Almost two months.

  That's how long I had been stuck in another world — one full of magic and wonder — away from my friends and family. And I had magic too, or at least I did. I had sacrificed it to save my friends. Now, I was back to roleplaying Elsa, accidentally freezing things over whenever I got scared. But things aren't all bad. I'm back in my world now, perhaps karma for my good deed, or at least I'd like to think. The real reason was that Earth was in danger, and I, being the only one from Earth, was to serve as my friends' guide as they saved the world. Yep, they’d get to be the heroes of my world while I’d get to be a tour guide.

  Oh well. Fair is fair.

  "We're in New York," I stated upon noticing the Empire State Building. It was my first time in New York as well, being from Riverside County, California. I wish I had thought to wear a sweater today. Oh well — at least Sylvis hadn't dropped us in Alaska.

  "N-New York? What happened to the old York?" Aidan asked, confused by our world's naming conventions.

  "Nobody knows." I shrugged. Or at least, I didn't.

  I glanced over at the others — Finn and Maverick still very much had tension between them, but Zephyr seemed to have been paying attention. I really wonder what set Finn off...

  "Um, what do we do now?" I hesitantly asked Maverick. I hadn't been told much of the plan. Were we going to immediately look for members of the Magus of Historia, or were we going to do something else, like grab pizza? Or sightseeing? I really wanted to sightsee. And eat pizza.

  Maverick stared at me for an uncomfortable amount of time before finally replying. "Sylvis said she had an apartment ready for us. We'll go there first and come up with a plan."

  "I sure hope you know where it is—"

  One nauseating sensation later, the five of us were in front of the tallest and squiggliest building I had ever seen in person. I nearly fell backwards as I craned my head up to stare at it. It was just so... interesting. Was this really an apartment building? It looked more like an office building.

  We went inside, dragging our many suitcases up the stairs and into the building. The others looked tired and confused as I led them to the elevator.

  "W-wow! Your SSETFs look so much different! A-and menacing..." Aidan mumbled the last part.

  "Really?" I tried to think back to the elevator at the manor. I suppose this one was taller and gloomier. The one at the manor seemed more like a little hallway that moved up and down rather than a gray box like ours. Though, the inside of this one was nicer than most.

  I bounced between my heels and toes, impatiently waiting. I couldn't help but notice Maverick looked out of breath. Had he used a lot of ether teleporting us here? I didn't think we had teleported that far. Finn, on the other hand, seemed to be looking everywhere but in his direction.

  Well, this was awkward.

  The elevator beeped upon reaching the desired floor, which startled poor Aidan, sending him backwards into Zephyr. We exited the elevator, and unsurprisingly, Maverick had the key to our apartment in his pocket. He fiddled with the lock, and Aidan and I were the first ones to rush in.

  To my surprise, the apartment was fully furnished. Just how many connections did Sylvis have?! It's not like she could come here herself and furnish it. Had this been Rosalie's work? Nah, the decorations looked too normal for that.

  "I-it's so big!" Aidan's jaw hung agape.

  It was big. Especially for New York. I couldn't begin to fathom how much this must have cost. More than my family would have ever been able to afford, anyway.

  "The furniture is quite unique," Finn spoke up for the first time since we arrived here. He sat on one of the white, suave, curved chairs, placing his hands on either side, feeling the material. His face lit up in a smile, I assumed from the texture. I bet there's nothing quite like it in Meridia. "No." He smiled at me.

  "I-I'm going to look around!" Aidan quickly dashed off, opening every door he could find and sticking his head in to peek through. I half thought he would do the same with the cupboards. He did do it with the pantry.

  "Wait! I want to see, too!" I quickly chased after him and tried to match his speed. I was starting to think he was the one with the speed Talent.

  We opened the door to a bedroom, revealing two beds, dressers, and a closet. There was an identical bedroom across. The last bedroom only had one bed, which I assumed to be mine.

  "I-I hope I don't have to share a room with Maverick." Aidan paled.

  "Don't worry; I'm sure Finn or Zephyr would be happy to share with you." I gently pat the top of his head, causing him to blush. I imagine Finn would especially be eager to share...

  We walked back to the living room to see Finn flipping through channels on the rather large TV. I guess he figured out how to use the remote from my memories. Zephyr seemed entranced by the flipping channels. A horror movie seemed to put him on edge as he scooted further back into the couch. Maverick remained unamused from his chair, keeping a neutral expression across every channel. I was partially surprised he didn't smirk at the horror movie.

  "W-what's that?" Aidan quickly ran in front of the TV, blocking everyone's view.

  "Hey! I can't see!" Finn shouted as he paused flipping through channels. He landed on National Geographic, which was playing a documentary on elephants that I could only see due to me standing next to the TV. I had never seen Aidan so happy and mesmerized before.

  I gently pulled Aidan back to the couch so the others could also admire the elephants.

  "Tonkits," Zephyr said as he continued to stare at the screen.

  "Elephants," Finn stated proudly. Don't be so cocky — you quite literally stole the answer from me!

  Not finding the elephants all that interesting, I decided to look out the window and see what view we had.

  I sucked in a deep breath. I never thought I'd get to visit New York — or at least this soon. We were pretty high up, which allowed me to get a good view of Manhattan and its many buildings. I also noticed the sun was starting to make its descent. I never would understand how time flowed between worlds. I hope it really was only two months since I had left, and not two years.

  "Want me to change the channel?" Finn snuck up behind me and ruffled my hair. I quickly combed it back out with my fingers.

  "I don't really care what you turn on. The four of you have obviously never watched TV, so I think it's only fair you get to experience it first." I smiled back. I had other ways of entertaining myself while the TV was occupied. Not that Aidan and Maverick fighting over the now-abandoned remote wasn't entertaining.

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  He chuckled at me before raising his hand in a slight wave. He teleported behind the two and snatched the remote from them, raising it high in the air to where Aidan had to jump for it. Maverick seemed to give up and sat back down in his chair, summoning a book to read.

  I made my way to the kitchen and looked through the cabinets and fridge. Plates, cups, cutlery, pots and pans, and pretty much anything I could have hoped for were stocked in the cabinets, even some baking tools! Several canned foods that I had always despised hid behind a cabinet door that I quickly closed. Another revealed spices, several of which I had never heard the names of. Any chance they were from Meridia? Probably not.

  Inside the pantry were cereals, pasta, rice, bread, and several baking essentials like flour and sugar. The fridge was stocked with fruits, vegetables, dairy, and even meat. I was starting to wonder if it really was Sylvis who stocked the fridge. It definitely wasn’t Rosalie.

  “Do you need a hand?” Zephyr interrupting me caused me to close the fridge on my hand. I yelped in both pain and surprise, and he quickly took my hand in his, healing it, but that started another fear in me. I really hoped these people would get used to not using their magic.

  “Thank you,” I muttered appreciatively. “And yes, I could use some help. I’ve never cooked for more than two before—three,” I corrected, remembering the times Rose had stayed for dinner.

  “I would occasionally help cook at the manor.” Zephyr straightened his glasses.

  “Really?” I raised my eyebrows in surprise. I didn’t expect that from him.

  “I’m sure I cooked one of your meals, considering I helped out during that time.”

  For some reason, the thought of him cooking my meal was embarrassing. It’s not like I ordered anything embarrassing or made any weird special requests. Even if I had, he wouldn’t know it was me! Yet, I still felt oddly embarrassed. Funny how emotions work. …I hoped he wasn’t reading me right now, even if he wasn’t an actual empath.

  “Perhaps you can teach me about these devices? From the front, I can tell that this is an oven. And obviously, this is a sink.” He turned around to briefly face the sink before turning back.

  “Oh yeah. You just turn this knob here and—” I froze, realizing this was one of those new induction stoves. Why did everything have to be so fancy nowadays?

  He watched me struggle for a while as I went over each of the buttons, trying to figure out how to turn the thing on. And me being me, I chose the wrong pan to test it with. After a while, I finally got the stupid thing working.

  Zephyr seemed to catch on quickly to things in the kitchen. Apparently, it wasn’t too different from Meridia. I also couldn’t help but be mesmerized by how he used telekinesis to chop everything so efficiently. They were all perfectly even sizes, too! However, something seemed to be bothering him after he placed the food in the pan.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “We usually use magic to speed up the cooking process. However, I can’t seem to get mine to work with this stove. If it had a proper burner, I could replace the fire with my own and hasten the process,” he explained.

  People with magic really were impatient when it came to eating.

  Not having any other choice, we had to wait for the food to cook naturally. I was surprised that Zephyr had decided to cook steaks of all things. Oh well, hopefully it’ll at least put Maverick in a better mood. And I kind of did miss juicy steaks…

  “Meat?” Finn groaned as he stabbed his fork into the steak and picked it up to stare at it. Its juice dripped onto the white plate beneath it.

  “And vegetables!” I pointed to the side of broccoli and cauliflower that was millimeters away from being contaminated by meat juice.

  Finn’s expression lightened as the steak flew onto Maverick’s plate in such a precise way that I knew he had to have used magic. I noticed Aidan carefully pushing the vegetables further away until a piece of broccoli fell on the table. He discreetly placed it back on the plate before quickly looking away. Maverick, on the other hand, had finished his original steak and started on Finn’s. He hadn’t said anything the whole time, but judging by the noises he was making, he was content.

  I thought the steak was quite good. It was well seasoned and cooked to perfection. Zephyr seemed perplexed at first, but quickly seemed to enjoy it. Aidan tried a piece, and I could tell he was forcing himself to swallow it. The same went for the vegetables.

  “Ella, which cabinet has the spices?” Finn glanced at me.

  “The—” Before I could answer, he cut me off.

  “Thanks.” He winked at me as the cabinet above the sink opened and several bottles of spices floated over to our table, landing directly in front of Aidan’s plate. His eyes lit up as he quickly doused his meat and vegetables in spices.

  “That’s not going to work…” I said hesitantly. “It needs to be cooked in—”

  He immediately spat it back out, making choking noises.

  “If you’re not going to eat it,” Maverick said between bites. Aidan’s steak floated over to his plate, and the seasoning magically disappeared. At least someone was enjoying their dinner. I couldn’t help but feel bad for Zephyr.

  “I-if you’re going to remove the spices, then I want it back!” Aidan demanded as he tried to reach for the steak. Maverick raised the steak into the air using magic so that Aidan had to stand on his chair. He still couldn’t get it. Meanwhile, Finn had used his magic to steal the vegetables from Maverick’s and Aidan’s plates. He grimaced after taking a bite of Aidan’s. To the right of me, Zephyr used his magic to teleport the salt shaker to him.

  “This isn’t going to work!” I slammed my fists on the table. Everyone immediately turned to me. Steak was stuck to the ceiling.

  “Huh?” Maverick said limply, his eyes narrowing at me.

  “We’re in a magicless world. If you’re this dependent on magic, what are you going to do when we leave this apartment?! Speaking of, when was the last time you guys spent time outside the manor besides when Aidan visits his sister?”

  There was a chilling silence, and my fears were confirmed.

  “For the rest of the night, no more magic. Consider it a test.” I crossed my arms and sat back down. Hey! Where did the last two bites of my steak go?! Finn motioned with his thumb to Maverick while he wasn’t looking.

  “Fine.” Maverick crossed his arms in return. The steak on the ceiling fell on the table. Had he been holding it up to the ceiling with magic?

  Dinner proceeded rather awkwardly. Maverick left the steak for Aidan and quickly went to one of the bedrooms. Hopefully not mine. Aidan and Finn finished their meals in seconds and both returned to the living room. Zephyr had started cleaning up, accidentally using magic before remembering my threat— err, um, challenge.

  I finished the rest of my food alone.

  Zephyr had practically finished washing the dishes and putting away the spices, so I decided to grab my suitcase from the hallway to unpack. Had I known we wouldn’t be returning to Riverside, I would have brought more clothes…

  The bedroom was far different than the previous two bedrooms I had stayed in. This one had white walls and a sleek bed with white bedsheets. The dresser and desk were white, too. I see Sylvis’ office designed this room.

  I opened the closet and was relieved to find several outfits. The dresser contained pajamas as well as casual wear. Sylvis must have realized I’d packed light.

  I opened my suitcase to take out the book Zephyr had recommended to me (that I still hadn’t finished) and a couple of books I found interesting. There was a bracelet Marge had given me last night that I didn’t want to sleep with and didn’t want to forget, so I had shoved it into the suitcase. There were also a couple of outfits I may have stolen simply because they were too pretty not to, and a plush Aidan had gifted me shortly after I arrived as a way of making me feel less homesick. It was really sweet of him.

  “Settling in okay?” The sound of Finn’s voice made me jump, but I quickly recovered.

  “Thanks to Sylvis, yeah. I thought she would take us somewhere closer to where I lived. …I’m not going to get to see my friends and family while I’m here, am I?” I frowned at the pair of shorts I'd begun holding before Finn came in.

  “Hey, don’t say that. I’m sure we’ll still find a way to see them. Maybe we could take a boat or a plane or whatever you people use to travel long distances.” He scratched the back of his head.

  “If Maverick will let us.” I sighed.

  “Even if he doesn’t, I’ll still take you.” He winked at me and I blushed. I really needed to stop doing that!

  “Speaking of Maverick… How come you were so mad at him earlier?” I asked. Maybe now that I was asking out loud, he’d answer.

  He immediately balled his fists before releasing them. “You’ll have to ask him that.” With that, he left my room. Maybe I should’ve asked a different question…

  The door opened again. “Also, tomorrow Maverick wants to hold a meeting in the morning. I don’t know what time he wakes up, so just be ready.”

  “Okay.” I nodded my head.

  If only I had my purse with me when Maverick had kidnapped me. I’d left it somewhere in Carol’s house with my phone inside. Then maybe I could’ve at least called my family and told them I was okay.

  But what would I even tell them? How would I explain where I had been the past two months? How would I tell them that I couldn’t come home yet?

  Maybe it was good that we weren’t in Riverside County.