[ELLE'S PoV]

"Okay so what the ever loving heck is going on, Elle? I go abroad for three months and come back to find out Maggie's been missing for a whole week now? Talk!" Tara glared at me over Skype with her arms crossed. She had been friends with Mags and I in high school. I had always been closer to Maggie, but right now Tara was all I had.

"I don't know, okay?" I answered. I pushed my hair out of my eyes and sighed. "Like I'm freaking out, and no one's found anything!"

"There wasn't even a ransom call? Her mom's a Senator and her Dad does... what does he do again? Anyway, the point is her family's rich. I could totally see this being that kind of kidnapping."

I shook my head. "No calls, no notes, no clues. Nothing to even indicate that it was a kidnapping. She just vanished. Her bag was in the art building basement, she even left her phone."

Tara perked up slightly. "Did you check her phone? Maybe—"

"I went through all her messages, all her contacts. I even called this 'Adrien heart-emoji' guy she never bothered to tell me about," I muttered. "Her parents plastered every news source within a fifty mile radius. It'll probably end up on the national news too, because of the whole Senator thing."

There was a shuffle on the other end of the video call as Tara's younger brother ran into the room, while she was busy arguing with him, I picked up Maggie's sketchbook and flicked through it.

It was all stuff I'd seen before for the most part: SoL fan art, dumb drawings of me, tons and tons of landscapes... but then I got to the last page and froze.

"Hey Tara, I'll call you back later, okay?" I didn't give her a chance to reply before I clicked end-call.

I sat up straighter and adjusted my desk lamp so I could get a better look at the sketch. It was a roughly drawn door frame standing in the art basement, with measurements and project ideas scrawled to the side.

Then I remembered what that weird guy had said. "I came here through a door, but the door is gone now..."

I didn't like the theory that was quickly lodging itself into my brain. I didn't like dealing with things I couldn't think about logically. And if, for example, logic was Earth, a disappearing door to another world was Neptune.

The police scanner I'd had running on my computer non-stop for the past week crackled with sudden voices and I jumped, accidentally dropping the sketchbook. I bent to pick it up, but stopped when I realized what the officers on the scanner were saying.

"—black hair, roughly six feet tall. No shoes. Says he's twenty years old, and also— get this, a prince," a male officer scoffed. "Kid, where did you say your kingdom was?"

"In the river valley between Lumina and Nox, in the Western Territory!" A muffled but slightly familiar voice called out. Speak of the freaking Devil.

"Found him shouting at one of the vending machines on North Campus. Should I bring him in?" The male officer asked.

"Might as well," a voice I recognized as the red haired officer I'd spoken to sighed from the other end of the call. "At the very least we can find out what he's smoking. I might be interested," she added with a laugh.

I stood, pulled on my jacket, and hurried out of my dorm building. I formulated a plan in my head as I ran, and reached the Campus Security building just as a police officer helped the dude I'd kicked in the gut yesterday out of his car. Marcella-whatever.

"Oh my god, Marc, where have you been!" I shouted once I was close enough to be heard.

Marc's eyebrows furrowed. "Demon woman?"

I ignored his rude nickname and carried on with my charade. "I've looked everywhere for you, Aunt Denice has been worried sick!"

"You know this guy?" The officer asked.

I nodded quickly and spoke with as much confidence as I could muster— which, not to brag, is quite a bit. "Yes sir, he's my cousin. He and his mother, my aunt, are visiting me for the day. I haven't seen them in so long... But he ran off while I was in class earlier this afternoon."

The officer arched a skeptical eyebrow. "He's dirty, barefoot, and was shouting at a vending machine demanding 'sustenance.'"

I smiled wryly. "Yes, Marc's been like this his whole life I'm afraid. And lately he's been refusing to take his medication. I take it he's been insisting he's a prince?"

"I am!" Marc cried indignantly, "and who is this 'Marc' you keep mentioning? I hope you are not referring to me with that distasteful name, demon. I told you, my name is Marcellus Villiers, of Samsara in Aeterna!"

I raised my eyebrows at the officer and gestured to 'Marcellus Villiers, of Samsara in Aeterna.' "There you go. Sir, I understand if you need to take him into custody, but please reconsider. My Aunt has such a hard life, caring for him for twenty years now, and as a single mother. I would hate to see any more stress put on her. Please may I take him home?"

The officer looked at Marc— who was thankfully keeping his mouth shut at the moment— then at me. He sighed and nodded. "Just make sure to keep an eye on him."

"Of course, thank you very much sir." I grabbed Marc's arm and tugged him back in the direction of the dorm buildings. "Come along, Marc."

"Unhand me, Demon!"

I kept my voice cheerful, since we were still in earshot of the officer. "Aunt Denice will be so relieved to see you!"

"I do not know who that is!"

I narrowed my eyes at him and muttered under my breath, "I swear to god I will kick you again if you don't shut up. I'm literally rescuing you right now."

"Psh," Marc scoffed as we rounded the corner of a building, putting us safely out of the officer's reach. "As if I would allow myself to be rescued by a woman."

I dropped his arm and stepped away from his with a shrug. "Okay then, have fun trying to find your way back to wherever it is you're from on you're own!"

This was a stupid plan, anyway. He'd already said he had no idea who or where Maggie was. And he clearly didn't know how to get back through his "door" or he would have done it already. Yep, stupid, stupid plan.

"See ya," I said, and started back toward my dorm.

"Please wait!" Marc called. "Would you at least teach me how to use this so-called 'vending machine'? I haven't had a meal since my arrival here."

I turned to look at him. He pouted ever so slightly through the curtain of his disheveled hair. He seemed harmless enough, and in a way totally rocked the homeless-chic look. He was pretty much useless to me if he couldn't help me get to Mags. But when I looked at him I imagined Mags in the same position: lost, hungry, scared.

"Alright, fine, come with me." I sighed, relenting. I really hoped I wouldn't end up regretting that decision. What if he was just a really talented actor who was also an axe murderer? I could totally die.

But still I led him into my dorm building, up three flights of stairs because he refused to set foot in the elevator, and into my dorm room. "The bathroom's through there," I said, pointing. "You can take a shower if you want. Actually, yeah, I'm not giving you a choice. Take a shower, you're a mess."

"What about food?" He asked.

"You clean yourself up, I'll make some pizza rolls."

Marc shifted in place uncomfortably, then walked into the bathroom.

I went to my mini fridge and pulled two boxes of pizza rolls out of the little freezer part on top. I separated the tiny frozen pockets onto paper plates and put the first plate into the microwave. I set the timer, then wandered over to the bathroom, since I hadn't heard the shower start running yet and the door was still wide open.

"Hey, you good there— whoa." I immediately turned away after getting an eyeful of waaay more than I had any interest in seeing. Thank god he'd had his back to me. "Dude, seriously? Close the door if you're gonna strip!"

From inside the bathroom, Marc responded. "I apologize, demon woman. I was just cleaning myself in your interesting wash basin here. What does this lever do?"

A moment later, I heard the toilet flush.

"Oh I see, the water refreshes itself? That is fascinating! But why must it be so loud?" Marc questioned.

"Oh my god." I was still too mortified to respond properly, but in my right state of mind I would have doubled over with laughter. "Marcellus, that's the toilet! Wash yourself in the shower, the thing behind the curtain!"

"Oh..." there was a long moment of silence, interrupted only by the microwave beeping.

"Okay you know what, put you're clothes back on, come eat, and then I'll show you how the shower works." I walked over to the microwave, popped out the first plate, and replaced it with the second. I started the timer again when Marc emerged from the bathroom, looking rather embarrassed.

"So... the wash basin was not a wash basin? It was actually a chamber pot? A self-cleaning chamber pot?" Marc asked.

"Um... yeah, I guess?" I handed him the plate of pizza rolls and sat on one of the pillows in my nest. I gestured for Marc to do the same.

He sat down across from me, then hesitantly bit into a pizza roll. He gasped, and looked up at me with wide eyes. "You are an amazing chef, Demon!"

"Elle, just call me Elle, okay? Stop with the whole 'Demon woman' thing." I frowned as he stuffed four more rolls into his mouth, one after the other, barely stopping to breathe. "You really are from another world, aren't you?"

Marc nodded with his cheeks puffed out like a hamster. "Indeed. Though I am beginning to grow very fond of this world."

The microwave beeped again, and I pulled out my own plate of food.

Marc stared. "This world's magic is still alive, it seems. You are lucky."

I nodded. "Yeah, it's called science. It's pretty cool."

After we ate, I showed him how to turn the shower on, and he freaked out for a solid five minutes.

"Rain inside!? Rain inside that you control? This world is amazing!"

Aaand then he took a nearly two hour long shower. The only thing indicating that he hadn't slipped and died was his shout of "I cannot believe it is raining indoors!" every fifteen minutes.

I sat in my nest the whole time, staring blankly at the wall, trying to process this whole thing. Logically, Marcellus being from another world should have made absolutely zero sense. But logically, all of the evidence was pointing to just that. And following that logic, Maggie had gone wherever Marcellus came from. Somewhere that apparently didn't have indoor plumbing.

Finally, Marc emerged from the bathroom. At least he had the sense to wrap himself in a towel. "Is this your bed?" he asked, pointing toward the bed I never used. At the moment, it was covered in text books and empty soda cans.

"Yeah," I answered.

"So, I will sleep in this one then?" He said, moving toward Maggie's bed.

"Absolutely not," I snapped, harsher than I intended. Mags obviously wasn't here to use it, but it still didn't sit well with me to let someone else use it.

"Well then," Marc's tone was deeper than I expected, sounding almost like a purr. It caught me off guard and I looked up to see him watching me with a sly smile. "If you do not wish me to sleep in that bed... shall I share yours?"

I narrowed my eyes. "I know of more ways to kill you than I can count on my fingers."

Marcellus— thankfully, for his sake— dropped the flirtatious act immediately smiled and turned away from me with a snicker. "I was only joking of course." After a moment of silence he added, "however, the offer is on the table."

"You can sleep in my bed. I'll sleep here," I responded, patting the pillows of my nest.

"Alright, thank you kindly, Lady Elle."

I rolled my eyes. "Elle. Just Elle. No lady, no demon. Elle."

He pursed his lips, then nodded. "Thank you, Elle."

"Um... I'm gonna get you some clothes." I stood from my nest and moved to my closet. Fortunately, I had lots of baggy t-shirts and sweat pants that were gender neutral enough. I liked to buy lounge clothes at least two sizes too big.

"Ah, who needs clothes?" Marc asked, dropping into that weird deep voice again.

"Okay, nope, gonna draw the line here." I said firmly, tossing pants and a shirt at him. "That flirty act of yours is so not gonna fly."

Marc caught the clothes and pouted. "Aw, but being charming and flirtatious is my thing."

I pointed at him with narrowed eyes. "Un-make it your thing, or at the very least direct it at someone who is not me. Because so help me, I will kick you into next week."

His shoulders slumped. "Very well," he sighed.

God, this guy was unnerving. He could go from "Wow what is thing! How do thing? What are technology??" to "My middle name is seduction, you know you want me," in two seconds flat, and I was so not equipped to handle that.

Correction, I wasn't equipped to handle that without actually punching him in the jaw. It was gonna happen. I could feel it.

But Marc seemed to take a hint and returned to the bathroom to put on the clothes I'd given him. While he was changing, I cleared the junk off my bed so he wouldn't have to sleep on text books.

"I am very sorry if I offended your honor in any way, La— um, Elle," he said when he came back to the bedroom. "You have been most hospitable to me. I was only having a bit of fun."

He wasn't too bad. Just a little... out of my usual range of interaction expertise. I smiled at him. "You're fine. Just consider yourself warned, because I really don't give second chances. You will be punched."

He swallowed and climbed onto the bed. "Noted."

"Goodnight." I said, and flicked the light switch.

Marc let out a tiny gasp, and after a moment of silence whispered, "even your torches are magic?"

"Goodnight, Marcellus." I repeated. What on earth had I gotten myself into?