Feargus

  Sometime During Hour 1 Being Awake in Captivity:

  “Ev—…—loom! You—...some explaining to—…,” Adeline said.

  The voices around me droned in and out.

  On the opposite side of the silver bars, Everleigh Gloom stared.

  Mates, I’ll be honest: even if she had a perfectly reasonable explanation for treating me like crap, destroying Alexander’s house, and putting us in jail, I wasn’t sure at the time if I’d be able to forgive her for what she’d done. If I hadn’t been in the cage, I’d have been around for the fire, and if I’d have been around for the fire, I’d have been with V, and V would still be alive.

  But V wasn’t actually dead, right?

  V wasn’t actually dead, because that didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense, and if it were true, it was all my fault. My fault, because I knew V, and I knew there was no way she’d be trying to play hero in a fire if she weren’t already so involved. Especially to save a man she didn’t even know. Why would she do that? She wouldn’t, she couldn’t, so she didn’t. Because everything was fine. V wasn’t dead, it was a misunderstanding I’d clear up easily later.

  “—off to spy on your mouthy friend. It’s too bad I couldn’t collect her,” Everleigh said.

  “Why couldn’t you?” I didn’t even bother hiding the disdain. “We were both vulnerable, weren’t we?”

  “Aye, but she’s Alexander’s. You don’t touch another Anima’s mortal. It’s rude.”

  I glared at her through the bars. She barely looked my way.

  “What do you want with us?” Strauss asked.

  “Like I said, I’ve got spying to do,” Everleigh replied.

  And then she was gone.

  Hour 2:

  I stared at the wall.

  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve…

  Strauss tried prying the bars again.

  …thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty, fifty-one, fifty-two…

  We were silver sapped, so he failed. Again.

  …seventy-seven, seventy-eight, seventy-nine…

  I stared at the wall.

  Strauss took a nap.

  Adeline was there.

  …one thousand four hundred and twenty-two, one thousand four hundred and twenty-three, one thousand four hundred and twenty-four…

  I stared at the wall.

  I stared at the wall.

  …three thousand five hundred and ninety-seven, three thousand five hundred and ninety-eight, three thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, three thousand six hundred…

  Hour 3:

  “Are either of you awake?” Strauss asked.

  “I am!” Adeline chimed.

  “Aye.” I wished I weren’t, but I’d already been acting out of order enough as it was. It was time to put on a brave face and carry on as some other version of Feargus Finlay would. The version who wasn’t grieving and hadn’t just been kidnapped twice. Otherwise, I’d be the one with a lot of explaining to do, and I wasn’t ready to do any of it.

  Earlier, we’d all been sharing details of what we’d been up to while we were apart. It was disorganized and confusing, but now that we were all a bit better oriented, the others shared more about their personal experiences. Adeline had nothing but good things to say about her time at the brothel, and some of my mates had become her mates, like Anne and Ben. But she felt quite betrayed by Everleigh.

  That made two of us, I just couldn’t say so.

  “There’s something important I hadn’t had the chance to mention,” Strauss said. “Or I wasn’t sure how to broach it.”

  Adeline and I turned to Strauss.

  I wore an interested face for her benefit.

  “While at the lair,” he continued, “I was working with Matteus Rizik and an Endican by the name of Markus Lund.”

  “Riz was there?” I asked.

  “Yes, someone by the name of JD brought him in after I’d already left the previous time.”

  Thanks mum and dad. Even then, I knew there was no way that could’ve been handled since getting my message to Rhydian, so they must have already been in contact with Riz. Anyhow, it was good we’d have access to our own Nav if we needed one, but part of the reason I’d asked for Riz was to set him up with Everleigh.

  I didn’t much feel like doing that at the minute.

  “Small world,” I said.

  “I can’t believe you all know Matteus Rizik,” Adeline mused.

  Strauss nodded. “He certainly is one of a kind. In any case, there were a number of factors contributing to the decision we all made. After an extensive discussion, we agreed the practice of keeping the Anima caged was cruel and unnecessary. This came up after the imprisoned Anima collectively asked to be shown mercy.”

  Mates, I really couldn’t take any more bad news. How was I going to tell Zack the person he sent to save his son killed him instead? How was I going to tell Zack about V?

  No, V was fine.

  Adeline’s eyes widened. “So what did you do?”

  “Riz ended them all painlessly, and then we left before anyone could learn what we’d done.”

  I stared at the wall.

  “But,” Strauss continued, “there was an exception: a thousand year old Anima by the name of Jakob who claims to be the first Partisan.”

  Adeline squeaked, scooting closer to Strauss as if proximity might make it make sense.

  Strauss continued, “I don’t know the details. He was giving me the silent treatment on the matter. Though he claimed to want to die, Markus insisted he wasn’t volatile like the others. He and I bonded, and I believed he was misguided in his request. We offered him the opportunity to come with us back to Amalia instead, and he took it.”

  I released a rush of breath I reckoned came across well enough as shock and awe. “That’s a heck of a story, mate. What a thing…”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Adeline nodded in agreement. “Was he with you when Everleigh Gloom kidnapped you? We haven’t had the chance to hear your story yet.”

  “Well, not long after we arrived in Amalia, time froze for everything but the song as it does, and one minute Jakob was there, and the next he was gone. I can’t be sure if it was Jakob who’d entranced me, or if it was Zacharias again. We now know empathy can be employed against the Anima, at least to some degree. But there is a chance Jakob went willingly. They may know each other, after all.”

  “Fair point,” I said, because it was. “How many pre-Divide Anima could there really be?”

  There was a bit of a debate about whether there’d be many because of them being immortal, or if there’d be very few on account of them being reckless.

  Hour 4:

  “I wonder where we are,” Strauss said.

  I knew exactly where we were. We were in the cellar of the schoolhouse.

  Adeline started, “We—”

  “It doesn’t really matter where we are, does it?” I accidentally interrupted. Not to mention, I caught the tension in my tone too late. Strauss tilted his head, but he didn’t say anything. Adeline didn’t know me well enough to know what was normal behaviour from me.

  So, I suggested we play a game of Say a Thing or Do a Thing. I needed something to distract me, and all this talk of Anima was reminding me of everything I didn’t want to think about. We only had the chance to play two rounds: one, Strauss dared Adeline to recite the alphabet backwards three times, and two, Adeline dared Strauss to put his leg over his head.

  The man was astonishingly nimble.

  And that’s when the last person I’d ever have expected to show up, showed up. His footsteps were quiet enough that I’d only barely heard him coming. He was dressed in a cream-coloured suit that day. “What in Delphia’s dominance have I stumbled upon here?”

  What indeed.

  

  An Interview With Sebastian Vonsinfonie

  “I can’t tell you how excited I am to be speaking with you today, Sebastian.”

  “The pleasure’s absolutely mine. What would the people like to know?”

  “The people are dying to know: how did you find us?”

  “Pure chance.”

  “What a fantastic story, though the people may find it difficult to believe.”

  “What’s there to believe? I left Istok, commissioned a wagon because I wasn’t in a hurry, and I enjoy being driven around far more than I do running. While I was on the way, I thought I would stop for a tour of the old schoolhouse. It had been centuries after all.”

  “I can’t find any faults with that story. Now tell us, Sebastian: how did you feel when you learned Everleigh Gloom was the one to have kidnapped us?”

  “I was aware you were acquainted, and knowing Everleigh, I had no reason to think she’d assaulted you for assault’s sake. But I also knew the delicate nature of your business, Feargus Finlay, and I had no way of knowing how informed your friends were. I believed it best to, as they say, keep my mouth shut until further notice.”

  “I appreciate your discretion, and I’m sure the people appreciate your taking the time to address them today. Before we go, was there anything else you’d like to share with the people?”

  “Yes, I wish to remind the people they’re all fantastic, and that I love them.”

  “Thank you, Sebastian. On behalf of the people, we love you, too.”

  I wanted to make a break for it as soon as we left the schoolhouse, but I was curious as to what Sebastian would tell my mates about where he’d been, and I wanted to know where he was planning on taking them in his wagon. So, I went along for the ride.

  In case you’ve forgotten, here’s what happened: Sebastian, as Vincent, said he’d been busy in Istok, enjoying a bit of notoriety and having a lovely time with Ursula at the Bountiful Blessing. Nobody had any reason to question the story, and even though I knew he’d actually been in Istok helping the people affected by the Anima, I sat in silence.

  Sebastian, as Vincent, then decided to tell everyone he was Sebastian Vonsinfonie.

  Surprise face.

  I had to steady my heart rate several times along the way to wherever we were going. For one, why was he telling everyone that now? For two, I was suddenly realizing just how far I’d fallen out of the loop since having been captured by Florea. And now, with another two days lost in a cell, my routines were all out of order. I hadn’t seen Alexander in ages, I hadn’t seen Zack, I didn’t know where Faust was, and V—well, V was fine. And as soon as we arrived at our destination, which turned out to be Sebastian’s music note hatch, I said I had to go, and I left.

  The air around Oskari was smoky, and the whole scene was straight out of a nightmare. The people who weren’t already on their way to Jaska for refuge were gathered around their homes and the bodies of their loved ones, crying in the freezing cold. I didn’t know how I could help—I didn’t think I could. But I’d eventually find a way. I’d lost a loved one in the fire, too, but up to this point, anything other than pretending V was fine, I reckoned would have been fatal.

  When I walked through the back door of the Widow’s Peak that day, it smelled the same. It smelled like V. See? It was all a big misunderstanding. But the desk was messy, and V never kept a messy desk. I tidied it up. Her ledger was open, and V never left her ledger open. I closed it. The cap on her pen—the one I’d bought for her in Delphia—hadn’t been put back on. I did so immediately, otherwise the ink would dry out. The patchwork blanket on the cot looked like it had been used, but I’d watched V fold it carefully before I left the last time we were together.

  My insides burned, and my ears screamed at the idea of anyone else using the blanket she’d made me. But who else would have? Nobody, because that made no sense.

  Obviously, it was V. Because V was fine.

  The door to the office opened.

  It wasn’t V.

  “Well, if it isn’t the Bamboozler,” Marta said.

  Only, it was as if I was hearing her, but I wasn’t. It was as though I was seeing her, but I wasn’t. I was there but I wasn’t. I was myself, but I wasn’t.

  And why was she wearing one of V’s dresses?

  “Please leave,” I said.

  “Wh—?”

  “Please, get out.”

  “Wait, how are you even—”

  “That's really none of your business, is it? You’re the one who’s not supposed to be here. So please get out of Ivana’s office and her fucking dress while you’re at it.”

  “I didn’t have—”

  “Just go—!”

  Marta’s face twisted in confusion but I didn’t particularly care as long as she left the office. Right before she did though, I caught her eye, and by then I’d just about started crying, so I reckoned she put two and two together, and I could tell she was hurting, too.

  I nodded, and then she nodded, and then she left me alone.

  When Marta was gone, I searched V’s desk for the letter I’d written her. It wasn’t anywhere to be found, but surely if Marta had come across it, she wouldn’t have thrown it away. She’d have seen what it was, and would have known that it was important to me. If she’d seen the letter, she wouldn’t have been surprised to see me in V’s office.

  Looking around at the portraits on the wall of V’s sisters, who all looked a lot like V, but weren’t V, I realized there was no portrait of V.

  I wondered if they went on display when they died, and now she was—

  I hurried over to the painting of the second Novak sister and took it off the wall. I’d found the safe behind the portrait the first day I’d met Ivana, when she’d gone to serve customers and left me alone in the office. I considered the combination lock.

  Ten, twenty, forty-five seconds.

  There were six numbers, and let’s be real: I was no stranger to cracking open safes. But before I went through the trouble, I tried a few combinations I knew were significant to V. Her birthday, her wedding day, her reanimation day. I knew her favourite number was eight, so I tried some different arrangements of eights. But When I was unsuccessful, I had to resort to old tricks, using my excellent hearing and experienced fingers to crack the code. Ten, fifteen, seventeen minutes.

  219824.

  The door popped open.

  The only thing inside the safe was an envelope. I caught my hand shaking when I reached for it, but no matter what I did to steady it, it wouldn’t stop. It was a job to get the envelope open as a result, but eventually I managed. Inside, there were three pieces of paper folded together. The top sheet was a letter to Alexander, but I didn’t read it. I tucked it away carefully in my bag. The next page was the deed to the Widow’s Peak. But wait, what…?

  This copy of the deed had been signed over in Alexander’s name, and—wait, what? I read it over and over, but there it still was. Right next to Alexander's name, plain as day: Feargus Alistair Finlay.

  I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand any of it. My eyes burned and my nose leaked while I looked to the next page. It was another letter, this one addressed to me.

  I was careful to hold the page away from the tears that were falling from my face.

  V had beautiful handwriting.

  

  Feargus,

  Either I’m dead, or you were bored enough to finally try cracking the code.

  You’re probably surprised to see a deed to the Widow’s Peak with your name on it. I know Partisans can’t own property, but I’d like to think one day they will, just like I’d always dreamed of the day we Anima could step out of the shadows. If the worst has happened, I’ve left instructions for Alexander to look after the place, and when the time comes, it’s all yours.

  You have to know: if I’m dead, I died feeling what I’d never thought I’d feel again, even if I may never be able to say it. So please don’t cry for too long, and please don’t let this change who you are, because who you are is bound to change the world—even if one person at a time.

  If you’re just being nosy, that all still applies.

  In the event of my death, my portrait is stored in the attic. Please hang it with my sisters’.

  And yeah, I’ve always known your real name.

  Yours, even if gone,

  Ivana “Hungry? Thirsty?” Novak