Page 13 of Kingdom of Chaos
My interrogationof Titus doesn’t exactly go as planned. After an hour of rapid-fire questions and his clipped, one-line answers, the low lighting and steady rhythm of the car lull me to sleep. I drift off with my face pressed against the window, going in and out of sleep for hours.
I wake to the soft murmur of voices. The sky is beginning to lighten, a pale lavender bleeding into the darkness. Titus is driving now, and Ensley is angled toward him, their conversation quiet and low.
So much for being a great interrogator. I slept through a full stop and a driver switch.
I’m about to sit up and ask where we are when Titus says my name and asks what kind of creatures my parents are.
Ensley hesitates. I hold my breath, waiting to see how she’ll answer. Not because it’s a secret that my parents are a fae and a bear shifter, but because I’m curious if she’ll mention the human part. Or at least theallegedhuman part.
“Her mom’s a fae, and her dad’s a bear shifter,” she finally says. “Why do you want to know?”
Yeah, Titus. Why do you want to know?
Titus flicks his gaze to her before focusing back on the road. “Mostly just curious. It’s odd she didn’t come into her powers years ago. I’ve never heard of that happening before.”
I tense up, wondering how Ensley is going to respond.
“The doctors think she has. It’s just that they are so faint they can’t be detected,” she says, giving him the general line I’ve been feeding everyone since I was a kid.
Titus is silent for a minute before saying, “I don’t think that’s it.”
“What do you mean?” she asks.
“I think her powers might be manifesting now.”
“What?” Ensley says, her voice just shy of shrill.
Yeah . . . what?
My body locks up as I wait for Titus to go on, wanting to know why he would think that.
He shakes his head. “There’s just something different about her now. My truth reading magic usually picks up a trace of magic, some flicker of power, from other creatures, even if it’s just a sense of whether or not they’re telling the truth. But with her, it used to be like staring into a void. Nothing. Now there’s a spark.”
“And that makes you think she’s manifesting her powers?” Ensley asks carefully, realizing she’s in a minefield as Titus doesn’t realize I’m a completely different entity altogether—a magicless one by nature.
“Truth reading is tied to magic,” he explains. “I can’t read kids either, so I didn’t think much of it with Locklyn because I’m used to some creatures being harder to read. But I knew right away that she was lying about being fine.” He glances at Ensley, his meaning clear.
Ensley scoffs. “It doesn’t take magic to realize she was lying about that. Who would be okay considering the circumstances? I’m certainly notfineeither right now.”
Compassion softens his gaze. He reaches out and gives her hand a squeeze before returning it to the stirring wheel.
He shrugs. “Maybe I’m wrong. It’s just a theory.”
They go on to talk about whether or not we should stop for food, so I feign waking up a few minutes later.
“What time is it?” I ask with a yawn, hoping I’m not laying it on too thick.
Ensley twists in her seat to look at me. “Almost six.”
That means we’ve been driving for nearly twelve hours. We should be there soon.
“We’ll be there in just under an hour,” she says as if reading my mind. “Should we stop for food first?”
I don’t want to stop. Now that we’re so close, I’m itching to get there. But showing up at the crack of dawn might not do us any favors. We agree to grab a quick breakfast once we hit Grimbrooke, then keep moving.
Grimbrooke is even older than Everton. Both were early settlements, but Grimbrooke—with its stone buildings and towering spires—feelsolder. Where Nightlark Academy stood apart from Everton’s colonial architecture, Grimbrooke embraces its full neo-gothic roots.
We pull off the main road and park in front of a small café. Ensley’s cherry-red car stands out like a flare against the gray stone buildings. After stretching out the stiffness from the back seat, we head inside for coffee and pastries.
