Feargus

  I spent the night with V at the Peak where we mourned my beard and ceremoniously burned Florea’s suit in the hearth. True story: V could do a lot of things, but she was a hopeless elementalist. There was some cruel irony involved in that, I reckon. Many of her domestic tasks would have been made easier if she could have conjured water or warmed people’s food up with her mind. All those centuries running an inn and she couldn’t even light her own fire. She used matches like everyone else.

  There’d also been a lot to catch up on while I was away, actually. For starters, Rhian was back from Leberecht. All V knew was that Michael was in someone’s care, and that he was still alive. In a surprising twist, Rhian brought Michael’s sister Marta back with her to Oskari, where they’d held a town hall meeting for the villagers at the inn.

  Rhian’s goal was to inform the people about the Anima because she was tired of all the secrets. V had once mentioned to me how she wished the Anima could just be out in the open, for better or worse, so she was on board with the idea, and even gave a demonstration of her powers.

  I highly doubted Rhian expected it to go well in the first place. The villagers were still upset with her, many had had their minds addled over the years, and the truth isn’t always easy to hear. I wasn't sure she expected the eggs, though. I have to say mates, I was sad I missed that.

  Naturally, the people panicked. Then Zacharias Vonsinfonie showed up, played an empathy song, froze the room, and went around to each of the Anima spies in the audience and crumbled them to dust. When everyone came to, Zack was gone, and the villagers all suddenly loved Rhian, dubbing her their saviour. With that power, she appointed Marta as the new guard captain. When I spoke to Zack about it later, he explained that he'd only helped them feel the truth, an attempt to reverse the poison Lidia and the other Anima had injected their hearts and minds with.

  See, all that sounds about as ridiculous as being locked in a cellar full of dead people trapped in blocks of ice. But that was the way of things for us all now.

  “The trick is not to push the air out from the front of your lips, but from behind them,” I said.

  V puckered up and blew. Nothing.

  She puckered up again, and I put my finger to her lips. “Not from here.” I wiggled my finger between them and twirled around inside. “From here.”

  V laughed. “Okay, that just tickles.”

  “Good, so now blow out from the spot where it tickled.”

  V puckered up and blew. The tiniest of sounds escaped, but I heard it, and she heard it, too. She looked at me with wonder, and I looked at her with pride. I wanted to tell her then that I loved her. But I just placed my hand on the side of her face and kissed her.

  I was still feeling off-kilter after what happened with Florea, and I didn’t want the experience to be tainted by that. I wanted to tell her I loved her, and love her all the way if that’s what she wanted to do, but I wasn’t able to at the moment. I was also worried. Not that I’d be brokenhearted if she didn’t feel the same way, but that I’d put pressure on her, or make her feel bad. I wasn’t sure if V could love anyone because of her curse, and that wasn’t her fault.

  After a nap together, I left the Widow’s Peak at the crack of dawn.

  Days Until it Happens: 2

  Crew Placement:

  The Estate ? Alex, Rhian

  Leberecht ? Michael

  Defector’s Lair? ? Rhydian, Strauss

  Palisade ? Bells

  ??? ? Zack

  Jaska ? Adeline, Everleigh

  Istok ? Sebastian

  I wanted nothing more than to see Rhian since learning she was back from Leberecht, but knowing Michael was alive and that she was safe would have to be enough for now. The cogs hadn’t stopped cogging while I was in captivity, and I had a few things to check up on before I could rest easy.

  Mates, I’d come to love Jaska during my time so far in Amalia. I’d carved out my little place in the city, and every time I’d return, I’d get excited thinking about the possibilities ahead. Except when I stepped through the city gates that day, I just felt sick.

  The first thing I did was go to Everleigh’s storm drain, avoiding the flower shop at all costs along the way. I knocked and waited—one, two minutes. Nothing. I wondered if I should let myself in, but if she were in a meeting, that could get awkward.

  So, I left the storm drain thinking I’d check in with Tanis, and see how things had been going with Adeline. But while I was on the way, I spotted a flash of curly red hair turning down the alley on the way to the Gander. I sneaked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.

  She spun around, panicked at first, but then she smiled.

  “’Eya,” I said. “How’s it going?”

  Adeline said she was doing well and had been enjoying her time at the Gander. I was happy to hear that. And then she gave me the rundown. Turned out Alexander had found a way to contact her, to let her know that Rhian and Michael were safe, but that Strauss and Vincent were missing. She also informed me she’d come up with a plan to satisfy everyone involved in the belt murders. I was dying to hear it.

  She looked around, leaned in conspiratorially, and cupped her hands around my ear. She whispered the plan, which in case you’ve forgotten, was to plant evidence and frame Vera’s next victim as the murderer. It was a great plan. Practically perfect.

  “That’s a great plan,” I said. “So great I could kiss you.”

  Look, that was less of a line, and more of a thing I said from time to time. You should have it on record that I’d even said it to Strauss once. But the lass didn’t know me. Her cheeks burned red and I caught her gaze lingering on my lips. I shoved whatever that was in a box, tucked it away on a shelf, and smiled. But only because I was relieved when she spoke again.

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  I was in a sour mood.

  “You truly think it will work?” she asked.

  “Should do. Need anything from me?”

  Adeline asked for a map of the city, and seeing as I didn’t have any spares, I gave her mine.

  It was already late by the time I arrived at Zack’s music note. I blew the whistle, and it wasn’t long before the hatch rumbled open. As I made my way down the stairs, it closed quickly behind me, and Zack was waiting at the bottom. I nodded, he nodded, and we walked to his room in silence.

  Once we were behind closed doors, Zacharias Vonsinfonie pulled me into a tight hug, and then we made our way to the couch where we sat side by side, facing each other. I had so many questions about what I’d overheard in the cellar. And I won’t lie, there was a part of me still wondering how things ended up with Florea.

  Neither of us seemed to know where to start, though.

  “What can I do?” Zack asked.

  “Mate, I don’t—I don’t know. I think I just need time. But I didn’t get a chance to say it, so I want to thank you. And, uh—thank you doesn’t even really cut it. There’s very little doubt in my mind I was going to die in there. It was just a matter of when.”

  Zacharias nodded.

  It wasn’t comforting, but it was the truth.

  “I’d imagine you have questions,” he said.

  “What happened to Florea?”

  “Florea Calancea is exactly where he should be while he thinks about what he’s done. He’ll be under my watch, and the people of Jaska will have to live without their flowers.”

  “I’ll be honest, I’d be all right if I never have to see another flower again.”

  “Didn’t I tell you, Feargus Finlay? Dreadful things.”

  “What about the lads?”

  “Trust I’ll take care of them all respectfully.”

  I did, so I nodded. “Sebastian and Florea?”

  Zacharias sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Florea Calancea was, as you may have guessed, our florist at the time. He toured with us, he was still mortal, and he was the love of my brother’s life. They held stars and moons in their eyes for each other, Feargus Finlay. I’d never seen Sebastian so happy, and yet these were miserable times.”

  Mates, I could have listened to Zacharias Vonsinfonie tell me stories all day—even if they were about Florea Calancea. So, I laid down on the couch and put my legs in his lap. He side-eyed me, but he let it slide, leaned back, and rested his hands over my ankles.

  “Things with Sebastian and I were strained, but that was nothing new. One night, Florea came to see me in my wagon. He was in shambles, sobbing, barely coherent. Through the tears, he told me my brother had ended things with him, that Sebastian had finally decided their imbalanced courtship was inevitably doomed.”

  My relationship with V surfaced, and while I wasn’t feeling sorry for the man, I could relate. Age was just a number, but a few hundred years and immortality was a lot.

  Zacharias continued, “I didn’t know it then, but he was lying.”

  “Oh.”

  “Mmh—and I didn’t know what to say, Feargus Finlay, because I agreed. But I consoled Florea as best I could, though not my strongest suit, and ultimately, he asked me to turn him. I refused, and I was furious he’d even asked. My brother would never approve; I knew how he felt about what we are. Florea knew this, too. But I believed he was grieving.”

  In the cellar, Zacharias admitted he’d been the one to make Florea, so I was curious exactly how that had escalated, but I reckoned he was getting there. Meanwhile, V had stashed a treat in my bag, so I nibbled on that while I listened. It was one of my favourites of hers; venison and vegetable pie filling in a pastry pocket.

  It took Zack a minute to resume his story, as he seemed to be weighing how to proceed. Eventually, it looked like he resigned himself to saying what he’d wanted to say in the first place. “As you know, I’ve struggled throughout my life with extreme anxiety and melancholy. Some of it the result of chronic pain, maybe, but much of it is just—it’s just me. You may also remember that when I chose to drink the elixir, I did so knowing it might kill me.”

  I nodded softly.

  He paused again. “Something of that mentality followed me into immortality. A compulsion like any other that we Anima must learn to conquer. Take for example Lidia Roska—centuries later, but still. I would never have turned her if it weren’t for—days left to live, dying alone in silence, drowning in the guilt of a crushing mistake. So, she chose to drown herself first, make it look like she and her baby had died in an accident. That’s how I found her—on the verge. I couldn’t let that happen. Me, an Anima like any other, driven by compulsive patterns."

  It took two tries to swallow that bite of pie.

  “Florea knew this about me, and he’d come prepared that night. I’d prefer not to go into detail, but he—right there in my wagon. There was so much blood, and he was so misguided, and my brother loved him so much. And Feargus Finlay, Florea Calancea really was a wonderful man in life. All he wanted was an eternity with Sebastian, and who could blame him?”

  I rubbed my bare cheek.

  “But,” Zacharias went on to say, “I can rationalize it all day, when at the end of it, whether I could help it or not, I did a terrible thing.”

  So, that’s how Zacharias turned Florea, and folks, when Florea returned to Sebastian a changed man, Sebastian felt completely betrayed. By Florea, by Zack. He swore he’d never forgive either of them. But how many times had he said that to Zacharias over the years? Brothers be brothers. And he still loved Florea so much. After a while, they tried to make it work again. Only, while Sebastian was still the man Florea had fallen in love with, Florea wasn’t.

  Here’s what Zack had to say on the matter:

  “One can predict, but can’t always be certain of what another Anima’s adjustment period will be, or what their unique idiosyncrasies will end up being. Mortal Florea had given my brother a sense of stability, something I understood because we both craved it in different ways. But Florea’s Anima behaviour was erratic. One day to the next, one moment to the next. Some days he’d become so angry he—Sebastian could hardly recognize him. It was as though he’d been fragmented, incapable of feeling more than one thing at a time.”

  I didn’t much like the pieces, but there they were.

  “So, Sebastian did what Sebastian does, and he ran. He left the troupe, left Avis, left Jakob. For decades I was the only one he was in contact with. We were still at odds, but for as many topics as we disagreed upon, there were topics on which we did see eye to eye. Until—well, we’re not talking about the Six now. The bottom line is, Feargus Finlay, Florea survived the Divide, never saw Sebastian again, and like hundreds of others, he attended his very public funeral.”

  “All those men died because he believed Sebastian was dead.”

  “Oh, I don’t know exactly when the compulsion to collect started—before or after Sebastian’s fake death—but yes, gone or dead essentially.”

  “What should we tell him?”

  “Tell whom?”

  “Sebastian.”

  “Well, I doubt very much Sebastian would agree to a discussion with me, so that’s really up to you, isn’t it?”

  I brushed a few crumbs off my shirt, and Zack eyeballed me when they landed on his couch. We all know he was a stickler for cleanliness, but he’d grown used to my messes. Actually, I reckoned the memories were making him testy.

  We sat in silence for a while until eventually I asked, “How did you find me?”

  “It was simple,” Zack replied. “I did the math.”