After a long time of eating nothing but medieval food in a whole other fantasy world, I couldn’t describe how amazing the pizza from Joe And Benny’s Pizza smelled. It was as if the scent called to me in one of those cartoons. When we stepped foot in the restaurant, it was like stepping foot into heaven.

“Warrick!” one of the hosts called out and clapped me on the back. “Man, we haven’t seen you in too damn long. What the hell?” He took a look at my clothes and his eyebrows shot to his hairline. “And…a new look? You kids these days…”

By the new look, he wasn’t referring to my beard that’d grow out or the new muscles, he was clearly talking about the medieval-style chainmail and the bear fur on my shoulders. I’d left the heavy cloak at home with the silver clasp but I might as well have brought it. The cooks from the kitchen peered out from the serving window, elbowing each other.

“Warrick!” one of them waved. “What’s up with the uh—the get-up?”

“It’s a story for sure,” I assured them. “Could we get a booth?”

“Anything for you, man, and Maeve and…?” The host’s words trailed off when he spotted my company, right behind me.

If it was like any other Tuesday night, it’d be me and Maeve, hitting up Joe and Benny’s Pizza for half-off jalapeño poppers and live music from the Rolling Stones cover band. But it wasn’t any other Tuesday.

Standing behind me were four women who couldn’t be more different. Princess Byrid hung off my arm, her thick, blonde hair draped over her shoulders, her wide, amber eyes on the company. She had been the definition of a spoiled princess when I first met her but she’d proven herself to be a great ally, with bow and arrows, and kicking her brother’s ass when we took over his kingdom.

“They’re cosplay ears,” I tried to explain her fluffy lynx cat ears, flickering with curiosity. “Super high-tech. Expensive as hell.”

The host laughed and Byrid giggled, even if she had no idea what he was laughing about.

Next to her, Auror remained motionless with her arms folded over her chest. The silver-haired fox girl was a no-nonsense warrior, a woman who’d cauterized her own wounds when her enemies left her for dead. She was as sexy as she was capable with the sword but with me, she had learned how to find that soft side of hers, deep, deep, deep down.

We walked through the restaurant, between full tables of people that Maeve and I knew. Everybody gawked at us. Little kids scurried out of the way, an elderly couple in the corner pointed. I wasn’t too worried. That was just how it was going to be.

The booth turned out to be another problem. There were only two seats that could’ve sat next to me.

“If you think you’re sitting next to Warrick,” Byrid warned the two other girls who’d traveled in the portal with me, “you’ve got another thing coming. Move.”

“You don’t have your weapon,” Auror pointed out, her eyebrow raised.

“Is that a threat?”

Keeose cleared her throat. “I could not possibly sit next to a goddess…”

“Auror and I are sitting on the other side,” I decided. I wanted a view of the window. Old habits from their fantasy world died hard and it was good to see the vantage points, even if I couldn’t imagine any of our enemies sneaking up on us in Joe and Benny’s Pizza. We had to be the safest we’d ever been.

“I’m so sorry,” Keeose apologized over and over again to Maeve, like she hadn’t known her back on Earth. Now that we discovered Maeve was Moruun, the goddess of fire and life, Keeose couldn’t stop bowing to her. Maeve just gave an uncomfortable smile.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“What do we want to drink?” Our waiter asked, coming up with the menus.

I rubbed my jaw. “I’m going to need a beer.”

Auror nodded. “Whatever he gets.”

Byrid frowned over the menu, her cat ears flickering. “What is chalk-let milk?”

For a second, the whole dangerous situation we’d found ourselves in took a pause. I glanced over at Byrid with a grin. “You’re going to want that.” But I snapped back to look at Maeve again, shifting always in the stares.

How in the hell did I not realize my best friend was a goddess? It was hard to keep all the questions to myself while the waiter took our drinks. Maeve’s fiery red hair was gorgeous but it didn’t look particularly magical. There was a little scar on her jaw from when she’d tripped over some volleyballs at the community center last year, I’d patched her up in the infirmary with Pokémon bandaids. She wore carpal tunnel bracelets to bed because she played video games so much.

A goddess? Maeve? I still couldn’t believe what we’d uncovered.

The moment the waiter walked away, I broke the silence. “You’re a goddess.”

Maeve winced and it was like the floodgates opened.

“I do not think she is a goddess,” Auror announced, blunt as always. “We saw gods in our fight against the prince. They certainly did not look as weak as this one.”

Keeose stared at Maeve, eyes wide as saucers. “I’ve been searching for you for so long…”

“She looks like just anybody to me,” Byrid sniffed.

Everyone spoke over each other for a second but that wasn’t helpful. I held up a hand and stopped the ramble of conversation. Pointing at her, I said her title. “You’re Moruun. Goddess of fire.”

“Do you have to say it so loudly, Wars?” Maeve flinched and whispered the nickname only she used. “People are going to think you’re crazy.”

Byrid perked up. “So, she’s not a goddess—”

“No—no—” With her shoulders slumped, Maeve put her face in her hands. I’d never seen her so embarrassed. Ever. Actually, I couldn’t even think of an embarrassed Maeve. She wore her cosplays proudly to the grocery store before events. I didn’t think an embarrassed Maeve existed. She sighed, heavily. “I was a goddess. But that’s done. It ended, it’s finished, we don’t need to talk about it.”

Keeose stared at her, unmoving. “What?”

The goth sorceress, Keeose, had arrived at Earth with one mission and one mission only - to find the goddess, Moruun. As her loyal servant, it’d been her only ambition. Everything she’d done to this point had been to find Morunn, and when she’d found out that the goddess she’d dedicated her life to had been just a buddy who used to come into her shop, the shock had stunned her.

That was nothing though. Finding out that the goddess that she’d been searching for didn’t even claim to be a goddess? I could’ve knocked over Keeose with a feather.

“Hold up.” I tried to keep us on track. “How did you used to be a goddess?”

“I introduced things to humans,” Maeve explained, a blush to her cheeks. “Fire and um…” Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “Other things. I was banished from my world but a god gave me a charm—I can’t believe we’re talking about this. The charm let me travel to other worlds. But I decided to stay here because—because—” Another flush crept up her neck.

The way she stumbled over her words reminded me of something. I thought back to the cave, when Keeose and I had talked about how we’d first been yanked out of that parking lot and brought to their world.

“You can’t remember, can you?” I asked. “Maeve, how long have you been here?”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“How long?”

For a moment, Maeve didn’t say anything. She gazed around at the faces of the girls at the table. “I’ve been working at the community center for—”

“No, not how long it’s been since you met me, how long have you been here?”

She opened her mouth to respond but there was nothing she could say. Her eyes flickered across the table and new lines appeared on her face as she tried to answer my question, to think of exactly when she’d come to this world. But there wasn’t an answer to give because the same amnesia that had plagued both Keeose and I had clearly affected Maeve.

“Got your drinks here!” Our waiter beamed at the table, a silver tray in hand. “Who ordered the chocolate milk?”