Liv stared him down, her eyes level with his. She tried to ignore how she didn’t have an answer for his question. “Tie him up,” she said.
While Cedric and Kat guarded Malquin outside, the others had forced their way into the empty burger joint and started stuffing their faces on left-behind chips, pickles, and hamburger buns, too tired to even start thinking about their next move.
Liv looked across the room to where Shannon sat next to Merek in a booth, cleaning out his wound with wet paper towels. Rafe sat across from them, helping as well. The cut wasn’t quite as deep as it had first appeared, and Shannon said she didn’t think he’d need stitches. Then she had to explain to Rafe what stitches were, and his face turned white.
“Barbaric, isn’t it?” Merek asked, grimacing. “You do not even want to see what they do with needles here.”
Rafe adjusted in the hard plastic booth, and cleared his throat. “Cedric told me that you were injured here. It is impressive how quickly you recovered. And . . . how you fought today, that was also impressive.”
“I know,” Merek shot back. But looking at his brother, something in his face softened. “And thank you,” he added.
The boys sat in silence for a moment, until Rafe looked away, clearly uncomfortable. He bit into a potato chip and made a face. “Interesting.”
“You think that’s interesting, try one of my Cheetos,” Shannon said, pushing a crinkly orange bag across the table.
Liv smiled and turned back to Joe. “I think Merek will be okay,” she said, her voice low. She and Joe sat at a tall two-top table near the Burger Time counter, under a large wall clock shaped like a pickle with a face. Its empty, cheerful eyes looked down over the bloody, exhausted group in the room.
Joe gave a small smile.
“Are you going to be okay?” Liv asked.
Joe ran a hand through his hair, a gesture so familiar to Liv that just seeing it made her heart twist inside her chest.
“I can’t believe you’re asking me that,” Joe said. “I could have killed you, Liv. I was going to kill you.”
“That wasn’t you,” Liv said quickly.
“No, not really. But none of this would have happened if it wasn’t for me.”
Liv shot him a confused look. “Hey, that’s my line.”
Another ghost of a smile. “I remember what Malquin said, back at Paramount . . . he was right about one thing. I did abandon him. If I had just talked John out of going through the portal, or if I’d been brave enough to go after him—”
“Then you never would have been around to protect me,” Liv said. She reached out, putting her hand over where Joe’s sat on the plastic table top. “And I wouldn’t be around now to thank you for it. For watching over me, for being around when I needed you. For being like . . . family.”
Joe looked down again, but this time Liv was sure it was to hide the tears in his eyes.
“Come on, now,” Liv said lightly, fighting her own tears, “No crying in front of the pickle.” She gestured up to the wall clock, and Joe smiled. Really smiled. But it fell fast.
“Are you really going to be okay?” Liv asked. “When Malquin put that stuff in you . . .” Liv trailed off, leaving the question unsaid.
“I was in there, somewhere, the whole time. But it was like that part of me—the part that makes me me was silenced. The new part of me that believed John and everything he was saying, that wanted to gain power, to hurt, to take things—that part was so loud, and I couldn’t fight it.”
“It sounds awful,” Liv said.
Joe nodded. “But then, in an instant, that part went quiet. It was like my brain became at peace with what was happening in my body, and the real me was able to take control again.”
“Just like with the sky,” Liv said.
“That was a good trick you guys pulled,” Joe said, his brown eyes warm, but serious. “But do you have any idea what the consequences will be?”
“A simple thank-you would work fine.” Liv tore off a piece of hamburger bun and stuffed it in her mouth.
Joe rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m glad for what you did. But bringing magic back to this world forever—do you have any idea what that means? What it will do to the planet, to us?”
Liv shook her head. “No, but the sky’s blue and we don’t have a horde of monsters trying to kill us, so things are better than they were a half hour ago, right?”
Joe nodded, but his expression remained sober as he gazed out the window.
Liv bit off another chunk of her hamburger bun, pushing Joe’s concern from her mind. Right now, they were alive and whole and together. She looked up at the pickle clock, something so ordinary, so much a part of this city and this world she loved, that she almost wanted to reach up and give it a hug.
Whatever new problems they’d unleashed on the world, they could deal with tomorrow.
After five minutes of his moaning and chatter, it became clear the easiest thing to do would be to knock Malquin out. Kat took the honor, using the blunt end of her sword hilt. After tying an unconscious Malquin to the front door of the building, Cedric and Kat moved a few feet away to the shade of a nearby palm tree.
“How much longer do you think you will stay?” Kat asked. Her question sounded innocent, but they both knew how loaded it was. She kept her gaze focused carefully on the street, and not on Cedric.
He looked at her with surprise. “How do you know I am staying?”
“Because I know you, and I am not an idiot.”
Cedric smiled. “No, you are not.”
Kat sighed. “I could tell you again how ridiculous it is to stay in another world for a girl—”
“But that is not why I am staying,” Cedric said. The firmness in his voice seemed to surprise Kat, but she just narrowed her eyes at him.
“Or, not the only reason,” Cedric added. “Kat . . . why is it that I am Caelum’s king?”
Kat made a face like she couldn’t even believe Cedric would ask something so stupid. “Because . . . because you are. Your father was king—”
“And his father before him, and his father before him, yes. But why does it work like that?”
“That is the way it has always worked,” Kat said. Her tone was exasperated and a little disbelieving, as if he’d asked her why A comes before B in the alphabet.
“But why?” Cedric pressed. He gripped the end of his sword hilt, hoping the feel of it would help him keep going, help him say aloud the words he’d been wrestling with. “Our people came from this world hundreds of years ago. But look around, Kat. As this world changed, ours stayed the same. We stayed stuck in these old traditions without stopping to ask ourselves if they made sense anymore. Does it make sense that someone should be born to rule? That power and smarts would just be passed down by blood?”
He finished his words in a rush, eager to get them out, and Kat just blinked at him.
“How else would it work?” she finally said. But her tone was only half challenging—she seemed genuinely curious.
“Leadership should go to the person best suited for the job,” Cedric said. “It’s like Merek kept telling me, all those months ago when we first came to Los Angeles. The fact that I was born the son of King James does not automatically make me the best person to rule, to be in charge.”
Kat rolled her eyes. “Merek was jealous—”
“Maybe, but there was truth to his words.”
Kat shook her head. “You could be a great king, Cedric. I know it . . .”
“I could, maybe. But what if I do not want to be king? What if there was someone better for the position?”
“Who? How could we even decide such a thing?”
“The people would decide, of course,” Cedric said. “But until then, there is someone much more capable who can step into my place.”
Kat just stared at him.
“You, Kat. You should rule Caelum.”
Kat’s mouth fell open, and she took a step back. But behind her brown eyes, her brai
n was clearly working fast. She did not immediately refuse the proposition.
“Remember in Duoin, when we were at the inn and I was about to go after Liv—I asked you if you would give up Caelum if it meant saving me? I did not want to hear your answer then, because I knew what it was. Our homeland is the most important thing to you—more than any one person—and you are meant to be a leader in a way I never was.”
“You led us, the whole time we were here—” Kat started, weakly.
“I can lead missions, yes,” Cedric responded. “I am good at it, and that is what I enjoy. But leading an entire realm? Rebuilding Caelum, taking care of a whole population . . . Kat, you have already been ruling, the entire time since my father died. You are already queen.”
Kat was silent as the words sank in. Cedric wanted to keep talking, but he knew he couldn’t force this responsibility on her. Not the way it had been forced on him. For nearly a full minute, Kat’s face was still, her eyes raking over the ground as she considered Cedric’s words.
Then she lifted her head up, and she smiled. Cedric’s heart lifted, but the smile quickly started to drop from Kat’s face.
“And what about the other reason for you to return to Caelum?” Kat’s voice lowered, but she kept her eyes on Cedric, displaying a strength he’d always envied. “Our betrothal? Is that a tradition you want to abandon as well?”
Kat’s eyes remained fierce, but Cedric could see through them, could sense what it was costing her to ask this out loud. He was reminded of how she’d looked that day behind the pub, when he’d kissed her.
“You know I care for you, Kat, and always will, but . . . our lives could be different than we were raised to believe. They could be more.”
A look of pain flashed quickly over Kat’s face. “More?”
“I only mean . . . ,” Cedric said quickly, swallowing hard. “Do you never wish you might have more control over who you might . . . be with? To choose for yourself?”
Kat looked confused. “I do not think I have ever . . . that is, I never . . .”
“Thought about it?”
“Of course I thought about it,” Kat said, flustered. “But our future together was so sure. I never considered being with anyone else.”
“But if you could?”
Kat looked down finally, and Cedric struggled to understand what she might be thinking.
“Kat,” he continued gently. “I have never asked this before, but . . . do you really wish to marry me? Not for the benefit of Caelum, not to strengthen our kind, but to be with me. For always.”
She reached for the necklace at her throat, the one with the betrothal ring hanging from its end. The one she’d worn every day since they were children.
“Cedric, you are my closest friend. My truest friend.”
“And you are mine. But that is not exactly an answer to my question.”
Kat shook her head slightly. “If you are not my always, then who—what—is?”
“I cannot say. But while these worlds are opening up to us . . . are you not at least a little curious to find out?”
Kat paused. “I do not know. I am not so enthralled with this new world as you are. But I do know . . . I will not force you to return. I do not want to spend forever with someone who does not want to spend forever with me.”
Kat ran her fingers across the ring again before slowly and deliberately lifting the chain from her neck. She slipped it into her pocket, keeping her gaze steady on Cedric as she did so. For a moment, they stared at each other, both taking in how that one tiny gesture changed everything. Then, Kat gave a small smile.
“Does this mean I am going to have to start courting suitors?” she asked, wrinkling her nose.
Cedric laughed. “Not if you do not want to. Though I think Rafe would certainly be keen.”
Kat made a face. Then her eyes slid to the sky, as though a new thought were occurring to her. “I think maybe he . . . is not my type.” She gave a small half smile, one that felt private and that Cedric didn’t really understand.
“And what will you do here?” Kat asked, finally looking at him again. “If you are no longer king, what will you be?”
Cedric turned her question over in his mind, the same question he’d asked himself hundreds of times in the past months. He still did not know quite how to answer.
Finally, he shrugged. “I do not know. All I know is that I feel like myself here. It is difficult to explain, and even I am not entirely sure what it means yet, but I feel as though the life I should be living now is in this world. Maybe I will help these new men, with their wrath-infected blood. Or Liv says I could be a ‘stuntman,’ whatever that is. I suppose I really do not know.” He grinned.
“It feels a bit terrifying,” Kat said. “To not know exactly what the future holds.”
“Yes,” Cedric replied. “It does.”
Kat smiled, and motioned her head toward the restaurant. “Shall we, then?”
“After you, my queen.”
“Let us not get ahead of ourselves. If the people of Caelum do choose me as a leader, maybe I will go by something else.”
Cedric smiled. “After you, Something Else.”
Kat rolled her eyes. “This world is a terrible influence on you.” She put her hand through the crook of his arm and led him back to where the others sat, waiting for them to return.
EDGE OF TOMORROW
Of course, the world didn’t fix itself right away.
The sky remained a clear, determined blue one day after the showdown at a Burger Time in Sherman Oaks, but the city was still sweltering. The Gravity Incidents had ended, but the damage from the earthquakes and the lightning storms could not be as easily reversed. Stores were still looted; businesses were still closed. Cell and internet service were still knocked out for blocks.
Unfortunately for Shannon, that wasn’t a good enough excuse to put off calling her parents. After the group had put gas in the van and driven back to Malibu, she’d taken off again in order to reach cell phone service and call them. She got more than an earful. Her parents had every right to be upset, of course, but Shannon wasn’t looking forward to what would probably be a decades-long punishment.
Still feeling a bit bruised by the phone call, Shannon pushed open the door of Daisy’s house to find Liv, Cedric, Peter, Merek, and Joe sitting around the living room talking and eating from cans of food and bags of Doritos. Shannon figured Kat and Rafe were still watching Malquin, who was tied up in the garage, waiting for his one-way ticket back to Caelum.
Everyone’s voices stopped when they saw Shannon’s face as she walked into the room. Merek jumped up from his chair in the living room and made his way quickly over to her.
“Well?”
“Well . . . there won’t be a firing squad, at least.”
“That bad, huh?” Liv asked from her spot next to Cedric on the couch.
“Oh yeah. I told them I’d drive back to Utah immediately, and we’d ‘discuss’ my future from there. As long as it doesn’t involve military school, I’d say it’s a win.”
Shannon plopped down on a spare chair, and Merek took the one next to her. Looking around the room, she felt the tension in her shoulders loosen. They’d saved the world—both worlds—and figuring out what tomorrow would bring was a luxury now that she was sure there would be a tomorrow.
“You know,” Joe said from his spot near the mantel, “I can talk to your parents if you want, Shannon. Explain things.”
“Oh, trust me, I already tried. I even told them to look at our video online.”
Their video was still trending, according to Peter, and he claimed more and more people were passing it around and wondering if there was any truth to it. Most said it was a hoax or a coincidence, and yet, the timing worked out. The sky turned blue just after the video gained around five thousand views.
But Shannon’s parents weren’t inclined to see it that way.
“What about you, Liv?” Shannon asked. “What will you do now?”
Liv took a moment, then shrugged. “Senior year? Who knows where I’ll be living, though.”
She looked down briefly, and Cedric took her hand.
“You know . . . ,” Joe started, then cleared his throat. “That’s something I’ve been thinking about. With the Knights scattered, there’s no reason to really hide you guys anymore.”
He looked between Liv and Peter, who exchanged a quick glance.
“There’s no reason why you couldn’t both . . . stay with me. In my apartment, of course, not that hotel room. It should be safe now. Peter, you’re eighteen and can technically live with whoever you want, and Liv, for you there would be a process with paperwork and meetings, but if it’s something the two of you think you might want . . .”
Liv’s body went absolutely still, and for a moment it seemed like she hadn’t heard Joe. But Shannon saw her lower lip shake, and knew Liv only blinked that hard when she was trying not to cry.
“It’s entirely up to you,” Joe added, stammering.
Peter grinned. “Promise to keep the house stocked with these?” he asked, holding up a bag of Doritos.
“I can do that,” Joe said, smiling. But he turned to Liv, his eyes still questioning. “Liv, what do you think—”
“Of course!” Liv burst out. “I mean, yes. That . . . that would be . . .” She ran a quick hand over her eyes and smiled. “It would be great.”
A happy warmth settled over the room, and for once it had nothing to do with the skyrocketing heat. As Liv and Joe continued to make plans, Merek leaned toward Shannon.
“Do you think your parents will make you stay in Utah?”
Shannon leaned over to meet him. “I hope not.”
He reached out a hand, brushing the tops of her fingers with his.
“Me too.”
The good-byes came later that afternoon. Merek’s shoulder was well on its way to healing at that point, and Kat and Rafe were rested enough from their battle to make a return trip with Malquin, tied up and gagged, in tow.
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