Page 78 of Nexus
Mom put her half-finished sandwich down. “What is it?” she asked, tensing up to take the blow.
“We’re ogres,” I said.
Her lips quirked upwards, thinking I was joking. Then Aurora nodded to back me up. “Saige was an ogress in the underworld,” she whispered. “She was amazing! You should have seen her fighting the overlord and his servants!”
I nudged her in the side, reminding her we needed to keep this a secret. She gave me a chastened look and resumed eating.
“You saw one of the overlords?” mom asked in a cross between amazement and horror.
“Yeah. He’s dead, but we didn’t kill him. I only killed his henchmen.”
Sitting back in her chair, my mother was lost for words. “Does Lord Gilden know about this?”
“He knows everything,” I confirmed with a grimace.
“Not quite,” Aurora muttered and hunched her shoulders.
“Will anyone come looking for you for retribution?” mom asked in concern.
“They don’t know exactly who came through the gate, since Ruen and I changed so drastically,” I replied. “Even our scents changed, so it would be hard for them to track us down.”
She was relieved to hear that, but her worry didn’t diminish by much. “Why did you have wings in the underworld?” she asked.
Aurora swallowed her food before responding. “Because I was a bird. These sandwiches are excellent. Can I have more coffee?” She’d gulped her drink down so fast that she probably hadn’t registered the taste.
Mom poured her another cup, trying to digest our story. In her position, I’d want to know exactly what the hell my only child had been up to as well. Struggling with my head and my heart, my heart won. “We’ll tell you everything, but you have to keep it to yourself,” I whispered.
“Let’s go to the basement when we’ve finished eating,” she suggested. “It’s more private down there.”
Noises were muffled in the basement, which was one of the reasons why I’d moved my bedroom down there as a teen. “Good idea,” I replied, then we dug into our food.
Taking a fresh pot of coffee downstairs when our meals were finished, we sat on my bed and an old armchair I’d used for gaming.
“If anyone else had told me this story, I’d kick them out of my house,” mom said when we were done. “What are you?” she asked Aurora.
“She can’t talk about it,” I said on her behalf.
My new houseguest nodded to back me up. “People are looking for me. The less you know about me, the safer we’ll all be.” Her tone was so convincing that I almost believed her myself.
“You gave the scroll fragment to Drake?” mom asked.
“Yeah. He looked at it like it was a gigantic bar of gold,” I said in amusement. “He wasn’t happy when we told him the overlord is dead.”
“It’ll cause an upheaval in the underworld,” mom predicted. “They’ll need to find a replacement for him. At least they won’t be able to open the axis-gate now that Lord Gilden has one of the fragments,” mom said in satisfaction. “My baby girl thwarted their plan to invade our world.”
The pride in her tone was almost enough to make me blush. “I guess my work as the champion of our world is done,” I said in relief. I’d thought I would have to retrieve all of the fragments, but she’d made a good point. The overlords needed the scroll to be intact to cast the spell. Even depriving them of one fragment was enough to ruin their scheme. The weight that had been resting on my shoulders lifted a little. I straightened up, feeling much better without the responsibility bearing down on me.
“By the way, I asked one of my neighbors if her daughter had any spare clothes I could buy from her,” mom said and heaved herself to her feet. “She was happy to give me some clothes her daughter no longer wears. They’re clean and in good condition.”
We headed upstairs to the living room where a basket of clothes sat on the floor next to the couch. I picked it up after giving them a cursory glance. “These are for you, Aurora,” I told her.
Her eyes welled with tears. “You’re giving me clothing, for free?” she asked, unable to believe her good fortune.
“My neighbor was going to give them to charity,” mom explained. Now that she knew Aurora didn’t come from our world, she wasn’t as confused by her strangeness.
“Thank you!” Aurora said and hugged my mom. She hugged me next, grabbing me from behind, since my arms were full.
“We should get going,” I suggested. “We need to shop for food along the way. It’ll be dark in a couple of hours and a job might come up.”