The Knowledge of the Hidden

Chapter 4

I'm still in a daze when I arrive back at my house. I make my way slowly up the stairs, tossing my jacket on the floor as I go. Our maid machine slides in before I've even cleared the room, hanging it neatly on its hook by the door.

When I reach the top of the stairs, I notice that my door is wide open and I'm sure I closed it when I left this morning. Seeing the door open unsettles me for a reason I can't quite pinpoint. Maybe I'm just paranoid from the events of the past couple of days but I can feel my heart quicken as I head to my room. I step slowly through the doorway and let out a sigh of relief when I see Luke sitting on my bed, the book of fairytales clutched in his hands.

"Hey, trespasser." I smile softly. Luke jumps, closing the book suddenly as if I've caught him doing something terrible. "Guess you weren't expecting me home yet, were you?"

"Aren't you supposed to be planning some big fancy wedding with your match?" Luke asks, returning my smile after recovering his game face. "I've heard that most girls spend their entire lives planning it."

"Don't believe everything you hear," I laugh, plopping on the bed beside him. I glance down at the book he's holding, sighing deeply. "Maybe that's how it used to be, at least for some people, but I think weddings got a whole lot less exciting when you stopped being able to choose who you were marrying." Luke glances between me and the book, his smile slowly fading.

"Do you believe in true love?" he asks me. I roll my eyes.

"See why you shouldn't read fairytales? They'll fill your head with all sorts of nonsense."

"I don't think it's nonsense," Luke reasons, running his hand across the open page. "Or at least, it didn't used to be."

"Maybe it used to exist," I concede, staring across the room at nothing in particular. "But it's irrelevant now. The tests decide who you'll spend your life with, love has nothing to do with it."

"But the tests are supposed to pair us with our perfect match," Luke insists. "Maybe our perfect match is our true love."

"Maybe," I sigh, though I don't believe it for a second. I think of Julian and try to imagine myself loving him. Really, it'd be enough if we could tolerate each other.

"I'm sure it happens sometimes," Luke says.

"What happens sometimes?"

"People falling in love with their match."

I smile weakly. "It's possible," I concede, purely to placate him. "Aren't you a little young to be worrying about love anyway?"

"I'm almost twelve," Luke says, as if that doesn't make my point exactly.

"Wow, that's like ancient," I quip. "My mistake."

Luke laughs. "I forgive you," he grins. I roll my eyes good naturedly.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going to get some food." I stand up and head for the door. "You coming?"

Luke stays on the bed, staring at me. "What happened to you?" I glance down, noticing the large mud stain on my dress for the first time.

"Oh," I cover quickly. "I tripped."

"You're limping," Luke says definitively, crossing the room to take my hand in his own. "Get in bed. I'll bring you your dinner."

"Luke, I'm fine," I protest, thinking once again how much better suited Luke is to be the older sibling. "Really."

"Sit," he orders, heading out of the room without a second glance. "I'll be right back."