* AMBER ERIN ANDERSON *

Nathan took a deep breath, let it out, and then faced me. "After your Ember guy took you through that portal, I was basically losing my shit — ended up slapping myself in the face and then realised it was all real. My first thought was to call the police, of course, and I did—" he raised one of his eyebrows. "But they didn't believe me, said you might've gone somewhere to clear your head because you're going through stress. I didn't press the issue anymore and came home, called Amelia, spent a few hours explaining the whole situation,"

He sighed and continued. "She didn't me believe me at first, and we both ended up having a fight. I didn't talk to her the whole night and decided to wait till the next day. The next day came, and there was no sign of you yet. Amelia called, said she couldn't contact you at all and said I should explain her everything again and I did. It took her a while to grasp everything, but she believed me eventually,"

"She came here, and we thought of what to do with your disappearance. Her and I decided we weren't gonna tell about this to anyone and would try to figure it out ourselves. Thanks to you being friendless and bitchless, nobody was actually looking for you other than me and Amelia. But there was this one person that we had to worry about,"

"My brother," I answered, bobbing my head.

"Yeah, your brother. Ryan," Nathan pursed his lips. "Amelia and I knew he'd call you soon so we had to make up something. I got your phone and it took me another whole day to figure out your passcode," he then looked at me, glaring at me. "And do you know what your passcode turned out to be?"

I laughed nervously. "Six zeros?"

"Yes!" he grabbed his head, grunting. "Six zeros! Six fucking zeros! Seriously, Amber? You couldn't be more creative."

I smiled widely.

"Anyways," he let out a sigh, breathing slowly. "After figuring out your exceptionally strong passcode, the first thing I did was send Ryan a message -- saying you would be gone for a vacation for a few weeks or maybe even months, you weren't sure,"

"That is the worst lie I have ever heard—"

"I had to come up with something!" He defended himself. "So, Ryan was suspicious, of course. The first thing he did was call you. I disconnected the call, saying the network is really really bad. He bought it and decided to text now. He asked where did you even get the money from when you were so broke. I told him you'd been saving up for this and borrowed some money from me as well,"

"And? Did he believe you?"

"For a week, yes. I couldn't pull this more than a week and he eventually started calling and even doubted you were kidnapped or something. He found it strange from the beginning actually,"

"Oh, God," I mumbled, not liking where this was going. "And then?"

"Amelia and I photoshopped your pictures and made it look like you were having the time of your life in a beach—"

I burst out laughing. "You—" I took a breath in between my laughs. "You two did what—" I wheezed.

"We had to do something!"

"And? Did he believe it?" I said in between my laughs.

"He did. But he didn't stop calling though. He called everyday just to see if the network got better or not," he shook his head. "Quite the stubborn man he is."

"That means he's gonna call today as well," my eyes landed on my phone resting on top of the table. "And my parents? What 'bout them?"

"They did call a few times but Ryan took care of them, I guess. They're pretty worried, he said and want to talk to you as well. You should call them," Nathan explained and my heart instantly warmed hearing how my foster parent were worried about me. I may have moved out of my parents' house but they would always be my true home, no matter how far I was from them.

"I missed you all so much," I blurted out, swallowing.

Nathan's gaze softened as he smiled, a small dimple appearing in his cheek. "I missed you, too,"

"I don't think I've ever stayed away from you for this long," I said, sighing. "I think I missed you more."

He raised an eyebrow.

I laughed, my heart at peace and despite Ember still lingering in some corner of my heart, I was still contented for being home. "Thank you for doing all this for me," I said, meaning every word.

***

"This is all so crazy," Amelia said once Nathan and I settled in our seats in a café, him and Amelia sitting side by side while I sat parallel to them, sipping the coffee that I'd just ordered. "Life seems unreal now," she added, shaking her head as she tucked in a strand of her blonde lock.

"I'm glad you're safe, though," she took my hand and squeezed it gently, giving me a small smile. "We were worried. Especially Nathan." She laughed lightly.

"Yeah, he's gotten a lot thinner and the eye bags say a lot," I said, feeling guilty for everything they had to go through because of me.

"Exactly!" Amelia immediately agreed, widening her baby blue eyes and giving Nathan a see-I-told-you look, which Nathan replied with a nonchalant shrug and only took a sip of the latte placed in front of him. "I told him to slow down but he ended up worrying so much he even fell sick!"

"You fell sick?" I almost raised my voice, immediately regretting doing so when I received looks from people sitting across from us as I gave them an apologetic smile. "You fell sick?" I asked again, frowning deeply. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You wanted me to send a text to the other world and let you know?" I rolled my eyes at his sarcastic remark as he continued. "It was just a fever! It lasted only for a day," he defended himself.

"God, I have caused you two so much trouble," I sighed, playing with the rings in my finger, realising these were from the Elisora Palace, mostly worn by the workers, my heart tugging again due to what happened with Ember.

"Nah," Amelia made a face, shaking her hand at me. "No trouble, but we were just worried. But you're back now," she smiled, her cheeks forming dimples and I noticed the matching bracelet she and Nathan had on their wrist, making me smile at how adorable they were.

I smiled back, nodding, as three of us soon engaged into a long conversation, about me explaining everything with more details about Ember's world, making sure to tell everything I knew about power transmission and the Power Holders and other strange things about their world.

"Alright, so," Amelia gave me a questioning look. "Ember's powers — they're sealed in you? And it's been sealed in you since you were a kid?"

I nodded my head. "Yep, and he didn't have the decency to tell me that and hid it from me,"

"Does that mean you can use his powers? I mean, it's sealed in you, isn't it?" Nathan asked, ignoring what I said and frowning.

"Maybe? I don't know," I shrugged, not interested. "I couldn't care less about that. It's not even something of my own."

"If I were you, I would try to use it," Amelia shared her thought, talking casually. "And do cool things."

"It's been thirteen years, Amelia. I have never ever felt like I had powers in me or anything weird like that. And even if I want to use his powers, I don't think it's that easy. I have seen spell books and stuffs in Ember's room and it's all in a whole different language. I'm pretty sure you need those things," I explained.

"Does that other guy —" Amelia scratched her head. "That friend of Ember—"

"Keith? Zenix?"

"Keith, yes! Does he also use those spells and words?"

I nodded my head. "Sometimes, yes. But then again, that guy is skilled enough to not use them as well," I shrugged, remembering Keith and his stunts with magic — he only used spells when it came to healing but other than that, I barely saw him muttering anything.

The conversation went on about for another hour while I told them more, mostly about the people I met and their abilities as both Nathan and Amelia showed their astonishment, sometimes laughed and were genuinely curious to know more about them and just like that, we ended our conversation with me saying I still had no idea what was about to happen next.

Ember's portal creations hadn't worked for thirteen years but they seemed to work now, why was that? Was he going to take back his powers from me? How was that going to happen? Why was his powers sealed in me in the first place? Why was I thrown here? Why was I orphaned? Why was I used? What was Ember's powers?

"He's got a wedding to stop. What if he comes here after that?" Nathan wriggled his eyebrows as three of us exited the café, walking side by side.

"He said his portal isn't that reliable. It doesn't always work," I pointed out.

"This time, it worked every time he tried," Nathan also pointed out, shrugging.

Amelia joined him and pushed me by my shoulder slightly. "I have a feeling he might arrive here as well. I mean, he seems pretty obsessed with you and you also didn't let him speak at all. So. . ." She continued looking here and here and whistling.

I stopped in my tracks, rolling my eyes and looking at their backs. Before they could turn, I pushed them in their backs, yelling out the next words. "You two should spend time together now. I have third wheeled enough!" I slipped in through the space in the middle, jogging away. Nathan tried to grab me by the back but I wriggled my way out of his hold, laughing. I waved at them, grinning, looking at them, my feet moving forward without turning away.

"Watch out, there's a lamppost!" Nathan yelled, pointing at something behind me but I continued walking backwardly, not hearing him.

My head bumped into the lamppost.

***

this was kind of a filler chapter, but it was time i introduced amelia and give more screen time to nathan !!

THE CHAPTER TITLE IS SO WEIRD BYE BUT IT'S SO FUNNY WHAT NATHAN HAD TO DO SAVE AMBER'S ASS LMAO