* AMBER ERIN ANDERSON *

It took less then ten seconds.

And I was back at my balcony, the portal basically kicking me out as I fell on my butt, my back pressed against the grills of my familiar balcony and producing a noise that made me grimace and caress my back gently. I watched as the portal slowly shrank, each time leaving gold specks as it shrank little by little and slowly it was gone — leaving only a few glittering specks as its remnants but even they vanished in the air.

I sighed, my heart feeling empty for unknown reason. I stood up slowly, gripping the railings and heaved another sigh when I looked around my surrounding. I'm home. The world around me was busy, bustling and seemed so small. Looking out, I didn't notice any royal carriages, carts, horses, renèi Possessors performing magic, Ezèrian hiding their identities and blending among the norms, people swearing in the old Elysian languages or people celebrating for their prince's incoming wedding.

They were all gone and was replaced with high buildings, skyscrapers, cars, buses, people crossing the road, people in formal attires, high school students entering cafes for breakfast, everyone minding their own business and yet, creating noise. I'm home.

Without even knowing, I felt a tear escaping from one of my eyes, making me surprised and brush it away, my hand cold. I shook my head, about to turn around when a familiar voice pierced through my ears, making me immediately face the person with the biggest grin plastered on my face.

"Amber!" Nathan, my best friend, who was standing in my room, just a few feet away from me, yelled and rushed towards me and I did the same.

I basically jumped at him and gave him a bear hug, holding him firmly as he returned the gesture. "God, it's been two weeks!" He exclaimed, and I murmured against his chest how much I missed him. "I'm gonna die, you're kinda suffocating me—" he said, his voice quiet and struggling as I let go of him and took a good look at his face.

He'd gotten thinner — that was for sure as his face had sunken, his cheekbones more visible, his body more skinny and eye bags looming under his green eyes. "You look miserable, sheesh," I made a face at him, shaking my head.

He threw his hands in the air, widening his eyes. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"

A deep realisation hit me, making me grab his cheeks and look him dead in the eyes. "You haven't told anything to the police, have you?" My heart hammered against my chest as I waited for him to answer.

He loosened my grip from his cheeks. "I have watched way too many sci-fi movies to not do that. I mean, I saw a freaking portal right in front of my eyes! And a guy came out of it! A white haired guy and he just took you and. . . . "

Nathan rambled on and on while I sighed and entered my room, the familiar scent of vanilla greeting my nostrils and putting me at ease as I dropped myself on my small bed, hugging my small pillows and spreading my arms and grinning to be able to be here again.

"You really went to another dimension or something, didn't you?" Nathan asked once he also entered the room, examining my not-so-normal attire and running a hand through his hair. "Amber, what happened?" He asked, a hint of seriousness covering his deep voice as he waited for me to speak.

I sat on my bed, playing with the hem of my dress — my uniform and sighed. "Yep, you're right," I said, bobbing my head, thinking how I was suppose to tell him everything when it was all so messy and then after a final thought, I told him everything from the beginning to the end.

***

"Holy shit," was the first thing that Nathan uttered once I told him everything. We were at the table now, both of us having a bowl of cereal as it was 7 in the morning and Nathan hadn't had breakfast as well. Nathan stopped eating the moment I told him I had a prince's powers sealed against me, so I had eaten his bowl of cereal already, now eating mine, the taste of cereal so heavenly against my tongue I couldn't focus on his rambling at all.

"Holy shit, indeed," I bobbed my head, crunching the cereal and waited for him to speak further.

"So—" he opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again and then let out a breath. "So—" he began again and it went on like that for a few seconds until he finally lost it and stood up, opened the refrigerator, took out a bottle of cold water and chugged down the entire bottle aggressively, water dripping from his chin and drenching his whole shirt. He took deep breaths again, shoving the bottle back to the refrigerator and then took it out when he realised the bottle was empty. He threw the bottle in the trash can, closed the refrigerator with all his force, calmed himself and then approached me.

I continued eating my cereal.

"So, you're telling me—" he began, wetting his lips and facing me intensely. "That you're not even from here? You were born in another world, and then someone transferred this particular guy — Ember's powers into you and then that person erased all your memories — because apparently magic exists there — about that world and then made a portal and then you were here?" Nathan was clearly having an existential crisis here and I felt bad for finding this so amusing.

"Yep, that's right," I let out a burp, placing the spoon in the bowl and taking them to the sink while Nathan let out another series of innuendos, grabbing his hair, still rambling about everything. I continued washing the bowls, also washing the other dishes that Nathan must've used last night for dinner.

"So, you—" he paused, came to me and I faced him, giving him a questioning look. "Is that how you ended up in the orphanage? With no identity or no memories at all? Is that why no body was ever able to find out anything about you?"

I only nodded my head slowly, gripping the bowl firmly as I wondered how my real parents were before I was used as a vessel and thrown into another world without anyone's consent. "God, this is all so messed up," Nathan sighed, sinking in the chair and shaking his head. "I don't even know what's real anymore."

"Honestly, same," I sighed along with him, placing the dishes is their places and taking a seat in the chair next to him.

"And so, what happened? How come you're suddenly here after two weeks and not before? Did he take his powers and let you go?" Nathan asked, looking at me, his thick eyebrows raised.

"No," I said, memories flashing down at me — memories of Ember crawling at my mind as I tried to shove them away. "When I first got there, he told me he needed my help to break his wedding. He said I was a foreigner and if I were to help him, no one could track me down as I had no identity. But today I found out, that wasn't the truth," I swallowed, my jaw clenching. "The truth is, his powers are sealed in me. They were transferred to me. He wants them back. That's why he wants me," I said bitterly.

"And then you went bonkers and demanded to go back to your world?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah, I didn't like how he lied to me. He could've told me the truth. I would've helped him, of course," I looked away, not meeting his gaze as I could feel my eyes getting watery. "Now I feel like I'm just something he wanted to use. I feel like he treated me well because he wouldn't want his power to get hurt. I feel like I was just a precious thing to him that he always had to have around him because God forbid if he loses me again he can't get back his powers. I feel used. I feel so used it's hurting me—" that was it before I found tears streaming down my face and nothing was stopping them.

I stopped them in front of Ember but I couldn't stop them now.

Nathan took my hands in his, rubbing the top of my palms gently while I sniffed, teardrops falling onto my palm, smearing them, connecting with Nathan's palms as well. "Hey, Amber," he said gently, sighing. "It's alright. He's an asshole—"

"He's not an asshole," I said between my sobs, not even knowing why I said that.

Nathan sighed again, this one a bit small. "Yeah, he's not an asshole," he nodded. "Maybe he had a reason for doing what he did. Maybe he was scared that you'd leave him when you know the truth? Maybe he was waiting for something to happen? Maybe-"

"He still lied to me," I said, my breathing quick and heavy, tears bathing my cheeks as I wiped them away using my sleeves.

"Yeah, he did," Nathan said, pursing his lips. "Did he. . . did he say anything?"

"Say what?" I calmed down a little, my headache from the hangover still lingering in my head.

"Did he explain himself or anything?"

"I didn't let him speak," I mumbled. "And I don't even need to hear him speak. He can go and fuck himself and piss off." I stood up from the chair, as Nathan did the same.

"I think this is the first time I'm seeing you getting so worked up over a guy," Nathan commented as I gave him a look.

"He lied to me, Nathan!" I remarked, my voice loud and shaking.

"Many people lied to you, Amber," Nathan said calmly, raising an eyebrow. "But you never shed tears for any of them. You've had two boyfriends and both of them ended up lying to you and cheated on you. You kicked them in their balls and even knocked down one of them,"

I glared at him, anger rising within me. "What are you trying to say?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe you've caught feelings for this guy?"

"Are you seriously talking about this right now?"

"You're not denying it, are you?" Nathan said, confidence written all over his face. "I have known you since I was six. I know it when you're in love. Your voice goes soft when you're talking about this Ember guy, you start crying when you think about him, you start—" he sighed. "You know what I think, Amber? I think that the reason why you didn't even let him speak is because you knew your heart would forgive him the moment he tells—"

I cut him off. "We have talked about myself enough," I said, glaring at him. "You tell me how you covered up for me."

Nathan didn't speak for a few seconds before giving in. He sighed, placed a hand on his hip and shook his head. "You can't even imagine the hell I through to cover you up for these two weeks."

***

a/n: hopefully we still remember our goofy lil' nathan :) what do you think of this chapter, lemme know !! <33