I'm not ready to hear this. I'm having trouble believing everything that's happened already, and it's getting more ridiculous the more he explains.

"Earth has one type of sentient being; they're called humans," Jonah continues. "Ashra has many types, but together they're called curramonstrusos. We call ourselves curra, but humans call us monsters."

"Monsters? Monsters are real! You're a monster?"

He grimaces. "I prefer 'curra.' And yes. You even said yourself, you've seen my image portrayed as a monster. I'm sure you've heard about some of us in myths and fairy tales."

A groan gurgles from deep inside my throat. I'm looking at the Grim Reaper while he tells me about other worlds and monsters. I can see and hear him, so he has to be real. I also touched him, and he moved the papers and stuff. Finnegan can see him, too. Finnegan, the guy who lives in a quaint cottage in a subway tunnel.

"All of us, humans and curra, lived together for centuries connected by portals. Then several hundred years ago, the humans sealed the portals without warning."

"What portals? And if they're sealed, how are you here?"

"They are doorways connecting my world to yours, but they were locked. Someone tried to open them, but they failed. However, because of his actions, now some of the portals let certain humans and curra get through, like you and me."

"Okay. Yeah. I've lost it." I jump out of my chair so fast I knock my empty bowl to the floor and spill my tea. "I had my doubts. I mean, I could almost accept the Grim Reaper and soldiers materializing out of thin air, even a wizard, but a whole other planet filled with monsters, connected to Earth? That can't be right. Someone somewhere would know about it. An entire planet is a tough thing to keep secret."

Pacing around the room isn't helping to make sense of all the stuff that happened today. My fear is making me mad, which confuses me because as a rule, I'm not an angry person. My brain is making a buzzing noise and flashing images as it rearranges the events in my life. How did I get in this situation, and more importantly, how do I get out of it?

Jonah stays seated, and while I anxiously race around the room, he presses on. "Where do you think mythology came from? Why do you think there are so many fairy tales? So many versions of the same stories? Sit, Agatha. Let me continue. It will make sense. Just give it some time."

"Here I am, in a cottage deep in the heart of a subway line. Yeah, that could happen. You know, when they find me, if they ever do, I'll be sitting in a pile of filth somewhere in the subway tunnels eating dirt and talking to myself. Or I may not even be in the tunnels. I could be wandering the streets of New Jersey somewhere."

"Agatha, you're not insane," Jonah says calmly as he walks over to me. "First off, crazy people don't believe they're crazy. They believe they're thinking more clearly than ever."

"Oh, okay. Good. The Grim Reaper thinks I'm sane."

"Secondly, you saw your Auntie tonight. I'm sure you thought her behavior strange. I can help you understand. If you let me continue, I'll do my best to explain."

I don't believe him, or myself, or my delusion. However, after much more pacing and a lot of deep breathing, I question if I'm creative enough to think this stuff up. I'm not this clever. Maybe I should just let whatever is happening happen, and trust that it will all work itself out.

I pace for a few minutes, and once I'm more in control, I flop back into the chair across the table from Jonah. I take a cleansing breath. "Why humans like me?"

"There used to be Knights posted on both sides of the portals. Human Knights guarded the Earth side, and curra Knights guarded the Ashra side. You're a descendent of a human Knight. Human Knights can get through."

If what he's saying is true and I'm one of these Knights, why didn't Auntie know? Why aren't there others? He said portals with an s, so that means there's more than one. How many are there? Where are the other Knights? I want to ask all of these questions, but I'm only brave enough to ask one. "How many are there like me?"

"One. You're the last."

Jonah states this so flatly there's no way I could've heard him right. I'm not special. This doesn't make sense. My mind is racing with questions, but then I remember that I'm hallucinating. Of course, I'd be vital in my own fantasy. But this feels so real.

"Is that why you knew who I was? Why Finnegan acted the way he did when you said my name?"

"Agatha...you're a legend on Ashra."

I stand again, and my head swims with the movement or maybe with the shock of being a legend. What are these people expecting of me? "I'm not a Knight! I mean, I don't know any Knight things. I don't know anything about being a Knight. Or anything about what you're talking about." I stop speaking because I'm hyperventilating.

"Relax. You're a thirteen-year-old girl," Jonah says calmly. "You know what a kid your age should know. You just missed out on some of your heritage, and that's easy enough to get back." He makes it sound like it's less of a big deal than it actually is.

"Nothing about this sounds easy. Finding out about one's heritage should be finding out your great uncle was a drinker or fought in a war. Not that there are two worlds and monsters are real, that you're a Knight and apparently a legend."

I can't breathe. The cottage is growing dim. "I'm going to faint. I've never done that before."

My body tenses when Jonah grabs me. Is he hugging me? "I'm not used to people touching me," I say to his upper arm. "But this is nice."

He holds me for a long time, and when I become uneasy with the contact, he guides me back to my chair. My wide eyes meet his sad ones when he sits across the table. He needs to tell me that I'm okay. And that soon I'll wake up in my own bed with this nightmare behind me. However, if he insists on continuing this story, he has to make it make sense and convince me that this is normal. Convince me that I'm normal.

But he's waiting for me to begin the conversation again. "Why am I the only one?"

"Humans sealed the portals, and then they killed all the Knights. Have you ever heard about the Knights Templar?"

I shake my head. "No. History's boring. I'm not good at it."

"Well, they were famous Knights. Humans don't know much about them except that they escorted people through the Holy Lands and held secret ceremonies. They're most famous for being slaughtered all at once for what most humans believe to be unknown reasons."

"If they killed everyone, how am I here?"

"Well, it was the thirteen-hundreds," Jonah says carefully. "They killed the men. Women of that time were not considered worth bothering with. However, it didn't take long before they realized their mistake and murdered the women for being witches. That was a brutal time. They killed off most of the remaining Knights and many innocent women."

"The Stones were one of the few surviving legacies. When your parents died, it was never clear what happened to you."

"How did my parents die?"

"They were murdered," Jonah mutters after a pause. I think he might have been debating if he should tell me, but I'm glad he did.

I should gasp in shock or feel some kind of remorse, but news of my parents is a relief. I want to ask him more, but I'm afraid of the answers. Plus, my brain is no longer forming coherent thoughts so I stare blankly at him, waiting for him to say more.

"I'll tell you everything, but for now, I don't think you'll understand. I can see that you're overwhelmed by the events of today and everything I've told you. Give yourself some time. It's late. Rest. I promise, I'll help you understand, but you can't learn it all in one night."

I sit back in my chair and try without success to comprehend everything he told me. I'm not smart enough to make something like this up. He might be telling me the truth. If he is, what's going to happen to me?

His wide red eyes seem so sad. "I'm sorry I'm the one who has to tell you these things," he says. "And I'm sorry it's being told to you in this way."

"I don't want you to feel bad." I wish I were able to reassure him as well as he's able to reassure me, but I'm new to comfort so I don't even try. I stare off into space and let my mind race. It doesn't run for long before my eyes close. I snap them open, but it's no use. My brain is shutting down, and my body is following.

"We will spend the night here," Jonah says as if he just decided that.

Finnegan is thrilled to learn he'll have company for the night. He joyfully makes a cot up for me by the fireplace. Oberon, equally happy with the bed, stands on my chest, exuberantly head-butting me in the face. When I stop petting him, he licks my eyebrows a few times then plops down on top of me purring loudly.

Wrapped in my comfortable bed with the sleeping cat, I listen to Jonah and Finnegan speaking softly in the other room. I can't understand what they're saying until Finnegan whispers, "Poor girl. She has no idea what lies ahead for her."

The rough tongue of one of Auntie's cats scrapes across my nose, stirring me from a deep sleep. I grunt and shoo the little beast away. Why is my room so warm? Because I'm not in my own bed! I jerk upright, sending poor Oberon scurrying to the floor. The Cuckoo clock on the wall says ten fifteen, but I can't tell if that's a.m. or p.m.

I glance around the strange dim room with the images from yesterday flooding my brain, and my heart sinks. How long can a delusion last? I don't think I could go to sleep and wake up with everything being and feeling exactly the same if I'm making this up. Jonah is chatting with Finnegan in the other room. This has to be real.

My sore muscles complain when I reach down to give Oberon a few apology pets. I hate exercise, and I certainly got a lot of it yesterday. I stretch to relieve some of the aches, but I'm making it worse so I give up and hobble out to join them.

"There you are! Good morning, good morning! Let me get you some breakfast," Finnegan exclaims. Is he always this happy?

"I want to take you to Ashra. You'll be safer there," Jonah informs me as soon as I take a seat at the kitchen table. I shrug my shoulders. He's in charge, so if he thinks I'm safer there, then we'll go. Although I highly doubt Auntie would ever find me in a cottage in a subway tunnel.

The little tabby jumps up on the chair next to me, and Finnegan rubs its head. "You're welcome to stay with me for a few days, Oberon. I know cats don't like the underground, but just until you can find a new home."

He sets down a wonderful-smelling plate of eggs and bacon in front of me. "Are cats curra?" I ask.

"Oh, yes. You couldn't tell? Why, the air of superiority should've been your first clue," Finnegan says with a wink to Oberon.

"Are all animals curra?"

"No, no, just felines and serpents," Finnegan says.

"All cats are monsters?" Oberon meows at my use of that slur.

"Cats are curra. They liked their human servants and chose this side a long time ago," Jonah explains.

"Is that why a black cat shouldn't cross your path? And that weird Egyptian thing with the cats?" I ask, placing some facts with his story.

"The Egyptians knew the cats were curra and used them to help manage their civilization," Jonah answers. "Black cats were spies working for the Circe Mystics. They're not anymore, although they're still sneaky."

Sometimes Jonah's answers leave me with more questions. How can cats be spies or run governments? And that group he named sounds like a circus act, but they're probably something awful that I don't want to know about. I want to tell him I'm scared, but I don't know how. "If I go with you, can I come back?"

"Yes, you're able to go through the portals anytime you wish."

"Can Oberon come with us?"

Jonah shakes his head. "No, just human Knights and Wizards. And a few choice curra. No cats."

I stop asking questions because the less I know the better. I wish I didn't know what I already do.

After we finish eating, I thank Finnegan for his hospitality and say my goodbyes to Oberon. When we step out of Finnegan's cottage, a pang of regret touches my heart because I wasn't closer to Oberon when we lived together.

We all walk a few steps to a beat-up old archway that's been boarded up. Jonah places a comforting hand on my back while Finnegan wipes the decaying planks down with his dishtowel.

"This will feel strange," Jonah says before he pushes me straight into the boards.