Caught

Elara

Three knocks. Not loud, but I knew exactly who it was before I'd even swung my legs off the bed.

My stomach hit the floor.

Kael grabbed his shirt off the ground and pulled it on, still trying to move quiet even though there was no point now. I snatched the hoodie off my chair and yanked it over my head, hands shaking so bad I missed the sleeve on the first try.

"Elara?"

Mom. Tired. And sharp in a way I don't think I'd ever heard from her.

Kael's eyes had already gone back to normal, but he looked scared. Young, almost. He mouthed the words I'm sorry at me.

I just nodded. There wasn't much else to do. I walked over and opened the door.

She was still in her coat, suitcase sitting by her feet like she hadn't even made it to her own room first. Her hair had fallen out of its clip somewhere along the drive. She looked like she hadn't slept in two days.

Her eyes moved past me. To Kael. To the bed. To all of it.

She didn't yell. I almost wished she had.

"What is he doing here?" Not really a question.

Kael started to speak. "Mrs. Carter, I—"

"Don't." She put her hand up and he stopped talking right away.

Then she looked at me. "Elara. Come here."

I crossed the hall on legs that didn't feel like mine. She looked at my face for a long time. My red eyes. My hair. The flush I still hadn't managed to shake off. There wasn't any point pretending.

"Is this what I think it is?"

I opened my mouth and nothing came out.

"Don't lie to me." Her voice broke a little on the last word. "Please, Elara. Not about this."

Kael answered before I got the chance to. "It's my fault. I came to check on her. She wasn't feeling well."

She let out this breath that was almost a laugh but wasn't one at all. "Not feeling well. At three in the morning. Behind a locked door."

She covered her eyes with both hands for a second. When she took them away she just looked worn out.

"Go to your rooms," she said. "Both of you. We'll talk in the morning, once I've had coffee and you've both had time to think about what you're going to tell me."

She grabbed her suitcase and walked off down the hall. I didn't look back once. I heard her door click shut a few seconds later.

I shut mine too. Locked it. Slid down the door until I was sitting on the floor, just listening to my own pulse for a while.

My phone buzzed against my leg.

Kael: Are you okay?

Me: I don't know.

Kael: I'm sorry. This is all my fault.

Me: Stop saying that. I opened the door. That was me.

Nothing for a bit. Then:

Kael: Try to sleep. We'll figure it out together in the morning.

I didn't sleep. I just lay there listening to the house creak, to footsteps somewhere below me, to the occasional car passing outside. By five I gave up and went down to the kitchen instead.

Mom was already sitting there. Two mugs on the table, still steaming. She didn't look up when I came in.

"Sit."

I sat and wrapped my hands around the mug she'd made me, just glad to have something warm to hold.

"How long."

I stared down at the table. "Since the cabin."

She nodded slowly, the way you nod at something you already suspected. "Does he understand what he's doing to you? To this family?"

"Yes."

"Do you?"

That one I couldn't answer.

The back door opened. Kael came in with his hair still damp, like he'd splashed water on his face trying to wake himself up for this. He stopped short when he saw us both sitting there.

"Morning," he said, like it cost him something to get the word out.

She looked at him. Then at me. Then back at him again, steady and unreadable.

"I've got one question," she said. "And I need the truth."

He straightened up like he was bracing for a hit.

"Okay."

"Are you going to hurt her?"

Nobody moved. The kitchen went dead quiet.

"No," Kael said, and he didn't hesitate. "No, ma'am. I wouldn't. Not on purpose. Not ever."

She held his eyes for a long moment, looking for something. Whatever she found seemed to be enough, at least for now.

She let out a breath and her shoulders dropped. She slid the third mug across the table toward him.

"Sit," she said. "Both of you. We're going to talk about what happens now. And I mean it, all of it. Because I'm not doing this twice. If this is real, it happens out in the open. Or it doesn't happen at all."

Kael sat down. Under the table, his hand found mine, quiet, where she couldn't see. I held on.

Outside the window the sky was starting to turn, gray easing into gold at the edges. Morning, for real this time.

I had no idea what I'd just agreed to.

And upstairs my phone was still buzzing. A number I didn't know yet. A message I hadn't opened. Already waiting to blow everything apart again before the coffee even had a chance to go cold.