The word hung in the air, heavier than any of Kephriel's chains. A month.
A whole month of our lives, gone. School. Our families. Everything. The world had kept turning without us.
"Dao,"
I breathed, the panic immediate and visceral.
"Niran. Preecha. Julia..."
Were they okay? Had they made it back? Had the month been kind to them, or had hell followed them home?
We ran. This time, through familiar streets, every shadow feeling both like home and a potential trap. Kephriel, now visibly glowing just enough to look like a very dedicated street performer, kept pace, his head on a swivel.
We skidded to a halt outside Dao's house. The lights were on. A familiar, beat-up scooter—Niran's—was leaned against the fence.
I didn't knock. I shoved the door open.
The scene in the living room froze mid-motion.
Niran was in the center of the room, Nakwi gloves on, practicing a slow, controlled kata. But the gloves weren't alone. A grotesque, demonic-looking wooden mask was tied to the side of his head, its empty eyes seeming to watch the room. It pulsed with a faint, oily light.
Preecha was in the corner, eyes closed in deep concentration. The air around him didn't just feel quiet; it felt sharp, like a sphere of focused, lethal silence.
Julia was scribbling furiously in a notebook, a dozen more stacked beside her, her red eyes scanning the room with academic intensity.
And Lamia… Lamia was furiously stamping a stack of papers at the coffee table, wearing a ridiculously normal pink apron over the hoodie she borrowed from Dao. A name tag was pinned to it: 'Lamia - Temp-to-Hell Employee'.
They all looked up at our sudden entrance.
For a heartbeat, there was only stunned silence.
Then, Dao exploded from the kitchen doorway.
She crossed the room in a blur and launched herself at me, her small frame hitting my chest with enough force to knock the wind out of me. Her arms wrapped around my neck, and then she was showering my face with kisses—furious, relieved, desperate kisses.
"You idiot! You absolute idiot! A month! We thought you were dead! We thought he'd eaten you! We didn't know what to do!"
Her words were muffled against my cheek, each one punctuated with another kiss.
I held her tight, the scent of her hair—a familiar smell of citrus shampoo—washing over me. It was the most real thing I'd felt since the garden. I was home.
Over her shoulder, I saw Niran rip his gloves and mask off, a massive, relieved grin splitting his face.
"Took you long enough, man!"
Preecha smiled.
"Dude, finally!"
Julia beamed, snapping her notebook shut. "Fascinating! The temporal displacement was even greater than I calculated!"
Lamia adjusted her glasses, looking immensely annoyed.
"Do you have any idea the overtime I had to work to cover your absence? The forged doctor's notes? The logistical nightmare of explaining a month-long missing persons case that nobody else seemed to notice? My performance review is going to be a disaster!"
Kephriel stood awkwardly in the doorway, his visible presence immediately killing the mood. Everyone's eyes landed on him. The joy faded, replaced by wary tension.
Niran's hand drifted toward his mask. "Why is he… shiny?"
"His power is low,"
I explained, gently untangling myself from Dao, though I kept hold of her hand.
"He can't hide himself. And… we have a problem. A big one."
I told them everything. The void. The chase. Gluttony. The time we lost.
When I finished, the room was silent. The weight of a month apart and the specter of the new threat settled over us all.
Niran was the first to break the silence. He picked up the demon mask.
"Well,"
He said, a grim determination in his eyes.
"Good thing we haven't been sitting around. While you were on your weird spa retreat in the void, we went hunting."
He tapped the mask.
"Met a new friend. He was an asshole. We convinced him to donate his mask to the cause."
Dao squeezed my hand.
"We didn't know how to find you. So we decided to get stronger. To be ready for whatever came back. To find you."
They hadn't just waited. They'd prepared.
I still had a goal.