Chapter Four

Jace

"I'm late!" Mom hollered as she slipped on her jacket. "Your dad should be home any time. Show him where the leftovers are."

"I got it, Mom." I held out her purse and she gave me an exasperated grin. "Thanks, kiddo."

She kissed my cheek, then hoisted my five-year-old sister Lily into her arms. "Jace is in charge. You mind him." "I always do." Lily put her tiny hands on Mom's cheeks and grinned. "I'm a perfect angel."

Mom laughed and touched a kiss to Lily's nose, then set her to her feet. "Love you two!"

And then she was gone. She'd started working the third shift at the hospital a few years ago. Great money, but she sure wasn't around much anymore.

"Tag." Lily slapped my butt. "You're it!"

I turned to face her and playfully roared.

She screeched and took off running down the hall toward her bedroom. I laughed as I stomped toward her, growling, "I'm going to get you!"

She darted out of her room and threw a stuffed bear at me, then sped into the sunken living room. "The couch is home base!"

I leaped onto the couch, pretending I was going to attack her, and she squealed.

"This is home base! No fair!"

I hugged her instead and blew raspberries on her neck. She swatted at me and fell into a fit of giggles.

It was those giggles that took my mind off the fact that McKenna Storm still had my KOS notebook. Took my mind off Dad's looming pressure to get perfect grades, get into college, to be the perfect son...

An image of McKenna's face flashed through my mind. When she'd first bumped into me in the hallway, she'd been flustered, which had flustered me. Her bright green eyes had kind of caught me off guard. She mostly looked down when she was walking, so I rarely saw them. Nobody did. But being that close to her, I got a great view.

She was hot.

And what she'd done for me today...it didn't make sense. I was thankful for sure, but it was weird. We never talked, not since grade school, and even then, we hadn't hung out. Then again, she talked to only one person, her friend Ernie.

I didn't have McKenna's phone number to text her to get my notebook back. Joel had tackled me into the locker room directly after the hallway incident today, giving me shit about Kingdom of Swords, McKenna, and anything else he could dig into me about.

If he found out I was really the author, I'd never live it down. He would absolutely torture me with it.

"I'm home!" Dad hollered from the garage door just off the kitchen.

"We're in the living room," I said as Lily leaped off the couch and ran in the direction of the kitchen. "Daddy!"

"Hey, pumpkin."

I clicked on the TV and loaded one of Lily's favorite cartoons. I needed to get her calmed down if there was any hope of getting her to lie down for bedtime anytime soon.

"Hey Jace," Dad said as he walked in, holding Lily. "Hey."
He paused in the entryway to the room and glanced around. We were the same height at five-eleven, but I'd gotten my stockiness from my grandpa.

"How are the college apps going today?" he asked.
"I'll get one done tonight." I settled into the cushions. "You've been applying, though? One college a week, that was our deal for this month."

"Applied to UW-Parkside last week."
"What about Madison? Have you applied to UW yet? Your mom and I loved our time there."

I'd heard their college stories countless times. Halloween parties on State Street, studying at the Student Union, the best business program in the state, ya da da.

"The Parkside football coach has been calling. He might even be thinking about a partial scholarship for me." "You don't want to waste your time playing football in college. It'll take you a year longer to graduate. Keep applying."

"Fine," I said. I'd applied to plenty, had even heard from a couple offering early acceptance, but I'd hidden those letters.

I was barely two months into my first semester of senior year. Dad wanted me to be in business or accounting or something like that.

Safe and secure.

But I didn't want that. I wanted to get a creative writing degree and even follow up with a Master of Fine Arts. To be able to write stories for a living was my dream. Not manage the taxes or accounts of other authors.

Parkside would be great for me. But he obviously was not up for hearing anything about that right now. I'd had enough drama for the day with the whole notebook scene.

"Son. You—"

"I'll apply to another one tomorrow." I gave him a nod. "Come on, Princess Lily. Calm down time before bed."

"I get a new story tonight!" She clapped her hands. "Right, Jace? You promised. Daddy, he's going to tell me a new—"

"That's nice, honey." Dad glared at me. "If he spent as much time on his college applications and studying as he does on the stories he tells you, he'd already be accepted to Harvard."

The TV blasted the theme song to Moana, her favorite movie.

She squirmed out of Dad's arms and scrambled over the back of the couch and landed on my lap. Her foot almost nailed me in the jewels in the process.

Dad left the room without another word, but he'd gotten in his jab at me about college, so what else was there to say, right?

Nothing like getting a Hey, how are you? How was your day? from him. Nope. Everything was school this, college that, future, future, future.

Lily grabbed my thumb as she kept her focus on the TV, a smile filling her face. She rested her head on my shoulder as she cuddled up to me. I sank into the cushions and rested my cheek on her head.

She could be a pain, but I loved my little sister.

My phone vibrated, so I snagged it from my back pocket, careful not to disturb the princess watching her movie.

KOSFangirl: You're McKenna Storm?

MySwordIsBiggerThanYourSword: You're from Wisconsin?

Swordz: I'm in Minnesota, I want to meet you! SwordLyfe: I stan Prince Jarren!

MissSwordz: When will you update Kingdom of Swords?

PrinceJarrensGirl: RR, 1:04PM, September 14th.

FantasyReader: What does RR mean? Oh, and you misspelled receive in the second paragraph.

PrinceJarrensGirl: RR = Returning Reader and lay off! Everyone misspells words every now and than.

FantasyReader: It's then, not than.

They added a winking emoji after the period.

KOSIsMyLife: UPDATE!!!

Hundreds of notifications spilled across my Scribbles feed. I still couldn't believe what McKenna had done for me. How she'd just tromped on in and saved my freaking life. It was epic. Like she had no fear. I never would have expected that from her.

She was always so harsh, mysterious, and standoffish.

As I'd started forming KOS, I'd actually based my villain, Masrin, after McKenna's appearance and a few of her traits. Of course I'd played up some of the things, like the darkness and secrecy. I'd made Masrin hardened and harsh, pushing everyone away. Even had her sneaking around, forging a sword that she intended to end Prince Havenspark's life with.

But what McKenna had done today was nothing like Masrin. Masrin would have let me burn, let Prince Havenspark burn.

What was going on with her?

I tapped over to her Insta feed. She didn't post much and what she did was dark, much like her persona. She had an artistic flare to things she shared. They were creative and artsy.

Lily yawned.
"Time for bed!" I announced.
"I don't want to."
"Too bad." I scooped her into my arms and made my way to her room.

"I'm a princess," she said. "In your story, right?"

"You're always a princess. But this time, I have a new story to tell you, about a different kind of princess. Do you still want to hear it?" I kissed her forehead and elbowed my way into her room. It was pink, filled with glitter and shiny things she thought her kingdom would look like.

"Yes! But I'm still a princess in your story, right?" She hugged me around my neck as I eased her onto the bed. I pulled her covers up and then settled in beside her.

"Yes you are. In a neighboring village. Close your eyes." I leaned against her headboard as she nestled in beside me. "I'm thinking of a new character to star in one of our stories."

"Really? Is it a boy or a girl?"

"A girl. I'm not sure if she's a princess yet. I'm going to need your help deciding that, okay?"

"Of course!" Lily clapped her hands together.
"Once upon a time, there was a girl. She was invisible." "Invisible?"
"Well, she wasn't actually invisible, but nobody paid attention to her." "Why?"

"Because she was different."
"That's not fair."
"You gonna let me finish?"
"Sorry. Go." She closed her eyes and rested back into my side. It was fun testing out my new stories on her. She was brutally honest, which helped me. And for a five-year- old, she was disturbingly wise already.

"Wearing black from head to toe and never meeting anyone's gaze, she hid away from everyone. Her station in life was that of a servant. Poor and rejected by all. But the thing nobody knew, even she didn't know, was that she was destined for so much more."

"To be queen?" Lily asked.

"Maybe." I tapped her nose. I hadn't really formed this character out, but today's save by McKenna triggered this new idea. "Close your eyes."

"What's her name?" Lily asked.
"What name should we give our dark princess?" "Sunshine." Lily grinned up at me.
"Princess Sunshine it is." I grinned. Leave it to my little sister to go opposite of darkness to name her the antonym. "Sunshine had a power, deep in her soul, passed down from generation to generation."

"Power?" Lily asked.
"To heal. The power to heal broken spirits."
"Ohhh," Lilly said, then yawned. "Heal..."
I leaned to the side and turned out the lamp sitting on the bedside table.

"She could heal the darkest of souls. Bring them into the light so they were happy again."

"Happy..." Lily sagged against me and I had to smile. She never lasted long once I started telling her stories.

Mom always had done this, but when she got the third-shift job, she wasn't able to anymore. Dad couldn't be bothered with this kind of stuff.

It was fine by me. I loved it. The storytelling gene must have been passed down through my mom or something. She liked telling stories but didn't do any writing. Her mom liked to make up bedtime stories and games, too. I remember lots of fort-building and fantasy worlds at Grandma's house.

I touched a kiss to Lily's forehead, then eased off the bed.

It was time to write my next Kingdom of Swords chapter—that is, if I could remember what I'd plotted in my notebook. The one McKenna still had.

McKenna Storm... That girl had crossed my mind more in the last twenty-four hours than I thought humanly possible. Not only because she was brave, but she was hot, too. And that lip ring... Damn, I was going to have a hard time getting McKenna off my mind tonight! 

Happpppy Sunday!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend! 

What did you think of Chapter Four? 

Some of my all time favorite scenes are the ones with Jace and Lily! <3 

I'll be updating again this week! If you haven't already added this book to your library, I'd be grateful if you did! 

Kelly Anne and Lynn xoxo