Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
In the solace of her room, Lia curled on her bed. She pulled Fiore from where she had nestled on her pillow. The cat mewled in protest, but continued to purr. Her little motor eased the tension in Lia’s chest, each breath becoming easier than the last.
Her mind struggled to wrap around everything.
She was a Flameheart. She had magic. Book magic.
Lia found herself drawn to every shadow in the room, squinting as if she could see into the cosmic realm sketched out in her papa’s study.
Norenth was real, a place she could actually travel to.
How could she get there? Curiosity nagged at her, an itch to explore pulling at her bones.
With all the secrets and exposures, she’d hardly had time to marvel at it all.
A place where readers could see their stories come alive. Could there be more of a wonder?
An intense longing for Norenth filled her more than it ever had before—until flits of doubts came and went like moths, flocking to the inflammation around that wound the secrets had pierced in her. But one stung more than the rest.
Papa was murdered. Killed on purpose. Taken. Stolen—
The sinister words kept circling in her mind. And Lia knew the oppressive thoughts wouldn’t leave until she did something about it.
Setting Fiore beside her, Lia grabbed her notebook and pen, flipping to a page in the back, away from her stories. She made a list header:
It sounded like the obscene title to a crime novel.
Not in her wheelhouse at all. She bit her lip, her mom’s words ringing in her ears.
But this gave Lia a hole to shove the remnants of her grief into.
It cataloged the pain in a way she could understand.
Order soothed her, rounded up the vicious thoughts that swirled like carrion birds over her mind. She wrote them down:
Lia huffed out a frustrated breath. She didn’t even know what to look for.
Though she’d always been the overachiever, and having only discovered the Emperium today left a lot of politics to learn.
This grudge between the Order and Seekers being one of them.
With rifts worsening, it seemed like a whole other mess her papa had found his way into.
She was following right behind him. Maybe she really should let Mom handle it.
She’d already been attacked once. But the gremlin attack and Seekers weren’t exactly related. Right?
Ignoring the new headache, Lia flipped to the inside cover of the journal, Papa’s familiar handwriting clenching her chest.
Write your stories, and they will become real. Bring Kayce’s kingdom to life.
Lia blinked, then read it again.
Papa had tried to tell her what she was all along.
The door eased open, Kayce slipping in. Fiore leapt down and rubbed against his legs. The traitor purred louder as she wound around his calf. “Why me?” he groaned, stepping around the cat to sit on the bed.
Lia kept her gaze on Fiore, who was still obsessed with his leather boots. “I think when cats sense you dislike them, they’re adamant to change your mind. It’s all on their terms.”
“Not going to happen.”
Case in point to your realism. I would have made you a cat person.
She snorted, tapping the notebook and keeping the thought to herself.
Her papa’s note churned in her mind nearly as much as the fact that her Floating Kingdom book wasn’t perfectly aligned with the other spines on her bookshelf.
Ignoring the twitch, Lia showed Kayce the journal.
He took it, bracing his forearms on his knees.
Dark waves hung around his face as he glanced over the note.
Her fingers itched to brush his hair back to better see his eyes.
“Julian wrote this?”
Lia nodded. “He did this a lot when I was a kid. Wrote little messages in journals and birthday cards that I later realized were bits of foreshadowing; things I didn’t realize had any meaning at the time. I always thought it was just a writer’s sense of humor.”
“But?” Kayce prompted.
“What if he left more? What if he left these notes with double meaning, knowing I’d read them and realize it like I always have?
” Her heart sped up. “Not just notes about the spheres. Ones about what he discovered with the Emperium.” What got him killed.
Lia wanted it to make sense, needed the senseless act of violence to have reason beyond taking one of the most precious people from her.
Kayce handed the journal back. “How would he, though? Not to doubt his confidence in you, but it’s a bit of a stretch considering his death—”
“No, Papa was a meticulous planner, despite what his study looked like.” Not that it was his fault.
“He would’ve done it recently, as soon as he learned it.
Just in case.” She sat straighter. “What he found about the rifts or the Seekers is somewhere for me to find—I was his writing partner after all.”
Kayce nodded, rubbing the scar on his palm. “He wouldn’t trust such sensitive information for anyone to happen across. Where do we start?”
Lia deflated. “No idea.”
There were countless places he could have hidden notes for her—most recently, a birthday card, but nothing tickled her memory. They could go back to his study, but she doubted her mom would let them go far from the house now.
“We’ve never solved a murder before,” Kayce murmured, bumping her shoulder. She hadn’t even realized she’d started picking at her nails, his motion freeing her hands. His gentle nudge didn’t leave her feeling the normal wave of embarrassment as when her mom caught the habit.
“Smuggling was our speed, remember?” Lia nudged him back. “No bodily harm implied.”
“Most of the time. Hazards have ramped up over the years.”
Her lips twisted into a grim smile. “Consider the increased danger a hallmark of my teenage angst.”
Kayce’s grin didn’t quite reach his eyes. Silence reigned until he spoke. “As much as I enjoy working around authority, I wonder if your mother is right. That we should leave Julian’s death to her.”
We. It was never “you”. Not with them. It soothed the sting of his implication that they couldn’t handle this.
Lia’s grip tightened on the pen. “What makes you say that?”
“She loves you. And she knows that this whole Flameheart business is a lot to take in, without throwing a murder plot into the mix.”
He was handling this far too well, which needled Lia. Couldn’t he be more of a mess like her? Unless he really was—just far better at shoving it down. Her nails were close to bloodied ribbons at this point. Praise the skies and seas for long knitted sleeves.
“Sometimes the people who love us make stupid choices they think are for us, but really, are for their own sake,” Lia said.
“You think your mother kept this all from you to make it easier on her?”
“No—yes—” Lia huffed a sigh. “I don’t know. Maybe it was a relief for her, in a way, to pretend we were normal. I imagine raising two teenagers alone isn’t ideal.”
Kayce nodded. “It’s a lot for anyone to handle.”
Finally, a shred of what he was truly thinking.
But Lia knew better than to push—she didn’t want to make anything worse.
She raked a hand through her curls, bunching them back into a loose ponytail.
Once finished, she slumped against the pillows.
“It feels so shifty,” Lia managed. “Like she’s dealing in half-truths. ”
“She seemed pretty straightforward about your grandfather. And the Seekers.” He cracked a grin. “I may have been listening at the window the entire time.”
She welcomed a genuine smile. “Typical.”
He was right, not that she would ever let him hear her say it—not for a second time, anyway.
Her mom had been blunt, even in her uncertainty, about the gremlin and Kayce’s sudden presence in their world.
Yet, there was something in how Mom had stiffened when Lia mentioned Leo had been more forthcoming at her papa’s that made her chew her lip further.
Leo hadn’t known about her papa’s rift theories.
And he was supposedly his closest friend.
“There’s something more she isn’t saying,” Lia mused.
“Besides the whole bit about looking into a murder?” Kayce turned to her. “What do you mean?”
She shrugged. “I get the sense that there’s more. Something this big, there’s often a couple of layers. Maybe she suspects Papa left clues, too.”
Kayce nodded, studying his boots. “We’ve only toed the surface. And you have a sense for this. I haven’t kept track of how many smugglings succeeded because of your knack for finding pirate hidey-holes.”
“I do have a record,” she said, jerking her chin toward the journal before returning it to her nightstand. “Considering I wrote where they go. Well, most of them.”
“Of course you do.” There was an edge to his tone before he cleared it away. “I’m happy to hear some things are beyond even your notice.”
She rolled her eyes, but they returned to the journal. For the first time, a sense of dread pooled in her at the sight of it. Lia sat back up and scooted closer to Kayce. “You won’t…” She trailed off, chewing on her lip. “You won’t go away, right?”
His eyebrows drew together, dark gaze flying to her as he straightened. “Why would you even ask that?”
“Because what if this ‘Order’ decides you have to return to Norenth?” The thought alone hollowed out her stomach, making it hard to breathe again.
“Aurelia—” Kayce paused before putting a hand on her arm. “I was always there, right by your side. It’s like what you said in the park this morning. That’s not changing, no matter what this Order decides.”
She nodded, her gaze burning the longer she stared at her hands. Then, the bed dipped beside her. Kayce’s warmth pressed into her side.
Lia exhaled, turning into him and resting her cheek in the crook of his shoulder.
After a beat, his arm wound around her, holding her close.
It took a moment for him to soften. His hair tickled her nose, his breath fanning over her face as he leaned his cheek on her head.
Pine and sea salt enveloped her. Cradled her.
All she knew in this moment was him, his presence an anchor.
Her heart thumped an extra beat, but she relaxed into his side.
He hadn’t held her like this since their alcove.
It comforted her, yet felt like more. Probably because he was here. In her room. Sitting on her bed.
Don’t think about that now. Lia forced her mind to empty, her heart to slow.
They stayed like that, only the sounds of their breathing and Fiore’s purring at their feet breaking the silence.
“We will figure this out,” Kayce said, his voice deepening. He took her hand and traced the scar on her palm that mirrored his own. “Whether it’s here or in Norenth, I’m with you.”
No matter what? But the question remained unspoken.
She nodded, but knew that when they found answers, nothing would ever be the same.
Even this.