For an excruciating moment, there was nothing – a void that somehow simultaneously combined the relief of silence and the horror of oblivion at the same time. Silver squeezed his eyes shut, but that didn’t help – he couldn’t escape the lack of any data reaching his other senses. All sound had been completely cut off. No breeze caressed his skin, no taste coated his tongue. His fingers could no longer feel his shoulders clasped within them, although he could tell somehow that his position hadn’t changed. His body remained seated, but there was nothing beneath him.

And then suddenly there was. Silver kept his eyes closed as he gasped in a floral fragrance. He clutched at the smooth fabric of his t-shirt, reveling in the softness of the vintage cotton. He marveled at the faint flavor of the iced coffee he’d consumed only a little over an hour ago as he’d waited for Devon in that far-off parking lot in another world. Or was it this world?

Silver opened his eyes at last, and his lips curved upward slightly. He was back in his own world, surrounded by the familiar greens and browns of an ordinary forest.

His heartbeat slowed as his mind calmed, his breath evening out. His arms dropped to his sides and he uncurled his legs from their protective stance, stretching them out in front of him.

Fiona stepped into Silver’s field of vision and held out a hand to help him up.

“Thank you,” he said, grasping her smaller hand in his and lifting himself to a standing position. He dropped her hand and turned his head to and fro, curiously examining his surroundings. “Shouldn’t we have come out in the same spot we left from? I thought that was the gateway between the worlds.”

He was definitely far away from the shopping center parking lot where they’d met up. Silver stood in a forest glade – but it also differed in every sense from the woods he’d just departed in Faerieland. The trees surrounding him were mostly oaks with some beech mixed in – and was that a willow over there? As he spotted a bird perched on the branch of a beech off to his left, he was comforted to see that its beak was reassuringly empty of fangs and its plumage the ordinary brown of a common sparrow.

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“That’s a gateway that anyone can use – well any Fae or mage,” said Devon. “Aganya’s people are experts in portals, and she was able to send us to one closer to our destination.”

Silver turned to face his friend. “Which is?”

“My mom’s house,” said Fiona. She jerked her head. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Fiona stalked ahead, following a narrow but well-worn path that twisted through the woods. Silver glanced backward and noted that the path ended in the small glade where they had landed. He wondered why this spot had been chosen for a portal, and where exactly the portal was, and who had built it.

“Are you okay?” Devon interrupted his musing.

Silver shook his head to clear it. “Yeah. Fine.” He hurried down the trail after Fiona, Devon following closely. As he walked, Silver’s mind wandered again. “Hey, Devon?” He glanced over his shoulder at the blue Fae behind him.

“What’s up?” said Devon.

“Why was the council so angry? What did Fiona’s mother do that was so controversial?” Silver asked.

He stumbled a little as a large root crossed his path, and he returned his focus to the hard-packed dirt of the ground ahead of him.

After a moment of silent walking, Devon responded, his deep voice quiet. Silver strained to hear, his eyes still on the uneven terrain.

“Rozsa is a powerful stormpusher.”

Silver frowned. “What is a stormpusher?”

“It’s, um, sort of a category of mage, I guess you’d say. There are stormpushers and stormbringers and stormcleavers and stormsoothers. Rozsa comes from a long line of mages, so it was no surprise that she had power. But no one was prepared for just how much.” Devon fell silent again.

Silver waited.

“You know what?” said Devon finally. “I don’t think I can tell you this.”

Silver sighed. “Okay, fair enough. It’s not your story to tell – I’ll ask Fiona, then. Or her mother.”

“No, I don’t mean that. I just mean I’m not good with words. I’ll show you instead.”

Devon caught Silver’s hand in his, stopping his progress down the path. Silver turned to face him, and Devon reached out a blue finger.

He placed it on Silver’s forehead, directly between his eyebrows.

And for the second time that day, the world disappeared.