Chapter 28 #2
“That peace can always be found. You can be still—even in freefall.” Fee softened before pulling Lia in tight, the pressure of the hug smoothing the knotted thoughts in Lia’s head.
The predators retreated, doubts snarling off into the dark. But there was still that uneasiness, the pricking of her skin. Looking over Fee’s shoulder, Lia scanned the branches. A shadow flickered before fluttering out of sight.
“You don’t need everything around you to go right for you to feel right,” Fee assured. “You don’t need everything to be resolved.”
Lia squeezed back, nodding into her shoulder. She would try. She wanted to, she really did. But here was the thing about anxiety. Just when you thought you had eluded it, it was there, lurking—waiting—in the shadows of your mind.
And it was always hungry.
Voices filtered through the floorboards when Lia stepped through the portal into her bedroom late that evening. It was well past dinnertime, and Fiore ran in, paws slipping like she couldn’t get under the bed fast enough.
Someone was here. The poor thing hated strangers.
The voices grew clearer as Lia tiptoed out to the stairwell.
“Where are his notes, Leo?” her mom hissed low. “I know there are more.”
“You saw what Julian had,” Leo stated, his voice low and level.
“That’s not true, and you know it. I hadn’t been in that room for a while, but I know him. Papa would have had dozens of notes and ideas beyond the few pinned to his corkboard.”
Mom must have meant the hidden study. The corkboard had been an intricate web of newspaper clippings and notes filled with questions.
Now, it sounded like it was nearly empty.
Lia edged several steps on the balls of her feet before sinking onto the top step.
Her hands fidgeted. Straightened her leggings.
“Seeker research was not his job. Why would he have pieces of it on display for all to see?” Leo implored.
“Only you and I knew about that room.”
Silence before Leo’s voice rumbled. “What are you implying, Cordelia?”
Lia gripped the banister.
“He called me that night,” her mom said. “He was coming here, he’d found proof. Actual proof on the thinning veil beyond his theories.”
“Then why not share it with the rest of us?” A muffled thud sounded, like someone threw their hands up in exasperation.
“Because he was killed for it!” her mom shrilled in a terse whisper. “He didn’t trust anyone! So where—are—his—notes?” Each enunciated word was a punch for Leo’s throat.
Lia didn’t dare breathe.
“I want to know how the rifts are worsening,” Leo uttered. “I hate that Julian didn’t trust me. But I didn’t overturn his study before your daughter came over.” A ragged breath sawed up the stairs. “I didn’t kill him.”
Closing her eyes, Lia rubbed her face. The grief in Leo’s tone mirrored her own. Mom’s. Everyone in the Order’s. Her papa’s absence was a festering wound to so many.
Her mom’s voice lowered. “I respect you, but I knew my father a great deal. He was worried, he—”
A pause. Lia held her breath.
“He what, Cordelia?”
Another beat. Lia’s lungs burned.
“There was something else on his voicemail. Besides mentioning he’d found proof.
He said he was concerned about how ImaginX advanced their technology so fast. How their tech went from cheap plastic to genuine products that sent the company’s stock skyrocketing.
” Her mom’s voice trembled on her next breath.
“He said they would need intimate knowledge of the Emperium, how traveling through portals to the different spheres works.”
Lia’s stomach flipped. Mom had left this out entirely. But she hadn’t mentioned a lot of things.
“What are you suggesting?”
“He was suggesting a Flameheart helps them.”
Lia bit back another gasp, curling her knees into her chest.
But Leo laughed. “A traitor to the Order? Impossible.”
“Is it, though?” Mom rushed. “Leo, it’s the only thing that makes sense. They’ve been trying for centuries. Seekers cannot access that plane except in their dreams, and only single spheres at that. Who better to recruit than one who isn’t so limited?”
“It goes against our oath.”
She scoffed. “As if that’s ever stopped anyone. Just look at our government. History!”
Silence ticked on before Leo spoke again. “You think Julian was looking into a potential traitor?”
“One, multiple. Who knows how deep this might go? They could be in our own chapter.”
“None of us have been well since his passing. How can you say such a thing?”
“I’ve been looking in the wrong place, unwilling to see the truth for what it is. What he tried to warn me of before he—” Mom choked, emotion gripping her.
Light flared in Lia’s pocket. She pressed a hand to her mouth, bending over her knees. A traitor? Someone she may have even met killed her papa, or organized it at the very least?
Breathe. Focus. Breathe.
She steadied her breath, the pen’s light dimming. Disbelief muddied her thoughts, so much that she almost missed Leo’s response.
“Cordelia, I…” A pause, his voice hoarser. “You truly think so?”
“I feel it in my bones,” she managed, barely suppressing her emotions. “To come to me when he was on the verge of something? Someone knew, someone close, and they didn’t want him telling. They knew and scrapped whatever evidence was in his study.”
“Julian…” Leo’s voice cracked, and it was several breaths before he spoke, his voice struggling for calm.
“Perhaps you just haven’t found it yet. If Julian suspected one of our own, he wouldn’t leave such information lying about.
He would ensure it would survive beyond him.
That it would be found by the right people. ”
Adrian had voiced the same. But like Leo, he didn’t seem to consider one of their own.
Her mom laughed, breaking into a hitch she failed to smother. “Papa always had contingency plans.”
Lia’s heart raced. Contingency plans. If someone was betraying the Order to destroy the barriers with the Seekers, her papa would have put that information and anything about the Initiis somewhere safer than his study.
Norenth was the obvious answer, but they’d been searching for a week with no luck.
Maybe she had been looking in the wrong place this whole time. The thought made her sick.
“I’ll do what I can on my end.” Leo said as footsteps echoed toward the door. “His study will need to be combed through more thoroughly. I can tell you what I find.”
“I can help. The rest of the chapter doesn’t need to know. I’ll say I’m packing.”
The door creaked before a pause filled the air. “Does Aurelia know?”
Lia leaned forward, unwinding herself.
“She knows he was murdered. But I can’t bring myself to tell her my suspicions about the Order. Not until we find Papa’s proof. She has enough to deal with right now, and I can’t burden her with more.”
“She is stronger than even she believes,” Leo replied. “You need to give her the chance to be.”
“Trust me,” her mom said in a low voice. “Some truths shouldn’t be shared so quickly. If I can shield her, at least for a little while, I will.”
Leo hummed. Lia couldn’t tell if it was in agreement or disappointment. “Be well, ’Delia.”
Lia didn’t want to hear anymore. She eased out of the stairwell on trembling legs, like she couldn’t support the weight of all she heard. But she didn’t retreat to her bedroom. Not this time.
The steps creaked as she came down, meeting her mom’s wide eyes when the foyer came into view. Lia stopped on the last step.
“Lia,” her mom said, mustering a thin smile. “I didn’t realize you were back—”
“Do you really think Papa was killed by someone we know? A Flameheart gone to the dark side?” No minced words, no dancing around what was uncomfortable.
Her mom’s shoulders sagged. “No doubt you heard my reasoning.”
Lia didn’t bother looking guilty. “It makes sense. I’m trying not to kick myself in the teeth for not realizing it sooner.” It wasn’t hard to understand why Mom would keep this from her. But the old betrayal flared, a dull sting. “Mom, you and Leo can’t take this on by yourselves.”
Her mom’s jaw slackened. Clearly, she had been expecting something far more emotional instead of her collected demeanor. Even if Lia forced it.
“This isn’t your burden to carry. It’s too much, yes, but I cannot bring myself to put it on you.
Focus on your training.” She paused, reaching out to cup her daughter’s cheek.
Her smile was pained. “You think I don’t see what you do?
Trying so hard to make life easier on everyone else, forsaking your own limits to do it? ”
Lia reached out, hugging her mom hard so that she couldn’t see the exposed panic flash across her eyes. “Where do you think I learned it from?”
“Fair enough.” Her body shook with bitter laughter. “It took me a long time to learn this, so I hope you’ll take my advice. Sometimes, true strength lies in knowing when to step back.”
Lia had done a fair amount of stepping away in her life. She wasn’t certain this was one of those times. Not when Mom had kept yet another revelation from her. And shared it with someone else, before her.
They pulled apart. “Please,” Mom implored. “Leave this to Leo and I. To avoid the traitor’s suspicion, the less poking about, the better.”
Because if he or she was willing to kill her papa, Lia knew anyone was fair game. Which is why she couldn’t tell her mom about the Initiis. Not yet.
Lia donned the mask of the dutiful daughter again, but she would help her, whether her mom knew it or not. Just like she always had. But this time, Lia would need help, too.
Because, she realized, Leo had never denied taking research from her papa’s study.
Nor did he react in surprise to the true circumstances of his death.