Chapter 26: Chapter 26

Cale's voice sounded more exhausted than ever, but there was a new determination in it. "It wasn't Zavier. It must have been somebody else. So I need you to think back to whom you saw when you first woke up, so to speak. When you first started remembering again."

Lysandra thought. She reached back as far as she could, past Zavier trying to Erase her memory, past her father's arrest. Past the words of her father, which she'd just recalled. Past Nereus cornering her in a dark closet.

She held one image somewhere deep in her memory, an image of her father, with agony etched on his face, blood on his mouth, hands outstretched. Beside him a man with dark hair and bright, unnatural eyes, laughing and dragging him away. Her sixteen-year-old self crouched just a few feet away, gasping for breath, confused.

"I saw my father," she said. "And someone else. I don't know his name."

"Someone else." Cale nodded as though he also recalled that someone else from her early memories. "Tell me what he looked like."

"He had dark hair," Lysandra said. "Kind of long. And his eyes were a strange, cloudy gray."

"Anything else?" Cale asked.

"He... he was wearing all black," Lysandra said.

"Memory Recoder black," Cale responded.

"Is that true?" Lysandra remembered wondering, when she'd first seen Cale, whether all Memory Recoders had to wear a certain color. She'd doubted it at the time.

"It's true. After the government finally accepted Memory Recoding as a practice, they decided to exercise their will over how it worked," he told her.

"So all black," Lysandra said. "And..."

"And what?" Cale's blue eyes snapped to hers.

"A chain," she said. "A chain hanging around his neck."

"What kind of chain?" Cale asked.

"I don't know," Lysandra answered. "Just a chain."

Cale tipped his head back. "That's a clue," he breathed.

"How? So we know what the man looks like. He could be long gone by now. Or maybe even dead." Lysandra threw up her hands.

"Maybe," Cale conceded. "But he was a Thief."

Lysandra's mouth fell open. "So he stole my memories."

Cale nodded. "The Memory Thieves. They all wear chains around their necks. Either it's a symbol of their status, or it helps them steal memories. I'll never know."

"Wait," Lysandra choked out. She had recognized the chain for one reason - the man in her memories hadn't been the only one wearing something like it. "Viatrix - the Memory Recoder Zephyr went to - he had one of those chains too."

Cale's face went white. He ran a hand over his jaw, trying to process what he had just heard. "Viatrix is a Thief."

"I mean - it's not certain," Lysandra said quickly, trying for some reason to cover up for what she had just let slip. "Maybe I - remembered it wrong."

"No," Cale said, his tone an eerie calm. "You remembered it right. I know. I saw it in your memories."

Lysandra sighed. "Okay," she said. "So let me get this straight. Viatrix wasn't the one who was with my father. Neither was Zavier. It was someone else, right? But Viatrix might've taken something of Zephyr's."

"That sounds about right," Cale murmured.

"Okay. So I guess we need to ask around about some Memory Recoder with dark hair and bright eyes," Lysandra said, her eyes trained on the floor. "Meanwhile, I need to ask Zephyr if she lost anything she shouldn't have lost."

"Right," Cale said, sliding off the desk. "I promise you, Lysandra. We'll figure this out. And lock your door tonight. If your father's servants are stealing your memories while you're asleep, they won't be able to get in."

"Will do."

Lysandra stood up from the chair. Cale stepped closer, closing the distance between them until there was hardly space separating them at all, until Lysandra could feel the heat radiating from him. She felt that burning heat come over her, the way it always had when he had looked her in the eye, only this time warmer. He leaned down to her again, his hands brushing over her jaw, holding her against him. She didn't understand the feelings that had risen up inside her since they'd met, but she knew the understanding would only come as more time passed.

She had never felt like this about Remiel. That much, she knew.

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