Keystone (36 page)

“It definitely was them,” Milo says. “But The Fury has sewn themselves right into the Ianua, Nalena. They’re in so deep that it’s getting hard to tell who’s Fury and who’s Ianua anymore.”

The sick thread spins in my gut. If what he’s saying is true, then he’s pretty much telling me that Robin is right. We can’t trust him. We can’t trust anyone. But I trust Principal VanWeider and he said Milo is okay. And I’m more frightened to stop trusting than to take a chance on Milo.

I blink and Milo does this awkward little laugh. His brow goes soft as he says, “Don’t worry, Nalena, I’m not the one you have to look out for.”

He says it so simply it should feel reassuring, but instead, his words spin another dark thread in my stomach. I squint at him. “Oh yeah? Then who is?”

“I wish I could tell you.” Milo shrugs. “I wish I knew myself, but no one tells me anything. Things are such a mess, I don’t know how we’re going to fix it all. All I know is that I’m the black sheep and my parents were a waste.”

Waste.
I meet his mocha gaze, but his eyes have changed color. Now they are the color of sand, trapped beneath the ocean. I think of what Addo said about the Alo under pressure. Even though Milo’s a head taller than me and even though he looks like he could hold his own in a fight, he’s still Alo. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s the new guy in a new Cura that doesn’t want him any more than his old Cura did. I get that sometimes it’s just too much.

So when he drops his head, I don’t leave. Instead, I sit beside Milo Frangere as he tries to pretend that he’s not crying quietly into his hands.

We sit a while and, somehow, it makes it even more awkward that Milo is not just a stranger, not just handsome, and not just a boy crying in front of me, but that he is all of these things, all at once. And even though I don’t know where to look or what to do with my hands or what to say, I still feel like I understand him in ways that make me the only person that can really sit here beside him. So I stay.

“Sorry,” he finally says, wiping his eyes like he wishes he could dig them out. He won’t look me in the face.

“It’s okay,” I tell him. I don’t try to touch him. It seems like that would make it creepy, even though I think it’d make him feel better. More connected. I sit on my hands.

“Thanks.” He runs a hand through his hair. “I don’t know why that happened.”

“No big deal,” I say. He still won’t look me in the face and I think it’s my cue to go. Maybe he’s not done crying. Maybe he needs to have one of those moments, where he can bury his face and sob so hard that it’ll feel like his ribs are hitting his spine. I get it, so I stand up to go and decide not to even look back until he says, “You dropped something.”

I turn and he’s holding the photo of my parents and their friends. But he’s not just looking, he’s really studying it.

“Where did you get this?” he asks.

“Why? Do you know them?”

“Yes,” he says. He taps a finger over the couple on the left, the ones Clint called Minxy and Rustacuffs. “Those are my parents, Elaina and Rhus. That’s my mom’s ring. I’ve never seen what my dad looked like this young. I wish my mom’s face wasn’t smudged out.”

“Are you sure? Clint called them…”

“Minxy and Rusty Cuffs?” Milo says. He separates the second name so it sounds more like a name than a thing. “They called my mom that because she was…popular. But I guess she could never shake what she felt for my dad. She had an on-going affair with him, even while she was married to Steven. That’s how I came about. And they called my dad Rusty Cuffs because he was always in trouble. I guess the joke was that the handcuffs would be rusty before he ever got out of them.”

“Wow,” I say. I drop back down on the bench beside him. I point to the girl beside Clint. “Do you know who she is?”

“Sure,” Milo nods without taking his eyes off the picture. His voice goes dull. “That’s my aunt. Ignatia.”

Chapter 15

I CAN HARDLY GET THE words out. “I.G.? Ig? She’s your aunt?”

“My dad, Rhus…it’s his sister.” He nods. “She’s Simple, but once my dad went to The Fury, it didn’t matter.”

“Did the community do something to her?”

“No, not the Ianua. But the Simple folks don’t really want you around either, when your brother is a thief and a womanizer. It was hard on my aunt. And it got even harder when I got dumped on her.” He rubs his forehead and I wait for him to continue. “I don’t remember anything about moving there, besides the huge bed where I slept. I was little, so I used to roll off it sometimes when I was sleeping.

“My father got custody automatically when my mother died. He pawned me off on my aunt. She was only about sixteen years old and stuck living off my dad and all his crooked schemes and panhandling.

“She agreed to take care of me because she was in love with a guy who was crazy about kids. When he was around, she was great to me.”

“What about when her boyfriend wasn’t around?” I ask.

“She didn’t beat me or lock me up or anything,” he says. “She just acted like I wasn’t there.”

“That can be just as bad.”

“Sometimes it was. Sometimes I think it was better that way,” he says and then he shakes his shoulders back and straightens up, holding the picture out to me. “At least we’re both at peace now.”

“When did she die?”

“Die?” he scoffs. A cloud passes over the skylight above us and it turns the mocha shade of his eyes a deeper brown. “She’s not dead. She went to the Fury and it drove her insane. So now you know my secret. The real reason why I needed to get out of my Cura. Aunt Ig finally gave in, years ago, and followed her boyfriend into The Fury. She would’ve followed him anywhere, even though he never loved her. He called her his favorite distraction. He never really lied to her. He always said he was passing time until he got back with his real family. She just never believed him.”

Milo holds out the picture to me and I glimpse the little girl with the pointed face, inclined toward Roger.

And I see it.

Milo’s fingers touch mine and Clint’s words come blasting back to me.

That bastard she’s with.

Roger helped himself to what was mine.

I hope they kill you faster, instead of leaving you around to rot, like he did to her.

I stand up, sit down, stand up again.

I want to run away from Milo.

I want Garrett. Instead, I meet Milo square in the eyes.

“Milo?” I say, “was Ignatia in love with my father?”

Milo drops his gaze and rubs his knuckles again.

“He was good to me,” is all he says.

Stunned.

Walking away.

Opening the slider to my apartment.

Milo behind me.

Turning.

Telling him to go away.

Closing, locking my door.

Good to him?

“Nalena,” Milo’s voice comes through the glass. “Nalena, please…”

“Why didn’t you tell me you knew Roger?”

“Why do you think?” he says. “My parents. My insane aunt. Your dad. I’ve come from the worst of everything. Your dad was my dad’s best friend. And my aunt’s boyfriend. I just wanted to give you a chance to get to know me first.”

A chance.

I have a chance.

And I don’t even know what to do with it.

I can turn away. I can understand. I can maybe find out something about The Key.

Milo might know where Roger hid my grandfather’s memory. But even if he doesn’t, maybe his aunt does. Maybe she’ll hate Roger enough to tell his secrets. Or maybe the insanity has already revealed them. I imagine all kinds of possibilities about what she might know, might tell. This could be my one chance to end the worst of everything, for all of us.

I open the door.

“Do you understand what my father did to all of us?” I ask Milo. He nods.

“I’m really…”

“No,” I say, keeping a steady voice. “I mean, do you know that my father stole my grandfather’s Memory?”

“I heard,” he says, “but your father always said it was a lie.”

“It’s not.”

“So you’re looking for The Key,” he says. “I wish I could tell you where it’s at, but Roger insisted he didn’t have it.”

“He was a liar,” I say. I tip my head. “Can I talk to your aunt?”

There is a flicker in his eyes, there and gone, but I see it. He’s either hiding a secret or he just wants to hide her. I can see how she might be totally out of her tree and he might be completely embarrassed by her. People used to say my mom was insane because of her paper hoarding and it embarrassed me, even though it wasn’t true. I don’t know much about real insanity, but with the kind of background we’ve both had, I can understand why he wouldn’t want anyone getting ahold of one more stick to throw on the fire.

“We could try,” he says the words slowly, as if he’s not even sure it’ll work. “She’s never told me anything about it, but maybe it’d be different because your Roger’s daughter. When do you want to go? I mean, we could even go now, if you really think it would help.”

He reaches out his hand as if we’re going to start flying if I just put my hand in his. I don’t. I just stare at the open invitation and say the stupidest girl-thing that comes into my head.

“Garrett can’t go right now,” I say. “He’s on watch.”

“Oh,” Milo drops his hand, looks away. “Oops. That’s right. You don’t go anywhere without your boyfriend. I noticed that.”

“That’s not true,” I say, but my voice climbs because it is kind of true. Actually, it’s right-on-the-head true. Garrett knows everything that I don’t about the Ianua. He’s completely trained. His Cavises aren’t leaking out of his elbows. I feel like I can handle what comes at me when he’s with me, but maybe it’s because I know he’ll take care of anything I can’t.

“So let’s go then,” Milo says, backing away from the door, so I can come out. He holds his hand out again and my nerves jump up and twitch an angry dance beneath my skin. I’m not sure who he thinks he is or even who he thinks I am.

“Um, I don’t jump just because you say I need to,” I tell him. I keep my voice slow and controlled. “Whether or not your parents are the worst things on the planet and whether or not you’re part of my Cura now, it doesn’t change that I don’t really know who you are, Milo. And I just figured out that you really don’t have a clue about me either, especially if you think that insulting Garrett in front of me is a good idea.”

Milo drops his hands and his eyebrows spike.

“I apologize,” he says, but he fumbles with the words. “I mean it, Nalena. I apologize. I shouldn’t have said that. It just seems like you don’t do anything without Garrett.”

“I don’t,” I say. “And you should remember that he’s the one who kept Robin from fileting you.”

“He did.” Milo nods. “I guess I should just shut up.”

“Probably,” I say. “Good night, Milo.”

“Look, I’ll still take you to see her,” he says as I begin to close the door. “Tomorrow morning. Around nine, if you want. Garrett’s welcome to come too.”

“That’d be great,” I say and I close my apartment door.