Novels by ojbrian

ElaraDinner was set for seven. By six thirty, I'd changed my shirt three times for no reason at all, like what I wore actually mattered for a conversation that was about to blow up everything my mother thought she knew.Kael showed up at six forty five, dressed like he was walking into a business meeting instead of his own kitchen. I almost laughed when I saw him, except nothing about tonight felt funny."You look like you're about to get fired," I said."I feel like I'm about to get fired." He straightened his collar for the third time since he'd gotten out of the car. "Or worse.""There isn't any worse. She already knows the big part.""She knows we're together. She doesn't know about Wren. About my father. About Kane and Doyle and whatever's about to land on all of us tonight." His jaw tightened. "That's a lot to hand someone over for dinner."He wasn't wrong. I led him inside anyway, because waiting on the porch wasn't going to make any of it easier.Mom had made a real dinner, n

ElaraDiego wanted to meet at a diner two towns over, somewhere none of us would run into anyone who knew the Voss name. Kael drove faster than usual, and I didn't tell him to slow down, because some part of me wanted to get there just as badly as he did."You're sure this is safe," I asked. "Meeting in public like this.""Public is safer than private right now." Kael's eyes stayed on the road, but his knuckles had gone white on the wheel again, a habit I was starting to memorize. "If someone's watching us, a crowded diner is harder to do anything in than an empty parking lot."That didn't make me feel better, but I didn't say so.Diego was already in a corner booth when we got there, a laptop open in front of him, a coffee gone cold at his elbow like he hadn't touched it in a while. He looked younger than I expected, maybe thirty, with the kind of tired eyes that came from staring at a screen too long."Sit," he said, not bothering with hello. "You're going to want to see this sittin

KaelI didn't answer her question. I couldn't, not sitting in a parking lot with my hands still shaking on the wheel."Kael." Elara's voice had an edge to it now, somewhere between scared and furious. "What's in the safe?""I don't know," I said, and it was mostly true. "I know it exists. I know my father's never let anyone touch it, not me, not Reyna, not even my mother as far as I can tell. That's all I've got.""That's not nothing.""No. It's not." I pulled back out onto the road, hands tighter on the wheel than they needed to be. "But I've never seen inside it. I've never even asked. Growing up, some things you just learn not to poke at."She was quiet for a second, watching the houses slide past the window. "Where is it? The safe.""His office. Behind the bookshelf, the one with all the old law texts nobody's ever pulled off the shelf in my lifetime." I glanced at her. "Elara, I'm not saying we should go looking for it.""I didn't say that either.""You were thinking about it."S

ElaraI had my mom's number pulled up before I even decided to call her.Kael reached over and put his hand flat over my phone screen. "Wait.""He said check her phone. What if he already sent it?""I know. I know." He pulled his hand back and dragged it through his hair instead, breathing hard like he'd been running somewhere in his head even sitting still. "If it's already gone out, calling her in a panic doesn't undo any of it. Let's think for one second before we react to something that might not even be real yet."I hated that he was right. I called anyway, because thinking felt impossible with my hands shaking the way they were.She picked up on the second ring."Elara? Is everything okay, you never call between classes."Her voice was normal. Tired, a little distracted, the way she always sounded when she was in the middle of something at work. Not the voice of someone who'd just opened an email full of photos taken outside a cabin two hours away, not the voice of someone whose

KaelI read the name three times before it landed.Reyna wasn't blood. She was my mother's college roommate, close enough that we'd called her aunt since before I could talk, close enough to have a key to the house and a standing invite to every holiday. She'd been at the hospital when Lila was born. At my parents' wedding too, standing right up front.She'd also been the one who handled things when I was seventeen.I texted Lila back fast, hands moving quicker than my thoughts could keep up with. "Are you sure? How sure."Lila: I heard her on the phone last week. She said your name and Elara's in the same sentence and hung up fast when she saw me in the hallway. Didn't think anything of it until now.Elara was watching me, waiting for whatever came next. I turned the phone so she could read it herself instead of hearing it secondhand."She was in the room when Dad paid Wren off," I said. "She set up the transfer, made sure the paperwork disappeared. She's known about this longer than

ElaraDiego called before we'd even cleared the school zone.I only caught half of it, but Kael's grip on the wheel told me most of what I needed to know before he said a word. His knuckles went white. A muscle jumped in his jaw, and he stared straight through the windshield like the road ahead had personally offended him."Say that again."He glanced at the rearview mirror, though nothing was back there. Just an empty street and a kid coasting by on a bike two blocks down, completely unaware that the whole world had tilted for two people sitting in a parked car."You're sure."A longer pause this time. Long enough that I started counting seconds in my head, needing to measure the silence just to feel like I was doing something instead of just sitting there."Don't do anything yet. I need to think." He hung up and set the phone in his lap instead of the cup holder, like he wanted it close enough to grab the second it rang again."Kael.""The email came from an IP two miles from your s