Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The castle and sky stopped doing somersaults by the time the two brothers returned, provisions in hand.
Fallon bounded toward Lia, sniffing her hand curiously as if he couldn’t decide he knew her or not, despite several misadventures with her and Kayce when Jace had gone after them—pre-smuggling affairs, of course.
After a weak pat, Fallon was content and returned to his master’s side.
Under Fee’s glare, Lia forced small bites before ravenous hunger took root.
Looked like her stomach made the trek, after all—and then some.
While hours had seemingly passed with the Smith, Norenth sported a twilight sky similar to what they left behind on Earth after the meeting.
Fee pulled a pocket watch from the folds of her skirt, a delicate bronze compact embedded with a constellation of stones.
Lia could only glimpse the face—several cogs churning with nearly half a dozen galaxies impressed upon clock faces, their ticking hands bearing tight, elegant script—before the guardian put it away with a nod to Lia’s plate and a mention of second dinners being better than second breakfasts.
Meanwhile, Kayce let Lia collect herself, explaining to his brothers everything that had transpired since he woke on Earth.
Gratitude filled her for his thoughtfulness. She was glad—relieved, even—when she figured out how to steer with her pen. But it unsettled her that emotions were so integral to this. Coping with anxiety had never been her strong suit. And this pen had a fine trigger.
Guess that’s what she got when using a memory filled with…well, that.
She felt the Emperium pulling at her, a tingle along her skin, an itching in the back of her mind like she had forgotten something. But she settled in Norenth. A deep breath solidified the feeling.
Realization struck. Here she was, in Norenth, fully aware of what was happening.
Lia and Aurelia. Both sides of her, coming together as they had on Earth when her blood oath scar appeared and her eyesight improved.
It was different from the ball, even different from confiding to Kayce about her grief in their alcove later.
In fact, she felt like a child stepping into her mom’s heels.
If she wasn’t careful, she would fall flat on her face. People had expectations of her here.
As Kayce had already pointed out.
But he doesn’t get it. He doesn’t realize why it’s so hard.
Pushing the empty plate aside, Lia watched the concern shift on Terranth’s face. “These other worlds,” he asked Fee. “Do you protect us from them?”
She pursed her lips. “I monitor the boundaries for Norenth. There are no threats to it.”
“Yet,” he said, arms crossing over his broad chest. “Boundaries are always tested.”
Kayce snorted. “Between you and the Smith, we never have to worry about those again.”
Fee shot him a look of annoyance.
Jace had remained unusually silent, leaning against the balcony’s stone wall.
A muscle feathered in his jaw as he gazed out at the kingdom.
Fallon nudged his hand and Jace’s fingers absentmindedly dove into the wolf-dog’s scruff.
He stared out at the lands and falling rivers beyond, the mist thin.
Like he could look into the realm above itself.
“I knew of this,” he murmured.
They all straightened.
“You knew?” Lia gaped, finally finding her voice. “How?”
“Ma and Da.” He scratched at his face, where dark stubble shadowed his jaw. “They’re getting ready to step down. We’ve been meeting to go over the castle’s routines. More of the finer details.”
Terranth and Kayce shared an affronted frown, but it wasn’t to their brother’s succession.
“I didn’t know everything,” Jace rushed to add. “I had no idea what Aurelia is, or about her grandfather’s books. All they told me was that the world is part of a grander organization in the cosmos, one upheld by an order invested in making sure we thrive.”
“That’s sugar-coating things a bit,” Kayce said. “They didn’t tell you anything about these barriers thinning?”
Terranth nodded, his earlier point proven. But Jace shook his head.
“I’m not surprised,” Fee sighed. “Rulers of spheres don’t know much, only what Flamehearts and guardians tell them. Lia’s grandfather gave us explicit orders not to interfere. Well, until now.”
“Why now?” Lia asked. It struck her then that perhaps Fee knew more about her papa’s research. A guardian would know about the barriers, and one to Norenth would know Papa.
“We didn’t have many conversations.” Fee wrung her hands, frowning in regret. “He was quite private, more so lately. But the last we spoke, he implored this of me, ‘You may only make yourselves known to the Lions when Aurelia Sparks or when the darkness comes’.”
“He meant the Seekers. He must have told the Lions enough so that when I did change, it wouldn’t come as much of a shock.” Lia’s knee started to bounce slightly. She tried not to be disappointed at the vagueness in Fee’s recollection. It was Papa’s way. Infuriating man.
Lioness Silva’s knowing gaze flashed before Lia’s mind. Now, more than ever, she was certain the queen knew more than she had let on.
Terranth analyzed the kingdom, combing through valleys and rooflines, no doubt for their tactical advantages. “A darkness coming. Sir Julian made it seem inevitable.”
The six-eyed owl. Was it really here?
Lia wanted the ground to swallow her up.
Not her precious home. Not Norenth. Gremlins and dragons had no business disturbing their peaceful skies and lands.
The owl hadn’t appeared here as more than a flicker in the corner of her eye, a tickle to her ear—not enough to convince it was more than her mind playing tricks.
Even though Papa believed a threat to Norenth was certain, she couldn’t help but feel responsible for bringing this trouble to their doorstep.
What would Aurelia do? What would she, a ranger of the floating kingdom, plan?
She was in Norenth, after all. Her family wasn’t here.
Find that proof.
“Did Papa—er, Sir Julian, meet with your parents recently?” Lia asked the brothers.
“The last we heard of him was that he’d gone on an emissary mission to the dwarven cities,” Kayce said, eyes narrowed like he could peer into her head. “That was before he was announced—”
“But what if he wanted everyone to think that?”
Jace straightened. “You mean to say he told the Lions about these Seekers covertly? About what he found on them?”
Lia nodded. “I need to speak with them.”
“That will be difficult,” he said. “The council is holding their yearly meeting this week. Even we hardly see them.”
“Then I’ll just have to get to them the fun way.” Lia couldn’t help but grin. A grin that was all smuggling Harpy.
Kayce answered it with one of his own. Did his shoulders just loosen a fraction? “That’s my girl.” The endearment sent a traitorous flip through Lia’s stomach. “We just need to make ourselves available for when the opportunity arises.”
Jace sighed through his nose. “I know I should be concerned, but I fear for the realm far more than I do for my parents’ sanity. They’ll survive your trappings. Our world might not.”
No, not if Seekers were set on deteriorating the boundaries to Earth and every world in the Emperium.
Kayce’s face brightened. “Didn’t your grandfather work closely with one of the other Flamehearts? The twitchy one?”
“Adrian?”
“Him! He’s a bookkeeper of sorts. He might know what Julian was working on.”
It was a solid lead. Whatever they found might give them some idea of where to start regarding the murderer, the Seekers’ plan.
Lia’s knees no longer shook when she stood.
“If darkness is already barging into Earth, we need to be prepared for the worst.” She swallowed.
“I need to be prepared. We’ll pay him a visit while we wait on your parents. ”
The pen flared in agreement from her back pocket. Lia quirked a brow, pulling it free. The light burst, morphing into a blade seemingly hewn from a crystal sun catcher. Lia gasped, gripping it with both hands under the unfamiliar weight.
Everyone stood, staring at the weapon.
“Neat party trick,” Kayce said.
Fee narrowed her eyes. “It’s no trick. That pen will shift into anything she needs. It’s connected not just to her emotions, but to her will.”
“I didn’t will a sword into being,” Lia argued, watching the light shimmer in its transparency. She had no doubt it would cut like any other sword.
“No,” Fee granted. “But it was your intent. You want to be ready. You want to train.”
She did, but confronted with the opportunity so soon—
“This thing has a mind of its own, I swear.” Lia balked. “I only meant—”
“What, exactly?” Kayce asked shrewdly. “That ‘preparation’ meant going to the bookstore and researching?”
Crap.
Lia swore the blade sharpened itself as she whirled on him. “Finding out Papa’s projects is part of knowing the enemy, isn’t it? Besides, we have an entire castle and kingdom to search in the meantime. Papa could have hidden this information anywhere, not just with the Lions.”
“That’s true.” Terranth strolled around his younger brother, boots tapping on the stone. “But preparation is not only for the mind.”
He drew his sword. And he clearly had no intention of sheathing it a second time.
There was no avoiding this.
Lia’s palm sweated, but she tightened her grip. Fine. No time like the present to master this. To be what they—her friends, the Order, Mom and Marcus, Norenth—needed.
She could balance it all. She had to.
When light and metal clashed, sparks flew.