The blare of a horn jolted Emmaline right out of her fitful slumber. She looked around. It was dark, with bright lights shining around her. It took Em a moment to remember that she was in the car with Mom. They were stopped at a light, and then it was green. Mom eased the car forward, muttering something under her breath. Emmaline looked behind to see two piercing headlights from one of those raised-up pickup trucks that required steps to get into. Emmaline closed her eyes against the headlights assaulting her vision.

  “What’s going on?” Emmaline asked as she sat up in her seat.

  “Oh, you’re awake. Sorry about that. Apparently, I was taking too long to move my car after the light turned green.” Mom said in a scoffing manner she reserved for rude drivers and telemarketers.

  Em looked around to see if she knew where they were. Nothing stood out as looking familiar, but it was clear they were in the heart of the city. One thing was for sure; this was nowhere near the hospital where Dad was or the cabin.

  “Did you decide not to go to the cabin?”

  “Oh, we already went by there. I got our bags and locked the cabin up tight. You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “Oh.” She must have been asleep for an hour or more if that was the case. Em remembered the other stop Mom said she had to make. “How long until we get to this storage unit?”

  “We are there, actually,” Mom said as she slowed the car down, turned her blinker on, and made a right turn.

  The truck that had been riding their tail revved its throaty engine as it zoomed past, taking its too-bright lights with it. Emmaline was glad to be able to see properly again. The first thing she noticed was the long row of buildings before her.

  There were six that she could see as they entered the parking lot, but as Mom drove past the first row, Emmaline could see there were many more rows further down the line. This place was huge.

  Mom turned the car down the fourth row and drove to the third set of rows before she stopped. There before them sat a set of storage units with bright orange rolling doors, and Emmaline wondered why in the world Mom needed to get something from here of all places? Her mother was always purging the house every couple of months of stuff they hadn’t used in a while, and anything they did keep was tucked away in the attic at the townhouse, or even the barn at the farm. There was no reason to have a storage unit like this.

  “Stay in the car. I won’t be but a moment,” Mom said as she opened her door and stepped from the vehicle.

  Emmaline sat there and frowned. She didn’t want to stay in the car. She wanted to know what was in the storage unit. But she did as her mother said. Emmaline didn’t like how dark and quiet this place was. There was no one else around, and when Em looked at the time on the dashboard of the car, she knew why. This was the time of night that only people up to no good were out and about. She looked around with a wary eye, wondering if a mugger might jump out from the deep shadows at any moment.

  Crap on a cracker!

  She was suddenly very concerned for her mother. Thankfully, there was a light near where her mother was walking, so at least she wasn’t completely in the dark. Emmaline locked the car with the button at her elbow and watched her mom carefully. Mentally, she urged her mother to hurry. The sooner they were done here and on their way, the better.

  Mom went for the storage unit door that was smack in the center of this row of units. Em watched as she pulled a ring of keys from a pocket. Emmaline looked to the car’s ignition. Mom’s keys were still in there, so she was using another set entirely. Maybe they were Dad’s?

  It wasn’t long before Mom had the padlock unlocked and rolled the door only partway up. She ducked underneath, and a moment later, a yellow light from inside the unit turned on. But with the door so low, all Emmaline could see were the bottoms of boxes and a few metal cases.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  As she waited, Emmaline wondered again what her parents could have possibly put in there. Surely, there was still plenty of room in the attic or the farm? The storage unit wasn’t that big. In fact, this row of units was much smaller than some of the others she had seen.

  Time slowly ticked away, and by the clock on the dash, it had been five minutes since Mom had entered the storage unit. Em was getting antsy. Mom said it was only going to take a moment, not five minutes. Em craned her neck to see if she could see any movement in the storage unit, but it was still.

  Finally, Emmaline couldn’t take it anymore between her curiosity and concern for her mother. Em gave a good look around outside to make sure there were no criminals lurking about and tentatively opened her door. The only things she could hear were the hum of the streetlight nearby and the wail of a siren somewhere off in the distance.

  When no one jumped out of the dark, Em pushed her door open a little wider. She then remembered the keys were in the ignition. She leaned over and pulled them out. Everyone knew you never left your keys in the car in the city. That was an open invitation to get your vehicle boosted.

  She slipped the keys into her pocket, got out of the car, softly closed the door so she wouldn’t catch the attention of anyone that might be nearby, and then quickly raced across the gravel to the storage unit Mom had disappeared into. She ducked underneath the door with her heart pounding and her breathing heavy from the run. It was a moment before she could steady herself and get a good look around.

  At first, it looked like any normal storage unit. Under the glare of a bare yellow light bulb in the center of the ceiling, boxes were stacked at varying heights. There were, however, a few silver metal cases scattered here and there. Em was immediately disappointed that most of the boxes were taped shut so she couldn’t easily see inside.

  There were no hints of the contents on the outside, since they were all moving boxes you’d buy at Lowe’s. Some of them had black marker writing on them, but the markings were unlike anything she’d seen before. She traced the symbol on the box closest to her and stopped as shock rushed through her. She actually recognized these symbols because they looked a lot like the ones she’d seen on the Ethian ship.

  Em pulled her hand away as she looked at the writing scrawled on the boxes with new eyes. Was this the Ethian written language? A chill ran up Emmaline’s spine. If these were Ethian markings, what exactly had her parents been storing here? And where was Mom?

  “Mom?” she called out softly, suddenly aware that she couldn’t see her mother anywhere in the small unit.

  No answer came, but Em noticed a faint glow emanating from behind a particularly tall stack of boxes in the far corner. She carefully made her way through the narrow path between the containers, avoiding the metal cases on the floor. As she rounded the corner, she found her mother kneeling before an open metal case, its contents casting an eerie blue-light.

  “Mom?” Em asked.

  Her mother hurriedly closed the case, pulling something thin and long out and stuffing it in her purse before Emmaline could see what it was. Em hadn’t realized her mom had brought her purse into the unit with her.

  “What’s that?” Emmaline asked.

  Her mother stood up. Em tried to get a look behind the woman, but the woman motioned for Emmaline to go back. The space was too small for Mom to walk out and Em to stand in the way, so she did as her mom asked.

  “I thought I told you to wait in the car,” her mother scolded her from behind as Em led the way back out of the towering boxes.

  “You were talking too long. Besides, I thought muggers might be lurking about. It doesn’t feel very safe to be here so late at night.”

  “It’s fine. If there were anyone else but us in the area, I’d sense them.”

  That thought intrigued Emmaline as she stopped to give her mother a questioning look. “Really? How?”

  Her mother stopped because Em was blocking the way. “Can we do this later? I’m really tired, Emmaline.”

  She could see the exhaustion on her mother’s face and eyes. It looked like she hadn’t slept in days. The stress of the day and everything that had happened was clearly taking a toll on her.

  Emmaline frowned, but she turned and resumed her journey through the unit without another word.

  Minutes later, both were back in the car. Emmaline had tossed her mother the keys to the car. Mom had set her purse down on the floor of the car right in front go Em. She saw a silver metal edge of whatever Mom had set in her purse, but that was it. Nothing gave away what it might be. Even though her curiosity was at an all-time high, Em sighed and laid her head back on the headrest. There were times when she knew she could push her mother for answers, but that look in her eyes in the storage unit clearly told Em this was not one of those times.

  Fine, but in the morning she was going to find out why Mom had to go to a storage unit in the middle of the night. Why they even had a storage unit, and what she’d stuffed into her purse. And also what Mom had meant about being able to sense other people around her.

  For now, Emmaline really was too tired to wrestle the answers out of her mother. The nap on the way over hadn’t been near enough to push away Emmaline’s own exhaustion or the sickness that she still felt in her stomach. And she wondered if maybe this was how she was always going to feel from now on as her mother reversed the car and started the journey back home.