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“I told you about the portal Brick mentioned before he died,” Nick began.

He cleared his throat again, and glanced around at all of them.

“I want to tell you everything he said,” he went on cautiously. “Before we talk about what it means. But there are some other things I should explain to you all first…”

CHAPTER26

HOPE AND WAR

“I’ve been remembering more,”Nick began, his voice clear but quiet. “It started a while ago, really. Long before I asked Tai and Malek to help me with it. Even before my doppelgänger showed up, and I started confusing my memories with his.”

Nick glanced around at the faces.

They all looked attentive, intently focused on Nick’s voice.

“Maybe it even started while I was in San Francisco for that fight,” Nick continued. “Maybe it got triggered when I first went to the doppelgänger’s house in Potrero Hill, or when I first learned that thiswasn’tmy world, that I was the stranger here, and that the things I thought were my memories might not all belong to me, either.”

He swallowed, glancing at Wynter.

“If I’m being honest, though, I think it really started when I met Wynter.”

Her eyebrows rose, but she didn’t exactly look surprised.

Nick frowned, thinking.

“I started getting glimpses of Dalejem when I was with her, and I started dreaming about bits and pieces of my old life… just enough that I starting noticing the inconsistencies. The story I’d believed all that time, the one Brick had carefully constructed for me, slowly began to fall apart around then.”

Thinking, remembering the guilt he’d felt, the first few times he woke up to dreams and memories of Dalejem, he shrugged.

“Anyway,” Nick said, dismissive. “The point is, the process had already begun. But since we were up on that hill, and I was staring into the portal, it’s gotten significantly worse. Those few sessions I did with Tai and Malek seem to have accelerated it even more.”

He glanced at the two seers, who looked back at him seriously.

There was another silence.

“Some of what Brick told me might be connected to those memories,” Nick added carefully. “So I thought I should probably tell you at least some of it.”

He looked at Wynter.

“First of all, I’m ninety percent sure the portal Brick told me about in France is the same one I came through… and Dalejem came through… and later Brick and Zoe and whatever other vampires came through some time later.”

He hesitated.

“There might be others who came through, too,” he added carefully. He studiously avoided looking at Wynter. “Brick heavily hinted at that, anyway. He suggested at least one other person came through from my world, but at a different time than either of us.”

He glanced at Wynter again. That time, he made himself hold her gaze.

“I think it might have been you, Wyn,” he said, softer.

He watched her eyes widen, and slowly shook his head.

“I don’t know for sure,” he cautioned. “And I can’t explain it, because it means you and Dalejem might’ve been on the same world. But Brick definitely hinted that you came through that door from our world, too.” His voice turned gruff as he motioned vaguely with a hand. “You would’ve arrived much later, of course,” he said. “Well after Brick and Zoe arrived, and a fuck of a long time after me and Jem got here. And if youwereon my home world the same time as me and Jem, I don’t think it was for very long.”

He met her gaze.

“I think you must have gotten there on accident. I think you must’ve actually been from a different place altogether.” He hesitated, then exhaled, half in frustration. “I can’t explain it, like I said, but given that Tai and Malek aren’t from this world, either, I can’t help wondering if you might be from the same world as them. Which doesn’t answer the question of how you got to any of these places… but Brick hinted at a possible answer to that question, too.”

Again, looked at his wife.