[Legacy of a Martyr #2] Liberation from the Masquerades (A Key Keepers novel)

Episode 46: Burnt Out

It'd been about a week and a half since I woke up and about two weeks since our last Lock battle. Noelle went back to work a few days ago, and Alain took Ai home yesterday.

Since Marshall and I were doing better, they didn't need to be here anymore. I was pretty much over my fatigue now, and Marshall wasn't wearing bandages anymore. No one would be the wiser to what happened to us.

Phoenix came into our room. He had a book in his arms. He put it on the desk before he went over to Ali. "Ain okay?"

"My head hurts." Ali smiled. "I'm okay, though."

He got into bed with our brother and laid with him for a minute.

Ali had a headache? Why would he have one? Annie told me before that he doesn't get colds and those sorts of things, because he's a Key Keeper. Since Ali was a boy, the lovely nuisance Recah, Ai, and I put up with was out. Then what would give him a headache? I just couldn't think of a good reason.

Ali got up and changed into proper day clothes after our brother left. He took his time doing that today. Actually, he was still in his day clothes when I went to bed. Normally, he got into pajamas before I went to sleep even if he wasn't ready to come to bed.

Anyway, I couldn't just stay in our room anymore. I'd done enough of that when I was recovering. Surely, there was something that needed to be done.

That was when I went into the kitchen. Recah seemed to be inspecting the fridge and pantry.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"I need to go shopping." She put her hands on her hips. "There isn't a speck of food in this kitchen."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"If there's any food in this house, it's not in this kitchen. Miss Sarah had been bringing us food and I'd been so worried about my brother that I hadn't been keeping track of our food."

"Yeesh... I'm surprised Duke and Ai hadn't noticed," I said. "Weren't they trying to take care of the cooking?"

She nodded.

"Need a hand shopping?"

"I'm good."

I smiled. "Let me make lunch then. No one person can do everything that needs to be taken care of in a day."

"Sounds good."

***

I was relaxing in the front room when Recah got back. Aunt Sarah was helping her carry bags. I went to take a few bags from them.

"You got so much food!" I had to adjust my hold on the food. "How did you carry this all?"

"We used my car," Aunt Sarah replied. "It can take a lot of food to feed seven people every day. Especially when most of them are teenagers or boys."