She wasn’t sure about the whole Magoi thing, but… “Apple? As in, the Big Apple?”

Nodding, he asked, “Is Apple just one city or the whole continent?”

Eh… “Actually, it’s New York City. The Big Apple is just a nickname. And it’s only a tiny part of the continent.”

He stopped, his brow knitting. “This continent must be huge.”

“North America?” She shrugged and tugged him along. Her car wasn’t far now. “It’s pretty big. And there are six more continents around the world.”

“Seven whole continents?” He shook his head in apparent wonder. “And nothing is god touched?”

“God touched? What does that mean?”

“Beyond the known continent—where you can’t go. No one goes there.”

“Why not?”

Piers looked at her as though she were the crazy one saying crazy things every two seconds. “Because you don’t come back.”

She frowned in confusion. “Like…the Bermuda Triangle?”

“Like everywhere beyond the established borders.”

It was Sophie’s turn to stop and stare. Was he saying he came from a finite place hemmed in on all sides by some sort of deity or power? It sounded more like Asgard by the second—or at least how she imagined it after watching Thor for the she-wasn’t-sure-how-manyth time. A woman had to entertain herself on weekend nights at home.

She took a steadying breath, trying to understand what Piers was saying. Acceptance had been growing all morning, but now, she started truly believing he really wasn’t from here. Here, as in, Earth. He looked human enough, but what if the hot guy she’d apparently picked up between bouts of running for her life was an alien? What if this gorgeous façade was some kind of glamour, and he was actually slimy and covered in scales?

No. She refused to believe that. Or she didn’t want to, which was different, but at this point, she didn’t care. Besides, if Piers was an alien, he probably needed her help right now just as much as she needed his. “Okay. So, if you’re not from Earth, where are you from? Where’s this Sinta?”

“Thalyria,” he answered.

Zero hesitation. Zero thought. Not that Sophie was an expert lie detector, but he seemed like he was telling the truth.

“I’ve never heard of it.” She doubted anyone had.

He shrugged. “I’d never heard of Apple, either. Or…New York City.” The words sounded foreign on his tongue.

Sophie slowly nodded, trying to hide the tremor in her hands as she readjusted her reality. Wasn’t her reality already off-kilter enough these days?

But Piers wasn’t making this up. She knew it somehow, just as she knew the ice shard’s cold, hard power pulsing too close to her skin for comfort was no joke. None of this was.