Kaden | ✓

part two ♚ antediluvian

Angeles was a pretty damn good providence, I had to admit.

Even for a Wednesday, the streets were crowded with a surprising amount of people--musicians, strumming at guitars and banging on drums; painters creating portraits or selling works on street corners; kids dancing in the street and chasing each other and drawing on the sidewalks or the cobblestone streets with brightly colored chalk and washable paints. There was nothing quite like an Angeles summer.

I'd taken off the hoodie a while ago, and we'd dropped it off at Dustan's house. A sprinkler had made parts of my borrowed white t-shirt see through, and after running through it, the bright blue material of James's shirt was clinging to him in a way that made girls stare. Not that James cared, of course--he'd always ignored the attention, never really cared for it. James grew up loved, like me, and he thought that he only needed his family. That was that for him, and he was content with it.

We continued down the sidewalk, towards the cafés and restaurants. The door of one café was propped open, and the curtains were drawn back from the windows. It was a tiny, quaint place, painted in creams and browns and blacks and accents of gold. There was a long counter towards the back, near the kitchen, with stools set up to it. Scattered around the room were black metal tables and chairs, and roses sat in bushes outside of the large windows. None of this had attracted my attention, or that of the customers.

On a small stage stood a girl, violin in hand, sweet melodies pouring from the instrument that reminded me of the ones my mother played when she had time. She was dressed in a way that blended with the theme of the restaurant, in a white blouse with sleeves that came down to her elbows and a short brown skirt made of stiff material that stopped a way above her knee. Her blonde hair was tied off in a loose braid over one shoulder, and her eyes were shut. She was completely lost in the music, and I hadn't realized that I stopped to listen until James and Dustan appeared on either side of me.

"Want to go in?" James asked.

I looked up, at the name of the place. It was written in flowing black cursive on a black-bordered cream sign: Misting Rose Tearoom & Café.

"I mean, the food's not bad." He shrugged. "They have pretty good coffee, too."

"We're going in." Dustan said. "I didn't get my coffee yet this morning." I laughed and followed them in, my eyes flicking over to the girl continuously.

"That's Emmaline Levitt, known by her friends as Jem." James said, leaning in towards me. "She's our age. We went to school together. Her dad died a few years back, and she and her older brothers have had to work hard since. She makes money here and at the Players' Place."

"The Players' Place?" I asked.

Dustan grinned. "Remember when I told you that Elowyn got into some super-exclusive club for musicians? That's it." He looked around. "It's so exclusive, you need someone in the club to recommend you, and then two people outside of the club to vouch for your talent, and then you get an audition." Elowyn, right. Dustan's older sister, a violinist like the girl that was on stage. She played when we had guests from other royal families with some other musicians.

"Lucie's in it too." James added. He meant his younger sister, Lucille, who played piano and flute. "Elowyn actually recommended her."

The song ended, and everyone clapped. The girl's eyes moved around the room, and when Dustan lifted his hand in a wave, her face brightened and she hopped down, walking straight back to us. She grabbed a chair and took a seat on it. "Hey, losers." She grinned, and then she looked at me. "And you brought a friend? I didn't realize you had more friends." She stuck out her hand towards me. "I'm Emmaline Cadence Levitt. And you are?"

Kaden Schreave, I wanted to say. But who else was around to hear it? I took her hand and shook it, smiling. "Alex." The lie fell smoothly from my lips.

"Nice to meet you, Alex." She said. "I don't recall seeing you in school. How old are you?"

"Nineteen. Almost twenty." I said. "I was homeschooled."

"Ah, makes sense." She smiled, and my heart thudded painfully in my chest. "So, what's your story, Alex?"

I shrugged. "My parents were...working in the palace, before the castes were removed. My father was a palace guard and my mother was a maid, and they got married, so they were Twos. My grandparents died before my father was twenty, and my grandfather on my mother's side died before them. He had a heart condition."

"And your paternal grandparents?" She seemed fascinated. "What happened them?"

"Shot." I said bluntly. "In that attack on the palace years ago."

"Yikes." She said. "That's rough."

"What about you?" I asked. "What's your story?"

She smiled. "Well, let's see. My mother was a Five. A sculptor. Pretty damn good one, too. I learned violin from my grandfather and my aunt and viola from my uncle. My father was a Seven, and even after the castes were removed, he wanted to keep mining. It was all he had ever known, and in some way, he enjoyed it. Shame it killed him, but you know, to love is to destroy and all that nonsense." She waved her hand around. "I want to miss him, but he wasn't ever really around. The mines were his family and home, you know?"

I didn't know, of course, because I'd grown up in a tight-knit and loving family. "Not...not really." I said. "My parents have always been a little too close to me, I think."

She laughed, and it was an alluring sound. "You should cherish that. Less people have it than you'd know."

I knew that. I'd heard from James of people being raised by one parent because the other died or left. His own parents had divorced when he was twelve--it's why he resorted to crime, because his father was too busy chasing women to pay him any attention. "I know." I said. "I'm very fortunate."

Emmaline grinned and checked the time on a clock hanging on the wall. "Well, back to my sets. See you around, boys." She sauntered off towards the stage, and James nudged me when she was far enough away, hard enough to possibly bruise my side.

"You like her." He was smirking. "You think she's hot!"

I grinned and looked down, glancing up at her. She was busy picking up her violin and messing with the bow, and I looked away quickly. "Maybe."

"You should go talk to her more after her next set." Dustan suggested. "She could be your princess."

My smile fell, and I shook my head. "No. That wouldn't be it."

They looked irritated suddenly. "Sorry, is Emmaline not good enough for that, Kade?" James demanded, my nickname a hiss. They both folded their arms over their chests and stared me down. Dustan looked as though he could hit me. I didn't doubt that he might.

"She's perfectly fine for that role." I hissed back. "But there's something I didn't get to tell you two yet, and it's going to make it nearly impossible for there to ever potentially to be anything between Emmaline and I."

They leaned closer. "What is it?"

I rested my elbows on the table and leaned in so that our heads were practically touching. "A Selection. They're making me have a Selection."