A chance.
I have a chance.
And I don’t even know what to do with it.
I can turn away. I can understand. I can maybe find out something about The Key.
Milo might know where Roger hid my grandfather’s memory. But even if he doesn’t, maybe his aunt does. Maybe she’ll hate Roger enough to tell his secrets. Or maybe the insanity has already revealed them. I imagine all kinds of possibilities about what she might know, might tell. This could be my one chance to end the worst of everything, for all of us.
I open the door.
“Do you understand what my father did to all of us?” I ask Milo. He nods.
“I’m really…”
“No,” I say, keeping a steady voice. “I mean, do you know that my father stole my grandfather’s Memory?”
“I heard,” he says, “but your father always said it was a lie.”
“It’s not.”
“So you’re looking for The Key,” he says. “I wish I could tell you where it’s at, but Roger insisted he didn’t have it.”
“He was a liar,” I say. I tip my head. “Can I talk to your aunt?”
There is a flicker in his eyes, there and gone, but I see it. He’s either hiding a secret or he just wants to hide her. I can see how she might be totally out of her tree and he might be completely embarrassed by her. People used to say my mom was insane because of her paper hoarding and it embarrassed me, even though it wasn’t true. I don’t know much about real insanity, but with the kind of background we’ve both had, I can understand why he wouldn’t want anyone getting ahold of one more stick to throw on the fire.
“We could try,” he says the words slowly, as if he’s not even sure it’ll work. “She’s never told me anything about it, but maybe it’d be different because your Roger’s daughter. When do you want to go? I mean, we could even go now, if you really think it would help.”
He reaches out his hand as if we’re going to start flying if I just put my hand in his. I don’t. I just stare at the open invitation and say the stupidest girl-thing that comes into my head.
“Garrett can’t go right now,” I say. “He’s on watch.”
“Oh,” Milo drops his hand, looks away. “Oops. That’s right. You don’t go anywhere without your boyfriend. I noticed that.”
“That’s not true,” I say, but my voice climbs because it is kind of true. Actually, it’s right-on-the-head true. Garrett knows everything that I don’t about the Ianua. He’s completely trained. His Cavises aren’t leaking out of his elbows. I feel like I can handle what comes at me when he’s with me, but maybe it’s because I know he’ll take care of anything I can’t.
“So let’s go then,” Milo says, backing away from the door, so I can come out. He holds his hand out again and my nerves jump up and twitch an angry dance beneath my skin. I’m not sure who he thinks he is or even who he thinks I am.
“Um, I don’t jump just because you say I need to,” I tell him. I keep my voice slow and controlled. “Whether or not your parents are the worst things on the planet and whether or not you’re part of my Cura now, it doesn’t change that I don’t really know who you are, Milo. And I just figured out that you really don’t have a clue about me either, especially if you think that insulting Garrett in front of me is a good idea.”
Milo drops his hands and his eyebrows spike.
“I apologize,” he says, but he fumbles with the words. “I mean it, Nalena. I apologize. I shouldn’t have said that. It just seems like you don’t do anything without Garrett.”
“I don’t,” I say. “And you should remember that he’s the one who kept Robin from fileting you.”
“He did.” Milo nods. “I guess I should just shut up.”
“Probably,” I say. “Good night, Milo.”
“Look, I’ll still take you to see her,” he says as I begin to close the door. “Tomorrow morning. Around nine, if you want. Garrett’s welcome to come too.”
“That’d be great,” I say and I close my apartment door.
I mean to go find Garrett and tell him what Milo told me, but first, I sit down at my laptop first and plug the names Milo and Frangere and Ignatia into a few search engines. I scroll through pages of nothing and more nothing, until a nasally voice suddenly bursts through the computer speakers.
“Nalena!”
I almost drop the laptop on my toes. A screen pops open and I’m looking up Cora’s nose again.
“Cora?” There’s something soothing and real about hearing Cora sniffle up a breath. I laugh. “Don’t you ever sleep?”
She rubs a tissue across her nose. “How can you sleep? This program is amazing! Have you seen what it can do? Look…”
I hear Cora feverishly clicking her mouse and the screen starts bubbling with images. Curriculum guides and interactive maps of the school, layers of student photos and sports event schedules, and educational videos on every subject—all piling up in bubbles on top of each other as Cora keeps clicking.
“How are you doing that?” I ask.
“You can do anything with Quantus!” she squeals. “It’s like an encyclopedia of everything in the world! And you can find out anything about anyone! You can plug in anybody’s name and get their photos and extracurricular activities and…tons of stuff! There are videos and tutorials and pictures and articles on all the crazy stuff going on in the news too. Have you seen the news? It’s like everyone’s gone nuts this week, all at once.”
I click all the files that Cora had opened on the screen, closing them one by one until I’m back to her nasal cavitites and I smile.
“Yeah, the news is crazy,” I say. Cora takes a deep breath, probably to tell me more, but I cut her off to ask something that I’m pretty sure, by the sound of things, she already knows. “Cora, you know that guy that was on my end the other night? The one you said was hot…”
“Milo?” Her smile wedges itself up beneath her gigantic screen nostril. I hear her clicking away and Milo’s profile pops up in front of me, along with his class photo, a photo of the Belsley High basketball team, and a ton of other pictures that come too fast to be able to recognize him in. His photo smiles at me as Cora reads, “Milo Frangere. New to Simon Valley this year; he enjoys track, writing, and photography; he hasn’t signed up for his classes yet. But his academic profile says he was Class President at Belsley last year, he won two trophies on the swim team, he was Point Guard for his basketball team and he was chosen Class Flirt.”
She’s breathless by the time she’s done reading.
“Busy guy,” I say.
“Have you seen him again?” Cora leans so close to the screen that the whole thing becomes the dark cavern of her left nostril. “Does he have a girlfriend?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Wait. Are you his girlfriend? Are you dating him? Nikki said that Garrett would probably ditch you once he graduated.”
All the warm feelings for Cora drain away for a second. I sigh. Cora is always going to be Cora and there’s just no fighting that. But I’m not exactly me anymore.
“Garrett didn’t ditch me,” I tell her, trying to keep my tone nice. Calm. Even. “And you really have to stop believing everything Nikki Legarno tells you, Cora. You’re smarter than the gossip, but you’ve really got to start thinking things through for yourself.”
“I do,” Cora’s says, but she moves far enough back from the camera that I can actually see her whole face frowning for a moment before she squints at the screen and scooches up too close again. “I do too think for myself.”
“Well, then, you should start thinking before you say things.” There’s a long pause and maybe she’s waiting for me to apologize or change the subject or just let things slide. Instead, I say, “I’ve got to get going.”
Cora scoots back so that her pink chapped lips, glistening with a little saliva lipgloss, are the only things I can see.
“Nikki said it, not me,” the lips say. “And I didn’t think you and Garrett would break up. He’
s so incredible…so are you…so are you and I know you guys will stay together. Are you going to be on later? Because I’ll be here. I’ll wait for you, okay? I mean, we can talk whenever you feel like it.”
I don’t even bother to change out of my tank and pajama bottoms. Instead, I slide open the glass door wall and creep over to Garrett and Sean’s door. The rest of the Courtyard is dark and nearly silent, besides the soft patter on the greenhouse dome high above my head. Milo’s door is dark and there’s no sign of him outside.
I tap on the Garrett and Sean’s door. I only have to wait a minute before Sean slides it open. He’s squinty and the left side of his hair is standing straight up like the mast of a sailboat.
“Hey…” he mumbles. “You okay?”
“I’m being attacked…help,” I laugh. Sean rubs the eye beneath his hair mast. He yawns. I laugh again. “Is Garrett back?”
“No. He’s still out on watch. You want to come in?” He sounds like he’s asking it in his sleep.
“No,” I tell him. “I’ll go look for him. I can do that, right?”
“I don’t know why not.” Sean rubs his eye with his palm. “Take the service elevator at the end of the hall. I think he’s on the roof.”
“Sorry I woke you up,” I say and Sean just nods as he slides the door shut. I can’t see inside, but I figure he’s staggering back to bed as I slip back through my own apartment door and out into the hotel hallway. I find the service elevator and ride up to the top floor.
At the top, I step out into a clear, Plexiglas box, speckled with raindrops. I reach for the door handle, twisting every which way to see where Garrett’s at, but I don’t see him right away. It’s stopped raining, but the clammy breeze hits me as I step out of the box. The air smells and feels like a long, cold rain is coming.
“What’re you doing up here, Rebel?” Garrett steps from the shadows near the roof ledge. He stops at an uncomfortable distance. Our orbit is beyond personal space now and the distance makes me feel like the moon in winter. But his eyes still slide over me and his voice is deep as he adds with a grin, “And in your jammies?”
“Milo saw my parent’s picture,” I say. I catch how Garrett sways back a little at the mention of Milo’s name, so I add, “He was still sitting in the Courtyard when I left your apartment. The picture fell out of my pocket and Milo picked it up. He knew who everyone was. Moxie and Rustacuffs? Moxie’s his mom and Rustacuffs is supposed to be ‘Rusty Cuffs’. It’s his dad, Rhus. Rhus and Roger were best friends. And that little girl in the picture? The one looking at Roger? That’s Rhus’s little sister, Ignatia. Milo’s aunt. She’s Simple and when Milo’s parents died, Ignatia ended up raising him. She was Roger’s girlfriend.”
“Whoa,” Garrett raises his hands. His eyes rove off the rooftop in thought. “I can’t believe he admitted that. Robin’s right then. If Roger raised him, Milo’s a threat. He can’t be trusted.”
“Milo also said he’d introduce me to his aunt.”
“For what?”
“She lived with Roger. They were together for all the years that Roger was in The Fury,” I say. Garrett’s still looking at me like I walked out of a black hole. “She probably knows something about my Grandfather’s Memory. If they were together all those years, maybe Roger told her something.”
Garrett rubs the edge of his index finger over the top of his lip. “But she’s part of The Fury too?”
“Now she is. Milo said she stayed away from it for years, but she finally joined because of Roger.”
“How long has she been in it?” Garrett asks.
“He said she’s insane.” I grip my forearms and try to squeeze the chill off them. Garrett frowns.
“Then speaking to her will be useless,” he says.
“We could try.”
“It could be a trap. Did he ask you to go with him already? By yourself?”
I think of Milo, reaching for me, calling me out like I was a chicken.
“He did.” I nod. Everything Milo said about his mom and dad, about being alienated and about being anything like me, disappears. It’s sucked down into the big, black hole of what is probably a lie. The small breeze on the rooftop makes my stupidity seem naked and right on the very top of my skin, but it doesn’t matter. “His aunt might know something about The Key. You know I’ve got to meet her.”
“I know,” Garrett says. “And I think you’re right. If it is a trap, at least we’ll know it’s coming. When did Milo want to go?”
“This morning, around nine.” I say, looking at the streaks of purples and pinks running across the sky, just ahead of the sun.
“Then that’s when we’ll go,” Garrett says and he smiles, like facing straight into the storm will be a fun thing to do.
Chapter 16
THE THUNDER BEGINS AS WE walk down the corridors to the hotel garage and it’s a welcome sound. At least to me. It’s better than the silence bristling between Garrett and Milo or maybe it’s the silence snarled between Milo and I that is the most uncomfortable. It’s hard for me to tell.
We’re walking staggered down the hall, me first and Garrett a little behind and to my right, Milo trails both of us. Three times, Milo tries to talk to me. The first time, he clears his throat and Garrett starts talking instead, telling me that Shred is on his way to take us to Ignatia’s house, which I already know. The second time, Milo’s footsteps speed up a little and I turn to face him just as Garrett drops something on the floor and bends down to pick it up, effectively blocking Milo from getting near me. When Garrett stands back up, he gives Milo a little smile as he fastens his watch back on his wrist. But this is the third time and, as we let ourselves into the garage to wait for the van, Milo speaks up.
“Nalena, I just want to apologize,” he says.
“For what?” Garrett asks, as if he’s considering swinging around to face Milo to ask the question nose to nose.
“You know for what, Nalena,” Milo says. There is a suggestion in his tone, a tiny chocolate curl at the end, like a dessert you shouldn’t eat after a big dinner. I swing around to face Milo. Just for the chocolate curl alone, for how it’s going to sit in Garrett’s head and make him wonder what Milo’s talking about, something that never even happened while he was not there to see. I want to sock Milo in the mouth.
“No, I don’t know for what,” I say.
“For who you think I am now.” Milo blinks and his eyes seem to harden as they stare at me. “You think I’m leading you into a trap, don’t you?”
“Why wouldn’t you be?” I ask. Garrett is silent as he stands off to the side, but his body is that liquid kind of relaxed that means he’s ready to fight.
“Because I’m Alo. I’m part of your Cura. Besides,” Milo says as the garage door rumbles open. A flash of lightening zigzags across the sky and the thunder cracks right overhead. The van slides into the bay and shadows bob in the backbenches. “If anything happens, we’ve got your boyfriend with us, right?”
His eyes glint and my foot comes up and I crack him in the shin. Milo howls.
“I’m just teasing!” He’s still hopping around as the door slides open.
“Nice one,” Zane shouts from the van. “What’d he do now?”
“Nothing,” I say, climbing in. I’m not going to broadcast that Milo thinks I can’t do anything without Garrett’s help or protection, because they might all agree. “What are you guys doing here?”
“Garrett said you two were going on a road trip,” Zane says. Robin is in the back seat and I climb over Zane to land with a thud next to her. I mean, I might not be a full-fledge Contego yet, but I know I’m not helpless anymore. “We wouldn’t wanna miss out on another ambush.”
“Or seeing you kick the snot out of Frangere,” Robin says.
Milo limps to the van and Garrett stands aside so Milo has to get in first.
“I didn’t think it was such an insult.” Milo shrugs at Garrett.
“No?” Garrett quirks an eyebrow as Milo slides onto th
e seat. “Maybe it’s because you just don’t get her.”
“You sure you actually know where this place is?” Shred asks when Milo points out another turn. We’re in an apartment complex- the most complex one I’ve ever seen—where the apartment buildings each look like a huge, dirty house with battered apartment doors on all four sides. The place is a labyrinth, with roads that branch off in all directions and apartments that all look the same. After only a couple turns, I’m completely lost in how we got in and how we’re getting back out. I keep hoping Shred has some map in his head, but the way he grumbles behind the wheel, it seems like he’s having the same doubts that I am.
“Left again,” Milo says.
“What kind of place is this? It’s like miles of groundhog-day-houses.” Zane says. “You grew up here?”
“Yeah. You get used to it.”
“You can get used to anything if there’s enough of it.” I say and Milo twists around on the bench to look at me for the first time, since I kicked him.
“Exactly,” he says with a smile. “Sorry again. Really, Nali. I really was just joking.”
“You’re slick. Tell her another one. Especially when you’re relying on her to save your skin from your own Cura,” Robin says. Then, with a poisonous smile, she adds, “Or not.”
“Look, I’m sorry. I really am.” Milo twists in his seat so I can see how sincere he is. “Speaking of skin, Nalena, it’d probably be best if you don’t tell my aunt who you are.”
“Why not?”
“Because some things set her off,” he says with a grimace. Shred cuts off the conversation by pumping the brakes at an intersection.
“Where now?” he growls. We’re at the end of a street and there are three other streets we could turn onto.
“Right,” Milo tells him. “Go to the end, take a left. It’ll be the fourth house on the left.”
We finally pull up in front of an apartment house that looks like every other one.
“This it?” Shred asks, throwing the van into park. He sinks down a little in his seat and from beneath his hair and baseball cap and mirrored sunglasses, he grumbles, “Hurry up and go do what you gotta do. I want out of here before somebody jacks my van.”
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