Page 20 of Kingdom of Tomorrow (Book of Arden #1)

I gulped. No way I was seeing him. Just no way. Thankfully, the stone returned to its normal color and he vanished amid the maze of crimson veins.

Some kind of hologram, no doubt. Yes, yes. Only a hologram. But why had I seen it? I didn’t dare ask Shiloh. Curiosity about the Rock only ever led to suspicion of infection.

I forced myself to forget him and concentrate on the cornucopia of scents drifting from every direction, crashing together to create a slightly amazing, mostly unpleasant perfume.

Various kinds of vehicles zoomed on roads made of multicolor bricks, while pedestrians walked and skated over—I gasped.

The sidewalk was transparent, allowing us to peer into a long stretch of the underground railway.

“Tons of uniformed officers live here,” Shiloh explained. “ Cured owns everything and ensures the families of officers are rewarded with the bulk of jobs and homes.”

Hmm. Maybe I could snag a better job and residence for my mother. “How often do the infected break here?”

“Rarely. There’s maybe one every three months.”

Whoa. A break happened every week in Lucrea.

At least! So, yes. I had a new mission: Get my mother moved to Bala City.

Technically, I wasn’t allowed to have contact with her for three years.

But. If I avoided the place, there shouldn’t be a problem.

And, really, exceptions might be made if I succeeded in getting the right people involved.

Like, say, High Prince Dolion. Would he help me?

Shiloh led me around a corner, saying, “I hope you like doughnuts.”

A breakfast staple pre-Fall, or so I’d been told. “I had one when I was a little girl and I remember loving it.” Wait. Clutching his arm, I jumped up and down. “We’re eating a doughnut?” Already my mouth watered. Except. “How much are they?”

“Free.” He flashed a smile, and a little more of his sparkle returned. “I won a coupon.”

I thrilled with every step closer to our destination. Oh! I hadn’t told him my news about the Dolions or lemonade. “Guess what? I met King Dolion. Turns out he asked his son to look out for me because—”

Shiloh whipped to face me, anger radiating from him. “Did he threaten you too?”

“The king threatened you?” My brow wrinkled. “How? Why?”

He looked about, tightened his grip on my fingers, and ushered me into an alley, where fewer people collected.

As we crossed to the other end, he quietly said, “The king pulled me aside to ask about a correlation I found between eating pieces of the Rock and drinking the liquid inside it, with recovery from the Madness.” He pursed his lips.

“I can’t be the first to notice. The pattern is so obvious, there’s no getting around it. ”

“There are no pieces of the Rock. No way to tap into its interior.” To my knowledge, no section of the otherworldly structure had ever even cracked, no matter the methods employed against it. It never even acquired a layer of dust!

“There are ways. At least, that’s what glowers demonstrated. I’ve watched videos. They fed multiple maddened both the stone that isn’t stone and the liquid, whatever it is. No matter the severity of the illness, the sick recovered instantaneously. Worms died and sloughed off.”

Anxiety pricked my nape. Like Shiloh, I looked about. “I’m sure they manipulated the camera feed somehow. But I don’t think we should discuss this.” I decided to save the description of lemonade for another day and let the subject of the Dolions drop completely.

“That’s the problem. No one wants to talk about the Rock.

Not what it is or how it works. We’re told it’s the source of the Madness, but how can we be sure when we can’t study it?

What if the Rock is truly the cure and that’s the reason feeders react to it the way they do?

What if, deep down, they sense their only source of hope? ”

Dread slithered over me. This was Soalian talk, and if anyone overheard it, we’d both end up in a treatment facility. “Shiloh.”

“The only way to find out is to run tests,” he continued, his frustration amplifying. “But how can we run tests when Cured forbids it?”

“Shiloh,” I repeated. “You need to stop.”

“I’m not infected,” he rushed to inform me.

“The king ordered a daily test. When I came up negative this morning, he told me that my so-called evidence verged on extreme Soalian-speak, on par with John Victors, and recommended I switch my field of study. He also threatened to boot me from the program if I discussed the reason for the change with anyone.”

I opened and closed my mouth, no sound escaping.

What should I say? What should I think ?

On one hand, I hated that someone as wonderful as Shiloh was going through this.

I hadn’t forgotten his passion for curing the Madness, or why.

On the other hand, I understood the king’s reasoning.

Messing with the Rock could unleash consequences the world wasn’t prepared to combat.

The results of Shiloh’s research must be a mistake.

He’d messed up somewhere. Or, as I’d said, the glowers had tricked him.

“What’s happening to you is terrible,” I rasped, deciding to empathize with what I understood. The delay of a dream. I wrapped my arm around his waist as we snaked around a corner. “What are you going to do?”

“Figure it out or pick a new field of study.” His posture stiffened with determination. “There’s nothing else I can do.”

He must be gutted. “I wish I could wave a magic wand and, poof, fix this for you.”

“Come play with me.” A woman dressed as a lizard beckoned from the shadows of a statue of a half man, half lizard. “The things I can do to you...” She unrolled a forked tongue and flicked it in our direction.

We ignored her. “While I’m without a wand,” I told Shiloh, “I can balance the scale between us.”

His brows winged up. “Okay, I’m intrigued. How is the scale unbalanced?”

“Well, just before we met, I learned I’d achieved my lifelong dream of being accepted into the Center for Agriculture and Life Sciences.

But. To free my mom from the shackles of debt, I agreed to spend three years at Fort Bala Royal Academy.

I was a mess. Then this charming guy showed up and made me forget my troubles.

Suddenly I had a reason to smile. Now I owe him a day of fun and adventure. ”

We stopped at the end of a long line. He gazed down at me, the full megawatt sparkle reignited in his eyes. There was no mistaking it. His irises were a festival of lights.

“Balanced scales are important,” he said.

“I concur.” I straightened the already-straight neckline of his shirt. “Have I told you how handsome you look today?” He wore jeans and a comfortable tee with the words Trust Me I’m Almost a Doctor scripted across the chest.

“So I’m charming and handsome.” He teasingly puffed out his chest. “Good to know.”

I chuckled as we moved up the line. “The most charmingest and handsomest in all the land.”

He chuckled, too, but quickly got serious. “I think you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

Dazed, I peered up at him. “Thank you.”

He peered down at me, and a thread of longing uncoiled between us. The air thickened.

He wanted to kiss me; I knew it. Honestly, I wanted him to kiss me too.

And I could ask him to do it without saying a word.

Mykal had taught me the hand sign. But I didn’t do it.

For some reason, the HP’s face flashed across my mind.

That caged aggression in his eyes. That hint of amusement and that almost smile.

His intensity. My stomach flipped inside out.

“Hey! Move up,” someone called, and I jolted.

The moment with Shiloh ended as quickly as it started. We stepped forward, both nervously laughing off whatever had happened. Or hadn’t happened. I didn’t let myself consider why I’d hesitated or how I’d inadvertently planted an unwanted seed of desire for Cyrus Dolion.

I balled my hands into fists. Seeds could be dug up. That unconscious flash didn’t have to mean anything. Crush on my instructor? The son of the king. Grandson of the emperor, the most powerful man in both worlds. No. We weren’t even friends.

Shiloh was an amazing guy. I wanted him and only him. End of story. No need for further thought.

Arden Dawn Roosa.

“Yes?” I twisted my head this way and that and spun, searching for the woman who’d spoken my full name.

“Is something wrong?” Shiloh asked, confused as he looked around.

“No, I—” Across the street, a beautiful young lady draped in a red robe crooked her finger at me. Recalling the bearded man who’d worn something similar, I frowned.

Her mouth moved, as if she were speaking. Somehow, I heard her as if she stood directly beside me. Shiloh’s execution is set. If you’d like to save him, say nothing and follow me.

My jaw slackened. Her voice. I hadn’t heard her with my ears. I’d heard her in my mind. I opened and closed my mouth, questions and statements dying one after the other before one emerged. “How are you doing that?” I demanded.

“Doing what?” Shiloh asked, his confusion escalating.

She said nothing else. Just pivoted and disappeared around a corner.

“Arden?” my companion prompted.

I should forget her. Pretend what happened didn’t happen.

No doubt she meant me harm. But a need to speak with her stirred within me, strengthening into a tug before becoming a full-blown obsession.

Resisting became impossible. I had to know how she’d done what she’d done and what she knew about Shiloh.

“I’ll be back,” I muttered, rushing off before my date could respond. At the intersection, I paused for traffic. No one else traversed this area, so I had no trouble finding my target.

I lurched, halting as if I’d hit a brick wall. She had positioned herself in front of the Rock. The very Rock I had (not) seen the bearded man standing in.

What was I doing, letting a strange woman lure me into the unknown? Archduke Heta had taught me the importance of my surroundings. I didn’t know this space, but she did. She might be infected. A Soalian hoping to brainwash me. To use me as a key into the base.

Still. I couldn’t leave without answers. “How did you speak inside my head? Who are you? What did you mean, execution ?”

“I’m Ember Cruz, Shiloh’s sister.” Small circles with inner lines began to radiate a low-watt golden glow from her skin. “This is your first official invitation to the Tome Society. Join us and help me save my brother.”

I reared back. Glower! My knees knocked, her connection to Shiloh doing nothing to diminish my fright.

Tone wry, she said, “I’ll take your horrified expression as a no. But understand this. I’ll ask you only thrice and no more. The sooner you accept, the better off we’ll all be.”

I would rather die than join Soalians bent on destroying Cured . “If you actually had access to books detailing the future, you would’ve known not to waste your time targeting me.” The words frayed as I pushed them past clenched teeth.

“Eventually, you’ll say yes and we’ll become friends. I’ve seen it.” Her unwavering confidence shook mine. “I’d like to save you the regret your delay causes, but I can’t force you. You are the god of your own world, after all.” With a sad smile, she backed up and disappeared inside the stone.

Inside it. Exactly like the bearded man.

But that couldn’t be right.

There was no way I’d seen what I thought I’d seen. This was my hologram theory in action. Yes, yes. Another hologram. The real problem went deeper. A glower had invited me to join the Tome Society. Had threatened me with Shiloh’s death.

By some miracle, I returned to him without slipping into hysteria.

“Everything okay?” he asked, his brow wrinkled.

Better to dive right in. “Is your sister’s name Ember?”

He closed his eyes and groaned. “Please tell me she didn’t ask you to join the—” Lips pressed tightly together, he went quiet.

I gave a clipped nod. “She did. She called my name, and I foolishly followed her. She told me you’ve been marked for death.”

Another groan left him. “I should have warned you. I can’t apologize enough for failing to do so.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Don’t believe her. She hates Cured , and she’ll do anything to convince me to join her cult, even pressure my friends.”

Well, no wonder she’d sought me out and given me the hard sell. But the realization didn’t ease the pressure in my chest or stall the questions rolling through my brain.

“Let’s forget it happened,” I suggested. For now, anyway. Later, I planned to dissect every detail. “I owe you a day of fun, remember?”

“I do like a girl who keeps her word,” he said, but his smile wasn’t quite as bright.

Determined, I pasted a happy smile on my face and amped up my efforts. For half an hour, I regaled him with tales of my first attempts at plant propagation. He was still chuckling when we reached the head of the line and placed our order.

After devouring a doughnut more delicious than I remembered, we visited a garden maze, played like children at a park, sampled different foods he had other coupons for, and exchanged life stories.

I cheered him up—I know I did—and he helped me feel safer.

I didn’t think of Ember or the bearded man until I lay in bed that night, chained to the wall, with Mykal sleeping soundly on the other side of the room.

Knowing glowers, my enemy, wielded such an incredible ability to walk into solid structures opened a mental door to a boatload of fear.

Door. Door. The word echoed. If the Rock was a doorway to an actual library, as the Soalians professed ... did that mean Soal existed?

Stop this! Of course Soal and his library weren’t real. Besides, even if something the Soalians claimed was actually true, it didn’t change the devastation they caused the world. They were evil, and they deserved to be imprisoned.

I rolled to my side and pressed my palms to my churning belly.

The chain rattled, abrading my wrist, but it couldn’t drown out my riotous thoughts.

I needed to tell the HP about the invitation.

But should I? He’d want to know why I’d been chosen.

The truth could jeopardize Shiloh’s career at the worst possible interval.

But if I failed to tell the high prince the truth and he later found out, I’d look guilty.

And there was always the chance this was some kind of test.

No need to make a decision right now. Tomorrow marked my first trip to Theirland.

Ugh. The reminder threw fuel on the fire of my fear.

Sleep beckoned anyway. The last thoughts to drift through my mind before sleep pulled me into the dark brought a small measure of comfort. The HP isn’t a bad guy. He’ll help me with all of this. I can trust him. Maybe.