in yet. What was Denham’s angle? What was he searching for or hoping to gain by finding a world without magic? For that matter, considering everything Aric hadn’t found in his endeavors, how did Denham even know about the existence of other worlds? There was something significant they were still missing in that story.
Aric pushed out a heavy breath and willed the tension from his muscles. The best way to get the information they still needed was to confront Denham. It was likely the only solution truly available to them, despite all the difficulties the prospect presented. For starters, it would be nice to know whether or not Jensen was involved in whatever Denham was scheming. If the King was also against him—well, that was a much larger problem.
The first thing he needed to do was address the issue he’d left hanging in front of him. There was still one more question he needed to ask, though, if her situation was truly reminiscent of his. Aric turned again to face her, keeping his expression neutral despite the downward tilt of her head and the runaway trail of a tear on her cheek. It was a hard conversation, he understood that. He couldn’t say it hadn’t affected him, too, but that was irrelevant. “What about your body?”
