[Legacy of a Martyr #2] Liberation from the Masquerades (A Key Keepers novel)

Episode 2: I Must Go

My brothers, the others, and I—as well as Leon, at my request—gathered in Mother's old meeting room. In our year here, we'd only been in this room once before. We had to decide what would be best for everyone.

Upon leaving, Leon must've requested the room be dusted. You'd never know it'd be undisturbed for months. Those ladies really were something else.

At the head of the table, Ali rose. "Leon told you nothing, right?"

"Absolutely nothing." Eyebrows raised; Duke crossed his arms. "What's happening now?"

Ali rose. "I need to go home."

Ai raised an eyebrow. "To do what?"

"There are things I need to get figured out. Going home in the only way I can do that."

"It's been two years and you still haven't learned?" Marshall gritted his teeth. "You had no intention of telling us, but She forced your hand again, didn't She?"

"There's more." I rose. "But I don't know who you should hear this from..."

Noelle appeared behind my little brother. "Allow me. I was the one who made this critical discovery, after all."

Everyone, but Ali and I, looked at her with wide eyes. Like deer caught in the headlights as he'd say.

"That's fair." He sat down. "Have at it."

I sighed and followed his lead.

Noelle took the long way around the room, the soles of her shoes clacked on the hardwood floor until she stopped in front of the little girl, we all called Lie. "Sweetie... I have news for you that will change everything."

Seemingly on instinct, the boys each grabbed one of her hands.

"Your parents aren't dead. They never were." She gazed into Lie's big, brown eyes. "They're in this place Alain needs to search anyway."

Duke leaned back in his chair. "What do you need to go home for in the first place?"

He drew a long breath. "I have this girl I need to look for. I need to check if the information they spat out is accurate or not."

"A girl? Who even is she?"

"She was a childhood friend."

Duke sat up straighter. "A childhood friend? When was the last time you saw her? When you were four?"

If looks could kill... Ali glared daggers at him.

Still, Duke's questions were fair. If I didn't know better, I'd assume he was older. He didn't have the girly voice he had when Ali first freed me. He was tall. He could probably pass for nineteen if he really wanted to.

Ai muttered the words Ali must've thought before her, "Usodayo?"

"I wondered if it was a lie, too," he replied. "Noelle wouldn't have said anything if she thought it were. She's not like that." He turned to his Protector. "I imagine you've done more digging?"