Page 115 of Our Radiant Embers

We met Gale on the Southwark construction site, where the terrain had been altered almost beyond recognition. The base of the energy tower, Gale told us, had already been erected, and I glanced over just in time to catch Liam’s smirk.

“Don’t,” I told him, fighting a grin, and he laughed. Now that the path forward was clearer, an air of lightness hung around him, his posture much more relaxed than it had been this morning.

“It would be rude to refuse such a silver-platter invitation,” he argued.

“Do I even want to know?” Gale asked.

I snorted. “Liam maintains that our energy towers are phallic symbols meant to compensate for…something.”

“I guess you’d have to ask Dad,” Gale said, “given it’s his design.”

“Bleach!” Liam demanded loudly, and I tucked a laugh into the palm of my hand. When I glanced over, Gale was watching me with something soft and happy in his eyes that made me swallow. I stayed quiet while he and Liam discussed how the recycler would line up with the tower, which acted as the central energy distribution point for the site.

It wouldn’t be functional until all elements came together, hopefully in a couple of weeks so we could begin clustering the residential homes around it. That would be a time when my services might come into demand again—Gale’s design incorporated a lot of individually shaped glass, and I was faster and cheaper than any window manufacturer out there.

Until then, well. I’d find ways to make myself feel useful.

* * *

Before dinner, I pulled Gale aside to tell him that I’d only just learned Liam was a Sun, that I would sow the seeds of an alliance with the Morgans because this was my chance to protect him.

“You know as well as I do how this works.” I lowered my voice, the heavy drapes that framed the hallway windows keeping my words from carrying. “You know they’re in danger. Families like ours don’t take well to newcomers, and the moment they step on the wrong toe, they’ll be tested. Unless they have the right kind of allies.”

Ironically, it was then I’d realised that my petty feud with Liam, sparked by our heated pub meeting over a year ago, might have escalated if my father or aunt had been paying closer attention.

Gale stopped walking. “He’s a Sun?” he repeated, as though it was the most important part of what I’d said.

Ah, hell.

“He is,” I confirmed, slowly turning to face him. Had he drawn the line to my question about late manifestation of powers?

No, he hadn’t—not if the sad tilt to his head was any indication, and bloody hell, I should have been more sensitive. The concept of someone being secretly more powerful than widely assumed was bound to resonate oddly with him, when he was the very opposite.

For a few long seconds, Gale didn’t respond. Then he exhaled, nodded, and smiled. “You know I have your back. Always.”

”Thank you,” I said and wished there was more I could offer. There wasn’t, though. Liam’s situation was unique, and I wasn’t at liberty to share it anyway.

After a moment, we resumed walking, our steps swallowed by the thick carpet.

* * *

“More powerful than we assumed?” Aunt Eleanor lowered her fork and fixed me with a flat look. “Elaborate, please.”

She had a way of making ‘please’ sound like an order. Good thing I was happy to elaborate even as I feigned hesitation. “Well.” I looked from her to my father, equally focused on me, and my uncle, who’d stopped eating. “They never drew attention to themselves, did they? Not until the Aqua Reclaimer. So it seemed logical to believe their powers were unremarkable—everyone did.”

A waiter entered to refill our wine glasses, and the table fell silent except for my two youngest cousins whispering between themselves. I took a bite of salmon fillet, chewed, and swallowed. While prepared far more expertly than the fish Liam and I had cooked at the beach house, it tasted bland to me, my enjoyment muted by the stiff air of expectation that I’d never thought to question until…

Until.

“And what,” my father asked as soon as the waiter had left, “makes you think they had us all fooled?”

All right, I’d expected that. I would have to dissuade him of the notion that Liam had intentionally misled opinions without coming across like I cared. Easy. I dabbed at my mouth with a crisp, white napkin and set it down on the grand mahogany table before I replied.

“Because I spent a fair bit of time with Liam Morgan over the last few weeks”—far more than I was comfortable letting on—“and I think he’s untrained rather than weak. Pretty sure he’d qualify as a Sun.”

A glance showed Gale staring at his plate before he raised his gaze. His voice was quiet as usual. “So they’re more than just the sum of their technomancy?”

Thank you.

---