Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Sparrows twittered outside Lia’s window, disturbing her peaceful slumber. Growling at the obnoxious banter, her eyes cracked enough to see the dark sky fighting dawn. Her next glance was at the clock on her nightstand.
How obscene.
“Shut up,” she croaked. “It’s not even six thirty.”
Fiore’s warmth radiated against her back, leaving her chest cool—the feline’s usual spot. Eyes shut, Lia’s brow scrunched. “What did I do to tick you off, prissy thing?”
She rolled over to pull the cat close. And froze. Her hands didn’t meet soft fur. They found hard muscles. Too big to be her brother, way too muscular to be her mom.
Skies and seas, what the—
Jerking back, Lia flailed for something to swing. The scrambling in the dark pushed her off the bed and onto her backside. Pain shot up her tailbone, but she was already moving. Panicked, she surged off the floor with a pillow. Not heavy, but it’d do.
Lia swung at the stranger curled into her bed. His snore cut off in a choke as he jerked awake under her assault.
“GET OUT!” she shrieked, hitting him again and again. More words tumbled out, but she was too scared out of her mind to give this guy any room to—
He jolted upright, wrenching the pillow from her. “Aurelia!”
Oh. Oh, no.
“How do you know my name?” Lia rushed, stumbling back against the bookshelves. Her weapon was gone. A cheap motion-light in the outlet kicked on, illuminating the intruder.
“W-why are you dressed like that?”
Blood rushed in her ears as she assessed him in more detail, the embroidered tunic and slacks so reminiscent of…Norenthian fashion? This was too weird. No good at all.
“Where—what is this place?” The young man—she could guess he wasn’t too old, though that was still not entirely comforting—looked about in confusion, tripping out of the sheets. “What in the skies and seas is going on?”
Skies and seas? Didn’t I just think that—
Her mind scrambled to make sense of this craziness and she gripped her forehead.
There had to be a logical explanation. “Listen, I don’t know what the boundaries were for my papa, but I don’t appreciate cosplayers showing up in my bedroom!
” She pushed the tumbleweed of hair from her face and squinted to see.
“Even if you share a scary resemblance to Kacerion—you’re taking the Floating Kingdom obsession to a whole new level!
” Admittedly, she was mildly impressed. From the little she could make out, the resemblance was pretty spot on.
He gaped at her. “Cosplay? Obsession? What are you—Aurelia, it’s me!” He enunciated each word slowly. “Kayce, I am Kacerion.”
“I’m half blind, not deaf!” She needed her glasses. Or maybe she didn’t. Light flooded the room as she flipped on the lamp, leaving them both wincing. Once her eyes adjusted, she looked.
Looked.
And looked again.
This wasn’t possible. None of this made sense. She must be dreaming.
But a pinch to her arm only made her flinch.
“Did you smoke seaweed last night?” The Kayce-fan grumbled at her gaping silence, shaking his head before looking around the bedroom. “Were we drugged?”
If he was a cosplayer, he was a believable actor. And that voice—it sent a shiver down her spine, a rumble that had pitched low like rolling thunder.
“You took something, to think it’s perfectly fine to end up in a girl’s bedroom!” Lia snapped before realizing she knew exactly what he was talking about.
“What the—” He looked down with wide eyes as Fiore rubbed against his leg. The motion drew Lia’s attention to the flipping sword sheathed at his hip. That’s it. She was done for. Lia needed to get rid of this problem—hadn’t her screaming alerted anyone?
She held out her hands. “Listen pal, I don’t want any trouble, just don’t hurt—”
“Aurelia, stop—”
Lia feigned right to rush around the bed, but then bolted over the mattress. Legs tangled in the sheets, she nearly fell off the bed when his arm wrapped around her camisole-clad midsection like a vise.
“Let me go!”
“Not until you calm down!”
A volley of swats and smacks landed anywhere she could find. Several made it to his head. How could her brother down the hall sleep through this? He’d always been a heavy sleeper, but this was next-level. And curse Mom’s workaholic tendencies!
“Listen!” The pure authority of his command seized her.
He let her go, a heavy sigh flared his nose while he brushed his hair back into place.
An alarmingly familiar gesture. “I don’t know where we are or why you’re dressed in such ridiculous garb.
We went to the alcove last night. Ate delicious leftovers from the boring ball, then you met Paxia.
We went for a race. Fell asleep in the outpost’s bird’s nest.” Seeing her blank look, how she held herself like she was about to break apart, he softened his tone. “Come on. Focus. Breathe.”
Lia’s eyes widened.
Breathe. Focus. Breathe.
He watched her, exaggerating each breath until she couldn’t help but mimic him.
It forced her blood to slow, the coping mechanism settling her anxiety.
How did he know to do that? And he’d detailed her dream with such accuracy.
Her shoulders curved inward as if she could hide from a window left open at night.
A beacon blazing into the dark void. Into the very essence of her.
Tearing her gaze from him, Lia found her papa’s page on the floor by his boot. That story, where imagination came alive. Where nightmares came into the physical world.
And dreams.
Give me Kayce, she’d demanded last night.
She shook her head. It simply wasn’t possible. Lia started to push past him.
Defensive, he held out his hands to stop her, palms up.
And her pounding heart stopped. A scar carved through the calluses—a scar that was never mentioned in Papa’s books. That scar was private, an oath made between children a long time ago in a dream. The twin to the one that had appeared on her own only yesterday, from a world and a time in fiction.
Slowly, she raised her own palm and stared at it. Her memory flooded with the moment they swore to protect each other. It felt as real then as this did now.
“This is insane,” she murmured to herself. “There’s no way.”
She aligned her palm with his; the scars faced one another. Lia dragged her gaze up his body, really seeing him this time. Adrenaline came crashing down.
Not a dream. Not some illusion of insanity, some coping mechanism come to life.
“Kayce…” she mouthed. “My Kayce?”
“Your Kayce.” He sagged, holding onto her hand. “I’ve been trying to tell you, but I was busy being assaulted.”
“You were busy—” Her brows shot up, still not believing what was clearly in front of her. Touching her. “How is this happening right now?”
“Do you mind telling me why you’re acting so strangely?” He heaved a sigh, releasing her to run both hands through his hair once more as his gaze bounded around the room. “And please tell me where in the skies and seas we are?”
Lia dragged both hands down her cheeks. A character she wrote stories about now stood in her room. Did she bring him here? Her papa didn’t explain how this all worked.
Kayce snapped his fingers in her face. Right, focus.
She cleared her throat with a shake of her head. “Ah, well, this is my bedroom. And I’m acting like me? Well, the me that’s awake.”
“Then why are you acting like you don’t know who I am?”
His face scrunched in confusion as she poked his chest. She jumped slightly at his heartbeat before snatching her hand back. His question, already forgotten. He was here. Her best friend. And it didn’t really matter how it was possible.
She flung her arms around him.
Kayce stumbled. He stiffened in her embrace before softening. A heartbeat passed before his body bowed over her own. “Are you all right?” he murmured.
She shook her head with a wet laugh. “I’m losing my mind. But I don’t care right now.”
Not when he was here. This hug made every impossibility since she’d awoken yesterday seem bearable. Like it could all actually be happening. Pine and sea-salt clung to his hair as she buried her face in his neck. Skies, he was warm and solid and real—
Her knees wobbled. She would’ve sunk to the floor were it not for the voice at the door.
“Uh, Lia?” Marcus called out, head poking into her room. Of course. Of course, he would check in now and not when she was screaming.
“Don’t you knock?” She leapt from Kayce, voice skipping an octave.
Her brother glanced between the two of them. “Who is that?”
She blinked, relief allowing her a full breath. If Marcus could see him, that final bit of doubt could be forgotten.
“‘Lia’?” Kayce questioned with a frown. Fiore took that moment to emerge from under the bed. Her purring was a small motor as she twinned around Kayce’s legs. He jumped, taking a step from the cat to look at Marcus again. “Who are you?”
“Um, Marcus. Lia’s brother. What’s going—”
“Why do you call her Lia?” Kayce jabbed a finger in her direction. “This is Aurelia.”
Marcus fidgeted with the doorknob. “Uh, I don’t know how to handle this. We haven’t learned about this in health class yet—”
“Ick, Marcus, no! This isn’t like that at all.” Closing her eyes, Lia rubbed her pinched brow. “Marcus, Kayce. Kayce, Marcus. And I go by Lia here.”
Marcus gasped. “Wait, Kayce? As in the Kayce? From Papa’s books?”
“Apparently,” Lia mumbled. Maybe she needed therapy.
Relinquishing the doorknob, Marcus walked in. “Can you really fly a volatequis backward and upside down without falling off?”
Kayce flashed a strained smile.
“Marcus, that’s your biggest concern?” Lia blurted. “Besides the fact that he’s here, in the flesh?” She’d expected more freaking out from a middle schooler.
“The most basic part of scientific research is a study of the five senses,” he said. “Considering Kayce is right where I can see and hear him, and you were just all over him—”
“No, I wasn’t!”