Every Star in the Sky Page 17

  Jacob dies.

  Drinking, drinking, women, women.

  Calico goes insane. He hates the world, so full of hate itself.

  The Nightingales are formed.

  Evan Olson is looking for his brother.

  Elliot has been consumed by evil. He isn’t human. He isn’t human.

  The Nightingales need to find the last moon daughter.

  Elliot causes the avalanche with his dark magic, he lights the town on fire.

  He lights the headquarters on fire.

  A flood of faces. Mom, Dad, Mr. Olson, Evan, Lowell, Calico, Anna, Benny, Silas, Nick, Brom, Ren, Regan, Kira, Charlotte, Lynn, Julian, Elliot, Leo, Grace.

  I need to save the ones who need saving, before it’s too late.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  It feels like I’ve been asleep for millennia when my eyes finally open. I am back in Reya’s world, and feathers fall from my body as I push myself to an upright seated position.

  All kinds of feathers are scattered everywhere, all around me, and birds look expectantly at me from all sides.

  I see Anna, Lynn, Julian, Evan, and my dad. All five of them stand in front of me, curved around my body, and they reach out and help me stand. All five of them have died to save me. All five of them have died to save what’s left of the world, to fight evil, to bring the light back onto our earth. Five people made of love and light. I open my mouth to say something, but the next moment, they’re gone,

  I am outside of the palace in the early morning light. Bear comes rushing toward me, and he leaps into my arms and I hold him and cry from the sheer amount of love I feel for this dog in my arms. But the palace is terrifying. It is dark stone and fear and misery, a structure of ash and bone.

  But they weren’t dead. Nobody was dead. They would’ve been at the aviary, Reya’s aviary, holding my hand and pulling me up from the truth if they had died. Bear is holding my feather necklace and a compass in his mouth. I take them both and wrap them around my neck.

  “Thank you, boy,” I whisper, ruffling his coat lovingly, as his furry tail whips the air and he stares into my eyes with the gentlest brown irises I’ve ever seen. “I love you,” I say.

  I love. I love so intensely. I love my sisters. I love the Nightingales. I love Calico, who isn’t the true enemy, and who has faced cruelty and hatred his entire life because he tried to save a beautiful dying boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, and another little boy named after me.

  And I love Leo. I don’t know if it’s okay to love someone when I’ve known them for such a short time… But I do. His kindness, his love, his gentle touch, the way he feels everything as deeply as I have my entire life, even though I hid behind a veil of stoicism. He touched me and the truth came out. He felt like a failure because he couldn’t save Julian or Jacob, and I feel like a failure because I couldn’t save my dad, and now the four others who have died for this cause.

  I don’t know where the people I love have gone. But I will walk to the ends of the earth to find them and let them know how much they mean to me and how deeply they are loved.

  I am alone again, but I know who I need to find.

  I need to get my team back together, to the best of my ability.

  And then I need to find the Lord of Darkness himself.

  I need to find Calico Exodus, and I need to convince him to join me, so we can team up to fight our common enemy-- Elliot, Crown Prince of Avis.

  Maybe, just maybe, he can help me find the others…

  And we can stop Elliot before it’s too late.

  I finger the compass around my neck and flick it open. It’s plain and minimalistic, wrapped in a frame of copper, but it’s clearly pointing northeast, towards the capital’s main square.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  It’s obvious that the plague has had a significant toll on the villagers the moment I step into the village. The infected are scattered around the square, lying haphazardly and waiting for help as nurses circle around and do what they can-- distributing stale pieces of bread, wetting their feverish foreheads with cold damp cloths, and helping them drink down small vials of medicine.

  “Miss Jay?”

  I turn around and heave a sigh of relief. “Dr. Rolphe!”

  He gives a cautious smile, “The… the plague is getting out of control. We’ve had masses come here every day since the headquarters have burned down. I’ve been trying to keep the riots down, and I’ve been trying to help, but once the plague gets you…” He shakes his head miserably.

  “Have you found out where the plague comes from?” I ask.

  He bites his lip and leans forward. “Tell no one untrustworthy or suspicious,” he whispers.

  I nod earnestly. “Of course.”

  He blinks several times, pushing his spectacles up the bridge of his nose. “I believe the plague is just a precursor to the end of the world. It means that evil is winning somewhere, so intensely that our world is sort of imploding in on itself. There was never meant to be this much distress and despair, and our atmosphere can’t handle the emotional pollution, as it were. So I think, unless someone does something very quickly… we are living under the face of an imminent apocalypse.”

  I shake my head, “So it’s over, then? I can’t. I mean, we can’t. Nobody can stop the apocalypse if that’s what’s going to happen… Right?”

  “I’m not sure. The only thing that could change the outcome is if there’s some intense eruption of light, pure emotion. Some sort of joy, or love, or sacrifice. You can only fight evil with good. Killing the source of the problem wouldn’t be enough, in this case, because the seeds have already been sewn.”

  “Everybody’s gone,” I say. “My sisters, the rest of the Nightingales, Leo… They’re alive. I can feel it. But the palace has been abandoned entirely. Do… do you know where any of them could’ve gone?”

  “Well, when did you all arrive at the palace?”

  I don’t remember. I can’t remember. It could’ve been five minutes ago, three years ago… I’ve lost all sense of the passage of time. “I think yesterday, but I can’t be sure.”

  “The stables were burned down this morning. So I would take it that they couldn’t have gone very far. It makes the most sense to check around here, but if they wanted it badly enough, some of them could’ve fled further off to the outskirts as well.”

  “Tell me. The outskirts. Which village, where would they go?”

  “Knowing what I know about the lot of you… I don’t think they’ve given up yet. In fact… After you check around here, I would head straight to Rourke. They have a library, and weapons shops, and an armory. I can’t imagine they’d have gone anywhere else… unless they have quit.”

  I shake my head, “They haven’t. I know they haven’t. I have to… I have to think that way, anyway. So I don’t go crazy.”

  “Too late for me,” Dr. Rolphe says, chuckling softly. “I’m treating people who are destined to die.”

  “Or maybe… Maybe you’re just easing their pain in their final hours. And that’s just as kind and valiant, I think, than saving them if it were possible.”

  He smiles, taking my hand and patting it softly. “You really are the one we’ve been looking for.”

  “I hope that’s true. But one more thing… I need to find Calico Exodus. Do you know where he might be?”

  “Although I question your choice, I cannot question the heart from which it came from. He lives at the top of a massive hill in the south-- it’s an old, dilapidated manor with ivy crawling on the walls, and it’s said that crows always fly in circles overhead. He rarely leaves. You should be able to find him there.”

  “South, you said?” I ask, looking at my compass, my eyes following the tick mark that leads south.

  “You don’t intend on going there alone, do you?”

  I sigh, “No. I need to find a few more people first.”

  “Specifically?”

  “Leo, Brom, Nick, and Ren.”

  “None of your
sisters?”

  I sigh. “They’ll be safer wherever they are right now. And they need to stay safe right now. That’s the most important thing. I have a feeling, when we face Elliot, we’ll need the four sisters that are left more than anything. That’s what destiny says, anyway.”

  “Did you just say Elliot?”

  “Yeah. He’s the bad guy. How do I get to the tavern?”

  *

  It must only be 2 in the afternoon or so, and the sun has already begun to set. The world is being infused with more and more darkness… Soon, there will be no light left to speak of.

  My bare feet feel tickled by the cobblestones, the few spare weeds that have grown up between the cracks and stones of the concrete.

  The tavern has no name, but I know it when I smell it. I gently push the door open and I am smacked in the face with the yellow light of lanterns scattered around the tavern, and the stench of alcohol, sweat, and anger.

  “Brom? Ren?” I call out, seeing a massive, hulking dark-skinned man bent over at the bar, and a man with a long, black ponytail next to him. They turn their heads toward me, and I see their faces and I know that I have found them, I have a good start to my mission--

  But while Brom is smiling at me, Ren has an expression of irritation, and he immediately turns back to the ale in his mug.

  Brom gets up and wraps me in a hug. “I missed you, kiddo,” he says, patting my back heartily.

  “I missed you too, Brom.” I had nearly forgotten how he always made a room feel brighter, and everyone in it more important, just by his simple acknowledgement that you existed if you addressed him.

  “Don’t mind Ren. He’s just mad at ya.”

  I furrow my brows, looking at the back of Ren’s head. “Ren?”

  He pretends he doesn’t hear me, so I grab his shoulder. “Hey, talk to me,” I plead.

  He swings around, “NICK IS IN A COMA BECAUSE OF YOU!” He closes his eyes tight and takes a long swig of ale afterwards, like he’s trying to wash the words out of his mouth, far far away, and drown what’s left of his taste buds.

  I shake my head. “No. No, no, no.”

  Brom grabs Ren by the arm and whispers something angrily in his ear before looking back at me with big, sullen eyes. “It wasn’t you. That fight just really did a number on him. Charlotte’s taking good care of him. He’ll be fine. I know he’ll be fine. Strong, stubborn little bugger, that one. He wouldn’t let a little wound kill him or nothin’. He ain’t got any lack of fight. You still have that dog of yers?”

  “He’s waiting outside,” I say.

  Brom smiles, “Can I pet the big fella?”

  I nod, and I lead him outside, where Bear is waiting patiently on the left side of the entrance. He wags his tail vigorously as soon as he sees Brom.

  “Well hey there, big guy. Miss me any? I sure missed you, dog. I miss havin’ that big black head and that thick fur to mess around.”

  Bear licks Brom’s face, and I swear I’ve never seen a happier man in my life.

  “Wish you coulda met my dog afore he died. Y’all would’ve gotten along real well, you hear that, big guy?”

  Brom pulls Bear close and lets raindrop tears fall onto a fluffy black coat. “Sometimes I get real lonely without Nick around, I tell ya, dog. I love that boy. He’s like th’ son I never had ‘fore. And he’s so strong and so smart… I don’t understand why he’s in a coma like this. I don’t know what he did to the world to deserve nothin’ like that. Doesn’t make any sense to me ‘n sometimes I just wish somethin’ fierce it was me instead of him. He ain’t never did anything bad to deserve nothin’ like that.”

  He continued to ramble on about Nick, and I didn’t know what to do or say to make it better, to soothe his pain. How can you ask a broken man to join a secret mission to collaborate with who Brom would think of as the enemy?

  I say nothing, leaning against the wall and closing my eyes as a gentle breeze streams through the alley.

  Brom wipes a big brown forearm over his eyes. “I’m sorry, Miss Jay. I’m done with alla that. I just… Ren hasn’t been the friendliest, because he’s grieving too, and I just don’t know where to put my emotions any more. Like I have this big bookshelf in my head, with a lot of rows, but the books I have are too tall to fit. Even though the bookshelf is big. Does that make sense?”

  I nod. I know exactly what he means. I’ve felt the same thing many times over.

  “Brom… I came here because I learned a lot of things while I was gone.”

  “Yeah, I kept wonderin’ what was takin’ ya so long. I knew you was comin’ back. Just didn’t know when. Where’d ya go off to?”

  I tell him about Reya, and what she showed me. That we have been fighting an enemy we know nothing about, and the crow people might not even be his doing, for all of the information we possess at the time being.

  He shakes his head, “So you think Elliot’s the guy we’re after? Or are ya jus’ saying that because of how he treated you, sayin’ you were a traitor and sending you away like he did?”

  “Brom… I saw everything. Elliot is evil, and something has to be done, before…”

  “Before?”

  “Before the world ends.”

  He smiles, and I just now notice the little gap between his two front teeth. It suits him. “I’ve followed you to the ends of the earth before, Miss Jay, and I would have no problems doin’ it again.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “I need Ren to join us, too… This is going to be dangerous, and he’s strong and capable. But I don’t know… Because…” I close my eyes. “Nick.”

  Brom lays a massive hand on my shoulder. “Jay, sometimes ya gotta just do what you can. Nick ain’t your fault. But we can save him, maybe. This Exodus guy… He’s some sort of sorcerer or somethin’, right?”

  My eyes grow wide. “He… He could. I bet he could…”

  “Let’s get Ren,” Brom says, swinging the tavern door open and grabbing Ren by the bicep, able to wrap his entire hand around it. Ren cries out in anger and confusion, and glares at me when Brom presents him to me.

  “What the hell! What do you guys want?” Ren hisses, trying in vain to wriggle out of Brom’s locked grip.

  “Jay can save Nick. You’re coming with us,” Brom bellows.

  Ren stares at me. “That true? You can save him?”

  I feel my face twitch. “Er, maybe. But I’ll need manpower in case we get ambushed. I can’t bring any of my sisters with me… I need you, Brom, and Leo. Do you… do you know where everybody is?”

  “Your sisters are taking care of Nick in a cottage a few blocks away. Leo… God, he was at the bar with us, but these girls kept trying to crawl all over him. He got pissed and left. Dunno where he ran off to, though.”

  “We have to avoid that cottage… But I think I know where Leo went. Could you guys wait here for me? I need to find him on my own. It’s… it’s important.”

  “For Nick,” Ren whispers, and the two head back to the bar after giving me a quick salute. Am I… Am I the leader now? Have I taken Leo’s place? I don’t know how to feel. All I know is that I need Leo back, and I need him to come with me on a possibly very dangerous journey to make amends with his sworn enemy.

  I wade through the alleys, searching for some sort of sign. A woman is eating bread on the ground quickly, as though she’s trying to conceal its existence into her stomach. It’s probably been stolen.

  “Miss? Where might the cemetery be?”

  She points westward as she finishes the last crumb of bread. I nod my thanks and move anxiously through the twisting alleys and pathways, ready to rush forward at the sight of a headstone.

  The path opens into a grassy patch, and a small trail through the woods, a sign marked “Avis Cemetery” assuring me that I have come to the right place.

  He is curled next to the grave on his side, the world an ink wash of gray and green. The sky overhead is quiet and still; I am petrified by the emotions stirring in my heart.


  The grave is the same as the rest, but the epitaph reads “Too soon.” Jacob Blackburn.

  Five days old.

  Leo is humming a lullaby I recognize from my own childhood, eyes closed. He’s almost cowering, in a sense, while at the same time giving his body to the world in his utter vulnerability.

  I pick up on the song with him as memories speed through the track in my mind. “Hushabye, don’t you cry, go to sleep my little baby. When you wake, you shall have, all the pretty little horses…”

  He sings with me, body shaking in silent sobs. “Oaks and bays, dapples and grays, coach and six of little horses. When you wake, you shall have, all the pretty little horses…”

  Leo looks into the distance, refusing to move. “He was so beautiful, Jay. He had these blue eyes, like… like… the kind of blue in summer, the way the sky gets the day after a storm. And he had little tufts of chestnut hair, and I remember his little hands grabbing at my fingers, and I thought I would have him forever… I thought… No. He’s gone. Fucking Calico Exodus took him away from me.”

  He sits up, too quickly, looking dazed and scared. “THAT BASTARD!” He yells, thrusting a fist into the soil beneath us as tears stain his beautiful face.

  I could tell him. I could tell him that his brother is the enemy. Now would be the perfect time.

  But instead I wrap my arms around his body, curl my head around his shoulder. He is so warm, and so beautiful. It is obvious how he manages to play the piano with such passion. Everything he feels, he feels deeply. He can reach the ocean floor with his fingers, and the depths of his soul understand the darkness that lies there.

  I love this person. Somewhere between a man and a boy, somewhere between a mortal and a god. I make my life have meaning, but he makes the struggle worth it. He is an angel’s feather wearing a cloak of darkness.

  “Don’t break,” I whisper. I don’t know why I say it. I don’t know why I’ve ever said anything and it hasn’t changed now. But it doesn’t matter. “I need you.”

  “You came back,” Leo whispers, clinging to me with all of his might, like we are at the end of the world and he is falling and I am all that he can hold on to survive. His lips brush against my cheek, intimate but stunted by brevity. His lips are pink clouds, and I am the stars that they produce.