In Between

Chapter Fourteen: Spirits and Lies

"Where have you been?!" Mrs. Dalhart screeched as she practically dragged her son into the house by the ear.

Kieran wasn't surprised that his mother was home, because she had returned from spending the night in the loft of her store with his brother, Elijah, and his sister, Dina. What surprised him was that his father wasn't home. "Where's dad?" Kieran asked, accepting the sandwich that his mother was shoving under his nose.

"Oh, you haven't heard? I wonder why...Maybe it's because you were gallivanting around unsupervised instead of at home when it happened!" his mother scolded.

"When what happened?"

Karina paused while making a third sandwich and gave Kieran a mysterious sideways look. Finally, as if she couldn't contain it any longer, she turned and threw her hands up in the air. "Your father's been promoted!"

"Wait, what?"

"He and his team made a breakthrough in that top secret project they were working on! The Warriors promoted all of them and told them that they'd earned a short break from work. They get to spend some time overlooking the Warriors in the Strip. It's sort of an educational vacation," Mrs. Dalhart explained with a little laugh.

"You're saying that he isn't here?" Kieran asked, although he didn't really care where his father was as long as he wasn't in any trouble. Perhaps he and his team had been able to lie their way out of getting arrested after all. Whatever the case, it was good news.

"He won't be home for some time. Now, since I've gotten that news out of the way, do you mind explaining to me where you've been, young man?"

Kieran shrugged and avoided his mother's scrutinizing glare. She was a scary person to lie to, because as the shaman, she sometimes knew things that she shouldn't. Kieran had been caught before in situations where the lie hadn't been so important. He tried to look her in the eye and sound sincere, but decided to stick with telling half-truths to minimize his guilty mannerisms. "I was visiting dad at the lab with Draven. We must have missed his big breakthrough, because we left when it was getting late and slept over at Soren and Cain's house. I'm sorry that I didn't let you know," Kieran said, and his mother waved a dismissive hand.

"Fine, I'm in a good mood," she said at the same time that Kieran's siblings came barreling down the stairs.

"Mo—om!" Dina wailed. "Eli pulled Molly's head off!" she yelled.

"No, I didn't! I just accidentally dropped her a little, and it popped right off!" Elijah argued as they sprinted to a halt in front of their mother. Elijah shot Kieran a mischievous look that said he definitely did pull Molly the dolly's head off.

When his siblings started bickering again, and his mother was running to find tape for Molly's head, Kieran quietly slipped upstairs into his bedroom. In the back of his closet was a locked chest full of gold coins which he kept hidden partly because he was afraid of being robbed and partly because he wanted to remove the temptation to spend it all.

He took out enough coins to pay for Apryl and Bri's rent before returning the chest safely to the bottom of his closet and piling clothes and books overtop. Then he shoved the coins into the bottom of his pocket and collapsed onto his bed. He was too tired to think about anything, so he let himself nod off until his mother woke him the next morning.

Sitting down for breakfast without his father wasn't unusual, but the empty chair at the head of the table was a constant reminder that Kieran had never gotten to hear the last thing his father had been trying to tell him. He remembered the words exactly..."You have the power to help them. You can—"...what? It seemed extremely important, but now his father had disappeared on an "educational vacation" where Kieran wouldn't be able to ask him.