Phoenix Flame - Sara Holland Page 0,15

schedules, helping out with dinner. I don’t mind it at all, but the silence and stillness is nice too.

“What are you working on?” I ask her after I’ve had a few sips of my coffee.

She tilts up her coloring book and shows me. It’s a scene from that Disney Rapunzel movie, I think. The page shows a little girl in a poofy dress, holding hands with her mother, a dark-haired woman, as they look out the window of their tower.

Mom. Her face fills my mind like a lightning strike. With everything that’s been going on in the last few days, I’ve scarcely thought of her, painful as that is to admit. For ten years now, she’s been sitting in prison, only a nominal part of my life—and now she’s on death row, convicted of killing Nate. But she’s innocent. I always knew she didn’t kill him, but until a few days ago, I’d never known what actually happened or how mixed up she was in the soul trade. She was one of the safe houses for the enchanted artifacts Marcus smuggled out of Havenfall, away from the trade. She knew Nate was a Solarian, and she protected him. Until the day when she couldn’t.

“Sura,” Sura says, pointing to the figure of the girl that she’s colored to look like herself, with light-gold-toned skin and brown hair. She points next to the woman’s figure. “And Feya.”

I don’t know who Feya is, but I hope the coloring book doesn’t include the twist that the mother in the movie is the villain. Thoughts of Mom keep swirling around my head. Ever since that horrible night, since she’s been in jail, she’s tried to convince me that the public narrative is true; that she did kill my brother. Why would she do that? To protect me from the people who took him? To stop me from going and looking for him? She must know something.

And slowly, a plan forms in my mind. Something I can actually do.

4

At dinner, I ask Marcus to let me go visit my dad in Sterling, and Marcus agrees more readily than I expected. But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. My excuse—that I didn’t check in with Dad while I was occupied with the Silver Prince—is true. And since Mom’s been in prison, Marcus has always been scrupulously careful to stay on Dad’s good side. We both know Dad doesn’t love the fact that I spend my summers at Havenfall rather than doing something normal or useful, like summer camp or a job in town. But even when I went to Havenfall this summer without clearing it with him first, he didn’t get angry with me. He and Marcus have both been careful not to tear our family apart any more than it already has been, and I’m grateful for it.

Tonight it’s a relief to skip the dancing. After we eat, I go up to my room to pack while the Elemental Orchestra’s music filters up from below. My heart beats fast in anticipation of movement, of seeing Dad. Then Mom.

Of course I didn’t tell Marcus the whole plan. I had already filled out the visitor form on my laptop in my room last night, hunched over the screen in the dark. Mom must have some information about the black market, and I need to tell her I finally know the truth about Nate. Maybe now she’ll finally open up to me. Maybe now the life will come back into her eyes.

The next day, I wake up stupid early—so early it’s still dark outside my bedroom window—and Marcus drives me to the bus. We don’t talk much on the way there, and when we pull off on the road shoulder that serves as a bus stop, Marcus parks the car without speaking. Outside, the world is gray and misty, quiet except for a few lonely birds chirping, their songs muffled in the fog. We sit in silence for a few minutes—neither of us have had our coffee yet. But then Marcus surprises me by drawing in a big breath, like he’s about to make a speech.

“I’m sorry we can’t do more about the soul trade right now, Maddie,” he says. “I know it’s important to you. It’s important to me too.”

He falls silent, waiting for me to reply.

I want to say it’s okay. I understand, but the words stick in my throat. I get that we have to stay alert and keep Havenfall safe. I get that it’s not