Piper

 

Kai and I were sitting at an outside café, waiting for our drinks and I was trying to get a hold of Dez on the phone. I knew that he and Enele had arrived in Berlin three days ago, but they’d been skimpy on calls and details since. I didn't know whether it was because they were guys or because they honestly had nothing to tell me, but either way, it was driving me insane.

“Uh oh, who’s gonna get punched?” Kai teased, leaning over and swiping my phone.

“Hey!” I snapped, grabbing it back.

“Piper, come on, put it away. I’m here to spend time with you. To re-forge our sibling bonds. And you’re scowling at your phone,” Kai said, shaking his head and giving me puppy dog eyes.

“You’re here to make a complicated situation even more complicated,” I muttered. “That’s what you do, Kai.”

“Ouch,” Kai said with a laugh. “Don’t hold back, sis.”

Placing the phone down, I fixed a glare on him. “Why haven’t you left yet?”

“Isla wanted to see the National Archeological Museum,” Kai said smoothly. “Who am I to deny an artist the chance to explore the great treasures of the past? For that matter, who are you?”

I fought down a laugh at my brother’s antics. Kai was so infuriating with his calm and jolly demeanor. In a way, it was almost a little jarring, as I was used to the energetic goofball who liked to test the limits of his own self-destruction. My instincts seemed to lag behind when it came to Kai – still attuned to a reckless teenager trying to outrun the past and the cops.

Kai was still energetic, but it was a controlled energy now, showing in the hard lines of his muscled surfer’s body and dancing eyes. More than one girl who’d walked by had given him a double-take. Without meaning to, I reached out and pressed a hand to the side of his scruffy face. I could still see that little boy with his big brown eyes, hugging a ragged stuffed jaguar and asking if he could come along with me and Balt.

“Are you having a mid-life crisis?” Kai asked and I swatted his head.

“I’m not fifty, Kai.”

“You’re acting like it, all hunched up and vinegar-lipped.” Kai did an exaggerated imitation of an old lady using a cane. “C’mon, talk to me. No more secrets, remember?”

“I don’t remember that Kai," I said with a smile.

“It was implied. Solidarity as former TLO prisoners,” Kai said with a laugh.

He has Mom’s strength, I thought to myself. And her gift to light up the world.

“Now you’re staring at me like you’re on your deathbed and all nostalgic,” Kai said, wrinkling his nose. “Piper, I can sense something is wrong.” He blew out a breath. “I’ve had this feeling for weeks, like an ache that won’t go away.”

“You don’t like keeping secrets, Kai,” I said in a soft voice.

At that moment, our drinks came and interrupted whatever he was about to retort. I watched his expression change from one of indignation to contemplation.

“I don’t,” he agreed. “They wear on the soul. I prefer honesty. The stark-naked kind.”

In the past three days, while Kai and Isla had refused to leave, Balt and I had given them a rough sketch of the events over the past few weeks. But it was a story missing several key points and I knew both of them were smart enough to pick up on that.

Especially Kai, who’d raised an eyebrow at several points during the telling, yet miraculously had kept his opinions to himself. Until he could get me alone, I realized.

Isla and Kai had planned this.

She would both get to spend time with Balt and delicately lean on him with all of her little sister-ish wiles. And Kai would sit here and laconically demand the truth.

“Spit it out,” he said, proving my point.

“You and Isla do make a good team,” I muttered. “Kai, I can’t tell you. Balt doesn’t want Isla to know or be involved. It’s not my secret I’m keeping – it’s his.”

Kai grimaced. “So, you would tell me if I kept it from Isla?”

I raised my eyebrows. “You’d keep something like this from her? Wouldn’t she know?”

“Hey, I kept your secrets, my secrets, Shifters of Anubis and shifting from her for a minute there,” Kai pointed out. “Although I was terrible at it. She does have a sharp eye.”

“She does. Reminds me of Maria. That woman had a sixth sense about things.”

“Could you tell me part of it?” Kai pressed.

I sighed and leaned into my hand. “Kai, let it go. Tell me about Japan. How is Kuwe?”

“Still cracking jokes and skulls,” Kai said absently. “You know, he was right about you. Right about everything, back then.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“I mentioned to him how I was worried about you,” Kai went on, ignoring me. “He said I should trust my instincts. Come and see you. Lend a hand.” He paused. “Then Enele texted me the other day, right when we were at the airport and I was wondering if we should just hop a plane to Greece instead of Maui.” Taking a deep breath, Kai said, “Enele said you needed help. That it was too much for one person to shoulder. So, I won’t tell Isla. She’ll understand.”

I stared at my younger brother. “Are you serious?”

He nodded, his gaze unwavering. “After everything you’ve done for me, Piper – questionably executed or not – I’m here for you now. And Balt. I’d be nothing without you two, loath as I am to admit it. What’s going on? How can I help?”

Downing the rest of my coffee, I slapped down double the bill and triple the tip, then stood up. Kai followed, grinning around his straw and I shook my head. Nodding, he took one last sip and put it back on the table.

Walking around the corner, I wove through the streets with Kai a step behind and surveyed the rooftops. In another moment, I’d ducked down an alley, shifted and leaped onto a shady roof-deck. Lined with trees, it had a corner garden and a burbling fountain. No residents were home.

A second later, Kai was next to me and taking in the view. Shifting back, I watched my brother sniff around and then also shift back.

“Breaking and entering,” Kai said with a wolfish grin. “I like it.”

“No one is home and we needed a place to talk without being overheard,” I said, sitting down on a chair and folding my hands over my stomach. “Now be quiet and listen.”

To his credit, Kai listened although his eyes grew bigger and bigger, while his jaw dropped. I told him everything, more or less, omitting only the parts that belonged to Balt and me alone, along with the request of the Decem.

After I finished Kai sat back and shook his head. “Now I see why Balt doesn’t want Isla to know. Yikes, does that old broad sound scary.” He paused. “It’s wild, but it all makes sense now.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, honestly curious.

“Well, first – why the TLO was after Isla – why she was such a special case to them. If they hand-delivered a long-lost Kazan to the family, what would they get in return – besides money and connections?” He lifted his eyebrows “Maybe a curse antidote? Money? At the very least – leverage.”

“But the person who was after Isla wasn’t a Kazan,” I said.

“Are you so sure?” Kai pointed out.

Leaning forward, I was about to respond and the pieces fell into place.

Suddenly I could see what Kai did. If someone close to the Kyría brought Isla in as leverage… There was no telling what Balt’s grandmother would do. For all of her talk about Kyros, I could tell the woman regretted the unfinished business with her son. And she’d spoken so angrily of her youngest granddaughter’s death. It was a wound that had not healed.

Maybe, I thought, with a sharp stab of pity in my heart. Maybe she lost hope after Kyros’s death. She didn’t think the Kazans could ever be free, so they might as well have been powerful.

“And they used Filian as the go-between for the Kazan’s and the TLO,” I murmured. “Or the SoA. No one would think of it because everyone does business with Filian. Or did, rather.”

Then Filian had reached out to the SoA, urgently. But the TLO had gotten there first. Suddenly, I was sure that Filian was going to give us the name of a Kazan.

A double-crosser only interested in his own power.

“You know who it was, don’t you?” Kai asked.

“I have an idea,” I murmured, gritting my jaw.

“So, Enele is in Germany with Balt’s friend Desmond right now. And they’re hanging out with Dr. Iyer to try to figure out a curse reverse – don’t hate,” Kai said as I made a face. “But if they don’t have an answer – you’re going to meet Lilian Frost?”

I nodded and looked down. “I have no choice.”

“You really don’t, damn Piper. You’re backed into all sorts of corners. Alright,” he said.

"Alright, what?" I asked.

“We’ll send off Isla and Balt again – then we’ll go meet Frosty and see what she wants. Maybe I can even hang back and then swing in, snag the stuff and run.”

“I doubt she’d leave that kind of an opening, Kai,” I said, even though I’d been thinking along the same lines. “In fact, she may not even bring it along. She may not even have it.”

“She has it,” Kai said confidentially. “Damn, I hate when the bad guys have the upper hand.”

I wondered again what Frost would ask of me. There was no way she wouldn’t dangle that cure without having something truly heinous in mind. Information on SoA? Kai? Isla? My eyes went wide and I looked up at Kai.

“Now what?” He asked.

“Kai, you can’t come with me,” I blurted out. “Frost, she um, she…” I winced, thinking back on it. “Maybe it’s better if I don’t tell you.”

“No, no honesty is the best policy. I can handle it.”

“She um, mentioned how you were her favorite and how she wanted you as a mate.”

Kai cringed and shook his head. “Wow, wasn’t expecting quite that high of a compliment. And she’s super into those old-school shifter words, huh?” He suddenly laughed. “Really no accounting for taste, huh?”

I laughed and said, “I understand if you don’t want to come.”

“Piper, I’m not worried about it,” Kai said breezily. “Maybe my good looks will serve as a distraction.”

Resisting the urge to hit him, I instead checked my phone again and sighed. In my mind, I was picturing Balt walking with Isla, smiling at her when she got excited about something and trying not to lament the years they’d lost. I closed my eyes. Their time now couldn’t be cut short.

Kai’s hand landed on my back with a solid smack and I jumped. He gripped my shoulder and gave me a steadying look. “We are going to make it through this, Piper. Everything’s gonna be okay.”

“I’m glad you’re here,” I admitted and he beamed at me. “It does make me feel like everything is going to work out. Somehow.”

Falling silent, we stared out across the city and listened to the noise drifting up from the street below. Chatter, footsteps, and shouts. If I wanted, I could hone in on a particular voice, a particular sound, but instead, I just let it rise up and over me.

I hadn’t even told Balt about the Decem or the truth of the curse.

Never mind the biggest secret I’d been keeping from him.

I wanted to wait. I wanted it to be the perfect moment so I could spill my soul to Balt. I’d almost done it the other night when I’d gotten drunk. But it couldn’t be like that. It had to be somewhere special and meaningful. He deserved that.

But maybe I was trying too hard to make it perfect, as was my wont. Maybe spontaneous was better. Or maybe not.

“How did you tell Isla how you felt about her?” I asked and Kai’s head flew up.

For a moment, he stared at me and then he gave me a sweet, crooked smile. “Don’t tell her I told you this, but she kind of accidentally blurted it out and surprised the both of us. Then I told her – after I had to chase her down and break down her door because it floored me. I mean it, Piper, I couldn’t even move.”

A laugh popped out of me and I clapped a hand over my mouth. “Oh, Kai,” I said.

“Wait, you and Balt are together, but you haven’t told him…” I made a face and looked away. Kai chuckled and ruffled my hair. “Oh, Piper. Some things never change.”

“It’s implied,” I said indignantly, shooting him a look.

“Implied isn’t the same thing as said.” Kai had a meditative expression. “Tell him, Piper.”

“For some reason,” I said slowly, a little unnerved to be having this conversation with my younger brother. “I keep getting the sense he doesn’t want me to. There’s some resistance there.”

“Maybe it’s not his, but yours,” Kai suggested softly. “It is scary. I was scared. Isla’s the brave one, but it was worth the jump.” He grinned a little. “Trust me.”

I shook my head at him. “When did you get to be so smart?”

“Hey, I had to keep up with you!” Kai said with a laugh.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like the right time,” I murmured. “Too much is happening.”

“But that’s life, Piper. Think about how Isla and I met. Her first impression of me was ‘oh here’s a surfer bro with too many cats who kidnapped me and spirited me to Maui.’”

“Breaking the rules really worked out in that case,” I murmured absently.

Sitting up, I pulled in a small breath as an idea hit me and I let out a soft gasp. Then a smile spread across my face. After days of mental fog, the clouds were clearing and piece after piece of a daring, audacious and far too perfect plan fell together.

“Oh, I know that look,” Kai said with a grin. “What’s cookin’ in that head of yours, sis?”

“Breaking some more rules,” I said with a grin to match.