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At the silence his words produced, Nick shrugged.

“Honestly? I only have the vaguest memories of having discussed it with him, but I know we did, and I suspect we did at length.” Thinking about that, remembering the glimpses he got of one of those talks, he frowned. “From what I remember, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to risk it. We didn’t want to be separated. Wecouldn’tbe.”

He looked at Wynter, feeling a flicker of pain, suddenly, at how far away she was, and how long it had been since they’d been connected by blood.

He missed her.

He missed being alone with her.

“Also,” he said, forcing his eyes off her face. “We didn’t want to end up somewhere worse than where we were.”

Still thinking, he grunted wryly.

“We keptlivingin the vicinity of that damned portal though, funnily enough. For all of Jem’s life, we moved up and down the French Riviera coast… almost like we couldn’t quite bring ourselves to close the door on that other world entirely. Despite our mutual decision, something in us couldn’tcompletelylet it go.”

Nick glanced around at their pale faces, his words strangely apologetic.

“Our lives were pretty nice,” he admitted. “They got complicated at times, sure, but we were together, and happy, and the more comfortable we got here, the harder it was to rationalize taking that big of a risk. I mean, Brick hadn’t come with us. We had no enemies, no problems, not for years. All of that came much later, with Yi, the outing of the races, the eventual wars. Everything after Jem died is pretty blurry to me still, frankly.”

He frowned, wincing a little.

“Brick told me I didn’t even join the war until the last few years of it,” he admitted. “He said I was ‘depressed’ and ‘dead inside’ even then, and it must have been decades, if not longer, since Jem had died. I think I just gave up, so I probably didn’t see the point of going back to my home world. It might’ve even seemed like a form of suicide, and I’d promised Jem.”

Nick stared down at his hands without seeing them.

“By then, I must’ve run into other vampires and seers, too,” he added. “But I have no memory of that. From things Lara said, I’m pretty sure seers and vampires were coming in through portals fairly regularly in those early years… likely, thanks to Yi and his fanatical followers, at least in part. I’m pretty sure Yi was actively recruiting for years before he launched the first battles.”

He looked at his wife. “I don’t know when you came, but I suspect it was well after Jem died, and likely after Brick and Zoe. It might’ve been sometime during the war, but it’s more likely, given your age, it was sometime after the war ended.”

There was another silence.

“So Zoe and Brick came through together?” Wynter asked.

Nick nodded. “Yes,” he said. “I only remember Brick going through, since he grabbed me and we fell through together… but Zoe told me she followed him. They must’ve landed here roughly at the same time, like me and Jem.”

“Brick brought you through onpurpose?”Kit asked, her mouth a frown, as if that part of the story had just sunk in. “Why the hell would he do that? Why wouldanyonedo that?”

“It was an accident,” Nick admitted. “That’s how I remember it.”

Kit and Malek exchanged looks, but Kit nodded. “Right.”

“We were fighting,” Nick admitted. “And he’d just bit Jem.”

“That sounds more plausible,” Charlie muttered.

“So how did Dalejem fall through?” Walker asked, causing everyone to look at him.

His voice held more open curiosity than the others, maybe because he had less reason to walk on eggshells around the whole Nick-Jem-Wynter mess. He likely still didn’t understand the full significance of it, or who Jem and Wynter were to one another.

“Jem told me he ran after me.” Nick frowned then, stopping his own words. “No,” he said, still frowning. “Well, notno,”he amended. “Idoremember him telling me that, although I’ve only just remembered it now. But he said something else about that, too…”

Nick trailed.

“I think he said someone else ran after mefirst,”he said slowly. “He said that other person ran after you, and Jem followed.” Nick’s eyes once more found Wynter’s. Another pain hit his heart. “I think he must’ve meant you.”

Wynter didn’t answer, but Nick saw her bite her lip.

Nick forced his eyes off her with an effort.