“How was your birthday?” I ask the next morning when Nua wakes me up by turning on the lamp. He throws his pillow at me, and then says, “Slept through half of it, and I’m still here. Take a guess.”

I don’t argue with that. He waits for breakfast to arrive, and then takes it to the library with him. I eat in my bed, getting muffin crumbs everywhere, and then I feel bad because Bayan is the one who will have to clean it up. I brush them into my hand the best I can, and then I freeze.

Bayan. He’s been with Ava since she was a child. She considers him more of a friend than a servant; the only thing keeping him from being a part of this family instead of just the housekeeper is Miss Lilly. And Ava doesn’t like her mother, I know that, no one does, including Bayan. He must know Ava well enough. And from what I learned in the middle of the night about Sloan, he’s smarter than he lets on.

Where would he be? Probably in the kitchen, I assume, so I go into the bathroom and put the crumbs in the toilet and then go downstairs. Sure enough, he’s inside, fixing another tray of breakfast, and looks over when I come in. “Master Aber.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Really,” he says, raising his eyebrows, and then picks up the tray. “It’ll have to wait a moment, Master Aber, I have to bring this to Miss Ava.”

“Yeah,” I say, sinking into a chair near the small table in here. “Yeah, okay.”

Keol’s question is a good one. Why don’t I just go to Ava about this? She’d know what to do. She probably already knows about Abigala, and I think she would want me to know about her too, I think she would want to help. And I trust her, at least more than I trust Miss Lilly. But that’s not a particularly reliable scale, is it. I trust everybody more than I trust Miss Lilly.

Bayan comes back then, and goes into the refrigerator. I watch him for a moment, and then say, “Bayan, I need to know about my sister.”

“You have a sister,” he says in slight surprise, not looking at me, and I nod. “My twin sister.”

Bayan jumps, and hits his head on the freezer door. He rubs his forehead and turns to me, letting the fridge door shut. “You have a twin?”

“That’s what Keol said,” I say in slight frustration. “Yes, I have a twin sister, and she was there at the shelter when it got raided, and Miss Lilly, the people who were working for her, they took her away. I know my parents are in trouble, but I just want to know if Abigala is safe.”

“Abigala Ahman,” says Bayan under his breath, sinking into a chair across from me, and licks his lips. “Master Aber, have you talked to Miss Ava about this?”

“No, but I have talked to Keol. He said he might help me.”

Bayan nods slowly, and then stands again. “The problem is that in here, you don’t get to know what’s happening out there.”

I snort in agreement; that’s an understatement.

“Go into town,” he suggests, not looking at me and busying himself with food prep again. “Get Miss Ava to bring you into town. All of you. And talk to her about it, Master Aber, she’ll understand.”

“That’s what Keol said,” I say under my breath. Bayan smiles slightly, and looks at me, his eyes saying something that I cannot decipher. “Go talk to them, Master Aber.”

I have half a mind to ask him about Sloan, but I don’t. He leaves the kitchen, and I sigh and look at the ceiling. I don’t even know what I want to do.

“Go into town, huh,” says Keol from the doorway, and I jump. “How long have you been there?”

“Like, two seconds,” he says. He’s leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed, and tilts his head. “You could go to the library.”

“The library here?”

“No, a public one,” says Keol. “In public ones they have newspapers, computers, stuff like that.”

I nod slowly, but then Keol says, “Although.”

“Although?”

“Ava needs to be with us,” says Keol. “They won’t let us in without her.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Really?”

“Yeah,” says Keol with a sigh, and joins me at the table. “Listen. I know you don’t want to, but Ava is on our side. She can help you with this, more than I could.”

“I can’t-”

“You can’t trust Lilly, and you know that,” interrupts Keol, “because you’re not an idiot. You’re smart. So is Ava. If we’re gonna go ask her to bring us into the city, she’s either gonna know why, or she’s gonna figure it out soon enough.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“You’re coming?” I say skeptically, and he smiles slightly. “I like the city.”

“I don’t know,” I say slowly, and Nua comes into the kitchen then as well, going to the fridge. “Don’t know what?”

“Aber has a twin sister,” says Keol, and I look at him. Nua turns to me slowly. “You have a twin?”

I sigh.

“Does Ava know?” asks Nua, putting his book down on the table, and Keol shakes his head. “Lilly might have done something to her, since you said she was at the shelter when Aber got taken.”

“Ask her,” says Nua. “She’ll understand.”

I push away from the table, frustrated, and stand up. “Fine, since that’s the only thing anyone says to do. Let’s just go tell her everything, let’s go and ask her right damn now.”

“Okay,” agrees Keol, and stands as well.

“Wait, no,” I say, but he’s on the way, and the door swings shut behind him. Nua snorts, grabbing his book, and we follow him, up the stairs and to Ava’s bedroom. He’s gone through our room and through the bathroom, and Nua opens the door from the hallway, but stays in the doorway. Don’t go in unless she says.

Ava looks up from where she’s sitting cross-legged on her bed leaning over her laptop, then leans back to brace herself on her hands and looks around at us, raising her eyebrows. “Hello.”

“We need to ask you something,” says Keol from the doorway to the bathroom, and I glance at him, surprised that he’s taking the lead. Ava looks over at him, as well, and then Nua finishes for him. “A favor.”

She grins a little at Keol, who obviously hates the idea of asking her for a favor, then looks back at Nua. “Yes?”

He glances over his shoulder at me. Ava looks at me as well, seeming slightly amused by the situation. I don’t look at Keol. “We want to go into town.”

She blinks, tilting her head, and thinks for a second before saying slowly, “Why?”

“We need something,” says Keol rudely, and she rolls her eyes and asks, “What do you need that you don’t have here?”

Nua looks at his feet, and she glances around at all of us again. “Or that I couldn’t get for you? Myself?”

None of us answer. I should; it’s my battle. After a moment of silence that starts to become awkward I open my mouth but once again, Keol speaks for me. “Information. On Aber’s sister.”

She leans back like she’s taking a hit, studying Keol but not looking at me. “You’re asking for this? For him? What’s in it for you?”

He looks back at her, still leaning against the door, and doesn’t respond.

“Doesn’t seem like you,” she says, then looks at Nua. “His sister, his problem. Not yours and definitely not mine. Why should I?”

Finally she looks at me, waiting for an answer, and when I don’t supply one she grins slightly. “I could probably figure out more than you could by poking around in the city. If I knew who she was.”

None of us say anything. Abigala’s name gets stuck in my throat, but I realize it now. Ava has always known I have a sister, she’s always known I have a twin. And she’s been playing this game, with me and Keol, dancing around us, holding the things we want over our heads. I can see it in her eyes now, as she looks at me, raising her eyebrows, but it’s Keol who says it. “You’ll use her against him. Make him beg to know.”

“You really think I’d do that?” she says, her voice dripping with cynicism as she picks up her cigarette package, and Keol stares at her defiantly as she lights one. “Yes.”

She nods in agreement as she inhales, and I look at Keol. He just looks exasperated, and through the smoke leaking out of her mouth Ava says, “I’ll think about it.”

She rolls off her bed, and Keol mutters, “Don’t you dare go and ask your mother.”

“Shut up,” she says, going towards him and exhaling smoke, and then she comes towards us. Nua and I step out of her way, and Keol manages to wait until she’s in the hallway to cough. “Fuck you.”

“Me?” I say in surprise, and Keol rolls his eyes. “Yes. Now she knows we want something, even though it’s just you. We’re all indebted to her if she decides to take us all on her little outing, and for what? So you can try and find your stupid twin who’s probably either dead or as married and manipulative as she is? What a great plan.”

“You didn’t have to come,” says Nua, and Keol coughs again, then turns in his heel and leaves the room through the bathroom. I wonder if he took his pill this morning, and sigh. “He was the one who ran up here to tell her.”

Nua shrugs, going through Ava’s room and to the bathroom. I follow him, and he throws his book down on his bed. “He doesn’t mean it.”

“Mean what?” I ask. Keol’s either gone or in his tiny little bedroom with the door shut.

“He’s not mad at you,” explains Nua. “He wants to help you.”

“Doesn’t seem like it.”

“Trust me,” says Nua with a slight grin. “She does, too.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” I mutter, flopping on my bed, and Nua just sighs, shakes his head, and lies down as well.

It takes three days, but suddenly one day at lunch Ava announces out of the blue, “We’re going into town tomorrow.”

Keol coughs and I almost choke on my drink, and Miss Lilly looks up. “You’re what?”

“Going into town,” repeats Ava.

“Who?”

“Me,” says Ava, “and them.”

“Why?” asks Miss Lilly, raising her eyebrows, and Ava shrugs. “Keol and I haven’t been in a while, and the boys want to see a library. A real one.”

Miss Lilly licks her lips, and then sighs. “Ava.”

“I know, mother,” says Ava. “We’ll take the train.”

Nua grins at me.

That night, I lie in my bed, my mind racing. We’re going into town tomorrow, and we might be going to a real library. I have no idea what to do about it. Suddenly Nua stands up and goes through the bathroom into Ava’s room, and I follow. He asks, “Do you have our cards?”

She’s lying on her bed with Keol’s head in her lap and his hand in hers, carefully painting a thin layer of black polish on his nails, and she looks over at us, and then nods. “I think so, yes.”

“Okay,” says Nua, and then leaves through the bathroom again. I lean against the doorway. “What cards?”

“Your IDs, the ones that say you’re married to me,” answers Ava, twisting Keol’s hand so she can reach his thumb. “They’ll let you in the library.”

Keol wiggles his eyebrows at me, and I bite my lip.  Shiv the cat is laying curled in the crook of his elbow, and Ava looks over at me.  “Aber.”

“Yeah.”

“I know about your sister,” she says with a sigh, gesturing me to sit. I do, on the edge of her bed. She tilts her head at me. “I knew about her before you asked me. And I know you want to find out if she’s okay, especially if my mother had anything to do with it.”

I don’t answer, looking at Keol, but he just shakes his head, holding up his hands as if to say wasn’t me.

“I’ll help you,” Ava says, and I look back her as she hesitates, and then says, “But I don’t think you’ll be able to find much in town.”

“Worth a shot,” says Keol through a yawn, stretching his hand up out in front of him to look at his black nails. “Bet there’s a whole bunch of twin information in town, hm?”

Ava looks down at him, a look in her eye, and he just smiles at her. “Twinformation.”

She rolls her eyes, pushing his arm that’s in the air, and sighs. But when she looks at me again, her eyes are soft. “Just don’t get too excited about tomorrow, okay?”

I sigh and nod and stand. Keol looks over, putting his hand with the black nails on Ava’s head, and says deadpan, “No, stay.”

“Go away, Aber,” says Ava, pulling Keol’s hand off her head, and I mutter, “Yeah, yeah, I’m going.”

“Don’t be mean to him,” I hear her say as I close the bathroom door behind me. I don’t hear Keol’s answer, but there’s a nice feeling in my belly as I crawl into bed.