I blink and squeeze my mug, even though the water inside is so hot that it nearly burns me.
The kitchen is enormous, covered in the same ceramic tile as the room I slept in last night. It’s not nearly as dark as the rest of the house; the window at the end of the room isn’t covered in curtains, so some light actually gets in from between the vines growing over it. Lucio sits on the marble counter in the center of the room, right next to a sink with a dripping faucet. A long, scratched wooden table sits beneath the window beyond the counter. This must have been where the servants sat, back when having servants was in fashion. I peer through a doorway at the other end of the room and see a richly carpeted dining room, complete with a gleaming mahogany table surrounded by at least a dozen chairs. But I quickly turn away and sit on one of the wobbly wooden chairs in the kitchen instead, blowing on my tea to cool it.
“Good morning,” Aidan says formally as he walks into the room. I stand up quickly, like I think I’m supposed to come to attention in his presence, like he’s my drill sergeant and I’m his new recruit—in embarrassingly short shorts. For the first time since I met him (which isn’t that long, I know) he’s not wearing a suit. Instead, his khaki pants are perfectly pressed and his white button down is buttoned nearly to the top, and its sleeves are rolled up neatly above his elbows. I guess that’s his idea of casual wear. “I see you’ve met Lucio. He works with me, one of the few who didn’t leave our side.” Aidan confirms that Lucio is a luiseach like me. Well, not exactly like me. Lucio’s probably known he was a luiseach for a whole lot longer than a few months. “He’ll help us out a bit this morning, but he was up late last night.”
So was I. So were you.
“He’ll be going back to bed to get some rest soon.” The last part of the sentence is addressed to the other luiseach, not me. Like it’s part of a conversation they’ve had before. Like Aidan is worried Lucio isn’t getting enough rest.
Lucio jumps back down from the counter and grabs a cup of tea. He adds milk and honey and hands it to Aidan like he’s done it a million times before. He clearly knows exactly what Aidan wants.
“What’s he helping us out with exactly?” I don’t add that I heard them arguing last night. That I already have an idea of what kind of work keeps Lucio up late.
“We have to start your training.”
“Victoria’s note said I’d be resuming the work that you and she had been working on together?” Victoria’s note is the only explanation I have for what I’m doing here. I read it so many times that I practically memorized it before I left it with Nolan.
Aidan shakes his head. “We have a lot of ground to cover first.”
“But then . . .” I wrinkle my nose, just like Mom would, if she were here—boy, do I wish she were—“what am I doing here if I’m not helping with your work?”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Aidan turns from me to Lucio. “I’m just going to check in at the lab before we get started. Can you take her to the playground?” Lucio nods. I get the idea that Aidan isn’t talking about an actual playground. Wherever he’s asking Lucio to take me probably won’t include swings and a slide and seesaws.
Aidan turns back to me. “Get dressed. I’ll meet you there soon.” He turns on his heel. I get up and follow him.
“Meet me where?” I don’t know if it’s the bad dreams or the conversation I overheard last night or the fact that Aidan is leaving me with this boy I don’t even know, but I suddenly feel completely helpless. Even if I wanted to leave, I couldn’t. We’re in the middle of the jungle. My cell phone doesn’t work in this house. If Aidan left me alone, I’d be completely trapped.
I follow him out of the kitchen and around the stairs. “Promise you won’t abandon me in the middle of Mexico!” I joke, but not really. The house takes a deep breath as Aidan opens the enormous front door. Before I can stop myself, the next eight words just come flying out of my mouth, “Just like you abandoned me sixteen years ago?” If I were in a cartoon, I’d slap my hand over my mouth like I had no idea where that sentence came from.
Aidan closes the door gently and turns around, furrowing his brow like I’ve just spoken Greek or something. Then again, maybe Aidan speaks Greek. He probably speaks everything.
“I never abandoned you. I thought you understood that now. Go have some breakfast. We have a lot of work to do today.”
The door slams shut behind him. We’ve gone from hardly knowing each other to father–teen daughter cliché pretty quickly.
“Come on,” Lucio says. “Get dressed. It’s hard work, but Aidan’s a good teacher.”
“How do you know?”
“He’s my mentor too.”
“He is?”