章 22: Chapter 22

"Your friend?" Cale asked. "I'm curious as to who Erased her memory."

"His name was Mason Viatrix," Lysandra said. "That's all I know."

"Viatrix?" Cale's eyebrows shot up. "No kidding."

"Do you know him?" Lysandra asked carefully.

"I do," Cale said.

Lysandra waited. He didn't elaborate.

"Why do you need to know that now?" she asked after a long silence.

"I have some work to do," Cale replied. "I'd say you could come if you wanted, but I heard you need to be back home by one o'clock."

"Oh," Lysandra said, kicking at the rough red brick below her feet, "that was a lie."

He shook his head and laughed quietly. "I should have figured. All right, come on. You're coming with me, unless you really do want to go back home."

The two of them ducked around the edge of the café again and cut through the crowded Oblitus streets. Lysandra had to shove through some of them to keep up with Cale, and at one point he reached out and grabbed her wrist to make sure she didn't get lost. Lysandra felt the warmth of his hand all up and down her arm.

When the street traffic quieted down, Cale let go of her, moving so that he stood at her side rather than in front of her. Lysandra's eyes scoured the near-empty streets in search of a familiar landmark, but she found none.

"Where are we?" she asked softly.

"The middle-class district," he responded. "Pretty far from where you're used to walking around."

He turned a corner. Lysandra followed, and without warning, she felt the familiar sense that she had been on the street before. She stopped walking and squinted, trying to remember where and why she had seen it before.

Cale, who had taken a few steps ahead of her, stopped and looked back. "Something wrong?" he asked.

"No, it's just - " Lysandra squeezed her eyes shut. "I know I've been on this street before. But I can't remember why."

"You can't remember why?" Cale's voice softened, and he stepped closer to her again. She felt his hands wrap around her own. "Lysandra. You told me you and your friend went to Viatrix's studio so she could have Memory Recoding done." She nodded. "Do you remember where that studio was, or what it looked like?"

"I remember... I remember being on the inside of that studio," Lysandra said. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to recall walking to the studio, the street it was on, or even what the door looked like. "That's all."

She opened her eyes, and she saw Cale looking down at her with concern. "You're sure you don't remember," he said, his voice dropping almost to a whisper.

"I'm sure," Lysandra said. "I don't remember."

Cale stared at her a moment longer before finally letting go of her hands. "Come on," he said and continued down the street. He didn't bother to wait for her.

In the middle of an empty street he stopped. He paused in front of a door set into the brick wall that ran along the street, and he stared at it like he'd never seen it before. After a second Lysandra realized what she was staring at: the notice on the door. The one that read, Vacant lot; trespassers will be arrested.

Lysandra felt the memory pull at the back of her mind, fighting for recognition, but she couldn't bring it all the way into the light. She fought for control over it, squeezed her eyes shut, tried as hard as she could. No matter what she did, she still couldn't remember.

She collapsed to her knees, ducking her head and folding her hands over her scalp in paralysis.

"Lysandra!" Cale exclaimed. He turned from the door and knelt on the ground next to her, taking her hands away from her head and grasping them close to his chest. Lysandra looked up and saw his dark, concerned eyes burning into her light and pained ones. "Are you all right?" he asked, his voice dropping down to that pseudo-whisper.

"I can't remember," she gasped. "I - I can't remember."

"What are you trying to remember?" Cale asked. "What do you still have?"

"Just the sign... on the door." Lysandra took a deep breath. "That sign. It was there once, but I can't remember..." She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to pull her hands back, but Cale held on. "Cale, someone's stealing my memories!" she cried.

"Shhh. It's okay. Maybe you're just forgetting," he whispered to her, pulling her head against his chest. "Forgetting is normal. It's okay."

"But I know I would remember, if I could," Lysandra interjected. "It's just that every time I get close, I come up against that gap again."

"Shhh," Cale whispered. Lysandra leaned into him, listened to the steady vibration of his voice. She tried hard to forget that she had forgotten, but the effort was enough to make her want to collapse.

"Who would do that?" she murmured. "Who would steal memories from me?"

"I don't know," Cale said. "You don't think it was one of your father's servants, do you?"

Lysandra sucked in a breath. "It could have been," she said.

"We'll figure it out. I promise," Cale told her. "I won't let it happen to you like it happened to Clove."

"Please," Lysandra said into the fabric of his shirt. "Please don't let it happen."

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