The City of Crows by Bethany Lovejoy (novels in english .txt) 📗

my head with him and saw a haggard, half-dead looking Landon, carelessly stuffed into a suit, splotches of wine-colored bruises decorating his eyes and jaw. He was a pitiful sight, and yet not a single soul at the party paid him any heed.

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