Shift

TWENTY-SIX.1

When they returned to the conference room just past 6:00am, the sun had already risen; Blaze and Kayden had watched the sky slink through its ice cream color phases during the car ride back from the farm.

There were only a few more things to be done back at Le Lieu. The illusion was nearly complete, but Blaze helped for another twenty minutes with finishing touches. The rest of the time he watched as Joseph had the illusion perform a variety of tasks to make sure it looked as realistic as possible. When the illusion spoke, Blaze was chilled to hear that the voice matched Naven's clipped tones precisely.

Helio had been located wandering down the streets of Los Angeles while they had been at the farm. As he sat in the conference room next to Kayden, Blaze noted that his skin was pale and he kept fidgeting in his seat, murmuring apologies. But Kayden brushed his apologies to the side. With Kayden acting as an interpreter, the Congregation was able to question him to their heart's content.

It was 6:30 when Carsten told Blaze, Helio, and Kayden that they were no longer needed. Helio was given a ride to his father's condo while the others trudged upstairs. The last thought Blaze had before he drifted off to sleep was a half-wish that Kayden had crawled into bed next to him.

He wasn't asleep for long. At 9:30, he was awoken with a loud knock. Mrs. Lee's head poked in through the crack between the door and its frame.

"Wake up, you two! Long day ahead and we need to get moving." And then she vanished.

Blaze managed a groan. "Five more minutes?" he asked to no one in particular. He heard Kayden mumble something from her half of the room.

"Wha?" he asked.

"I said, 'We already had a long night.'" He heard her shift under the covers and yawn. "God, I'm tired."

Unfortunately, they only managed ten more minutes of sleep before Silas Merg's angry bark forced them out of bed.

Blaze took a shower after Kayden, taking time to scrub away the layer of dirt that had accumulated during the night; he hadn't told his father about his nightlong escapade and planned to keep it that way for at least a few more hours. When he heard Kayden cursing at the blow dryer from the other side of the curtain, he grinned.

Lexi was already fully dressed when Blaze emerged from the shower. He watched her enviously as he slipped into his suit jacket and knotted his tie. Then it was a matter of trying to find a clean pair of black socks—which took far too much time—and fixing his hair without a mirror since Kayden and her mother had claimed the bathroom for the remainder of the morning.

"You look nice," Lexi complimented when he finally slumped down on the couch next to her.

"Thanks," he managed. "I like your dress."

"Thank you," she beamed. Her gown was sky blue with sparkling rhinestones dotting the bodice.

"When did you wake up?" Blaze asked.

She shrugged. "I'm not quite sure. I had a terrible time sleeping last night and eventually I just got up and decided to get ready. I... I got another panic attack." Her cheeks flushed. "But since I knew what was happening this time around, I just focused on my breathing. It still took me a while to calm down, so I switched to reading." She held up a book that had been sitting in her lap; it was bound in navy cloth.

"What book?"

"A Progressive Book of Magic. I removed the book jacket; it was so pretty, I didn't want to ruin it."

Blaze raised an eyebrow. "I'm surprised you're reading that. It gives most non-ers headaches."

She shrugged. "A headache isn't that bad compared to heart palpitations. But I thought that after reading this I could be a little more helpful the next time we work on illusions together?" Her voice was hopeful.