Page 19 of Fire in Stone

“Doesn’t look like there is.” He nodded, seemingly satisfied with the results of his inspection, then took a big bite. “One always has to be careful when eating food outside of their realm.”

“Careful about what?” I stared at my sandwich, too.

“There are many magical substances that can be harmful if ingested,” he explained with a straight face.

“Are you worried about being poisoned?” Clearly, he took the business of being royalty very seriously.

“Poisoned, enchanted, or cursed. I was protected from all of that back in Nerifir by this.” He stretched a hand to me, displaying a sparkling red ring on his little finger. “But rules change sometimes when crossing from one realm into another.”

I blew out a breath, staring straight ahead of me.

“Elex, I don’t even know where to start with all of this… Let’s do it from the very beginning, okay? So, what exactly are you?”

“A gargoyle.” He took another bite of his sandwich. “This doesn’t taste too bad, actually.”

Did he really justlikesomething for once? At least he finally stopped hitting on me, allowing me to stay on topic.

“In this world, gargoyles are just stone statues—decorations on top of buildings.”

He shrugged. “Well, in my world, we’re more than that.”

Obviously.

“What world is it, exactly?” I asked carefully, my mind oscillating between reality and fantasy, between belief and denial.

“Nerifir.”

“Where is it? How does one visit, let’s say?”

“Just visiting isn’t possible between this world and mine. Once you cross the River of Mists, you can never come back to the same place and time.”

“Interesting. Is that why they say, ‘one can never step into the same river twice?’”

He considered that. “Maybe. In Nerifir, we have a similar saying, too.”

“Really? Do you speak English there as well?”

“No. I speak English only because it was the first language I heard when I crossed into this world. Thebracksspoke it. That’s how it works with the River of Mists. Here, I can speak two languages. But once I cross back to Nerifir, I’ll forget English completely and will only speak my language again.”

“Okay. But the saying about the river is the same, you said.”

“It roughly translates the same,” he confirmed. “A very long time ago, all worlds of the River of Mists used to be one. Many things still remain the same between all of them. Though, somedon’t.” He winced at the noise of another train arriving at the station.

“I take it you don’t have trains in Nerifir?”

“Thank gods, no.” He scoffed. “What a barbaric way to travel.”

I watched him eat for a few moments. Whether or not he liked the taste of the sandwich, he clearly enjoyed the very process of eating food. Taking big, clean bites, he chewed slowly, as if savoring every variation of taste and textures.

“It’s been so long…”he’d said when touching me back at the apartment. And I wondered how long it’d been since he last ate anything, too.

“Since you can’t go back to the same time and place you came from, are you staying here now?” A spark of excitement I had no business feeling flickered inside me at that prospect.

Why would I even care whether he left or stayed? So far, he’d been nothing but a pain in the ass. Aroyalpain in the ass, I should add.

He finished his sandwich, then balled the wrapper in his hands, taking a long look around.

“Honestly, I don’t want to stay here,” he admitted.

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