It really didn’t matter how accustomed Rachel became to deception - she never grew to enjoy it. It weighed on her; the more people she met, the bigger her lie became, the heavier it grew. She had thought she could keep herself in forever, or at least for as long as she needed to.

  She was not yet ready to be wrong.

  “I… I’m sorry,” she said weakly. “I know I’ve been-”

  “You know that’s not going to cut it,” Matt sighed.

  Rachel brought her fingers together, fidgeting in the dark only because she knew Matt could not see her. “I know. I just don’t know how else to start.”

  Matt scoffed. “How about… shit, I was going to say an apology, but…”

  Rachel closed her eyes and leaned back into the stair behind her, the edge digging dully into the small of her back. “Tell me how you feel.”

  “I don’t think you deserve to know,” Matt replied.

  “I feel lost,” Rachel breathed, letting herself slip a little bit to speed up the conversation. “I want to see Jason again. More than you could know. I want to feel like I did before I left. Like I’m, I don’t know, home.”

  “You are home,” Matt argued. “Or you would never have come back at all.”

  Rachel sighed. “Honestly, I no longer know if I have a real home anywhere.”

  Matt let silence descend over them for a long breath. Another set of creaks sounded from above, forcing Rachel to cup her hands over her head to protect it from the dust she knew would fall. She felt a presence blink into place above her, and knew that Tassel must have awoken. Just in case, she reserved a corner of her mind to screen their conversation from him, knowing he could tear the cloak away as easily as he could a spider’s web.

  “If you found Jason again,” Matt murmured, “would you feel differently?”

  Yes. Of course she would. But that dream was never meant to be. She had known ever since she had arrived in Fortaim that Jason would be forever out of reach.

  “I hope so,” she finally said. “I… yeah.”

  Matt shifted slightly, and Rachel heard his shoulder brush the wall in front of her. “Were you and Jason ever, you know…”

  Rachel smiled, memories dripping in between the tiny gaps in her walls. “No. Not in any real sense, anyway. We were as close as friends could be, no more.”

  “You must miss him,” Matt sighed.

  “Not as much as you do, probably. You thought he was dead.”

  Matt exhaled quickly. “Fair point. It seems surreal that we’ll really see him again.”

  “Yeah.” Rachel hooked a hand behind her neck, then paused. Her eyes widened.

  Tassel.

  “I’m still mad at you,” Matt nagged.

  Not one to let a man sleep in, are you? Tassel replied.

  Do you know the name Darian? Rachel pushed.

  “I know. I’ll try. I really am sorry.” Rachel, almost instinctively, reached towards Matt, feeling a strange shiver as her fingertips brushed his shoulder.

  You had better not mean Darian the Pyromancer.

  Rachel was glad that the darkness hid her smile. You know him?

  Before Rachel could pull her hand away, Matt covered it with his own and pressed it into his shoulder as if he couldn’t bear to let it go. Her eyebrows flew upwards, but she kept her composure. This wasn’t exactly a curveball. And, she supposed, it wasn’t unwanted, either.

  Suddenly, she wished she had kept her mind shielded from Tassel.

  “You’re all I know in this world,” Matt mumbled. “Don’t make it hell.”

  Unfortunately, I do. I also know that you’ve come across him before.

  In a sense. Where is he?

  “I won’t,” Rachel promised, feeling strangely empty. She didn’t want to be hurting him. She didn’t want to be holding this world’s secret over him, heavy as an anvil hung with fraying rope. She didn’t want to admit to him that she had taken him from his family for nothing.

  She wanted… him.

  But she couldn’t. Not until she told him. Not until everything came crashing down and exposed her for the liar she really was.

  Nobody knows. Why do you want to?

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Not until she destroyed her last fleeting hope of having him.

  No reason. Rachel wrinkled her nose, cursing the death of her favorite idea since her arrival back in Lyrian. She made a mental note of the fact that Darian had likely already retired to his final resting place.

  Come upstairs. Lana and I have already made most of my breakfast.

  “Still hungry?” Rachel tried, breaking the silence in the stairwell.

  Matt let out a subdued laugh. “Not really. I’d rather stay.”

  A subtle heat rose in Rachel’s cheeks. “I thought you were mad at me.”

  “I never said I wasn’t,” Matt reasoned. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

  Rachel had to physically restrain herself from commenting on how much better Matt was in conversation than when they had first met. “Let’s go.”

  After a moment’s hesitation, she pulled away from Matt and climbed up towards the apartment. She tucked her hand in her pocket, hoping to feel the same warmth she had just relinquished, but she felt nothing but a tiny puddle of grit. She heard Matt’s footsteps behind her, and wondered, for a brief moment, whether she would rather turn around. She could catch Matt’s arm as she did so. They could run together, away from Tassel and Lana and all the stupid intrigues that Trensicourt was throwing their way. It would be easier then, back on the road, like it had been with Jason.

  The thought of Jason ground her wandering mind to a halt.

  She would never see him again. Neither would Matt.

  She couldn’t afford to let herself slip around Matt until she had come to terms with that fact. She couldn’t let her desire to find her friend mix with… whatever she felt for Matt. It would ruin them both.

  They pushed into the living room just as Lana served Tassel’s breakfast in a varnished wooden bowl. It was simple - a fried egg, a couple of pieces of dense bread and a small salad, topped with a splattering of spiced qualine extract. Rachel let herself smile covertly, proud of herself for having remembered the distinct smell of the Trensicourtan specialty. There was a reason why they still used the same spiced extract the last time they had been to Lyrian - it tasted like a deep massage. Earth had yet to discover anything remotely similar.

  “D’you make any extra?” Rachel inquired as Lana disappeared back into the kitchen.

  “Hah,” Lana said from the kitchen. “Figured you two must need replenishing after your time on the road.”

  “You’re an angel,” Matt said, pushing into the kitchen. Rachel caught her eyes before they widened - maybe nobody had noticed the obvious Beyonder talk.

  “Angel?” Lana frowned, clinking around the kitchen as Matt tried unsuccessfully to offer his help.

  Shit. “Coastie legend,” Rachel improvised.

  Lana made a little ooh as she left the kitchen, balancing two more plates holding similar portions to Tassel’s. “Tell me about it!”

  “Later,” Rachel sniffed, taking a concerted interest in her food. “Hungry.”

  Matt sat down directly between Lana and Rachel, which Rachel supposed might actually be helpful for once. Tassel followed his example, and they all sat and ate silently, none willing to revive the last few gory entrails of the previous conversation. The breakfast was even more divine than Rachel remembered - she had forgotten how much she had missed Lyrian’s less well- traveled cuisine.

  The food was finished and the dishes washed without a single word. They all packed their bags as the sun rose into a bank of unthreatening clouds, then descended onto the street and turned towards the High School.

  “You really don’t have to accompany me,” Lana said, a grateful twinge sneaking into her voice.

  “What, you don’t want to be seen with me?” Tassel smirked, having been gracefully quiet all morning.

  “Given what happened yesterday?” Rachel intruded. “Only a fool would let themselves be seen with you.”

  “We’re all here, aren’t we?” Matt reasoned.

  Lana skipped a step ahead and turned around to walk backwards in front of them. “Maybe we’re all fools, then.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Rachel joked, though her tone came out more poisonous than she had intended.

  “I’m conducting research,” Lana snapped. “What’s your excuse?”

  “You all need excuses to spend time with me?” Tassel dramatized, throwing a palm to his forehead in mock despair. “I’m hurt.”

  Rachel hated to admit that she was growing to… not hate Tassel’s presence, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. “What we need is a good reason not to.”

  “You’re an awful liar,” Tassel laughed with a healthy dose of condescension.

  Lana sighed. “That’s what I’ve been saying.”

  “I’d rather be a bad liar than a good one,” Rachel lied. Did they really have to bring all this up in front of Matt? It seemed awfully inopportune.

  “Let’s just go study,” Matt ordered, quickening his pace. Rachel caught up, but Tassel and Lana stayed half a step behind them.

  The streets leading to the High School were packed with artisans, even more so than they had been the day before. Tassel broke off from the group to pore over a metalworker’s wares, and though the trio did not wait for him, he caught up less than a minute later brandishing a hand-hammered paring knife. Rachel, familiarizing herself with Tassel’s game, snatched a five-drooma piece from the air as Tassel tossed it, then ducked away towards a tailor’s shop. She allowed herself thirty seconds to decide on absolutely nothing, then pocketed the drooma and ran to catch up with the group.

  “You’d rob a poor old wizard for chump change?” Tassel mocked. “Even for you, that’s a new low.”

  “I am but a weary traveler,” Rachel sobbed, playing along. “A drooma to you is worth a hundred to me.”

  “That’s not how money works,” Tassel snarked, changing tactics.

  Rachel smiled, knowing that she had him on his toes. “Go play your magic tricks. A man like you must make his money by less common means.”

  “That would get him arrested,” Matt reasoned.

  Rachel wrinkled her nose. How dare Matt take Tassel’s side? “You saw him yesterday.”

  “Didn’t we all,” Lana said. “What a tragedy that was.”

  Tassel let his mouth drop open. “This coming from the girl who is literally researching me.”

  Rachel thought about intervening, but realized that they had all twisted themselves into such impossible knots of sarcasm that she could no longer figure out what face she should put on to further beat the conversation to death.

  “Meet here after, I don’t know, five hours?” Rachel finally said, having completely missed the fact that they had crossed the threshold of the High School grounds. They were walking past a small fountain in a treed courtyard, and Rachel had no intention of burying her face in various history books for the best part of the day.

  Tassel grinned, his eyes flashing mischievously. “I’ll take that. May I accompany you to the library, milady?”

  Lana scoffed. “Teach me about Edomic and you’ve got a deal.”

  “Deal,” Tassel affirmed, then whisked Lana away, leaving Matt and Rachel alone in the square.

  A small silence walled them in, but Matt broke it quickly. “So… what’s there to do?”

  “I’m not sure,” Rachel answered truthfully. “Let’s go find out.”

  Then, together, they left the High School and let the city swallow them whole.