Freya staggered, nearly losing her footing. The deathly aura around her ran wild, thrashing like a tentacle.
"As much as I wish I could say I was lying, that really is what happened."
Joey briefly recounted Nome's death.
She listened quietly to the entire story, from her disappearance to Nome tracking her here, and finally to his death.
After a while, Freya slowly spoke, her spirits low. "No wonder I couldn't sense his deathly aura."
Perhaps an unnatural death makes a difference, Joey thought.
She erected a gravestone for Nome herself and sighed softly. Looking at Joey with a complicated expression, she rested a hand lightly on his shoulder. "Let's go."
Pitch-black mist enveloped them both. When they opened their eyes again, they had returned to the real world.
Warm sunlight fell across them, dispelling the darkness and cold.
"Miss Freya, you..."
Before Joey could finish, Freya interrupted him. "Don't ask anything. Go home."
Joey raised his head stubbornly, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on Freya's eyes. His expression had never been so resolute. "I can't go back. I have to find my sister."
If he had a choice, he would never have tangled with Transcendents. From beginning to end, his goal had been simple: he only wanted to survive.
From the moment he first set foot in this world, he had encountered Senegal at its darkest, where a human life was worth less than a loaf of bread.
He had been strung up in a gloomy dungeon, treated as a blood bank, a pig for slaughter. He had been beaten and drained of blood, unable even to fill his stomach.
After finally escaping and seeing daylight again, he cherished life more than anyone.
There were things he did not want to do, yet had to.
Barbara was still in the