The City of Crows

by Bethany Anne Lovejoy

  12

  Landon

  Here’s something you should know; if you’re going to threaten someone, you should make sure you know that there is no chance that they will ever be able to catch you alone, especially if you’ve very recently been beaten to a bloody pulp. You’d think that, after his run-in with whoever did that to him, Landon would know better. And yet, he was practically asking for it, standing all alone, not a soul in sight to protest if one were to take him. Perhaps it was that his bruised eyes could barely see where he was, or even hope to predict who it was who locked their elbows with him and dragged him along, but more than likely, it was that he’d entirely given up.

  It was too easy to reach him, too easy to scoop him up. So strange was his appearance that no one dared approach him. Landon was, for all intents and purposes, ripe for the pickings.

  The man did not so much as flinch when he was tossed against the closet wall, all pretense of kindness lost. His bruises had all but confirmed it, he knew what we were at, and we knew what he was at. There was no need for playing games anymore, not with him. Only the smallest groan escaped him, the man had submitted to his fate.

  “Landon,” Leo said, his tone of voice contrasting heavily with his actions. He seemed like a kid in a candy store, so thrilled to see Landon. Likely it was the fact that Landon practically leaked information from every pore, unable to stop himself. “God, I’ve never been so happy to see someone before in my life.”

  Landon’s bruised eyes scrutinized the figures in front of him, the man cringing as I clicked the lock to the closet shut. To be honest, I felt bad for him then, the way he so easily gave up, the way his eyes closed once more and expected so much more of whatever he’d received before. And yet, there he was, hope. “God… You fuckers…” He gasped, every breath sounding like air leaking out of a balloon. “Why don’t you just… let me fucking die already.”

  His cracked lips opened, but no sooner had they done so then they closed again, he was gaping like a fish at Leo and I as Leo struggled to find the light pull, as if more light would allow Landon to see through his nearly closed eyes.

  The only thing it did was reveal his wounds in more detail, the bruises looked angrier, and the splits in his lips were painfully visible in the light. How anyone thought that he could go to a party looking like that and not attract attention was unknown to me. His wrinkled suit and stained dress shirt did nothing to aid his image. I doubted that now that if he were to reach for it, he would be able to bully others out of their cigar. If he did, he wouldn’t be able to smoke it. Landon seemed to struggle for every single breath as he wheezed loudly, and I could

  quickly see the disbelief begin to cover Leo’s face.

  “Gape…” The man breathed, “all you want…”

  “I…” Leo faltered, his body shifting as if to block Landon from my view. “This is…” No words came to him, just as they didn’t come to me. “Landon, what happened to you?”

  “What… do you… fucking think?” At the end of his words, the man coughed, ribs shaking as the cough seemed to come from deep in his gut. This seemed to provide him with some relief, he was now speaking in fuller sentences yet still retaining the strongest wheeze at the end of his words. “I helped the wrong idiots and didn’t even know I was doing it.”

  “Well, we’re very sorry about that—” Leo began.

  “No shit, you’re fucking sorry!” Landon spat, his trembling hands knotting in Leo’s collar in an incredible show of strength as he practically lifted Leo off the ground; a quite feat considering his size. “You fucking human piece of shit!” He shook Leo aggressively, sausage-like fingers growing impossibly tighter. “I fucking trusted you, we fucking trusted you, you fucking—”

  Ah, way too far.

  “To be fair, you did only know me for an hour, two tops,” Leo began to rationalize, “And I honestly did not ask you for any of that information. It just sort of tumbled out.”

  “You shouldn’t have been there in the first place!” Landon screamed, his face turning redder, the bruises changing to a dark burgundy.

  I sighed, reaching down the side of one of my boots. My fingers wrapped around my wand and quickly withdrawing it in one fluid motion. Landon released Leo immediately, his hands moving up in the air.

  “Again,” I reminded him, tilting my wand upwards and away from him ever so slightly. “We are sorry.”

  “Fat load of help that gives me,” Landon mumbled, stepping back from Leo. “Congratulations, by the way, Lyra. You got a real fucking psychopath for an ex-boyfriend and this lunatic to spend time with. Really living the dream, aren’t you, sweetheart?” He shook his head, rolling his eyes as Leo grew steady on his feet once more. “I’m half dead here, and even I don’t envy you. Get the shit kicked out of me, but thank god I’m not surrounded by two absolute lunatics.”

  “Leo’s not crazy,” I declared.

  “Leo went into the Green Man, knowing that humans aren’t allowed to enter, otherwise he would have mentioned that he wasn’t a wizard,” Landon retaliated, using his sleeve to wipe at a bit of blood that had dribbled out from one of the cuts reopening on his mouth. “That ain’t normal, that ain’t smart. Neither is being the one to bring him, knowing fully well the sort of man you dated before. Now you two have done and got me mixed up in your bullshit, ripped out of my bed and beaten with a lamp at two in the morning, not a word given to my girl or anyone else.”

  “And again, we’re sorry—”

  “Stop saying you’re goddamn sorry. Sorry isn’t going to fix these fucking bruises on my face! Or my broken nose, ribs, and teeth!” Landon spat, his feet stomping. “Sorry is what you say for little bullshit, accidentally tripping people and shit, not leaving a bar knowing fully well that you’re letting me fuck myself over! That’s not sorry, that’s not a forgivable offense, that’s god damn—"

  “I swear we didn’t know. And now that you’re entangled in this, the question is, are you going to help us or not?” Leo asked impatiently, recovering from their interaction just seconds before. “Because we really need—"

  “I don’t care what you need,” Landon leered, a motion that would have been far more intimidating if he wasn’t sniffing back blood. “Wouldn’t have told you anything if I knew you were a human. I don’t even know why this girl trusts you. As Rowan so kindly reiterated to me, humans are no good, and you’re all waiting for an excuse to get a hit in. I’m not going to tell you anything.”

  That was enough. “You’re going to tell him everything,” I countered, shoving Leo out of the way. My wand was withdrawn, its tip sitting right on Landon’s artery. The sensation of my wand against his skin was a threat, a far more viable one than from afar. Distance gave spells time to weaken, but when pressed against the skin, anything I did was as good as lethal. “Please,” I couldn’t help but flinch at my motion, knowing it to be necessary but never having the guts to do something like this before.

  “Some kind of friend you are, huh?” He was unimpressed and unafraid. He even reached up to his collar, pulling it down so that I could see the vast expanse of his neck, two distinct purple bruises were on either side. “Do it then, if you think you’re so tough. Newsflash, honey, someone already beat you to the fucking chase. And after what I went through? I don’t give a shit. Make Autumn cry, see if I give a shit, the girl’s annoying as hell anyway. Weird one too.”

  “You take that back!” I yelled, jabbing my wand further into his neck. “Don’t say something like that, she loves--”

  “See a little bit of yourself in that?” Landon snorted. “Wondering if Rowan ever gave so little shits about you? Sorry to break your heart, kid, but there were hundreds like Autumn, and there will be hundreds more. You weren’t that special either.”

  “Lyra!” Leo warned at my snarl, the temptation to do something growing far too overwhelming. His hand reached for my elbow, pulling it ever so slightly back. “You need to understand, he’s just upset.” Leo turned to Landon once again, his voi
ce struggling to remain even, a hint of fear laying underneath it. “We’re not the ones who hurt you, and we didn’t mean for you to get hurt. I would have never talked to you if I knew, neither would Lyra. But now…”

  “Yeah, I heard,” Landon taunted. “Mind telling the class what’s fucking wrong with you?”

  A small wheeze escaped the man as I jabbed my wand harder into the base of his neck, irritation getting the better of me. It wasn’t his place to comment, Leo was the one who had to live with being cursed.

  But Leo minded far less than I did. “So you’re really going to help the guys who beat the pulp out of you? Lyra and I haven’t so much as raised a finger before this, and yet you’re steadfast on aiding them. We didn’t even know what we were doing talking to you, it wasn’t our intention to get you in trouble.” He paused before adding, “You know if you were smart, you would have left town.”

  “Ain’t no leaving town when those vultures are watching you everywhere you go,” Landon declared. “I so much as imagine leaving, and the boys will be at my doorstep. It used to be easier, but now Rowan and those fuckers are apparently in line with Pat Lobdel, there’s no moving around this city. Not when them and his lackeys are waiting in every corner, pressuring you to--”

  Color left Landon’s face as he realized his mistake, he practically knocked my wand out of my hand as he moved to cover his mouth, swollen eyes showing far more white. Sweat, if the man could sweat more than before, dripped down his face. He grunted, a loud and pained sound.

  “I didn’t say none of that,” Landon groaned, eyeing the door behind me. Unfortunately, Leo slipped into his view, reminding him once more of his mistake. “You two are trouble. Definitely the sort of people who shouldn’t have met, not for the good of the rest of us.”

  “And yet we did,” it wasn’t an exasperated sigh that Leo made, it almost sounded happy. I guess in his case, that made sense. He stepped behind me, once again pulling at my elbow, but this time using it as leverage to gently move me out of the way. Then he was standing there once more, directly in front of Landon. It seemed like such a stupid idea, yet Leo didn’t seem to be worried. “You want to hear a secret, Landon?” He asked with a glint in his eye, somehow luring the man’s full attention back to him. “I don’t care about any of this. I really don’t. I just want to fix my situation, and then I’m good, I can leave. You don’t have to tell me what you don’t want to, just tell me how these people are getting more magic; Pat Lodel and whoever else in this city be damned.”

  “You think it’s easy,” Landon breathed.

  “I want it to be easy,” Leo admitted with a shrug. Landon could have left then, Leo’d moved to the side to allow him to, but he didn’t. Finally, we’d piqued his interest. Even Leo could recognize the small millimeter of dilation in what little we could see of Landon’s eyes. “I live every day in pain, Landon. I’m supposed to die soon, and nothing that anyone can give me will stop it. All I’m looking for is a cure; what you and your friends do for cash is no concern of mine.”

  “Why is that?” Landon asked, his eyes flying to me as if I would have the answer.

  “I’m cursed, I’ve been cursed my whole life.”

  Whether it was Leo’s intent for Landon to stumble was unknown to me, a million emotions crossed the man’s swollen face, and yet not a single one stuck. Bad, I think that was the best way to put it. Maybe it’s that centuries-long guilt that everyone wants witches to have, perhaps it was his own curse, or maybe it was the gallons of blood underneath his skin rushing to his head. I don’t know what it was, but Landon finally spoke again.

  “You don’t want to go down the road everyone’s been going kid, you should be thankful to die instead. But if you’re so determined, then fine,” His eyes fell to the door, throat tightening, he obviously knew something we didn’t. “Small shop between Burnley and Oak road, no sign but the door reads Lacus. There’s a woman at the front desk, and she won’t let you in unless Lyra’s there. Tell them Landon sent you, tell them-- tell ‘em not to call me, I won’t answer.”

  “What do you mean--”

  “I’m genuinely sorry, kid,” Landon spoke quickly, Leo’s eyebrows furrowing in frustration. “No one deserves that shit.”

  And then I heard it.

  Footsteps, so many footsteps. They quickly moved in our direction, growing louder and louder by the second.

  “And you’re right; I was lying,” the man moaned. “You tell Autumn, you make sure she knows I loved her.”

  “What--”

  “Leo!” My hand wrapped around his wrist just as the door opened, my other hand bearing white knuckles as it grasped down onto my wand. My eyes screwed shut, and the air left my body, a cacophony of voices and yells filling the space. A scream, the loud, hair raising kind, filled my ears. For the briefest moment, I felt a hand grasp down upon my shoulder, but just as suddenly as it came, it was gone.

  When I opened my eyes again, we were in Adam’s park, my chin on Leo’s chest and his body laying flat in the grass. In the distance, a murder of crows screeched. Leo’s eyes remained closed, yet his chest still moved up and down.

  13

  The Beginning of Loss

  The world came back in screaming colors, blurry greens, yellows, and whites burning my eyelids as I stared down at Leo, forcing my eyes to focus on him. The details of his face came back into view, confirming for me that he was still there. His chest rising and falling, his hands spread to either side of him, limp. Soft black eyes closed, long eyelashes curving out from them. Reassuringly, small gasps escaped him, his mouth falling open limply. It was almost as if he was asleep, rather than suffering the consequences of my actions. Sudden magic was rough on everyone.

  I, on the other hand… My head pounded, the whistling still ringing in my ears. I was fairly sure that, if I were to sit, I would most likely vomit. Transportation spells weren’t completely unheard of, yet they’d grown less popular in the modern age for obvious reasons. I’d not heard of a witch in modern times who’d not cast a traveling spell and suffered from intense motion sickness. The effects were far too dangerous to justify using on a daily basis, especially when things such as subways and buses existed, eagerly awaiting our spare change to carry us across town.

  And yet, as horrible as I felt internally, something commanded even more attention from me. My hands left Leo’s cotton shirt to reach for my shoulder, feeling the space of skin between the clavicle and neck. A groan escaped me as I found raised fingerprints, moistness accompanying the burning sensation that blossomed over my skin. I rolled to my side, falling off of Leo and onto the grass beside him with a grunt, my hand still held out in front of me. Nothing was visible on my fingers, but when I turned my head and tried to crane my neck properly, I saw hints of a black handprint on me. A reminder that it really did happen.

  “Landon…” His name felt heavy on my tongue, far too difficult to say. A ragged sob escaped me, my legs curling into me. “Oh god, he’s… they’re…” Another splash of acid against my throat, I hastily turned from Leo, my hand reaching for his forearm so I knew that he was still there.

  The sky stared back at me, hints of light peeking through the fog-made clouds. My eyes trained on one of those stars, hoping that I could begin to forget, but the light was blocked at the moment I needed it most by a crow flying by. Leave it to nature to remind you that things like forgetting don’t come easy.

  Beside me, Leo began to stir, soft murmurs sounding as his body began to move. The motion only made my grip tighten, a part of me was afraid that if I let him go he would disappear. He groaned, a long, deep groan that came from the gut. Immediately, his hand began to wander, feeling frantically beside me until it ended up on my thigh, his body giving a reassured sigh upon the contact. It appeared I wasn’t the only one worried about someone being missing.

  “Lyra,” his voice called hoarsely, looking for confirmation that I was still there.

  “It’s me,” I muttered, not daring to look at him, not ye
t. Not when I knew what would come next, the explanation I owed him. “Don’t worry, Leo.”

  “What just happened?” He asked in a half-murmur.

  “What do you think?”

  He paused, his tongue running across his lips. “Where’s Landon?”

  I flinched. “I couldn’t reach him.”

  “Oh,” that was all he could say, not a word more. He knew then, just as I did, what had happened. I heard him turn, his head looking away from mine and upwards once more. There was not much else to say, not much else to think. If we focused on it too much, then it would consume us. “I don’t understand any of it,” Leo admitted, “and yet I’ve roped you in.”

  I exhaled, a shaky breath escaping me in response. There was nothing to say to him, no way to make it all make sense. A simple goal to remove a curse, and now it appeared that everything had gotten out of control—magic, the real kind, that was dangerous. Leo and I were in over our heads, and yet, I couldn’t find the words to say no. Landon had tried to warn us, but I knew we’d be at that shop by daylight, just as I knew I would see this through.

  “You’re cold, Lyra,” Leo began, painfully heaving his body up to sit beside me, his hand still on my outer thigh, feeling the chill through my tights. He reached for his buttons, shrugging the dark blue cardigan from his shoulders, revealing the long-sleeved shirt below it. “I don’t want you to get chilled on the way home,” he said, handing the cardigan over to me. “My home,” he clarified, taking in the glassiness of my eyes. “You call Yvie, and you make sure she’s okay, make sure she doesn’t go back to your place. You can stay at mine.”

  “Do you ever drink coffee or anything else?” I asked, huddled in on myself on his couch, another burnt orange mug sitting in my hands. It was strange; I’d only been there once before, yet it was easy to make myself at home in Leo’s space. Our phones on the coffee table face down, feet up and all airs left at the door; I was far too comfortable there.