Page 117 of Darkness

“Yes, I called the usual traveler paramedics if they’re not as incapacitated as FAET. We’re not exactly trusted now.”

Farren fiddled under the edge of the table, then nodded. Sweeping for bugs, then. Only once sure they were safe, he said. “I felt the realm die.”

So, he already knew. Morrisey blew out a heavy breath. “I know. I was… I was there.”

Farren’s eyes went wide. “What? How? What do you mean you were there?”

Morrisey shrugged, feigning nonchalance he didn’t feel while struggling to put a surreal experience into words. “I was there. Saw someone who called herself Krista, met with the council. I was there when…” He trailed off. If Farren felt the end of Domus, he already knew. He didn’t need details of buildings falling and people vanishing from the council room. The elder shoving Morrisey through a portal before the very end.

Morrisey closed his eyes for a moment, remembering and trying not to.

“How did you get there?” Farren asked more gently.

“Asher, the guy from the train tracks, had me locked in a basement, trying to make me feed from humans. Something clicked in my brain, then I found myself in a strange purple place. Krista said I’d been brought there but I can travel at will between the realms. Or could, rather.” Hard to keep the sorrow from his voice for losing a home he’d never really known.

“You’re Princeps.”

Morrisey shrugged. Morrisey didn't really care because he wasn't raised in the tier system. Except he could help more people as Princeps. “So I’m told.”

The color fled Farren’s cheeks. “Did they try to hurt you?”

“No. They said killing Tenebris is why Domus failed.”

Farren winced. “So, they confirmed it?”

Morrisey kept his voice flat. “They did.” He didn’t add the part about Farren being the light to his darkness.

“How many people died? Do you know?”

This news would hurt Farren, but he deserved the truth. “Few remained in the end. The ones who wanted to stay were using sheer force of will to hold off the inevitable. I was with the elders when the realm finally went. The dying act of an elder pushed me back. He closed the portals. Then the world just… died.”

Farren lowered his head, shoulders hunched. “It’s over then. The realm is truly gone. Even after feeling the end, I’d hoped to be wrong.”

“Yeah.” While Morrisey had just found the place and learned why he’d never quite fit in anywhere in the human world, he mourned for an existence he could have known. Parents he’d never know. “I would have stayed, but the elders said I had work to do here, helping the travelers blend with humans. Humans will know the truth one day. It won’t be pretty.” Morrisey had spent the last hour imagining worst-case scenarios, mentally throwing his hands in the air. If he was the travelers’ best hope, they were all screwed.

“No, it won’t be pretty,” Farren agreed. “But nothing worthwhile is ever easy.”

True. “Is Arianna okay?”

“Yes. I’ve heard from Jessa too. She’s fine.”

Morrisey jolted. “Jessa?”

“She sought me out to say you were okay and let me know what this Asher guy planned.”

Was Jessa truly not the enemy, then? A weight lifted from Morrisey’s soul.

Farren reached across the table, clutching Morrisey’s hand. Sparks of desire sprang from the connection, gone a moment later when a young man with a notepad approached, retrieving an ink pen from behind his ear. “What can I get ya?”

“More coffee for me,” Morrisey said, lifting his nearly empty cup. “I have days of catching up to do.”

“Just coffee for me,” Farren said.

The server wandered off, some of the spring gone from his step, likely expecting a dismal tip.

“I was so worried about you.” Farren kept his voice low enough to make Morrisey strain to hear.

“How are you?”

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