Every Star in the Sky Page 14

  He shakes his head over and over, “I deserve to die, Jay. I killed him. I didn’t mean to, but he drank that milk, and then he… he…”

  His body is racked with sobbing.

  “He is the son of trickery, L--”

  Leo’s eyes grow wide and he leaps in front of me just in time to parry a blow from one of the zombie marionettes.

  “Later,” Leo says, “Right now we have to fight. I won’t… let… him… control… me…” His body begins to pulse and throb like a beating heart in front of me.

  “Leo!” I scream.

  His body pulses more and more, and suddenly, he screams in agony as his teeth transform into fangs, and he grows four meters in height. His bipedal frame crouches down and he is on four legs. His golden fur shines a bloody red color in the light, and his silver eyes pierce straight ahead.

  “What? No! NOOOO!” I hear Lowell scream as the massive lion with Leo’s eyes races forward and claws through a line of puppets, seeking Lowell.

  I fight back the puppets as they dive towards me, stabbing them when they come close enough so I no longer have to fight them. Instead of toppling over to the ground, when I kill them, they evaporate entirely, leaving behind only a set of strings attached to nothing.

  I can see Lowell’s eyes gleaming red in the darkness, and he, too, is a lion, black and massive. They leap into the air at the same time, and their claws shred each other’s flesh apart as they tumble on the ground, roaring madly.

  I fight off as many puppets as I can, though the blade isn’t long enough for me to kill most of them. I’m trapped behind a curtain of dead bodies and swinging blades.

  “Leo! Help!” I scream.

  He looks at me, his big silver eyes, and there’s some semblance of recognition. He reaches his great paw up and into the air and thrusts it downwards so that it slashes the black lion’s throat apart.

  The palace becomes an ocean of blood, and then white ocean foam, and then there is nothing left at all.

  No Lowell, no lions, no puppets. Just the panting bodies of our group of former Nightingales.

  I see Leo’s body strewn on the ground, his body aching for air.

  I sprint to his side, kneeling next to him and taking his hand, “Are you okay?” I ask, silently begging the gods to spare him, but his body is twisted and splayed and stained with blood. There are still traces of fur and mane on his body, but when he hears my voice, it seems to fade away, and his body shifts into a normal position.

  He looks up at me, “Is this heaven?”

  I shake my head, but I feel a tiny smile grow. “You… you turned into a lion… you killed Lowell. He’s gone. I… I thought you were dead,” I whisper.

  He sits up and wraps his warm, strong arms around me. “I promised that I will never leave you, and I intend to keep that promise.”

  I look back at the rest of our group. Regan is hugging Charlotte so tight it looks like the both of them might explode. Ren is thanking Kira for helping him. Brom is ruffling Nick’s hair, telling him that he did a good job. Brom notices me looking at him and smiles at me. I smile back.

  “So I… I really turned into a lion, huh?”

  “Yeah. A massive one, the size of a building. Wait… you don’t seem surprised.”

  He smiles, “I’ve had dreams about being a lion for years. Plus, my name literally means lion in Latin. Mom always said that I would become my true self at the end of the world. I thought it was some creepy story, and I guess it still is, but damn. I guess it’s true.”

  “I saw Evan,” I say quietly. “I think he was trying to warn us against coming in here, actually, but I couldn’t hear him… Anyway. He said that I have to transform into something too. He said I have to pray to the spirit of Reya in the aviary in Rowena. He said it was the only way, or something. Do you know what he might’ve been talking about?”

  Leon nods, “Yeah. I think so. The five-- er, four-- of you are allegedly supposed to be able to turn into these weird spirit animal things. I don’t know much about it.”

  I notice that the palace is still dark. “Leo? Where… Where did everyone go?”

  “They’re… probably all dead,” he whispers, hands trembling in mine.

  “No,” I say. “No.”

  “But Anna… the plague. It’s killing everybody now. There’s… there’s nothing I can do.”

  I shake my head, “No. If there were survivors, where would they be?”

  “Jay--”

  “Tell me, Leo!”

  He nods, and looks out at the rest of the group. “Everyone, follow close behind. We’re going to check for survivors in the basement.”

  We walk quiet and slow through the empty castle, and Regan, Charlotte and I cling desperately close.

  “Can you feel the energy in here?” Charlotte says quietly, “All these souls, stuck here, forever.”

  “Can you… Can you sense life?”

  She shakes her head. “The dead spirits are clouding my perception. It’s kind of like a sandbox of souls. If there are dead ones, they’re on the top, but they’re heavy and hard to move around. I can’t find any life because I can’t dig beneath all the death.”

  Charlotte looks calm, but I can’t help but shiver.

  I can’t dig beneath all the death.

  “Hey, Rose… What’s going on with you and the captain?” Regan says quietly, so Leo can’t hear.

  I shake my head. “I honestly don’t know. I’ve never really experienced strong emotions before… I’ve always been kind of stoic. But lately, everything I feel is big and intense and intimidating. I don’t know what it means.”

  The way Charlotte looks at me makes me think she knows everything there is, ever was, and ever will be. “Perhaps,” she says, “You are experiencing the thing we call love.”

  I shake my head, “You heard Lowell. I… I can’t love. I don’t know how. We’re just friends.”

  “Lowell is the son of trickery. Everything he said was meant to unsettle you. All lies, sweetie,” Charlotte says.

  “How do you feel, around him?” Regan asks.

  I pause. “I… don’t really know. It’s always kind of different. But a lot of the time, I feel warm, and sort of… hungry. Like when I haven’t eaten in a few days. And my stomach turns, and I want to touch him because he’s so warm and soft, and…”

  Regan bursts out laughing, “Goddammit, Rose. You’re adorable. Yeah, that’s a crush if I’ve ever heard of one.”

  I frown. “How?”

  “Just because you’ve never had a crush on a boy doesn’t mean you can’t start now. You just haven’t found the right person until you met Leo,” Charlotte says.

  I hear a single ‘ha,’ and turn around to see Kira walking behind us. “That’s highly unlikely,” she explains. “To fall in love with someone like him, anyway.”

  I scowl at her. “What are you talking about?”

  “Well, he’s rude, brutish, a womanizer, a drunk, and he has enough baggage to fill an entire wagon. What could you possibly see in him?”

  “Shut up,” I say quietly.

  “What?” Kira asks in disbelief-- as though no one has ever talked back to her before, however mildly.

  “You heard me. He everything in his life behind so he could make the Nightingales and try to prevent the end of the world. He’s lost his brother, his sister, his father, and maybe now his entire family, and he has yet to quit fighting for what he believes in. He… he’s so selfless. When the barracks were on fire, he saved me and Bear, waiting in the fire for several minutes so I could get out of a room, and then he carried me all the way out. The way he plays piano… It’s like some sort of magic comes out of his fingers. He makes me feel. He knows all the emotions that I don’t, and he makes me feel all the things I’ve never been able to, because he has the biggest heart and the most soul of anybody I’ve ever known, and I love--”

  Shit.

  Shitshitshitshit.

  Kira looks away, a guilty look in her eyes, and Charlotte
just pulls me tight and hugs me. “I knew it,” she whispers.

  Leo seemingly hasn’t heard anything, leading us by quite a way. Brom, Nick, and Ren are between us. I pray that he hasn’t heard a thing, because even if I actually did love him, he could never love me back. He wasn’t wired that way.

  The group starts to slow down and then stops as Leo peels back a painting from the wall and gestures us in.

  At the end of a long hallway, Leo knocks a particular rhythm on the door, and I see hands pull it open.

  There’s maybe fifty people in the room, well-lit and full of food, drink, and life.

  “Leon?” Somebody calls. Benny rushes up to him, and looks at all of us. “What’s going on? Who are all these people? Bro, you’re alive! I missed you. I thought… Well, no mind. Einstein and ‘his royal highness’ are here, too.”

  “Julian?” Leo asks.

  Benny shakes his head. “He ran away. God knows where he went. He’s probably off in some other town taking care of fourteen year-old business, eh? Silas! Elliot! Get your lazy asses over here!”

  I watch as Silas and Elliot notice our crowd, and then stride forward to see their younger brother.

  “Leon, where the hell have you been?” Elliot asks, crossing his strong arms. And then he sees me. “Oh… my… you. You had the white dress.”

  I nod. “Yeah.”

  “You…” He looks at Leo, then at me, back and forth and back and forth.

  “What the hell happened?”

  “Are these expletives really necessary, Elliot? We are in the presence of some beautiful guests,” he says, winking at us. I force back a giggle when Charlotte and Regan noticeably swoon. My sisters.

  Kira just looks annoyed. “Get on with it, Leo. Tell them everything.”

  “This might take a while. Can we sit somewhere in private?” Leo asks, “Just the four of us? I have a… a lot of explaining to do.”

  “No skin off of my ass,” Benny says.

  Elliot shoots a stern look at him, but Silas laughs. They head off into a separate room, and we are one less Nightingale.

  “Jay. Jay Hart.”

  I can’t believe my eyes when I see her. Her blonde hair is piled on top of her head elegantly, little curls falling out here and there. Her lips are a different shade of pink, and she’s wearing a floor-length pink silk gown.

  “Grace.”

  Tears well up in her eyes and she races forward and throws herself against me, claiming me with her arms. “I thought you were dead,” she sobs into my shoulder.

  I smile, “I wouldn’t die so easily.”

  “God I missed you,” she says, almost unbearably tightening her grip, “All these girls are so boring, Jay. So damn boring.”

  We laugh together.

  “So how are things going with Elliot?”

  She smiles, “Well. Very well. I… I really like him, Jay. I think we’re going to get married, when all of this is over.”

  I try to hide my surprise, but I can’t. “What? Married?”

  She grins, “Yeah. He says that once we get out of this place… He wants to make me his bride.”

  I can’t help but grin back. “I’m so glad, Grace.”

  “But what happened to you! I didn’t see anything. They hid who they could down here right away.”

  I sigh, and tell her everything. That I was attacked by crow people, that I killed the ones that I could, and then Leon took me to the HQ. All about the Nightingales, all about Leon, all about my sisters, the plague, and my role as a daughter of Reya. I try not to leave out anything, because that would feel like lying, and I can’t lie to her. I don’t think anybody in the world could look into Grace’s eyes and lie to her.

  She can’t speak for a few moments, until the word “Wow” pops out. “So you’re in love with a prince too, huh.”

  “I never said I was in love with him!”

  She smiles, “Yeah, but I can tell.”

  Figures everybody can tell but me. I guess not much has actually changed.

  Suddenly, I feel a hand on my wrist, and Benny is dragging me to the back table. “Talk to my sisters!” I yell to Grace over the din of the other survivors.

  He sets me down at the table, “Thank you for your cooperation, ma’am,” he says, winking. I can’t help but smile, even though Elliot is staring at me like I’m a poisonous frog.

  “Why hello there, gorgeous,” Silas says, flirtatious smile unwavering even when Leo glares at him.

  “Rose, is it?” Elliot asks.

  “Sort of,” I say.

  He looks at me like I’m the worst kind of stupid. “Yes,” I say.

  “Better. Now… my brother took you away from my ball, and made you a part of his secret underground organization dedicated to saving the world, correct?”

  “Yep.”

  “Grace talks about you a lot. She was… she was so worried about you.”

  “Why am I here?”

  “Well… Anna talked a lot about you as well. And the morning we found her dead, we found this on her bedside.”

  He hands me a pink envelope, ‘Jay Hart’ scrawled elegantly across the front.

  “Open it,” Leo encourages.

  I peel off the wax and take the letter from the envelope.

  My Dearest Jay,

  The plague is not what you think. I’ve been reading about it, and studying Dr. Rolphe’s work in the lab after he disappeared. Everything points to this man-- Calico Exodus. He can control the dead, but not because he’s inherently magical. Something was given to him, and that has given him his power. Something he holds, or eats… I don’t know. But there is no cure. The only thing you can do is kill Exodus, and whatever power he has, and the crows he’s been animating will return back to their original state-- as human beings. You have to kill him, but he will only be weak enough once his brothers are dead, and you and your sisters, the daughters of Reya, must “evolve” before you have a hope of defeating him.

  I am sorry. This is all that I have found. But please know, I will remember you always. Thank you for showing me friendship, and how to feel again. And I know that Leo will fall in love with you. I had a dream about it. Please… take good care of him. Don’t let him overwork himself, or question his past, because he will go mad. Thank you, Jay. Thank you for being a part of my life, however short.

  With Love, Your Friend,

  -Princess Anna

  I sigh quietly, but I see a flicker of white in the envelope. I pull out a dove’s feather, and without thinking, I knot it into my necklace. Nobody dares to question me.

  “Leo?”

  “Yes?”

  “We need to find Hawthorne and Peregrine.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  I watch the luxurious pink waves of the nightgown I borrowed from Grace ripple in the wind. I am singing nonsense, feeling the delicate plaiting of my hair as I listen to what the wind is telling me so that I can respond in kind. The stars twinkle overhead, and the moon is nearly full-- big, round, and stunning as it hangs low in the indigo sky.

  I want to reach out and touch it, and swing on vines between the stars. I will make the sky my home.

  I stand up from the courtyard bench, and Bear looks at me expectantly, his head stuffed between his paws. I smile at him.

  “Isn’t it beautiful tonight? It’s like… Like the way it was, before,” I tell him. He stares at me blankly.

  “Beautiful indeed.”

  Leo is standing a few feet back, hands in his pockets. I instinctively cross my arms over my semi-exposed chest.

  “Er… hi,” I say quietly.

  He walks forward and points up at the sky, “What do the stars look like to you?”

  I cock my head, looking into the silver-spattered darkness overhead. “I think… Well, that part there looks like a tail. And the front looks like… a head… and then there’s legs, and paws-- those little stars close together like that.”

  He smiles, “It’s a bear. Ursa Major.”

  I turn to him, e
yes wide, “You know about the constellations?”

  He nods, “Yes. I was quite taken with them as a child. I imagined how much easier life would be if I could live among the stars, with the bears and bulls, hunters and herdsmen… It’s almost like the sky is there at night just to tell all of the people down here that today might be hard, but there is someone somewhere else looking at the same stars, at the same moment, and maybe they’re okay or maybe they’re not, but either way, they exist, and they feel the way you feel, and there are others. There is so much more than what we see in front of us. There’s an entire world out there.”

  Leo takes a few steps forward and sits in the grass, long legs outstretched in the dark green ocean.

  I can’t help but notice how beautiful and otherworldly he looks under the milky glow of night.

  He pats the grass beside him, and I sit and instinctively curl into his chest. He runs a warm hand over my head, feeling the intricacy of my braided hair.

  “I can’t believe,” he whispers, “That you’re real.”

  I look up to his silvery gaze. “What do you mean?”

  He smiles softly, “I never thought I’d meet somebody who understood me. You somehow saw the good in me, even when I was being a total jerk to you. I’m never going to do that again, Jay.”

  “I think,” I say, “That you are the most beautiful person I’ve ever met.”

  His brows raise. “How do you figure?”

  “Well… You gave up everything. Every hope you ever had of a normal life, you gave it away, because you wanted to protect your family.”

  He shakes his head, “And look what good it did. Julian and Anna and my parents are…”

  He grabs for my hand and squeezes it tight, and I squeeze back. “You did your best, Leo.”

  He shakes his head, “If my best can’t even save my little brother and big sister and my parents, then what good is my best? What good am I? I gave everything to keep them safe, and I was distant for years so they wouldn’t get involved, and I…” A tear streaks down his cheek. “I failed.”

  “Three of your brothers are still alive because of you. Don’t forget. If you only focus on the dark, you’ll never see the light. Like… if you look up. The sky is dark, and massive, and terrifying. But it gives us a moon and stars to show us that everything is okay.”