Page 160 of Storm Caller

My mom’s focus drops to her hands twisting in her lap.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I shouldn’t have pretended. I should have been braver.” Then, she looks up at my father. “Why didn’t you just tell me? Did you really think me so weak?”

“I hoped you’d never find out,” he answers, ignoring her second question.

It feels like one of the truest things he’s ever said to her.

“So we’ve all been living with our lies,” I say. “One big happy family of deception.”

I sink onto my pillow and stare at the ceiling as we’re all quiet for several moments.

“What happens now?” my mother asks, and I look over at her.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean . . . are you safe? What if someone else finds out?”

Her expression brims with worry, her eyes glassy with tears.

“I don’t think I’m safe here, no,” I say. “Soon, it will be time for me to leave.”

“And go where?”

“I’m not sure yet. There are so many things you don’t know.”

“Tell me,” she whispers. “I’m ready to hear everything.”

Last time I was in this apartment, my father tried to stop me from talking within these walls, worried someone might overhear. I wait for him to object, but he just nods. Maybe I get it because now he’s regarding me with the tentative caution of someone who understands that things are about to change forever.

Maybe it doesn’t matter who hears us anymore.

So I lay it all out. Cards on the table. Almost nothing held back.

I tell my mom everything, including what I saw in the Veil and about the cure. I tell her what I really am. Everything she didn’t know, plus some things my father didn’t know as well. The only thing I don’t share is what I know about the Fog.

When I’m done, they both study me warily, as though they’re recognizing me for the very first time.

“I see,” my mother says, though I’m not sure if that’s true. Still, she’s handling it all better than I expected. “You lied to The Shield?” she asks my father. “To protect our children?”

“I did,” he says. “And I would do it a hundred times again.”

She watches him, something flitting across her expression that tells me she really did love him at one point. I realize that we’ve both been hoping. Waiting for him to become the man we needed and wanted. I’ve long since accepted that he could never become that for me, but I think a small part of her is still hanging on.

“This is . . .” she says, again staring at her hands. “I’m not sure what to do with any of this information.”

“They’re coming,” I say, sitting up, relieved to find my head has stopped spinning. “The army of the Veil is headed toward the city. They should be here in a matter of days.”

At that, my father’s brows climb. “What? Why?”

“The Shield attacked a Whisper Sanctum. Killed everyone, and now they’re retaliating.”

“Skies,” my father says, running a hand through his hair. “How many?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. Hundreds? All of them? They’re angry. They killed High Commander Athira’s son, and they will answer for it.”

My father crosses the room, sinking into a chair in the corner, where he leans forward with his elbows on his knees. “We have to alert the Patrol. The Shield. Everyone.”

I nod. “I’m telling you this to do with what you will. I believe the Veil is justified in their anger and their retaliation, but there are innocent people here, and they don’t deserve to die for the actions of The Shield.”