I knew something was wrong when he didn't knock.
Not even a stupid half-tap like "hey, you alive?"
Just footsteps down the hall, pausing in front of my door. He was still standing there.
I sighed, hoping he would come in and we could just talk, like before.
After what happened with our mother, he became, quite rightly, overprotective. But it created a barrier between us, one where I couldn't tell him anything for fear of how he would react.
His footsteps finally started again. Too fast to be casual. Too quiet to be normal. Then the front door clicked shut.
I heard the car start up.
Dio always checked in. Even when he was mad. Even when he was pretending not to care.
I sat on my bed, half still in uniform, my braid fraying at the edges. The student council proposal flickered on my tablet beside me, budget allocations and scholarship programs.
Rejected.
All of them.
I sighed.
—
Last night, we came home together.
No words in the car. No music. Just the rain, steady on the windshield, and Dio gripping the wheel like he thought it might run away.
I had told him, half-joking,
"Don't get rained on."
But I don't think he heard me.
When we pulled into the garage, he got out first. Left his bag. His hoodie was soaked through by the time we reached the door, but he didn't seem to notice. He just walked inside like the rain had never touched him. Eyes blank. Body heavy.
He didn't say a word.
Later, I passed the bathroom.
The light was off, but something caught in the mirror.
A photo, left on the counter.
Dio and Anya, mid-summer. Her arm around his shoulder. His smile a little too wide.
Next to it... a twisted foil ring.
Gold. Crushed slightly at the side, like he'd held it too tight.
That ring. She used to show it off in class like it mattered, then hide it like we'd try to steal it. I used to think it was just a scrap of gold foil.
I never stopped to consider where she got it from.
Guess I knew now.
I didn't think they had broken up or anything, but something had clearly gone wrong. Or more like... I couldn't believe it. Because if Dio and Anya, who were quite literally perfect for each other, could fall apart, then where did that leave people like me?
I told Dio to go see her, and evidently something wasn't right.
Hopefully he was with her now.
I should've asked. But I didn't. Not then. Not now.
Who knew where he was?
I stared out the window.
The city gleamed like it always did. Polished steel. Sweeping transit veins. Digital skyboards pulsing promises no one believed. And above it all... the Citadel of Mirrors.
Watching.
I used to think it looked like a crown.
Now it felt like a blade, dangling by threads.
—
I put in my headphones and tried to study. It didn't last. My screen kept blurring, my focus unravelling.
Then a message popped up.
Then another. And another.
From Eitan.
You left before I could say it but... you looked beautiful today.
Even when you're threatening to riot over scholarship rejections.
Council was a mess without you.
I nearly approved an anti-vandalism drone shaped like a duck.
A gold duck...
You made the right call skipping early.
Also you were brilliant, Lyra.
As always.
I blinked. Then, before I could stop it, I smiled.
I always thought I knew what legacies were like. Soft, polished, built for optics. Maybe even corrupt.
But Eitan...
He talked about clean streets the way someone talks about forgetting the mess they grew up in. Like he wasn't just pretending to care... he was trying to forget that he once did too much.
He never said much about his family. Just that they were "better off pretending."
I didn't press. Not yet.
Maybe I liked the mystery. It gave me space to feel safe in him.
He never tried to fix me. He didn't offer advice or apologies. Just space... the kind that makes you feel like breathing is something sacred, not selfish.
He noticed things. When I needed a break. When my hands shook under the table. When I wanted someone to just listen.
He stayed behind after meetings to help clean up.
He listened without needing to speak.
He knew when not to push, and when silence was its own kind of care.
We got no work done together.
But we got each other.
My thumbs hovered over the phone. I didn't reply right away.
I hadn't told Dio about us. I didn't know how to.
Maybe because, for once, someone made me feel light instead of responsible.
And I wasn't ready to let anyone take that away.
—
I came home early today because I actually wanted to focus. I pulled open the Accord's Scholarship Initiative files again.
So many rejections. Most for the same reason.
"No registered address."
Essay after essay. Brilliant and raw. Sent from nowhere.
Then one caught my eye.
Perfect score. Elegantly written. Heartbreaking, even.
No return address. Just a name.
Kairo.
I didn't recognize it.
But something about it lingered. Enough to mark it. Enough to make a note to follow up.
Because someone had buried this.
And I wanted to know why.
—
Time passed.
It was around nine now. The house was quiet. Dad had come home late and was already asleep.
I called Dio.
No answer.
I left him a voicemail.
"Hey. You okay? Where are you? I... I know you went somewhere, just... call me."
I hung up. Waited.
I called Anya.
Straight to voicemail.
I bit the inside of my cheek. Something wasn't right.
Ten minutes later, I tried again.
"Anya didn't pick up either. Are you with her? Just... let me know you're alright. Please."
Still nothing.
The silence grew louder.
Rumours had already started on the student council. That Dio had been seen fighting with Cayos. That they'd sparred in self-defence class, and Dio followed him somewhere afterward.
I hadn't thought about Cayos since school. But now, with everything sideways, I remembered the look in his eye.
I was the one who had to give him the tour.
He didn't speak much. Asked almost no questions. But he listened. Too well.
Most people, you could tell when they were tuning out. He didn't. He absorbed. Like the walls, the layout, the people, all of it was just pieces of a puzzle he already knew the shape of.
And when he did speak, it was always something strange. Something that left a shape in your head you couldn't quite unsee.
He hadn't flirted with me. Not exactly. But there was a moment, a flicker, like he knew exactly how to get under someone's skin if he wanted to. The kind of boy who could ruin someone without ever raising his voice.
I remember what he said after I showed him the garden walkway behind the north wing.
He turned to me and said,
"People pretend to be scared of me. You're the first one who looked bored."
I blinked. "Maybe you're not as terrifying as you think."
He smiled, slow and knowing.
"Or maybe you're harder to impress than they are."
I laughed. Before I even realized it.
And then, when he asked for my number, not demanding, just... amused, I gave it to him.
Like it was a game.
Like I wanted to prove I wasn't rattled.
But I was.
Not because he was charming.
Because he saw too much.
Too fast.
That's when I saw Dio watching.
He didn't say anything. Just stood there for a second, frozen in the crowd.
Then someone, one of his friends, tugged him away.
So if Dio really had followed Cayos somewhere…
Then I wasn't just worried.
I was scared.
My gut twisted. I paced.
Then I remembered... I had admin access.
I pulled up the security feeds. My password barely registered. Fingers flying.
Found the time. The hallway.
There. Dio and Cayos. Talking beneath the copper willow. Close. Tense.
Dio got mad at something and started to yell.
I hoped this wasn't about me giving Cayos my number.
That wasn't the reason... right?
Cayos didn't react.
He just looked up.
Right at the camera.
And smiled.
I jerked back like I'd been burned.
I slammed the laptop shut. My pulse was racing.
I left another voicemail.
"Dio. If you can hear this... I don't know what you're doing, or what you're chasing, but please, please come back. Before the Gate opens. Just come back."
I didn't sleep.
I kept pacing. Checking the window. Waiting to hear the front door.
It was past midnight now.
I finally sat down.
This wasn't just recklessness. This was Dio chasing something no one could follow.
Not even me.
And what scared me most… was that he wouldn't come back.
I finally sent one last voicemail.
"Dio… whatever you're doing, just don't disappear on me. Not again. I'm still here. You don't have to carry it alone."