The portal sighed shut behind us, soft as a well-made door clicking into its frame with the finality of a grave sealing itself, and the three of us stood together on the dark grass of my estate.
Ashley made a small helpless sound against my coat.
She had been tucked under my arm through the whole crossing, eyes squeezed shut against the unmaking of her old world and the making of my world, but the moment her feet touched solid ground her head snapped up, and her breath stopped halfway in.
Her hands stayed locked in the front of my coat like a supplicant clinging to the hem of fate itself.
Her eyes went wide.
