Seven Devils and a Rose

Book 2: Seven Devils and a Rose - Chapter 108

St. James Island

Touma Nakamura put down his cell phone, his hands shaking something severely. With a big, shaky sigh, he came to sit down on the sofa beside his beautiful wife Elizabeth, who was watching him expectantly, her large sky-blue eyes swollen and red.

"Well?" she asked, her voice weak. "What did he say?"

Without a word, the world-famous fantasy author suddenly pulled his wife into his arms and planted a kiss on her forehead. When he moved back, he finally said, his voice low, "Alfie contacted him."

Elizabeth's demeanor changed immediately at hearing this. She brightened up and asked, eager to know the details, "Did she? When?" Then she frowned. "But how?"

Indeed, she was very confused that their daughter Alfie, who had been missing for three days now, would contact her grandfather, Kenjiro Nakamura, in Japan instead of them, her parents, here on St. James Island. She had, after all, disappeared from St. James Island.

Touma said, "It's complicated."

Elizabeth asked, "How is it complicated?" When he didn't answer her, she continued. "Then where is she? We need to tell the police. They're searching the whole island for her."

Touma shook his head again. "Where she is right now, Elizabeth, we won't be able to reach her." He finally looked at her long and hard.

Elizabeth was still confused as to what he meant.

Finally, Touma said, "Aurora."

The very name of that realm caused Elizabeth to widen her eyes in shock. She sucked in her breath as her body shook uncontrollably. Suddenly, tears started brewing in her eyes.

"No. No. No," she cried, her shoulders shaking something severely. "My Alfie. They're taking her back, aren't they? But it's too early. She promised us. Eri promised us two hundred years, Touma. That's more than two lifetimes away."

Touma hugged her tightly to comfort her as she continued to sob her eyes out, ranting at how unfair it all was, that Eri—the powerful, magical elf woman who had given them a chance at having the family that they had desperately wanted—had lied to them.

When Elizabeth finally calmed down a little, Touma said, "Two hundred years for them is twenty years for us, Elizabeth. The timespan between their world and ours is different."

At hearing this, Elizabeth's eyes widened again. Of course, she might have conveniently forgotten about that fact when Alfie had been born. Still, though, she stubbornly refused to accept that her beloved daughter was taken away to another world, a dangerous one where unfriendly creatures, such as beasts and demons, resided. What if her daughter was taken by some beasts? Worse, demon lords? Even worse, claimed by some demon lords? Then Alfie would become one of them.

Elizabeth said, "Well, there must be something we can do. Your father? Alfie's grandfather, he's a realm watcher, isn't he? I'm sure he could get her back home."

Touma nodded. "He's working on finding a way to bring Alfie back, dear."

Wiping her eyes, Elizabeth said, "Then it is possible? Bringing Alfie back?"

Touma shook his head. "I don't know for sure, love."

"But we crossed into that realm twenty years ago, Touma, through that door," she said.

He said, "Because we were at the right place and at the right time. That door opened, and we happened to step through it."

Elizabeth was adamant. She said, "If it happened to open once, then it'll do so again, Touma." She grabbed his hands. "We have to go to Japan as soon as possible."