6. CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SIX
Calista
“ H ello, sister of mine. Did you have a good day?”
I rolled my eyes and stuck my arm up in the air, resting my hand on the back of the couch. Instead of putting my spare key into my palm, Kaiden low-fived me and tucked it into his pocket. Good call. I’d probably lose the damn thing again. He went to the kitchen and started opening cabinets.
“Ugh, you have nothing to eat.”
Giving up on any prospects of a nap, I sat up on the couch and tossed the throw blanket to the side. “I’m broke, remember?” A wrapper crinkled. “You better not be eating the last of my chocolate stash!”
The crinkling stopped. I heard, “Of course not,” from around full lips.
I growled. I hoped he choked on it.
Warmth spread over my chest as he began coughing. I looked down, forgetting I had put the pendant on last night. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Tucking it into my shirt, I ran to the kitchen where Kaiden bent over the sink with a red face.
With as much force as I could muster, I whacked him between the shoulder blades. A chunk of mushy chocolate splatted into the basin.
He gasped for air. “That would’ve sucked.”
I feigned a chuckle. “I hope you learned a valuable lesson today.”
“Don’t eat stolen chocolate? It will kill me?”
I cringed. “Maybe chew better?”
He coughed and grabbed a glass from the dish strainer.
“I’ll be right back.” While he poured a glass of water, I went straight to my bedroom. The necklace weighed heavy on my conscious. I needed it off my person, stashed away where no one could find it.
“Where can I hide you?” I mumbled as I surveyed the room. My gaze landed on the air vent. Might as well go with what I knew.
Scrounging through the drawer on my nightstand—aka the junk drawer—I found a purple drawstring pouch for an old sex toy and a pocketknife dad gave me. If someone were to find it, they wouldn’t want to open it. I slipped the necklace into the pouch and tugged the strings tight, then rolled the desk chair over to the wall. It started to swivel as I climbed up. I gripped the back of the chair with one hand and flattened my other on the wall to regain balance. I could still hear Kaiden tinkering in the kitchen. I had maybe another minute or two, tops, before he came looking for me.
The knife was stiff and hard to open. As I tugged on the blade, the chair wobbled beneath me. Finally, it gave and the lock clicked into place as the blade straightened. I slid it around the vent cover until I found a spot I could pry loose. It popped out and fell to the floor before I could catch it.
“Shit.” I shoved the pouch into the vent then squatted on the chair and stretched for the cover, my fingertips pulling it closer.
“What are you doing?”
I screeched and listed to the side, catching myself with my palm against the floor. I tried to push myself upright, but that caused the chair to roll backward.
“Oh my god,” Kaiden gasped and jumped onto my unmade bed. “Is the floor lava?”
I jerked up from the floor and pulled my body tight to the chair.
“Hurry! Give me your hand. I’ll save you!” He stretched out over the gap, wiggling his fingers to come closer.
He knew my weaknesses. The floor is lava was one of them. I met his hand over the chasm, and he pulled me to him with my wrist.
When the chair bumped the bed, he stopped but didn’t let go. “Uh, sis. Why do you have a knife?”
“Huh?” I followed his gaze. The forgotten knife was still wedged tight beneath my hand against the chair—blade out. “Oh, I was fixing the vent.”
“Uh huh,” he breathed, then gently slid it out from under my palm.
“I was. See.” I pointed to the hole at the top of my wall then at the cover on the floor.
Kaiden closed the knife and shoved it into his pocket before standing.
“Hey! That’s mine. And the floor is lava!”
“Not anymore.” He picked up the cover, and I held my breath as he shoved it back into place. “I saved you.”
Thankful he didn’t see the pouch, I smiled and relaxed against the chair. “Yes, you did.”
He flopped onto the bed and rolled to his side to face me. His cheek rested against his propped-up fist as he studied me, exactly like he used to do when we were younger. Those memories were always tainted by what came after.
I mimicked his pose and batted my lashes. “Why are you here?”
“Can’t I just come see my sister?”
I laughed. “You never just come see your sister.”
Kaiden frowned. “I’m worried about you.”
“And?” I raised my brows.
“I’m bored.” He sighed. “I don’t have anything to do tonight.”
“Correction. You don’t have anyone to do tonight.”
His smirk made me laugh. “Touché. Let’s go to our favorite spot and get a drink. My treat.”
Kaiden took the thought right out of my brain. He knew something was up and this was his way to pry it out of me. Years have passed since we’ve discussed our time in the labyrinth. The last time, he made it very clear he didn’t want to speak of it again. Regardless, it was time to share what was happening with him.
“Your treat? I better get dressed before you change your mind.”
“Har. Har. Har.” He pushed off the bed, and as soon as he entered the hallway, I shouted, “The floor is lava!”
He scrambled to find purchase somewhere and dove into the bathroom. The next thing I heard was a splash and his grumbles. I used my feet to propel off the side of the bed, and the chair rolled to the doorway. Grabbing the frame, I pulled myself into the hall to find him perched on the toilet seat, one foot inside the pot. My lips twitched, and I pinched them together to keep from laughing.
“Don’t,” he gritted through his teeth.
“I didn’t say a word. Not one little word.” I covered my mouth with my fingers as he pulled his foot from the toilet. Water poured from the tip of his soggy sock back into the bowl. He peeled it off and dropped it inside. “Hey!”
“You deal with it,” he said as he walked past me.
“Gross.” My nose wrinkled at the wet footprints on the floor. “At least dry your foot off.”
“Too late.” He rubbed his foot on the carpet. “Get dressed. I really need that drink now.”
“How’s life?”
Kaiden watched the hostess at our favorite Irish pub as he sipped his neat whiskey. His eyes might have been wandering up and down her curvy frame donning an apron longer than her shorts, but his attention was entirely on me and my screwed-up existence. When I didn’t respond quick enough, or maybe he had gotten his fill, he shifted his gaze to me.
I shrugged and drew on the condensation of my Southern sweet tea with the tip of my finger. The beads of sweat rolled together to create large droplets that careened down the glass like a wild flood. “It’s life.”
“Elaborate.”
I took a drink to give myself a beat to choose my words carefully. I needed more time than I currently had.
“Did you find a job?”
“Not yet.” I half joked, “I’ve got some plans in motion.”
“That sounds reassuring.” He laughed and set his drink down, his sarcasm coming through loud and clear. “And what exactly does that entail?” He didn’t give me time to respond. “Do those plans involve wishing it into existence?”
The liquor burned my lungs as it went down the wrong tube. I coughed and wheezed, “What?”
Kaiden leaned forward on his elbows, resting his forearms on one another. “You spending more time on the couch than job hunting? Refusing help from dad? The tight as hell vent cover that just fell out of the wall? The way you’re acting now? I remember where you used to hide it. Spill it.”
So much for thinking I was covering well. “I’m not sure how you will react.”
“If you’re using the wishing stone after all this time, it must be serious.”
I winced. All I could picture was his precious little face morphing into a monstrous creature as he gripped the bars of his prison and cried. I didn’t want to put him through that again, but I knew he was the only true support I had. The only one who was there; the only one who’d believe me.
I lowered my voice and made sure others couldn’t hear me. “It’s happening again.”
Kaiden didn’t move. I wasn’t certain if he was waiting for more information or if he was frozen with fear.
“I haven’t thought about it in a long time. Suddenly, I’m having nightmares. I can’t sleep. I can hear him calling to me.” He’s altering my reality and appearing in mirrors. I shook my head. I couldn’t tell him that. Yet. “The necklace was a last-ditch effort after getting fired. I found it in my bedroom floor at Sunday dinner.”
“Are you…?” His brows lifted higher and higher with every beat of the pause.
“No!” My voice went up several octaves, and the neighboring tables looked over at us. “I’m not. I took a test,” I whispered. “That’s why I’m so confused by all this.”
“You’re positive you’re not?”
“I take every precaution and preventative. You know this.” I rubbed my temples. “I know you don’t remember much—”
“Oh, I remember everything.” Kaiden took a quick swig of his drink. I wondered if it was his attempt to wash it all away. “But I try not to.”
I held my face between my fingers as I watched my baby brother relive his nightmare. All these years living with bated breath, waiting for the continuation. It broke my heart all over again.
“You made me believe you’d forgotten.”
“That was for both of our benefits. Mostly yours, though. What kind of brother would I be if I reminded you one day an evil, magical king would emerge from the shadows and force you to give up your firstborn child?”
“Oooh, I’d read that,” the waitress commented as she set down our appetizer and two glasses of water. When we didn’t respond, she pointed awkwardly between our drinks and asked, “Another round?”
“Keep ‘em coming.”
“You got it.”
I frowned as she rushed off to refill one of my two current coping mechanisms and stabbed at the platter of loaded fries in the center of the table. Fork filled and hanging off the tines, I shoved all of it into my mouth and almost couldn’t close it to chew.
Kaiden used his own fork to point at me. “Keep that up, and maybe he’ll send you home.”
I made a face and stuck out my tongue. Mashed-up food coated it and almost fell onto the table.
“Nasty.” After a bite, he said thoughtfully, “I bet it’s just a reminder. Yeah, that’s all. He’s reminding you that he hasn’t forgotten the promise you made.”
“Like I could forget something like that.”
I hadn’t thought of that. It definitely could be, but my brain immediately went worst case scenario. Why wouldn’t it? It wasn’t like he offered to send postcards, emails, or texts to remind me of our upcoming appointment. No, why do something so normal when you could slip through someone’s mirror and terrify them.
“What now?”
“Get drunk and distract myself with the first dick that walks through my door?”
Kaiden’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “Eww. Remind me to stay out of your place.”
I sneered and tossed a fry coated in rubbery cheese at him. His head darted to the side, jaw open, and he caught the tip of it between his lips. It hung from the corner of his mouth like a cigarette. “Family is always exempt. Sicko.”
He used his lips to maneuver the potato into his mouth. It disappeared centimeter by centimeter until it was gone. “Seriously though, what are you gonna do?”
“I have no idea.”
“Well, what’s he said to you?”
“I can’t recall. They’re creepy dreams, Kaiden.”
“I wouldn’t be worried about it then.”
My mouth dropped open, and I leaned over the table whispering, “Of course you wouldn’t be. You didn’t make a deal with the devil. How would you react if he came calling your name?”
“I’d ask what the fuck he wants.” Kaiden brushed crumbs off the table with a nonchalant swipe and propped his elbow up. “I’m too old to play those crazy-ass games.”
“You’re barely older than a high schooler. I’d love to see you stand up against him now. As if he couldn’t snap his fingers and turn you into one of those freakish little ghouls.”
“Goblins.”
“Po-tay-to, Po-tot-o.”
Kaiden rolled his eyes, shot back the last of his whiskey, and set it at the edge of the table before reaching for his fresh one.
“You don’t think he can?”
“I don’t doubt his metaphysical mojo.”
I raised my brows. My brother, the new age Jim Morrison. The Goblin King didn’t sound any better than the Lizard King. “But?”
“I talked to some experts of other realms, and they claim his word has no power in ours.”
I laughed. “What experts are you referring to? I haven’t seen one advertisement for a labyrinth lawyer anywhere.”
Kaiden’s chin dropped to his chest as he rubbed his thumb against his glass. He mumbled, “A D&D forum.”
“Ha!” I took a drink. “I could swear you said a Dungeons and Dragons website.”
He looked at me through his lashes and remained silent.
“You’re joking. A bunch of nerds who play a fictional role-playing game told you this, and you believe them?”
“They say truth is stranger than fiction. It’s obvious our worlds have crossed over. How else do you explain what we experienced?”
Unable to argue, my shoulder rose and fell.
“Knowledge gets lost over the passage of time. What if what they know are fragments of truths passed down over generations, only they use it to create worlds, and the rest of us have forgotten it?”
I tried to keep a straight face and failed miserably. “You’re quoting them.” Kaiden’s head fell back on a huff. “No way you’d come up with that shit on your own.”
“Who cares who said it if it’s the truth.”
The waitress dropped off our food and another round of drinks. As I ate my meal, I wondered if he was right. Had we not lived it, I wouldn’t believe another world containing monsters and an ever-changing labyrinth existed. That meant others had been there too. We couldn’t be the only ones who escaped it. Long ago, people didn’t fear electroshock therapy, though. Either they were believed, or they weren’t. With the legends and fairy tales from hundreds of years ago that were still told today, some hearsay had to be accurate. Maybe the myths used to play modern games held a hint of truth. Maybe the Goblin King held no power here on earth.
I could only hope.