Page 124 of Crystal Iris
My prism’s light blinks, and Johanna looks at me.
“Is that a…?”
“Show her,” Hoyt tells me.
I pull my prism out from under my shirt.
“Holy shit. There are… more,” she says, sitting down, still staring at me.
“I can give you both privacy,” I offer, starting to walk away.
“You might as well stay,” Johanna tells me.
“Johanna, spill it,” Hoyt says, drying his hair.
“Do you want to change first?” Johanna asks, looking at both of us.
“Johanna!” Hoyt says impatiently.
“It’s about Mom,” she replies.
.“Mom?” Hoyt’s voice changes, softening.
“She’s… alive,” Johanna says, and I almost lose my balance.
“How?” I ask, since Hoyt hasn’t spoken yet.
She opens her bag and pulls something out. “Here.” She hands Hoyt a photo album.
He flips through it, and I lean closer to look. The photos are of who I think is Hoyt and his brother, with their mom and a little baby. He keeps flipping through the pages. The third child, a little girl, is almost one in some of the photos.
“She didn’t die during childbirth,” Johanna says.
“Where did you get this?” Hoyt asks her.
“In the safe,” she replies.
“The safe?” Hoyt is still staring at the photos.
“I know you never wanted to open the damn thing, so I did. One night, when you pissed me off, saying Dad left you the lands because I couldn’t handle it. Well, I wanted to find proof—something else to show you that I was capable of handling it. I knew you hadn’t touched the safe since Luke, so I opened it. And this was there. Along with other paperwork. I left the rest. When I realized what it meant—that I didn’t… kill her—I needed to know more. I wanted to show you, but I didn’t want to raise hope. That she might still be… alive.”
“Where did you go?” he asks.
“Searching… for her.”
“You found her?” His voice is weak, full of disbelief.
She shakes her head. “No, but I know where she is. I want you to come with me.”
“To where?”
“Alaska.”
I sit on Hoyt’s bed, brushing my hair when he comes in. I’ve just gotten out of the quickest shower of my life. I left Hoyt and Johanna talking, only to interrupt a serious conversation between Akira and Broc. With nowhere else to go, I found myself here, in his bedroom.
“Will you stay here with me?” he asks, still in his wet clothes.
“How are we going to sleep?”
